{"id":104945,"date":"2025-07-30T13:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T13:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/104945\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T13:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T13:51:12","slug":"art-institute-defends-changed-title-of-its-caillebotte-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/104945\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Institute defends changed title of its Caillebotte exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since it was acquired in 1964, Gustave Caillebotte\u2019s \u201cParis Street; Rainy Day\u201d has become all but synonymous with the Art Institute. <\/p>\n

It appears in the movie \u201cFerris Bueller\u2019s Day Off,\u201d and in Masterpiece, the Parker Brothers game. If visitors follow one of the most common routes into the galleries \u2014 through the Michigan Avenue entrance, up the stairs, and into the Impressionism gallery \u2014 it\u2019s the first painting they\u2019ll greet, trading one urban tableau for another.<\/p>\n

For the first time, the museum displayed Caillebotte\u2019s sketches for \u201cParis Street; Rainy Day\u201d as part of \u201cGustave Caillebotte: Painting His World,\u201d a new survey co-curated by the Art Institute alongside the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay in Paris and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In his surviving sketch of the central couple, only the man is rendered in any detail. The figure looped around his arm is just a woman-shaped void.<\/p>\n

Two things set Caillebotte (1848-1894) apart from his Impressionist peers. One is that he was fabulously wealthy, the son of a textile manufacturer. The other is that he overwhelmingly trained his artistic eye on other men. Men walking down the street in his Paris neighborhood. Men he played cards with. Men he hired as contractors to work his family estate. Men toweling themselves off after a bath \u2014 like in one 1884 painting deemed so salacious that, upon completion, it was intentionally displayed in a far-flung corner of a Brussels gallery.<\/p>\n

Gloria Groom, an exhibition co-curator and the Art Institute\u2019s chair of European painting and sculpture, said she cannot think of \u201cany other artist\u201d from the period who shared Caillebotte\u2019s predilection for painting working-class men, like those depicted in his \u201cFloor Scrapers\u201d series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what makes him so distinct from his fellow Impressionists: his comfortableness in the social position that he was born into,\u201d Groom said. \u201cHe\u2019s a distinct artist; he has a very distinct way of showing his world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, some have claimed the Art Institute is bowdlerizing that world. In the past year, the exhibit \u201cPainting His World\u201d appeared at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay and the Getty under the title \u201cGustave Caillebotte: Painting Men.\u201d That the Art Institute alone selected a different title has led some to accuse the Art Institute of queer erasure, reflecting broader fears of institutional self-censorship. <\/p>\n

Jonathan Katz, the lead curator of \u201cThe First Homosexuals\u201d at Wrightwood 659, sees similarities between the Caillebotte fracas and the one surrounding the Art Institute\u2019s changing of a placard text in 2022<\/a>. The work it accompanied, F\u00e9lix Gonz\u00e1lez-Torres\u2019 \u201cUntitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.),\u201d was named for Gonz\u00e1lez-Torres\u2019 partner Ross Laycock. The original placard noted that Laycock died of AIDS in 1991, the year the artwork was devised; the Art Institute\u2019s new placard, quickly replaced after public outcry, had removed mention of Laycock altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always struck by the way this institution not only seems to be pathologically tied to a \u201950s mindset, but moreover, doesn\u2019t learn from its own stepping in it,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n

Katz and his husband, fellow art scholar Andr\u00e9 Dombrowski, were invited to contribute an essay to the exhibition catalog \u2014 also titled \u201cPainting Men\u201d \u2014\u00a0 examining Caillebotte\u2019s work through a queer lens. On a recent walkthrough of the exhibition with the Tribune, Katz said he felt those contributions had been toned down significantly compared to the exhibition\u2019s first outing at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, where \u201cPainting Men\u201d had garnered a conservative backlash. In response, he said, the Musee d\u2019Orsay held a conference inviting scholars to submit papers with competing views on the question of Caillebotte\u2019s sexuality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a model of curatorial transparency,\u201d Katz said. \u201cThat is not what this institution (the Art Institute) has ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople study the “Self-Portrait with an Easel” painting at “Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World” exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago on July 24, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Johnny Willis, Katz\u2019s associate curator on \u201cThe First Homosexuals<\/a>,\u201d confronted Groom about the exhibition\u2019s downplaying of queerness during an Art Institute Q&A in June. Groom declined to address Willis\u2019 concerns at length, saying it was common to change exhibition titles and that she would not \u201cspeculate (about) something that was painted 140 years ago.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following week, the Tribune published a letter to the editor<\/a> objecting to Groom\u2019s response to Willis and to the Art Institute\u2019s title. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to see the Art Institute \u2014 once a beacon for cultural leadership \u2014 kowtow to imagined donor discomfort or a conservative fear of thought-provoking conversation,\u201d wrote attorney Matthew Richard Rudolphi.<\/p>\n

