Performance
Anne Imhof's Sex Creates Drama but Not Desire
Imhof's performance Sex is dramatic, even melodramatic, yet its drama is not sensual; it removes bodily urges from the mix.
Art Institute of Chicago
Art
“The AIDS Crisis Is Still Beginning,” Says Artist and Activist Gregg Bordowitz
In a retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago, Bordowitz reflects on living as a queer Jewish man with HIV and challenges us to understand the AIDS crisis as both historical and contemporary.
In Brief
Art Historians Are Using Cutting-Edge Medical Technology to Study Sculptures
Researchers at the Art Institute of Chicago, partnered with the UChicago School of Medicine, used CT scanning to discover a set of Malian figures were older and more unique than believed.
Art
Dawoud Bey Enters the Imaginations of Freedom Seekers
The photography in this show imagines what stations of the Underground Railroad might look like, as the act of escaping enslavement is also essentially an act of imagination.
Art
Descending into Lee Bontecou’s Apocalyptic Voids
Like her massive wall reliefs, Bontecou's works on paper evoke the world as fragile, teetering on the brink of total calamity.
Art
Dreams of Beauty in Japanese Ukiyo-e Paintings
The figures in The Floating World indicate the new direction Japanese art was about to take over the next two centuries, its growing emphasis on daily life.
Art
The Wild World of the Hairy Who
The Chicago version of Pop Art, embodied in the work of the Hairy Who, is sweaty, nervous, sometimes giggly or goofy.
In Brief
Art Institute of Chicago Offers Thousands of Free, High-Resolution Images
The Art Institute of Chicago is now offering unrestricted access to over 44,000 images from its digital archives.
Art
A Master of the Flesh and Painter of the Soul
Ivan Albright represents a deeply transcendent, even Platonic, idea of the soul, although one could be forgiven for missing it among the mercilessly unglamorous bodies of his figures.
In Brief
Trump Continues to Lie About His Fake Renoir
One of the lies President Trump likes to tell is that his Renoir is real, but it turns out that might not be the case.
Art
The Subversive Works of China's First Video Artist
Zhang Peili, who's having his first American retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago, rejects the government's use of media for entertainment and propaganda.
Art
Airbnb’s Two-Faced Relationship with Artists and Art Organizations
As cities and states pass legislation to curtail Airbnb activity, the site's future as a tool for artists and art organizations both large and small remains uncertain.