Indianapolis Museum of Art
The Indianapolis Museum of Art is an art museum in Indianapolis in the US state of Indiana . As a universal museum, it has extensive art-historical collections from different eras with exhibits from all parts of the world. The collections of American and European art are particularly extensive. The museum, founded by citizens of the city, is located in a park northwest of the city center.
History and Buildings
The Indianapolis Museum of Art goes back to the initiative of May Wright Sewall , her husband Theodore, and a small group of art enthusiasts. In 1883 they founded the Art Association of Indianapolis . In the same year, on November 7, 1883, they opened the city's first art exhibition in the English Hotel . 453 works of art by 137 artists were shown. The show was a great success, which was followed by further exhibitions and first lectures on art. In addition, the Art Association of Indianapolis began to build up its own art collection.
In 1895, real estate entrepreneur John Herron provided $ 225,000 to build an art museum and art college that would bear his name. Accordingly, the John Herron Art Institute was founded in 1902 and in 1906 a museum building north of downtown Indianapolis was established, which was designed by the architect Arthur Bohn from Vonnegut & Bohn in the style of the Italian Renaissance . The same architectural firm also planned the building of the art college, which was completed in 1908 next to the museum. This building was replaced in 1929 by a larger building designed by Paul Philippe Cret . The funds for this came from the patron Caroline Marmon Fesler.
Important exhibitions were held in the museum as early as the first decades of its existence. A show with sculptures by the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens reached more than 55,000 visitors and in 1937 an exhibition with important works by Dutch painters such as Rembrandt van Rijn , Frans Hals , Jacob van Ruisdael , Jan Steen and Jan Vermeer was shown. In addition, the museum's collection grew continuously. In 1927, for example, a group of 16 citizens interested in art donated works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , Amedeo Modigliani , Maurice Prendergast and Henri Matisse . Caroline Marmon Fesler, chairwoman of the Art Association of Indianapolis , donated works by Meindest Hobbema , Aelbert Cuyp , Corneille de Lyon , Georges Seurat , Paul Cézanne , Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso to the museum from 1943 onwards . From 1947 to 1961 Eli Lilly presented around 200 Chinese bronzes, ceramics and jade works.
From the mid-1960s, the museum's board of directors was looking for a new location, as the space in the old building was no longer sufficient and an extension at the previous location seemed impossible. After initially favoring a new building in downtown Indianapolis, Ruth and Josiah K. Lilly gave the museum the Oldfields estate as a gift in 1966 . Her parents' former residence is in a park northwest of the city center, which offered enough space for a new museum building and future extensions. In 1967 the art college and museum were separated. The Academy was the Herron School of Art and Design of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis connected. In the same year, Oldfields was opened to the public as the Lilly Pavilion of Decorative Arts with an exhibition on handicrafts. In 1969 the Art Association of Indianapolis was renamed the Indianapolis Museum of Art . At the new location, 38th Street and Michigan Road, the current museum was built in several construction phases from 1970. The architect Ambrose Richardson designed the Krannert Pavilion , which opened in 1970 , the Clowes Pavilion , which was completed in 1972, and the Indianapolis Civic Theater in the Showalter Pavilion, which was inaugurated in 1975 . The Mary Fendrich Hulman Pavilion , which opened in 1990, was designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes . In 2005 the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion , the Wood Gallery Pavilion and the Deer Zink Special Events Pavilion were added according to plans by the architect Jonathan Hess .
Further significant expansions to the collection were the foundation of works of Neo-Impressionism from the WJ Holliday collection and a group of works by the English painter William Turner from the Kurt F. Pantzer collection in 1979 . In 1990 the collector Harrison Eiteljorg donated a number of works of art from Africa and the South Pacific to the museum. More than 100 works by Paul Gauguin and other artists from the Pont-Aven School from the Samuel Josefowitz collection were brought to the museum in 1997, some as gifts and some as purchases. In 1999 the Clowes Collection brought works by Rembrandt van Rijn , Peter Paul Rubens , El Greco and other old master paintings into the collection. The listed Miller House in Columbus (Indiana) has been a branch of the museum since 2010 .
Collections
African art
The department for African art mainly houses donations from the founder Harrison Eiteljorg (1903–1997) and his wife. The approximately 400 exhibits in this department include a wooden guard figure of the Fang , a head figure of a metal queen mother from the Edo people , a face mask from the Cuba people and a female ancestor figure from the Senufo people . There is also a Nyoga sash made from Ndebele glass beads , a wooden ox-head mask from the Bijagos , a horned head figure from the Efik , a brass plate depicting a warrior from the Edo people and a face mask from the Bété .
Female ancestral figure of the Senufo
Depiction of a warrior from the Edo people
Face mask from the people of the Cuba
Old American art
The Department of Ancient American Art shows a number of exhibits from the Olmec and Maya from what is now Mexico and Central America, as well as some gold and jade work from Central America. In addition, there are various pottery from peoples from the area of today's Peru, for example from the Chavin culture , Moche culture and Nazca culture .
