Art Institute of Chicago – Edvard Munch Exhibit

One day we’ll have to feature the Art Institute of Chicago in our Pulitzer Prize-winning series “Museums that Matter“*, but today we’re going to focus on a great temporary exhibit they’re running until the last week in April: Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth.

One look at Edvard Munch’s most famous work, The Scream (1893), and you can’t help but wonder what the dude was all about. Born in Oslo, Norway in 1863, Munch is seen in the art world as the leading pioneer of the Expressionist Movement of modern art and throughout his career remained one of its most successful contemporaries. A thoroughly mysterious figure, Munch was thought by many mentally ill, terminally morose, and every bit the reality behind his often tortured works.

The exhibit, already enjoying favorable reviews, challenges these notions by delving into Munch the businessman, Munch the romantic, and Munch the figurehead. The exhibit features 150 works by Munch and his contemporaries, split between 75 paintings and 75 pieces on paper. While The Scream remains safely in the Munch Museum in Oslo, the gallery features a lithograph of the famous work along with many noteworthy pieces.

Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth will run at the Art Institute of Chicago from February 14 to April 26. For more about it, visit the museum Web site.

It’s been awhile since we’ve mentioned the Silversmith Hotel & Suites, easily a favorite Chicago Loop hotel, and this is the perfect time. The Silversmith is located less than half a mile from the Art Institute, and they’re actually offering a package (for an art exhibit!). Their Art of Edvard Munch Package features two tickets and breakfast.

Get out there and culture yourself, people!

*By “prize-winning”, I mean “prize-eligible”. That’s practically the same thing.

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