The New Contemporary

By ALISON REILLY

This past weekend the Art Institute of Chicago reopened their contemporary galleries with a new layout that incorporates Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson's donation of 44 major works. The gift, estimated at $400 million, is the largest in the museum's history and showcases artists like Damien Hirst, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol. 

Warhol's iconic Mao is no longer on display but instead are nine new additions to the collection including Twelve Jackies, Liz #3 [Early-Colored Liz] (the face of the New Contemporary campaign), two self-portraits and a red and green electric chair. Other favorites like Gerhard Richter's Woman Descending the Staircase are certainly missed in the reinstallation (it's on loan through next year), but the removal of these works offers an opportunity to see a number of early sixties works not previously on display including Yayoi Kusama's No. IZ, Lygia Clark's Bicho - Monumento a Todas as Situações, and Gutai artist Shiraga Kazuo's Chikatsusei Maunkinshi (Golden Wings Brushing the Clouds Incarnated from Earthly Wide Star).

Damien Hirst's Still is another compelling addition to the collection. An array of surgical instruments are meticulously installed in an enormous glass cabinet prompting viewers to question if and how these instruments were actually used in medical practice.

For more information visit: The New Contemporary.

Top image: Andy Warhol. Twelve Jackies, 1964. The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Edlis/Neeson Collection. © 2015 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York