Art Institute of Chicago
- Architect
- Renzo Piano
- Year
- 1879
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- City
- Chicago, IL
.jpg){kind=link}
Founded in 1879, the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States, housed in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Grant Park. The original building was constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and it has grown through several additions since as the collection expanded to nearly 300,000 works, including Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic.
the building
Built for the 1893 fair. The museum's original Beaux-Arts building was constructed for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, giving Chicago a permanent home for art once the fairgrounds themselves were gone.
Ryerson and Burnham Libraries. The museum houses the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, among the largest art history and architecture research libraries in the country, alongside a conservation department with five dedicated laboratories.
the style
The original building was designed in the Beaux-Arts manner typical of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition's monumental classical architecture, a style meant to lend the young museum instant civic gravity.
More on Beaux-Artsthe architect
Renzo Piano (born 1937) is an Italian architect, born in Genoa into a family of builders.
More on Renzo Pianomore by Renzo Piano
nearby
- Municipal Courts Building
- Peoples Gas Building
- Symphony Center
- Railway Exchange Building
- Chapin and Gore Building
- McClurg Building