Art Institute of Chicago’s Monet exhibit contrasts sharply with its racial justice statements
The show celebrates wealthy donors who, in certain ways, propelled the museum’s Impressionist holdings ahead of peers, but it doesn’t contextualize ethical questions surrounding that support.
“It’s about time the rest of you showed up!” That’s the thrust of the Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibit “Monet and Chicago” (until Jan. 18), which burnishes the museum’s Monet bona fides: first U.S. museum to purchase and show a Monet and the largest U.S. museum collection of works by the “Father of Impressionism.”
So extensive were the Art Institute’s …