160 Years of Making…the Canon: SAIC Alums at the Art Institute of Chicago

School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) alums have been making history over the last 16 decades. In our “160 Years of Making” series, we’re celebrating the people who shaped the School, Chicago, and the art world at large. Watch for more profiles as we honor this historic anniversary.

The histories of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) have been intertwined since the beginning. What began in 1866 as the Chicago Academy of Design evolved into an institution dedicated to both art education and exhibition. By 1882, it had become the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and its growing collection helped form the museum known today as the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the most famous art collections in the world.

That relationship continues in the present: SAIC students regularly use the museum as an extension of the classroom, while works by generations of SAIC alums now hang in its galleries. 

In honor of SAIC’s 160th anniversary, here are three pieces in the museum’s collection that reflect that shared history. Together, these artists demonstrate that there is no single “SAIC style.” Their approaches vary widely, but each offers a distinct answer to questions that remain central to art education: Why this subject? Why this material? Why make an image this way?

Find even more info on featured alum artwork in this SAIC Alumni Celebs virtual tour on the museum’s website. 

Georgia O’Keeffe, Sky above Clouds IV
Gallery 249, second level

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Georgia O’Keeffe studied at SAIC in 1905–06 before becoming one of the defining figures of American modernism. In Black Cross, New Mexico, a monumental dark cross rises against rolling blue hills and a glowing horizon. The painting transforms a familiar religious symbol into a bold, nearly abstract meditation on landscape, scale, and perception.

Charles White, This, My Brother
Gallery 262, second level, Arts of the Americas Galleries

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In addition to being an SAIC alum, Charles White (SAIC 1937–38) was a pivotal figure in Chicago’s Black Renaissance artistic community. A founder and teacher at the South Side Community Art Center, he believed that art could enact real social change–a philosophy that shows up in his own work, too. Inspired by a novel of the same name, This, My Brother features a Black man breaking free from a mountain of rubble, creating a metaphor for the possibility of social change.

Grant Wood, American Gothic
Gallery 263, second level, Arts of the Americas Galleries

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One of the most famous American paintings of all time, American Gothic has hung in the Art Institute gallery since its creation. Alum Grant Wood (SAIC 1913–16) considered himself a Regionalist, deeply devoted to chronicling the lives and culture of the Midwest. Famously, his dentist and his sister posed as models for his most renowned work.