Chicago's art museums had a big year, producing everything from sweeping fashion exhibits to the return of hometown heroes such as Theaster Gates. Behind closed doors, museums also added thousands of pieces of art to their collections and undoubtedly paid dearly for them. (Museums do not disclose what they spend and the sellers conspire to keep prices a secret). Here are twelve works that garnered the most buzz:
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Thomas Hart Benton, Cotton Pickers, 1945 Acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago The Midwestern painter Thomas Hart Benton (who studied at SAIC) was a compelling chronicler of American life. Cotton Pickers is a major acquisition for the museum. Benton depicted the plight of sharecroppers working in the punishing heat of a Georgia farm several times throughout his career, but this is one of his largest and most developed canvases on the topic. Sharecropping was a new and controversial practice at the time, and Benton was an activist on the side of the exploited black farm laborers. As the museum explains, Benton’s picture “brought into focus the bleak social and economic landscape of the South in the early 20th century.” Cotton Pickers hangs near Grant Wood’s iconic American Gothic to tell the history of American rural life.
Photo: Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago -
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Kazuo Shiraga, Chikatsusei Maunkinshi (Golden Wings Brushing the Clouds Incarnated from Earthly Wide Star), 1960 Acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago Kazuo Shiraga was the Japanese Jackson Pollock. Suspended from a rope, Shiraga painted his canvases with his feet. It was a topsy-turvy time in modern Japan. Shiraga’s art crew called themselves Gutaï and made absurd, radical, anti-art actions in response to the fast-paced changes in their country. Several of Shiraga’s canvases appeared in another Chicago museum’s exhibition this year, the MCA’s Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void 194–19629, validating that Shiraga was a force of post-war existential crisis.
Photo: Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago -
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Igbo title stool from the late-19th or early-20th century Acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago Just as designer chairs and chaise lounges are collectibles among the European and American upper-class, so too are hard-carved wooden stools among the Igbo. (Igbo is an ethnic group within the current borders of Nigeria.) The museum calls this stool, which was carved from a single block of wood, a “status object” of Igbo society; the owner of such a luxury, artisanal object would have displayed it to express his or her social power. This stool made its way out of Africa via an Irish missionary.
Photo: Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago -
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Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Socrates Tearing Away Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensuality, 1785 Acquired by the Smart Museum of Art That’s Socrates, the inventor of Western philosophy, tearing a young student away from spending all day in bed with his lover. It’s the classic ethical tale of virtue versus vice, a topic in vogue during the Neo-Classical era when this picture was painted. We are defined by our life choices, the canvas seems to say—the student is Alcibiades, who later went on to become a respected public figure in Greek society.
Photo: Courtesy of the Smart Museum of Art -
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Lorna Simpson, Three Seated Figures, 1989 Acquired by the Smart Museum of Art An ominous take on race and gender in the 1980s, when identity politics surged—it still does—makes the Simpson acquisition a good choice for the museum. The museum likens the Polaroids of a black woman’s torso to a doctor’s exam or a “criminal investigation, “ but it is ambiguous if she is a victim and or a perpetrator. This is the uncomfortable power of Simpson’s cutting-edge and still jarring artwork.
Photo: Courtesy of the Smart Museum of Art -
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Goshka Macuga, Arkitechtony - After K. Malevich, 2005 Acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art After her major 2012 solo exhibition at the MCA, Macuga’s artwork was acquired by the museum. The Polish-born, London-based artist created monuments to the Russian inventor of abstract art, Kazimir Malevich. These monuments are inspired by Malevich’s designs for architecture that were never built.
Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art -
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Sanford Biggers, Quilt #24 and Cumulous (large), 2013 Acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago was a stop on the Underground Railroad for former slaves seeking freedom. Quilt patterns from that era (so the legend goes) communicated messages, such as route directions or dangers, to the clandestine travellers. Contemporary artist Sanford Biggers paints his own messages upon 19th century heirloom quilts. This one hung in the storefront window display of Monique Meloche Gallery in the summer of 2013, along with the large puffy cloud signage. The museum acquired both artworks.
Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art -
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Barbara Kasten, Architectural Site 8, Loyola Law, 1986 Acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art Longtime Chicago artist Barbara Kasten creates dramatically lit sculptures in her studio, then photographs them. All her effects are pre-Photoshop. Kasten has been a leading practitioner of abstract photography for decades. This 1980s example is a classic of the nascent (and still cutting-edge) genre.
Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art -
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Jacob Lawrence, Bar-b-que, 1942 Acquired by the Terra Foundation for American Art The Terra Foundation no longer keeps a public museum in Chicago (it used to be on Michigan Avenue), but they continue to collect significant works of American art, which are occasionally loaned to international museums for exhibitions. The Terra aims to tell the story of American life “from the colonial era to 1945,” but they did not have an artwork by the important Harlem painter Jacob Lawrence, who was famous and beloved during his lifetime. Painted with gouache on paper, the 1942 work depicts a popular BBQ joint in the city at mealtime.
Photo: Courtesy of the Terra Foundation for American Art -
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Elena Climent, Altar for the Dead in Red Cupboard (Altar de Muertos en mueble rojo), 2002 Acquired by the National Museum of Mexican Art Día de los Muertos is not just a day of remembrance for the dead; it’s also a reason to make art. Skeleton figurines, colorful cut-paper flags, and curated mementos all make their appearance in the seasonal family altars, or ofrendas. This oil painting by Mexico-born, NYC-based artist Elena Climent depicts a freshly decorated altar, with a sugar dusted cake (pan de muerto) on the bottom shelf so realistically painted you can nearly smell the sweet.
Photo: Courtesy of the National Museum of Mexican Art -
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Choctaw manuscript, 1828 Acquired by the Newberry Library The Choctaw American Indians, indigenous to the Mississippi River valley and the Southeastern U.S., were the first to lose their land in the Indian Removal Act and embark on the trail of tears. A couple years prior, a Presbyterian missionary penned this pronunciation guide of the Choctaw dialect. It serves as a Choctaw-to-English dictionary, of sorts. The Newberry’s director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies calls it a “rare linguistic document of an important historical group, the Choctaw.”
Photo: Courtesy of the Newberry Library -
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Journalist Papers Acquired by the Newberry Library The Newberry collects the papers of Chicago and Midwestern journalists, including their notes, drafts, and interviews. This typed manuscript is a 1919 news dispatch from Berlin (sent via cablegram) written by journalist Ben Hecht for the Chicago Daily News. He was in Berlin reporting on the revolution that lead to the formation of the Weimar Republic. Hecht later went on to write screenplays for Hitchcock and others in Hollywood.
Photo: Courtesy of the Newberry Library