Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago

Book excerpt: The culmination of a two-part project, this volume takes an extended look at recent, important acquisitions by the Art Institute of Chicago's departments of American Arts, Architecture, Asian Art, European Painting, and Prints and Drawings. Bringing the museum's collecting activities into wide public view, it showcases over forty notable works handpicked by Art Institute curators and the museum's director and president, James N. Wood. Together with its companion issue, which was published in Fall 2003, this publication explores art works acquired between 1992 and 2003, years that have brought significant additions to every area of the Art Institute's holdings. This volume surveys an impressive array of objects, including a glittering Empire card table from early nineteenth-century New York; a fragment of Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel, Tokyo (1923); and important paintings and works on paper by artists as diverse as Lee Krasner, Edvard Munch, Ni Zan, and Rembrandt van Rijn. Illuminated by striking, full-colour reproductions and a lively, accessible text, this is an indispensable guide to the newest and finest the Art Institute has to offer.