Gustave Caillebotte’s The Floor Scrapers (1875) Courtesy of Musée d’Orsay, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn/Franck Raux

Gustave Caillebotte blockbuster that sparked controversy in France opens in Chicago—with one key difference

When the new, career-defining survey of Gustave Caillebotte opened in late June at its final stop, the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), the checklist was very similar to previous versions at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Its chronological layout will also be familiar to any return visitors. But the show is dramatically different in at least one respect: its title.

The Midwestern institution has changed the exhibition title from Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men (in French, Caillebotte: Peindre Les Hommes) to the more gender-neutral—or neutered—Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World (until 5 October). Could it be that the Chicago museum is toning things down because so many French art critics flipped out over the male focus?

Via the Art Newspaper

Migration, Marginalization and Outsider Art Collide in Intuit Art Museum’s ‘Catalyst’

Isarnu Guy Conners’ North Avenue Beach is a small painting of the Chicago waterfront. It’s composed of tactile blobs of colors that resolve themselves into swimmers, bicyclists, clouds, rocks and the Chicago skyline off in the distance. The influence of artists like Van Gogh and the Impressionists is obvious, though Conners was born in Japan, and looking at the painting reminds us that the Impressionists were powerfully influenced by the colors and carefully casual compositions of Japanese prints.

North Avenue Beach is on display as part of “Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago,” an exhibition at the newly reopened Intuit Art Museum. Artists like Henry Darger, artists/collectors like Roger Brown, and institutions like Intuit itself have made Chicago a center for the study of and cultivation of outsider or self-taught art. Chicago, as a transportation hub, has also been a major destination for immigrants from Poland, Mexico, Asia, the American South and more.

Via Observer

Jasper Johns, Flag (1960-66). The Middleton Family Collection. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Countdown to America’s 250th: The Museum Shows Mapping the Country’s Past—and Future

The countdown to the 250th anniversary of America’s independence has begun, and museums are already lining up celebrations to mark the milestone. Far from empty flag-waving exercises, these exhibitions richly explore the nation’s founding ideals and contested histories through the lenses of art and artifacts. What did independence mean then—and what does it mean now? Here are 10 shows that encourage reflection as much as a deep reckoning.

Via Artnet

Galleries’ Reporting Seems to Show Sales Slipping at Art Basel, Even As Number of Artists Rises

It’s no secret that the art market has been mired in a prolonged slump for nearly two years. Where dealers and market observers once described conditions in late 2023 and 2024 using euphemisms like “soft” or “a correction,” this spring’s assessments were more often met with shrugs—or, when expectations were exceeded, with outsized celebration. Such was the case with Frieze’s fairs in LA in February and New York in May.

Via ARTnews