UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿, Kitchen Scene, about 1794/95
Utamaro: Elements of Beauty
September 23 – December 21, 2026
Gallery 107
While his subject—beautiful women—had been a mainstay in ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) from its beginning, Utamaro invested his subjects with a fresh vibrancy, experimenting with dramatic close-ups that hint at the women’s complex inner lives.
Utamaro began his meteoric rise in 1780, when as a young artist, he began working with the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō. The pair collaborated for more than a decade, during which time Utamaro developed his characteristic rendering of feminine beauty. He portrayed courtesans and geisha as well as ordinary women, but it was the women of the Yoshiwara, the famous pleasure district in Edo (present-day Tokyo), who particularly inspired his designs. These works showcase the period’s elaborate fashions in hairstyles and clothing, including the diaphanous fabrics and multiple layers of garments worn. In addition, his work focused on the hidden worlds of courtesans and the everyday lives of women at work or at home. Utamaro also illustrated a number of extraordinary printed books, many of which are considered the pinnacle of woodblock printing.
This exhibition brings together more than 40 of Utamaro’s most celebrated designs, all drawn from the Art Institute’s collection.
Utamaro: Elements of Beauty is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Curator of Japanese Art, Arts of Asia.
To learn more, click here.
Raqib Shaw, Paradise Lost (detail), 2009–25, Collection of the artist
Raqib Shaw: Paradise Lost
June 7, 2025 – November 15, 2026
Gallery 141–142
Epic and intricate, monumental and meticulous—the paintings of Kashmir-raised, London-based artist Raqib Shaw offer fantastical meditations on identity, transformation, and the redemptive power of beauty.
Shaw debuts his more-than 100-feet-wide, 21-panel Paradise Lost (2009–25), the artist’s most ambitious and personal project to date. This magnificent allegorical painting takes viewers on a spellbinding journey, from the nocturnal solitude of the artist’s childhood in Kashmir to the frenzied daylight of the art world and the West to finally a fragile, renewed dawn. Each panel is dense with symbolism: mythical beasts, anthropomorphic hybrids, collapsing kingdoms, and natural beauty in various states of transformation. Throughout, the work is dotted with images of the artist, sometimes as a humanoid creature with different animal heads, at another time as a monkey looking with awe at the gleaming edifices and the wealth of the West, and sometimes unambiguously in full human form seated on a bed of saffron under a blossoming cherry tree, lost deep in his thoughts.
The work is not a direct retelling of Milton’s 17th-century poem Paradise Lost, but rather a reflection on the many paradises lost across a lifetime: childhood innocence, creative freedom, mental tranquility, cultural belonging. “This is not just my story,” Shaw explained. “It is the story of each of us, and the story of our times.”
To learn more, click here.
Jitish Kallat: Public Notice 3
Ongoing
Jitish Kallat’s site-specific installation, Public Notice 3, returns to the Art Institute of Chicago’s Grand Staircase this fall after a 14-year hiatus.
Initially unveiled on September 11, 2010, the work connects two significant historical events separated by 108 years: the First World Parliament of Religions which began on September 11, 1893, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. At the earlier event, the World Parliament of Religions, held in what is now the museum’s Fullerton Hall, a young Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda electrified audiences with a powerful speech calling for an end to religious fundamentalism, intolerance, and bigotry.
This very speech forms the basis of Kallat’s work, as the staircase risers are illuminated by Vivekananda’s words in five alternating colors—red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. These colors, borrowed from the decade-long advisory system of the US Department of Homeland Security following the attacks of 9/11, formed a spectrum denoting terrorism threat levels—from red for severe to green for low. Kallat transforms this motif of public vigilance into a radiant signal, reflecting Swami Vivekananda’s timeless and urgent plea for tolerance and universal acceptance.
To learn more, click here.
GALLERY COLLECTION DISPLAY
Plum Vase (Maebyeong) with Clouds, Cranes, and Children Motifs, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392), late 12th century, stoneware with red and white slip and celadon glaze, h: 13 1/8 in. (33.5 cm); Gift of Mr. Russell Tyson
New Gallery for the Arts of Korea
Ongoing
Gallery 130
This fall, we unveiled a newly imagined and installed gallery for the arts of Korea—our first space fully dedicated to this cultural region.
The new installation presents a wider range of objects than previous displays—extending from ceramics to textiles and painting and spanning 2,000 years from the Three Kingdoms period (about 57 BCE–676 CE) until today. Intentionally located between the Chinese and Japanese art galleries, the thoughtful display offers insight into how these artworks both reflect the religious and material culture of Korea and how they relate to the arts of Korea’s influential neighbors, China and Japan.
Six themes introduce Korea’s long and rich history as well as its religious, political, and material cultures. The first section introduces objects that were made to help understand and spread the teachings of the Buddha. The centerpiece, an 18th-century Buddha statue, is on view for the first time since its acquisition after extensive conservation treatment. A section devoted to celadon and tea culture provides a glimpse into the practice of tea ceremonies during the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392), and objects grouped around the idea of symbolism illustrate how beautiful embellishments represent desired outcomes, such as a blissful marriage, career advancement, and long life.
The remaining three sections focus on how material culture responded to a major ideological, political, and cultural shift during the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897) as evidenced in the creation of the earthy grey stoneware known as buncheong, elegant white porcelain, and scholars’ objects. The new installation also includes select contemporary works that meaningfully engage with traditional forms and materials.
To mark the gallery’s opening, the space presents two stunning gold objects—a crown and pendant as well as a belt from the Silla kingdom period (about 57 BCE–676 CE). These objects have been designated as Treasures by the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea and are on loan from the National Museum of Korea through early February 2025. Further enhancing the visitor experience are an interactive feature and video that offer deeper insight into two objects’ symbolism and function.
To learn more, click here.
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