theartsdesk in Chicago: Radical Invention in the Windy/Second City

On my previous trip to the Second City in 2009, the much-awaited Art Institute of Chicago extension wasn’t quite ready for visitors, but is now about to celebrate its first birthday, and it’s a treat. The Modern Wing adds 35 per cent more space to the Institute, bringing it up to a nice round one million square feet and making it America’s second biggest art museum after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was designed by Renzo Piano, whose new wing (another glass-and-steel box) will be unveiled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art later this year; he’s clearly the go-to guy for art museums, having previously designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris. He’s also, by the way, the same man who is about spoil my beloved SE1 in London with his Shard monstrosity, but that’s for another day.

On my previous trip to the Second City in 2009, the much-awaited Art Institute of Chicago extension wasn’t quite ready for visitors, but is now about to celebrate its first birthday, and it’s a treat. The Modern Wing adds 35 per cent more space to the Institute, bringing it up to a nice round one million square feet and making it America’s second biggest art museum after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was designed by Renzo Piano, whose new wing (another glass-and-steel box) will be unveiled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art later this year; he’s clearly the go-to guy for art museums, having previously designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris. He’s also, by the way, the same man who is about spoil my beloved SE1 in London with his Shard monstrosity, but that’s for another day.