American art until 1945
The early works of United States art in the museum include the George Washington at Princeton portrait by Charles Willson Peale and Charles Peale Polk , the Woodcutters landscape in Windsor Park by Benjamin West, or the Vice-Admiral Edward Hughes , Marianne Ashley Walker and Portrait portraits of Edward Loftus by Gilbert Stuart . Examples of Hudson River School painting include the landscapes Summer, Lake Ontario by Jasper Francis Cropsey , Morning at Grand Manan by Alfred Thompson Bricher, and The Rainbow by George Inness . The museum owns the genre painting The Boat Builders by Winslow Homer and the sea view Seascape by James McNeill Whistler . Several photos illustrate the varied work of Frank Duveneck , including a self-portrait , the Seascape Marine , the female nude Reclining Nude and the portrait of Henry James . Examples of American Impressionist painting include the interior painting Afternoon - Yellow Room by Frederick Carl Frieseke , the landscape views Cliff Rock - Appledore by Childe Hassam and The Olive Grove by John Singer Sargent, and the flower meadow motif Poppies by Robert Vonnoh . There is also a still life by Julian Alden Weir and the portraits Woman in white , Moses Swaim and Portrait of William Francklyn Paris by William Merritt Chase . Chase's collection also includes the First Touch of Autumn landscape motif and the Red Snapper still life . Other works from the late 19th century are the portraits The Pianist by Thomas Eakins and A Young Girl by Willard Leroy Metcalf . Works by the Ashcan School artist group such as Red Kimono on the Roof by John Sloan and the works Helen , Nude and Maria and Baby by Robert Henri date from the beginning of the 20th century . The museum also has a large glass window from this period with the Angel of the Resurrection motif , which was made by the Tiffany manufactory based on a design by Frederick Wilson . The museum also owns the paintings Jimson Weed and Pelvis with the Distance by Georgia O'Keeffe . Examples of the realism of the 1930s and 1940s are the rural Henry Look Unhitching motif by Thomas Hart Benton as well as the New York, New Haven and Hartford railway motif and the hotel lobby interior by Edward Hopper .
Benjamin West: Woodcutters in Windsor Park
Alfred Thompson Bricher: Morning at Grand Manan
Winslow Homer: The Boat Builders
Thomas Eakins: The Pianist
Robert Vonnoh: Poppies
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Collection of antiquities
In the department for archaeological finds from the Mediterranean and the Middle East there are exhibits from the area of today's Egypt, Iran, Greece, Cyprus and Italy. The Egyptian exhibits include a gilded mummy mask, a bronze mirror with Isis and Horus as a toddler, various grave vessels made of clay or individual grave goods. In the Greek antiquities there are several vases, a male marble torso and a statuette of Persephone . The grave monument of Flavius Agricola is one of the outstanding pieces from Roman times.
Male torso, Greek, 1st century B.C. Chr.
Grave monument of Flavius Agricola, Roman, 2nd century AD
Works on paper
With more than 26,000 works on paper, the museum has an extensive collection of drawings and watercolors, prints and photographs. These include medieval manuscripts as well as Albrecht Dürer's engraving The Holy Family with the Dragonfly and etchings by Jusepe de Ribera , Rembrandt van Rijn and Francisco de Goya . The inventory of prints based on motifs by William Turner and graphic works by artists from the US state of Indiana is particularly extensive . There is also poster art such as Moulin Rouge-La Goulue by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec or American prints such as A Stag at Sharkey’s by George Wesley Bellows and various works by Andy Warhol . The photographs collected by the museum include works by William Henry Fox Talbot , Julia Margaret Cameron , Alexander Michailowitsch Rodchenko , Brassaï , Robert Frank , Cindy Sherman and Diane Arbus .
Albrecht Dürer: The holy family with the dragonfly
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Moulin Rouge-La Goulue
George Wesley Bellows: A Stag at Sharkey’s
Asian art
The Asian Art Department includes objects from China, Tibet, Japan, Korea, India, Iran, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia. The extensive inventory of Chinese art ranges from various pieces of porcelain and ceramics to clay figures and paintings on silk rolls. An important collection of woodcuts, various sculptures, lacquer work and ceramics comes from Japan.
Lidded vase with carp decor, China, 1522–1566
Equestrian figure, China, Ming dynasty
Katsushika Hokusai: Clear Dawn with a South Wind , woodcut, 1830–1836
Screen with the seven gods of luck, Japan, around 1700
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European art until 1945
One of the oldest works of European painting in the museum is a Spanish fresco from around 1125 by the master of San Baudelio de Berlanga with the motif of Christ entering Jerusalem . Other works by Spanish artists include the much later paintings Aristotle by Jusepe de Ribera and Portrait of Félix Colón de Larriátegui by Francisco de Goya . Italian paintings in the museum range from the late medieval panel painting Grieving Virgin of Agnolo Gaddi on works by artists of the Renaissance , such as Portrait of a Man by Titian to the Baroque painting with works such as Apollo and the Muses by Domenico Tintoretto , The Dream of Joseph by Luca Giordano or Veduten Roman Capriccio: Pantheon and other buildings by Giovanni Paolo Pannini and view of the Piazzetta San Marco by Giovanni Antonio Canal .
