The Art Institute of Chicago acquired some eye-catching artworks in 2025, among them a striking portrait of the 20th century Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer by New Objectivity painter Christian Schad (his first portrait owned by a U.S. museum), Kay WalkingStick’s painting of Glacier National Park, and a self-portrait by the Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert.
The Spilliaert drawing was purchased at the European Fine Art Foundation’s (TEFAF) spring art fair in Maastricht. Jay A. Clarke, curator of prints and drawings at the AIC, told ARTnews that the museum had been on the hunt for a work by Spilliaert for a decade. “We have passed on several drawings over the years, waiting for a great work from 1907 or 1908, and this haunting and powerful self-portrait was certainly worth the wait.”
Other highlights include Frans Francken II’s Esther Before Ahasuerus, 1622, a depiction of the biblical heroine imploring her husband, King Ahasuerus, to spare the Jewish people, and an “extraordinarily rare” mid-17th century textile from India’s Tamil Nadu region. The hand-painted and dyed cotton hanging narrates court life during the Nayaka dynasty. Sarah Kelly Oehler, vice president of curatorial strategy at the AIC, told WBEZ Chicago that “There’s only a couple of these that are known. It’s magnificent in scale. The condition is amazing.”
