The Art Institute of Chicago: From 1870 to the Modern Wing

This book celebrates one of America’s best-loved art museums and the opening of its major new extension, designed by acclaimed architect Renzo Piano. The Art Institute’s first permanent building, which opened in 1893, was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in collaboration with the organisers of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Successive additions followed over the next century, the museum always pushing forward in its structural expansions, just as it has done with its exhibition programmes and its acquisitions. It now holds the third largest permanent collection of any art museum in the United States in one of the largest physical complexes. The illustrious suite of buildings is now complemented by the inspiring new Modern Wing. Piano’s canopy of shaped blades brings light into the galleries from the north, providing the perfect venue for the Art Institute’s world-famous collection of modern and contemporary art.