The Art Institute responds<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Tribune, Groom and a museum spokesperson provided more context on the title change. By their account, the Art Institute finalized the \u201cPainting His World\u201d title nearly two years ago, based on feedback from a patron focus group that included that title, as well as \u201cPainting Men,\u201d as options.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The museum declined to provide materials from that audience survey, saying it considered the results proprietary. But Groom and a museum spokesperson, who both reviewed the feedback, said patrons overwhelmingly associated Caillebotte with \u201cParis Street; Rainy Day,\u201d which prominently features a heterosexual couple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thrust of the response was that (\u2018Painting Men\u2019) was not what they think of, and it seemed limited when his work is not limited to just painting men,\u201d Groom told the Tribune.<\/p>\n

\"AA woman looks at the studies for “Paris Street; Rainy Day” in the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World” exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago on July 24, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Megan Michienzi, the museum spokesperson, said the Art Institute typically pursues such \u201ctitle testing\u201d for its major exhibitions. For example, it title-tested 2023\u2019s \u201cVan Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape,\u201d as well as the forthcoming \u201cBruce Goff: Material Worlds,\u201d opening in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we do not consider title testing to be definitive, it is directional in helping us determine what resonates with audiences,\u201d Michienzi said in an email.<\/p>\n

And just as exhibition titles sometimes change between host institutions \u2014 \u201cMyth and Marble,\u201d for example, is now \u201cThe Torlonia Collection: Masterpieces of Roman Sculpture\u201d at the Montr\u00e9al Museum of Fine Arts \u2014 Groom said it\u2019s standard museum practice for an institution to write its own exhibition texts, even if the exhibition is co-produced. That meant she and her team started from scratch rather than working from the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay\u2019s or the Getty\u2019s wall texts, though she acknowledged that she was \u201cdefinitely aware\u201d of what was written in both.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never presume to copy someone else\u2019s text,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all know our audiences and Paris\u2019 are quite different; Getty\u2019s is different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Too light a touch?<\/p>\n

\u201cPainting His World\u201d wall texts follow the general approach promised by its title. On this point, it breaks with the more frank discussion of gender and sexuality at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay and the Getty.<\/p>\n

\u201cPainting His World\u201d views Caillebotte\u2019s homosociality as one interpretive frame of many \u2014 class, leisure, urbanity, family. Neither the d\u2019Orsay nor the Getty assert that Caillebotte was gay or bisexual, noting, as does the Art Institute, that he had a live-in female \u201ccompanion.\u201d (That said, we know little about her: Caillebotte rarely painted her, and census records refer to her only as Caillebotte\u2019s \u201camie,\u201d or \u201cfriend.\u201d) But by leaning into his works\u2019 provocativeness and, occasionally, sensuality, both go further than the Art Institute in nodding to the possibility.<\/p>\n

