Page 11 - 2019 September 12th Christie's New York Chiense Art Chicago Art Institute

THE ART INSTITUTE

OF CHICAGO

A TRIBUTE

n the over one hundred years since its frst acquisition of Asian art, The Art Institute of
Chicago has come to stand as one of the world’s foremost sites for the study, preservation,
I and presentation of works from across the Asian continent. Representing nearly fve
millennia of imagination and ingenuity, the museum’s collection of Asian art is a vital, ever-
evolving component of The Art Institute’s mission: to collect, preserve, and interpret works of
art from across the broad range of the world’s creative traditions. The Art Institute’s superb
Chinese works sit within an especially notable tradition of cultural patronage and collecting in
Chicago, one that has placed beauty and history at the forefront of the community.
THE DAWN OF A COLLECTION
The Art Institute of Chicago was founded in 1879 in the aftermath of the Great Fire. As both
a museum and a school for the fne arts, it embodied an aspirational civic ideal in the wake
of monumental upheaval. Yet it was the World’s Columbian Exposition—the storied “Chicago
World’s Fair” of 1893—that provided the true impetus for a meaningful institutional collection.
The great architectural project that was the Exposition not only allowed a permanent physical
home for The Art Institute at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street, but also
instilled a new sense of wonder and curiosity in the city’s collective imagination. For the tens
of millions of Chicagoans and visitors who focked to the Exposition’s Palace of the Fine Arts,
the far-fung corners of the world suddenly became visible, as paintings, ceramics, prints, and
textiles from Japan and elsewhere made Asia a tangible reality.
The Exposition boosted Chicago’s image as an ascendant, vibrant city deserving of a world-
class cultural institution. The Art Institute thus became the principal repository for the fne art
collections of civic-minded philanthropists and connoisseurs—individuals and families whose
generosity continues to enrich the museum’s holdings today. The frst substantive works of
Asian origin to be exhibited at The Art Institute were Japanese woodblock prints and other
pieces lent from the collection of businessman Clarence Buckingham. Following his death in
1913, the collector’s sister, Kate Sturges Buckingham, lent and eventually gifted the entirety of
his assemblage to the museum. She also established an endowment in her brother’s name that
grew the Clarence Buckingham Collection to include over sixteen thousand works of art.
It is dificult to overstate the importance of Kate Buckingham in the history of The Art Institute’s
collection of Chinese works of art. A member of a prominent local family, the woman later
opposite: dubbed “Chicago’s Grandest Spinster” witnessed the city’s widespread growth across the latter
The Art Institute of Chicago, 1948. half of the nineteenth century. Buckingham took over her family’s sizable fnancial interests at
Photography © The Art Institute of
Chicago. just thirty-two years old, and dedicated the rest of her life to beautifcation projects—including
the Clarence Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park and the statue of Alexander Hamilton in Lincoln
芝加哥藝術博館，1948年。
圖片提供：芝加哥藝術博物館。 Park—as well as fne art collecting. Early acquisition of Chinese jade, snuf boxes, and other pieces

芝加哥藝術博物館珍藏中國瓷器及工藝精品 9