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The Art Institute is full of treasures (including Grant Wood’s American Gothic and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks) but small enough to manage in an afternoon. Particularly impressive is its collection of more than 2,000 European paintings and sculptures, among them Impressionist and Postimpressionist works by such artists as Monet, Degas, van Gogh and Seurat. There are also American and European decorative arts spanning several centuries, ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Etruscan works and, appropriately, a smattering of interesting 19th- and 20th-century architectural details, such as ironwork fragments and stained-glass windows. The 264,000-square-foot glass, steel and limestone Modern Wing was designed by Renzo Piano and opened in 2009.
Short on time? Here are art historian Rolf Achilles’s picks for the must-sees. Start on the second floor, to the right of the Grand Staircase:
Written by Eliza Harris