May 13, 2009
Modern Wing opens Saturday, Chicago overdoses on culture
The Architecture and Design gallery in The Art Institute's new Modern Wing. Nicole Cohen/Good for You
The Art Institute of Chicago will be opening its Modern Wing with a week of free admission starting this Saturday, May 16 until Friday, May 22.
Designed by architect Renzo Piano (who also designed Paris’ Centre Pompidou), the Modern Wing was built to provide more room for the museum’s growing collection (the third largest in the United States).
The $294 million project includes a bridge that links the museum to Millennium Park, an education center, and a restaurant featuring concoctions from Spiaggia chef Tony Mantuano.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The point here is that admission is free next week, so pick a sunny day (the better to enjoy the wing’s views and naturally lit galleries) and don’t forget your canned goods (which the museum will be collecting for the Greater Chicago Food Dispensitory during its opening week).
Some highlights from the new wing:
Jeff Wall’s decidely spooky graveyeard photography.
Candyass’s (a.k.a Cary Leibowitz) “Photo Booth Fortune” featuring fortune cookie fortunes and a hairy man in a photo booth.
Steve McQueen’s video “Girls, Tricky” featuring “trip-hop” artist Tricky (a.k.a Adrian Thaws) in the recording studio and smoking what I will, for the sake of the blog, only identify as a cigarette.
Architecture and Design galleries’ (pictured above) seat-provoking chairs
Add to that the names like Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro and you’ll wonder how the institute every got by without this space.