America Windows

Marc Chagall made America Windows to celebrate the US Bicentennial and presented them as a gift to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977. The windows merge symbols of US history, the Chicago skyline, and the arts; read from left to right, the panels represent music, painting, literature, architecture, theater, and dance. Best known as a painter, Chagall had been working in stained glass for several decades by the 1970s. He was drawn to the medium as a way to explore intense color on a monumental scale. Working with stained-glass maker Charles Marq, Chagall executed 86 windows across Europe, Israel, and the United States.