CheekyChicago

Any description of the Art Institute’s new Modern Wing must begin in the Lurie Gardens just across the way. Bordered by dense rows of trees, the flower-filled sanctuary offers a view of the city skyline through the tulips. It’s a classic example of Chicago’s ability to mix nature with architecture for breathtaking results.

Renzo Piano’s shiny, new glass-encased Modern Wing is another such example. Its reflective surface draws attention to the landscape around it, and before you even reach the entrance, the shiny Nichols Bridgeway lures you to the rooftop observatory for a stunning lake-meets-city view.

During the perfectly sunny opening weekend, visitors packed the bridge and roof, posing for snapshots that can’t possibly capture the magic of the place. But speaking of capturing the human experience in the natural and industrial landscape – modern artists are really good at that. So let’s put our camera phones away and step inside the cavernous Modern Wing.

Cy Twombley: The Natural World couldn’t be a more appropriate first exhibit for visitors coming inside from the gardens. Twombley’s abstract works combine painting, drawing and often the artist’s own shaky handwriting, to capture the feeling of natural landscapes while adding a distinctive human perspective (above, the Untitled, 2007). As presented in the Wing’s light, white first-floor gallery, Twombley’s paintings and sculpture create an airy, dreamlike atmosphere.

In exciting contrast, across the hall in the Film, Video and New Media Gallery, visitors can enter a pitch-black room to view filmmaker Steve McQueen’s gritty, minimalist Girls, Tricky, in which rapper Tricky lays down vocals in a shadowy recording booth (screen shot above). The close-up camera captures Tricky’s every nuance as the artist works himself into a powerful frenzy.

Drawing much attention at the entrance to the Photography Gallery is Jeff Wall’s The Flooded Grave (above). I’m not sure of the story behind the sea creatures in the grave, but the work reminds me of an industrial answer to Millais’ Ophelia. The Modern Wing’s rotating photography exhibit will combine conceptual studio work with photographs of everyday life and landscapes. A great example of the latter is Stéphane Couturier’s Seoul Series / Monuments, which shows twin buildings filled with nearly identical balconies and a sliver of land visible in the background.

In the second-level Contemporary Galleries we find the greatest hits we’ve been expecting – artists like Pollack, Hockney, de Kooning (above, Excavation), Johns, Lichtenstein and Warhol. The collection mixes Art Institute staples with recent acquisitions on view for the first time. The post-1960 section features compelling work by Robert Gober, including silkscreens of human bodies on real newspaper pages depicting the 9/11 attacks. On a lighter note, Bruce Nauman’s famous “Clown Torture” video installation prompted a man near me to remark, “Yep. This confirms my thing about clowns.”

The top flight of stairs leads to the sunlight-filled Modern European Galleries, where the greats await in all their glory – Picasso, Miro, Magritte, Dali, Chagall, Mondrian, Klee, Matisse (above, Bathers by a River, 1909-10) and a host of other European artists from the Institute’s rich collection. These galleries alone could justify the need for a dedicated Modern Wing, with room after room of classics such as Picasso’s The Old Guitarist and Kandinsky’s Improvisation No. 30 (shown in the header). Topping it off, literally, is Piano’s “flying carpet” roof structure, which allows filtered sunlight to illuminate the whole floor – as if to drive home the point we’re in modern art heaven.

My last stop was the Architecture and Design collection back on the main floor. It makes for a perfect finale, reminding one of the great Chicago buildings that wait outside. Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are among the architects represented in the first few rooms of models and sketches. In the design section, whimsical furniture, graphic designs and lighting pieces wowed visitors.

Especially cool is an interactive exhibit by Ralph Ammer and Stefan Sagmeister, called Being Not Truthful Always Works Against Me (shown above). A spiderweb on a screen reacts to the people around it, capturing their images and warping with their movements. A crowd of visitors reacted gleefully. Back outside in the sun, people seemed just as joyful simply staring at Piano’s glistening structure.

The Modern Wing offers FREE Thursday and Friday evenings 5-9 pm through Labor Day.

For hours, prices and discount information, visit the Modern Wing website.