What makes a great exhibition? How do you bring together works of art in new ways to tell a novel story and curate distinctive learning? In this conversation with Gloria Groom, the Chair of Painting and Sculpture of Europe and the David and Mary Winton Green Curator at The Art Institute of Chicago, we learned about the principles of successful art exhibition and discussed how these principles have been applied to exhibition at the Art Institute.
Lecturer bio:
An internationally acclaimed scholar and author on 19th Century French painting Gloria Groom is currently Chair of Painting and Sculpture of Europe, and the David and Mary Winton Green Curator at The Art Institute of Chicago. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, and a degree in museology from the Ecole du Louvre, Paris, Dr, Groom joined the Art Institute in 1985. Since then, she has been involved in major monographic exhibitions and catalogues including Gauguin, Odilon Redon, Caillebotte, Renoir, Manet, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and thematic exhibitions such as Beyond the Easel: Decorative Paintings of Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, and Roussel, the art dealer Ambroise Vollard (2008), Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity (2012-2013), Van Gogh’s Bedrooms (2016) and Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist (2017) Manet and Modern Beauty (2019) and Cezanne (2022). Her current exhibition is Edouard Vuillard and the Theatre of Modern Life scheduled for 2028.
In addition to exhibitions, Dr. Groom has led the project for monographic on-line scholarly collection catalogues on the Art Institute’s Impressionist collection (to date: Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Caillebotte, Gauguin. Manet with Cezanne forthcoming) involving an international team of scholars, conservators and scientists. For her efforts in promoting French art and culture, Dr. Groom was awarded the medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Republic in 2007,and promoted to Officer in 2010. In 2016 she was awarded the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honor.
