Art Institute of Chicago Announces Lee Miller Survey

The Art Institute of Chicago has announced 'Lee Miller: Fearless,' a forthcoming exhibition dedicated to the extensive photographic oeuvre of Lee Miller. Opening on August 29, 2026, and running through December 7, 2026, the survey aims to provide an in-depth look at Miller's significant contributions across various photographic genres.

The exhibition will trace Miller's trajectory, highlighting her work as a fashion model, her immersion in Surrealism, and her later pivotal role as a war journalist. It will also feature her sensitive portraiture of figures such as Charlie Chaplin and Pablo Picasso. The breadth of Miller's career, from early breakthroughs to her documentation of the camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, will be explored, drawing from archives including the Lee Miller Archives.

Matthew Witkovsky, Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator, Photography and Media, and vice president for strategic art initiatives at the Art Institute of Chicago, commented on the artist: "Lee Miller was a complex figure, at once courageous and conflicted, plainspoken in her words yet with a flair for mystery in her art… Her breakthroughs in fashion and Surrealism from around 1930; her frank, disturbing images from the camps at Buchenwald and Dachau in 1945; and her sensitive portraits of fellow artists throughout her multifaceted career, are all highlights of this exhibition."

The exhibition is curated by Witkovsky and supported by a consortium of benefactors, including the Harris Family Foundation, Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul, Suzette and Ally Bulley, Tara Hirshberg, the Opatrny Family Foundation, and Anne L. Kaplan.