Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

The Museum of Contemporary Art, often abbreviated to MCA, is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues. The museum's collection is composed of thousands of objects of Post-World War II visual art. It had its first showroom in the building of a former baking factory.

The museum has hosted several notable debut exhibitions including Frida Kahlo's first U.S. exhibition and Jeff Koons' first solo museum exhibition. Koons later presented an exhibit at the Museum that established the museum's current attendance record for an exhibition. Its collection, which includes Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and Alexander Calder, contains historical samples of 1940s-1970s late surrealism, pop art, minimalism, and conceptual art; notable holdings 1980s postmodernism; as well as contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and related media. The museum also presents dance, theater, music, and interdisciplinary arts.

The current location at 220 East Chicago Avenue is in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. The current building was designed by Josef Paul Kleihues after a funding drive spearheaded by major contributions by its own board members. The museum moved to the new building in 1996; it was originally located at 237 East Ontario Street. The building is known for its long staircase leading to an elevated ground floor which has an atrium the full glass-walled front and back giving a see through view to Lake Michigan.

At the time of its 1996 opening, the Museum claimed 7,000 objects, including works by Marcel Duchamp, Bruce Nauman, and Alfredo Jaar. Today, the museum's collection consists of 2,345 objects, as well as about 2,500 artist's books. The collection includes visual art from 1945 to the present. The collection includes work by artists from Lee Bontecou to Robert Smithson.

Other notable works in the museum's collection include:

- Polychrome and Horizontal Bluebird, 1991, by Alexander Calder

- Cindy, 1998, by Chuck Close

- In Memory of My Feelings - Frank O'Hara, 1995, by Jasper Johns

- Study for a Portrait, 1976, by Francis Bacon

- Campbell's Soup Cans II - Andy Warhol

Text source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Contemporary_Art,_Chicago
Photo source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MCA_Chicago_060930.jpg

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