To Katz, the Art Institute\u2019s approach leads to missed insights. Class tension is discussed in the room with Caillebotte\u2019s famous \u201cFloor Scrapers\u201d \u2014 the workers\u2019 muscles rippling, their skin glistening like the varnish of the floor. But he believes the Art Institute\u2019s wall texts leave too much unspoken.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople study the “The Floor Scrapers” painting in the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World” exhibit on July 24, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile French law permitted homosexuality, it did not permit any form of public solicitation,\u201d Katz said. \u201cIf you were a man of a certain social class, you had a network of others who could provide entertainment for you that didn\u2019t entail public exposure. We wouldn\u2019t expect to find any kind of smoking gun there, because class protected them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the Art Institute\u2019s curatorial approach appeared more evasive. Most rooms in the exhibition flow sequentially \u2014 that is, you can only access one room via the previous, predetermining visitors\u2019 progression through the galleries. Unlike the Getty and Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay iterations, the gallery with the portraits and nudes, where the question of Caillebotte\u2019s sexuality is pointedly addressed for the first and only time, is the exception, sequestered in an area visitors can bypass completely if they choose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Groom said the placement of the three nudes in the space\u2019s gallery-within-a-gallery \u2014 featuring two men and one woman \u2014 was meant to evoke greater intimacy, as though we ourselves were entering the privacy of the subjects\u2019 quarters. Plus, in a clear break from the 19th-century squeamishness surrounding \u201cMan at His Bath,\u201d the subject is placed so that his buttocks confront viewers from yards away. They could beckon you into that section \u2014 or they could drive you away.<\/p>\n

\"GuestsGuests study the “Man at His Bath” painting in the “Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World” exhibit on July 24, 2025 at the Art Institute of Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time they deny an erotic reading, they enforce a kind of an erotic reading by creating a strip show in the middle of the exhibition,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n

Near \u201cMan at His Bath\u201d hangs \u201cSelf-Portrait at the Easel\u201d (1879-80), one of four self-portraits in the exhibition. Despite its name, that painting does not depict Caillebotte alone. Behind him is another man, lounging on a couch. The man\u2019s features are indistinct, but he\u2019s lazily reading a newspaper, leading scholars to identify him as Richard Gallo, a journalist in Caillebotte\u2019s wealthy bachelor circle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gallo is one of the most frequently identifiable subjects in Caillebotte\u2019s paintings. He appears in six other pieces in \u201cPainting His World\u201d alone. However, the Art Institute placard doesn\u2019t acknowledge Gallo\u2019s presence in the \u201cSelf-Portrait.\u201d Instead, it cites\u00a0the artwork that hangs behind Gallo \u2014 Renoir\u2019s \u201cDance at Le Moulin de la Galette\u201d \u2014 as a launchpad to discuss Caillebotte\u2019s vast art collection, which eventually became the basis for the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GuestsGuests study the “Self-Portrait with an Easel” painting in the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World” exhibit on July 24, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

When I brought up the omission to Groom, she said visitors should consult the catalog \u2014 which acknowledges the significance of Gallo\u2019s presence early on, in the introduction \u2014 if they were curious about the second figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can only have 120 words in a label, and you have to determine what is most essential. And that was the time when we could talk about Caillebotte the collector,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Katz doesn\u2019t buy that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is asking Gloria or any art historian to speak definitively about anything here. We can\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we can do is problematize, ask, point out and let viewers draw their own conclusion. What we don\u2019t want is the institution to mediate for us in a single voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Policing visitors\u2019 impressions is the last thing a museum should do, but how light a touch is too light? On one of my two visits to the exhibition, I entered the gallery with a family who concluded, after reading the anteroom\u2019s introductory text, that Caillebotte must have been a misogynist. On the same visit, I watched a couple scour the gift shop for the exhibition catalog; after finding a book called \u201cGustave Caillebotte: Painting Men\u201d but not \u201cGustave Caillebotte: Painting His World,\u201d they left in empty-handed confusion. Revisiting the portraits and nudes section with Katz, I overheard a teasing t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate between a security guard and visitors about how they\u2019d found the exhibition\u2019s \u201cadult section.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seconds after I turned off my recorder during my walkthrough with Katz, a 20-something visitor, overhearing our conversation, approached us and timidly asked if we knew, perchance, whether Caillebotte was queer. Katz and I exchanged glances.<\/p>\n

The answer isn\u2019t the point. Being unafraid to pose the question is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 30, 2025 at 5:45 AM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since it was acquired in 1964, Gustave Caillebotte\u2019s \u201cParis Street; Rainy Day\u201d has become all but synonymous with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":104946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[648,960,171,5386,1818,2765,1370,728,8160,1072],"class_list":{"0":"post-104945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois","13":"tag-keywee","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-museums","17":"tag-things-to-do"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114942516230047631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}