Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention
Art Institute of Chicago
September 17, 2011, through January 15, 2012
The Art Institute of Chicago has organized a landmark exhibition exploring the work of Bertrand Goldberg (1913-1997), one of the most innovative modern American architects.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Dolls and Masks
Art Institute of Chicago
July 2 – September 25, 2011
Highly original and deeply emotional, photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard‘s use of staged scenes foreshadows the work of many contemporary artists, such as Francesca Woodman, Cindy Sherman, Sally Mann, and Justine Kurland. His unorthodox, surrealistic, yet eerily beautiful images are now showcased in a new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Dolls and Masks–on view July 2 through September 25, 2011, in Allerton Gallery 1 –presents more than 50 black-and-white works by one of the most enigmatic photographers of our time.

The Art Institute of Chicago announces a major acquisition by the museum’s Department of Contemporary Art: Robert Rauschenberg‘s Combine of 1955, Short Circuit.

Avant-Garde Art in Everyday Life
Art Institute of Chicago
June 11 – October 9, 2011

Beginning around 1910, a group of vanguard artists working in Europe advanced the radical idea that art had a mandate to transform daily life, from silverware to postage stamps to buildings. This theory would eventually take hold in the wider world, where it merged enthusiastically with the demands of the industrial marketplace, the nascent mass media, and urban popular culture. This vibrant and critically important moment in east-central European modernism is comprehensively explored in Avant-Garde Art in Everyday …

The Art Institute of Chicago announces that Zoë Ryan has been named the Chair and John H. Bryan Curator of Architecture and Design, effective July 1, 2011 . Ryan’s career at the Art Institute began in 2006 when she was chosen as the first Neville Bryan Curator of Design in the museum’s Department of Architecture and Design, and she has remained with the department since, becoming Interim Chair in July 2010 after the departure of curator Joseph Rosa. Among Ryan’s first responsibilities will be finding her replacement as the Neville Bryan Curator of Architecture and Design, a position that will focus on contemporary architecture, and completing the preparation for the Art Institute’s major fall exhibition devoted to the Chicago architect Bertrand Goldberg.