Art Institute of Chicago reopens — and returning visitors finally get an art fix

CHICAGO — Early visitors, as the Art Institute let the public back in for the first time since mid-March, didn’t go to “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” typically the museum’s most crowded work.

At one moment during the first hour of reopening day Thursday, only a security guard stood in front of Georges Seurat’s routinely besieged pointillist study of a Parisian waterfront park.

Instead, many headed straight to the Modern Wing and the museum’s newly hung Basquiat canvas — the Art Institute’s first by the 1980s art world darling — and many more queued up to get into the big El Greco special exhibition, which was open only a week before COVID-19 forced the shutdown of most public life in Chicago and the U.S.

But this wasn’t your typical, show-me-some-Impressionism crowd. The first folks allowed back in, during the noon hour Thursday, were museum members, people who really have seen it all before.

“We want to see the new painting in the Modern Wing by Basquiat,” said Melissa LaMantia, a middle school arts teacher from Glen Ellyn, in line with her husband Steve Crowley.

They weren’t just in line. They were first in line — partly out of eagerness, partly because they thought the museum was opening at 10 a.m. and decided just to wait there, on those famous, lion-flanked front steps, until the actual 12 p.m. opening.

“It’s just been so dry for culture,” said Crowley, who works in commodities, noting the couple are also “regulars” at the still-shuttered Symphony Center across the street.

“We’re starved for art and culture,” seconded LaMantia.

The Art Institute was eager to provide it, albeit now with physical distancing, one way doors and stairways, and a mandatory mask requirement.

There were some other changes to be seen in the museum, as well, most notably the removal of the “octagon,” the massive wooden information and membership desk that has long greeted visitors as they entered through the Michigan Avenue doors.

Now that anteroom is open and your eye goes directly to the Grand Staircase, where “Hero Construction,” a 1958 metal sculpture by the Chicago artist Richard Hunt, claims pride of place, centered on the stairway’s first landing.

But the big thing was just getting people back through the doors.

“I’m overwhelmed and excited and confident,” said President and Eloise W. Martin Director James Rondeau from his office, shortly before opening. “I just peeked outside. There’s a line. And I haven’t felt this enthusiastic about something in a while.”

It’s been a long road back. The museum’s March 14 closure forced scrambling on multiple fronts. Officials were able to extend “El Greco: Ambition and Defiance” from a June closing date to Sept. 7. The big planned May show curated in-house, “Monet and Chicago,” has been reconfigured to allow more distancing and is being prepared to open Sept. 5.

And expected budget shortfalls pushed the museum, like almost all of its peers, into layoffs. The Art Institute let 8% of its staff go in June amid a forward-looking reorganization. Staff who remain have been retrained to handle the new realities of people being out in public.

At some 1 million square feet, the museum is “fairly vast,” said Rondeau. “We can provide space that will make our visitors feel comfortable to return, to see old favorites and to discover new ones.”

The museum will limit attendance to 2,000 people in a day, compared to the 5,000 who might have come through on a busy summer day in previous years. More than 1,800 reserved spots for Day One, and some 8,500 had made reservations for the first week of reopening, when the museum is free to Illinois residents.

All that, though, was almost beside the point to the eager returnees.

“I’ve been looking forward to the reopening for the entirety of the shutdown,” said Craig Stevens of Orland Park, a third-year art student at the prestigious Cooper Union in New York City. “I’ve missed artworks.”

At the other end of the age spectrum, and just behind Stevens in the line to get in, retired salesman Steve Taylor of Evanston had a similar take. “I’m an enthusiastic art history hobbyist,” said Taylor, 75, an AIC member for an estimated 50 years now. “I’ve been waiting for this since they closed. It’s a big deal to me. The first think I’m going to do is see the El Greco show.”

As for safety, Taylor drew comparisons to other businesses that have been allowed to remain open. “I can understand why a concert or an opera or a play can’t really be done safely,” he said. “But I don’t understand why this is any less safe than going to a grocery store.”

It was certainly much less crowded. Designer Tynneal Grant exulted in the open space. “It just feels so refreshing to be in here without so many people,” said the West Town resident, who used her membership to bring her niece with her. “It’s like I’m seeing the art for the first time.”

She looked up at the ceiling, where a small sculpture dangled. “I’ve never seen this piece hanging above,” Grant said, “because I’m mostly worried about bumping into people. … It feels peaceful.”

She’s been cautious about venturing back out into public spaces since the pandemic his, she added, but this felt right. “Baby steps,” she said. “Baby steps are good.”

In the Modern Wing, a steady flow of members was taking in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 grand canvas “Boy and Dog in Johnnypump,” newly hung at the museum after its new owner, Chicago philanthropist and Art Institute Trustee Ken Griffin, loaned it.

“I think it’s a self-portrait,” said one viewer, noting the similarities between the late painter’s own hair and that of his central figure in the work.

“I was not a big fan of his, and I really, really like it,” said Linda Odegard. “I love how the colors jump out, and I love his signature” in the bottom right corner.

Odegard is a regular museum volunteer. She and her peers have not been called back yet, she said, as the Art Institute works out its reopening, but she was thrilled to be back in the building.

“I missed my fellow volunteers, the visitors, the staff and the artwork,” she said. “It’s very moving. Very, very, very moving.”

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