The Art Institute of Chicago’s Contemporary Collection expands under James Rondeau

The Art Institute of Chicago is best known for its Impressionist and Post-impressionist collection, but over the last decade its contemporary art holdings have undergone a marked expansion. 

During James Rondeau’s tenure as president and director, the museum’s already substantial contemporary holdings have grown deeper in Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptual art, and photography, while acquisitions have broadened both the geographic and demographic scope of artists represented.

The Edlis-Neeson Collection

In 2015, while Rondeau chaired the department of contemporary art, collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson pledged 44 works. Valued at approximately $500 million, it is the largest gift of art in the museum’s history.

The gift included works by Warhol, Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, and Cindy Sherman, among others, and transformed the museum’s collection. It also came with an unusual stipulation: the works must remain on public view for 50 years, ensuring that they would be accessible to Chicago audiences for generations.

“For the Art Institute of Chicago, the commitment… to display the [Edlis-Neeson] collection for 50 years is by no means a burden,” Rondeau told The Art Newspaper at the time. “We made our selections precisely because they are works we will want — and we believe future stewards of the collection will want — always on view.”

Works on Paper and Conceptual Art

Since assuming the directorship, James Rondeau has overseen acquisitions that span media and movements.

A major boost came via the Stenn family: in 2022 they made a promised gift of 97 post-1960 works on paper and a $3 million endowment. In 2023, they followed with a gift of 100 drawings and prints, celebrated in the 2025 exhibition Contemporary Drawings from the Stenn Family Collection. Together with prior Stenn donations, these gifts strengthened AIC’s holdings in Minimalist and Conceptual art, with artists such as Josef Albers, Eva Hesse, Lee Bontecou, Judy Chicago, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt.

Expanded Photography and Media Collections

Photography holdings at the Art Institute have expanded substantially under Rondeau’s direction, through both targeted acquisitions and major gifts. 

In 2021, the museum acquired 30 works by Francesca Woodman from the Woodman Family Foundation. Woodman’s black-and-white self-portraits, created before her death at 22, explore themes of identity and corporeality through long exposures and architectural spaces.

A $25 million donation from the Bucksbaum family laid the groundwork for the forthcoming Bucksbaum Photography Center in 2024 and is the largest ever gift made to the photography department. It will fund expanded gallery space and support for a collection that includes works by Diane Arbus, Dawoud Bey, Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, and Alfred Stieglitz.

Looking forward

The contemporary collection’s growth has been supported by transformative gifts.

The planned Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed Building, funded by a $75 million gift announced in 2024, will provide additional gallery space for displaying art from the late 19th century to the present. Rondeau shared with The New York Times, “Only about 16 percent of our modern and contemporary collection is on view.”

Fleischman indicated that providing space to show more contemporary work was a driving force behind the gift. 

“Touring the collections on view and in storage I came to believe that more of the museum’s extraordinary collection needed to be available to visitors and presented in world-class architecture,” he said, adding that he was excited “for the museum to tell a more complete story of modern and contemporary art.”

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