Past Exhibitions
Asian Art
July 12, 2016–June 25, 2017
The Asian collection encompasses a rich variety of forms, materials, and functions, ranging from millennia-old ritual bronzes to contemporary photography.
European Art
August 16, 2016–June 25, 2017
The Smart Museum’s European collection ranges from antiquity to the nineteenth century, with particular strengths in works on paper as well as Renaissance painting, sculpture, and decorative arts.
Contemporary Art
July 28, 2016–June 11, 2017
The Smart Museum's contemporary collection reflects the rich diversity of recent art.
Monster Roster: Existentialist Art in Postwar Chicago
February 11–June 12, 2016
This exhibition provides the definitive introduction to Chicago’s first artistic movement, the Monster Roster.
Monster Roster: Antecedents and Influences
February 11–June 12, 2016
This intimate exhibition brings together the kinds of works of art, both ancient and modern, that Monster Roster artists studied and appreciated.
Expressionist Impulses: German and Central European Art, 1890–1990
October 1, 2015–January 10, 2016
This exhibition charts the ebb and flow of key Expressionist tendencies in German and Central European art.
To See in Black and White: German and Central European Photography, 1920s-1950s
October 1, 2015–January 10, 2016
A selection of German and Central European photography by František Drtikol, Lyonel Feininger, Hannah Höch, Walter Peterhans, and Václav Zykmund, among others.
Jessica Stockholder: Rose’s Inclination
September 12, 2015 – August 13, 2017
In a site-specific installation, Jessica Stockholder intersects the Smart’s threshold with a wave of color and texture.
Conversations with the Collection: Memory
September 12, 2015–January 10, 2016
Project explores art's relationship to the recollection of personal and cultural histories, nostalgia, and other facets of memory.
Modern Art & Design (2015–2016)
Elisabeth and William M. Landes Gallery
The modern gallery features European and American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts dating from the 1880s to the early 1960s.