Arkansas Arts Center

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The Arkansas Arts Center is an art museum in Little Rock . The museum was founded in 1960, but goes back to the Fine Arts Club of Arkansas, which was founded in 1914. The Arkansas Arts Center's collection includes paintings , graphics , and design objects. Another field of activity of the museum is art education, for which it offers art classes, among other things.

history

The Arkansas Arts Center goes back to the Fine Arts Club of Arkansas, founded in 1914, whose members supported the later founding of the museum. A Museum of Fine Arts was established in Little Rock as early as 1937. In 1957, with the help of later Governor Winthrop Rockefeller and his wife Jeannette Rockefeller , the museum organized a state-wide fundraising campaign. A year later the museum was restructured by a resolution of the city and renamed Arkansas Arts Center, so that 1960 is considered the year of foundation. By 1963, the Arkansas Arts Center had five galleries, a theater, classrooms, and an art library. In addition, special exhibitions were held. The purchase of works of art was limited to regional art and prints by major artists.

After a period of little support from the city and society, some restructuring and programmatic renewals were carried out in 1968 under the direction of the new director Townsend Wolfe , so that financial support increased again. In 1971, the museum management decided to only dedicate itself to drawings when making purchases, thus placing a special focus on the collection. A year later, the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation, which is independent from the city and which owns the collection, was created.

In 1975 the 3200 square foot Rockefeller Gallery was built to expand the exhibition space. In 1982 an extension of the museum was completed. The studios and exhibition space were expanded. The Arkansas Arts Center Decorative Arts Museum opened three years later and housed the collection of design objects. In 1989 the 1,300 square meter Strauss Gallery was built to complement the Rockefeller Gallery.

In 1998, the first sod was broken for a 30,000 square meter extension and the renovation of 12,000 square meters. Between February 11 and 20, 2000, the reopening was celebrated with a series of special events. In 2002 Townsend Wolfe was retired after 34 years and appointed Ellen A. Plummer as the new director. A year later, the Decorative Arts Museum was closed and contemporary design objects were moved to the Arkansas Arts Center.

collection

The Arkansas Arts Center's collection focuses on drawings from Europe and America that were created from the Renaissance to the present day. For example, there are drawings by Vincent van Gogh , Georgia O'Keeffe , Rembrandt van Rijn , Paul Cézanne , Jackson Pollock and Peter Paul Rubens in the museum. It also has 135 watercolors and drawings by Paul Signac , Sketchbook E by Arthur Dove and 100 post- minimalist drawings.

The museum is also showing paintings by Francesco Bassano , Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem , Paul Cézanne , Luigi Loir , Claude Monet , Berthe Morisot , Camille Pissarro , Kees van Dongen , Édouard Vuillard , Odilon Redon , Pablo Picasso , Diego Rivera and Andrew Wyeth , sculptures by Roy Lichtenstein , Henry Moore and Louise Nevelson . Visitors can also see prints by Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt van Rijn and James McNeill Whistler . The design collection includes modern and contemporary ceramics, glassware, jewelry, wooden objects, metalwork, baskets and tea sets. They were designed and created by artists such as Dale Chihuly , Albert Paley , Peter Voulkos and Dorothy Gill Barnes .

  • Francesco Bassano:
    Adoration of the Shepherds

  • Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem: River Landscape

  • Berthe Morisot:
    The flute players

  • Paul Cézanne:
    Farmhouse in Montgeroult

literature

  • Irma B. Jaffe, Yvonne Koeshak: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation . Arkansas Arts Center, 1983. ISBN 0-9612-7500-6
  • Gerald Nordland: Twentieth Century American Drawings: The Arkansas Arts Center . Grassfield Press, 1998. ISBN 1-8864-3800-5

Web links

Coordinates: 34 ° 44 ′ 19.2 "  N , 92 ° 16 ′ 0.7"  W.