Your Chicago: Art Institute Curator Inspires Hit Exhibit
(CBS) -- A new exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago is getting rave reviews for blending art and fashion from the Impressionist era.
It was a hit in Paris and in New York, but the idea started in Chicago.
The exhibit showcases some of the world's great Impressionist paintings with the very fashion seen in the artwork.
Art Institute Curator Gloria Groom masterminded the idea. And after four years in the making, she said she's so pleased with the response it's getting.
"It's wonderful, and to see people enjoying it and interacting and talking about it is what is really wonderful," Groom said.
The entire exhibit, which contains 75 Impressionist era paintings, is shown through the lens of fashion—for both gentlemen and ladies. It tells the story of what fashion meant to the people of that era.
The era of the painters was also the origin of 'the department store'…and the first chance ordinary people could easily buy clothes and express themselves.
Paintings came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.
Some visitors are calling it more of an experience than an exhibit.
"I'm coming back in a couple of weeks, and maybe I'll come back again because it's too much to take in at one time, and I don't want to miss anything" said Myrna Kulp.
The exhibit is at the Art Institute through September 22. Besides the works from Chicago, New York, and Paris, visitors can view painting from many other museums and even private collections.
