Moholy-Nagy: Future Present” is perhaps the most outstanding major exhibition the Art Institute has displayed during the past few years. The subject, Laszló Moholy-Nagy, a Hungarian artist who was based in Chicago for most of the last decade of his life, was a prominent professor in the Bauhaus school, and made a significant contribution to contemporary art and design. At the same time, he’s someone many spectators are likely unaware of—even those who possess a baseline familiarity with art history. Meanwhile, over at the Graham Foundation, there’s another remarkable, albeit smaller, showcase of an important craftsman who’s even more obscure: Rifat Chadirji, an architect and photographer who was a critical cultural figure in post-World War II Iraq.
Likewise “Every Building in Baghdad: The Rifat Chadirji Archives at the Arab Image Foundation” (which first opened at the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture) often focuses on modern artwork that coexists with antiquated structures. Chadirji worked primarily in Baghdad from the early 1950s until the early 1980s, when he fled Iraq and moved to Boston for a fellowship at Harvard. Fearing that his creations would be destroyed amid the unstable situation in Iraq, he fastidiously documented and photographed his efforts.
Through 1/3/2017 Art Institute of Chicago 111 S. Michigan 312-443-3600artic.edu $20, $14 for seniors, students, and teens, free for children 13 and younger
“Every Building in Baghdad: The Rifat Chadirji Archives at the Arab Image Foundation Through 12/31: Wed-Sat, 11 AM-6PM Graham Foundation 4 W. Burton 312-787-4071grahamfoundation.org Free
