THE NEW CONTEMPORARY GALLERIES 288, 290–299
FEATURING ARTISTS
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TAKASHI MURAKAMI
ANDY WARHOL
ROY LICHTENSTEIN
JEFF KOONS
JASPER JOHNS
GERHARD RICHTER
WELCOME TO THE CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY
The Department of Contemporary Art features iconic works of international art from 1945 to the present. One of the most comprehensive contemporary art collections in any encyclopedic museum, it comprises over 1,000 works, encompassing painting, sculpture, installation, and new media. Some of the notable holdings include works by Willem de Kooning, Eva Hesse, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Joan Mitchell, Bruce Nauman, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, and Cy Twombly.
“One of the most comprehensive contemporary art collections in any encyclopedic museum� 3
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THE NEW CONTEMPORARY This past December, we reopened our galleries of contemporary art, unveiling the largest gift in the Art Institute’s 136-year history: 44 iconic works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns. Generously donated by Chicago collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, these 44 paintings, sculptures, and photographs transform the museum’s presentation of contemporary art, bringing new depth and perspective to the Art Institute’s already strong holdings and making this collection the strongest of any encyclopedic art museum in the world. The Art Institute has been committed to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art since the museum’s founding in the 19th century, when Impressionism was considered “contemporary.” Our rich collections today are largely the result of the generosity and vision of private collectors who have chosen to become great benefactors, and the Edlis/Neeson gift is the latest chapter in this long legacy of patronage and support. Their gift charts the course of the most adventurous art movements since the 1950s, primari-
ly in the United States, beginning with the work of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly, who began to forge a path out of Abstract Expressionism toward Pop Art with the use of images, materials, and techniques from mass media and found objects. Pop itself is represented in the gift by a landmark group of works by Andy Warhol—including two self-portraits—and signature works by Roy Lichtenstein. The collection also chronicles the significant and enduring influence of Pop Art on later generations of artists, including the virtuouso painter Gerhard Richter, the photography-based critiques of Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman, and the pop-culture riffs of Katharina Fritsch, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakami. The Art Institute is a collection of collections, each compelling on its own terms yet capable of telling richer, more extraordinary stories when brought into dialogue. To be sure, the Art Institute of Chicago—and the stories we tell—have been made far greater by Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson’s gift, an extraordinary benefaction to the city, and, indeed, to the world.
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STEFAN EDLIS & GAEL NEESON Earlier this year, collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson gave the Art Institute the extraordinary gift of 44 iconic works of contemporary art, including works by Andy Warhol (nine of them!), Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, and Jeff Koons, among others. This transformative gift cannot be overstated — it makes the Art Institute’s contemporary collection the best of any encyclopedic museum in the world. The museum’s Publishing department documented the gift with a catalogue that includes images of all of the works, an essay by Dittmer Chair and Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art James Rondeau that situates the gift within the museum’s history, and a candid interview with Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson on their collecting strategies, relationships with artists, and stories about their incredible collection. Some excerpts from the interview are below for your reading pleasure. . .
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THE INTERVIEW
On the parameters of their collection: Stefan Edlis: Even if it was great, it needed to fit. . . in terms of its dialogue with the other works in our collection. We have had a number of objects that probably worked with each other, but they’re gone now because they no longer talked to anything else around here. Creating that dialogue took a long time. For the first twenty years, we were all over the place. Then the formation started. Our rule became forty artists and two hundred works, and we would sell some to pay for others.
On the depth of their research and connoisseurship: Gael Neeson: Originally our education was at the auction house. We went religiously every spring and fall and looked and looked at pictures. And the quality—you learn about the quality. Stefan Edlis: For example, we spent twenty years trying to decode Twombly. The challenge was to look at a Twombly and decide what was good about it—what made it better than the next one. A dealer showed me one, but I had already really decoded it. I said, “No. I need a Twombly.”. . . The one we finally bought was clearly the most fulfilled of them.
On how they acquired Lichtenstein’s Artist’s Studio: “Foot Medication”: Stefan Edlis: The story of how we came to by this painting is a good one. Roy’s studio pictures had been bouncing around in our brains ever since we read an article about them; they are so classic yet so contemporary. There are only four—two of them in museums—and we wondered if we’d ever have a chance at one. Years later, in 1997, we spotted Artist’s Studio: “Foot Medication” on the very last page of an auction catalogue, and thought, wow. At roughly the same moment, we were able to sell our fine Dubuffet, which we’d had since 1979, and bingo—the perfect swap.
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FEATURING ART WORKS
STILL (1994) DAMIEN HIRST
ARTIST’S STUDIO “FOOT MEDICATION” (1974) ROY LICHTENSTEIN
FIGURE 4 (1959) JASPER JOHNS
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WOMAN IN TUB (1988) JEFF KOONS
OHHH...ALRIGHT... (1964) ROY LICHTENSTEIN
TARGET (1961) JASPER JOHNS
BOY (1992) CHARLES RAY
FLOWERS (1964) ANDY WARHOL
TWELVE JACKIES (1964) ANDY WARHOL
UNTITLED #86 (1981) CINDY SHERMAN
LIZ #3 [EARLY COLORED LIZ] (1963) ANDY WARHOL
PAT HEARN (1985) ANDY WARHOL
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