The collection of Flemish and Dutch Baroque paintings is also important. There is the historical depiction of the Triumphal procession of Emperor Constantine in Rome by Peter Paul Rubens , the religious motif Entry of Christ into Jerusalem by Anthonis van Dyck and a self-portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn . In addition, there are the paintings Woman with Pearls and Red Clothes by Govaert Flinck , Portrait of a Gentleman by Nicolaes Maes and the landscape paintings The Watermill by Meindest Hobbema , The Valkhof in Nijmegen by Aelbert Jacobsz. Cuyp , Am Wegesrand by David Teniers the Younger , a river landscape and seascape with a steep coast by Jan Brueghel the Elder, and a landscape with a pond and a landscape with a waterfall by Jacob van Ruisdael . Other works of Dutch painting in the collection are the still life with a clay jug, Berkemeyer and smoking utensils by Pieter Claesz and the still life with a Chinese porcelain vase by Willem Kalf .
Master of San Baudelio de Berlanga: Christ enters Jerusalem
Titian: Portrait of a Man
Rembrandt van Rijn: Self-Portrait
Lukas Cranach the Elder: Crucifixion
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German painting is exemplarily represented in the museum with works such as a crucifixion by Lucas Cranach the Elder or a portrait of Otto von Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach . Examples of English painting are the Portrait of Thomas Bowlby by Joshua Reynolds , a Forest Landscape with Horseback Peasants by Thomas Gainsborough, and the Horse Portrait Pangloss by George Stubbs . A small group of works by the painter William Turner includes a self-portrait , the biblical theme The Five Plagues of Egypt and the Regatta landscape in front of East Cowes Castle .
An early example of French painting in the museum is the portrait of François de Scepeaux by François Clouet . French baroque painting is represented in the museum by works such as the portrait of the actor Grandval by Nicolas Lancret , the genre painting Mutterfreude by Jean-Honoré Fragonard or the biblical motif The Flight into Egypt by Claude Lorrain . Then there is the still life of Soup Vegetables by Jean Siméon Chardin , an Idyllic Landscape with an Angler by François Boucher and the painting Dance in the Country by Antoine Watteau . Works of French painting from the 19th century are the painting Farmer with Wheelbarrow by Jean-François Millet as well as two depictions from the life of Don Quixote and the landscape painting Wildbach in the Highlands by Gustave Doré . There are also works of Impressionism such as The House of the Deaf Woman and the Tower by Eragny and The Bank of the Oise near Pontoise by Camille Pissarro and the two cityscapes Charing Cross Bridge and San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice by Claude Monet . The collection includes the painting Landscape near Saint-Rémy by Vincent van Gogh and the religious painting Christmas Night by Paul Gauguin and the works The Flageolet Player on the Cliffs , Landscape near Arles , Still Life with the Profile of Laval and Landscape with poplars . Other French works in the collection include House in Provence by Paul Cézanne , The Gravelines Canal, Petit Fort Philippe by Georges Seurat and the paintings La Rue Mouffetard , The Meuse near Dordrecht , A cinder hill near Marchiennes by Maximilien Luce . At the beginning of the 20th century, the symbolist paintings The Gothic Window and The Yellow Sail by Odilon Redon were created . Further works are the pictures Still Life with Flowers and The Seamstress by Édouard Vuillard , the portrait The Boy by Amedeo Modigliani , The Bouquet of Roses in the Window by Balthus and the cubist works Mann und Frau by Fernand Léger and Ma Jolie by Pablo Picasso . In addition to paintings, there are some European sculptures, for example a woman's head Negress by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and a martyr Auguste Rodin .
George Stubbs: Pangloss
William Turner: The Flight into Egypt
Paul Cézanne: House in Provence
Vincent van Gogh: Landscape near Saint-Rémy
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Negress
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Art after 1945
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The extensive collection of contemporary art includes works of painting and sculpture as well as other forms of expression such as video art and installations . In the field of painting, for example, there are works of Abstract Expressionism by Joan Mitchell , the abstract paintings Poème d'amour and Radiant Space by Hans Hofmann and several pictures by Josef Albers . There are also works of photorealism such as Cafeteria and Car Reflections by Richard Estes . The museum owns a painting from the popular Pop Art series LOVE by Robert Indiana . The same motif can also be found as a steel sculpture in front of the museum. The collection also includes minimalist art by Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt , video art by Nam June Paik , conceptual art by Bruce Nauman , the Mobile Two White Dots in the Air by Alexander Calder , an LED light strip by Jenny Holzer and a light installation by James Turrell .
Crafts and design
The arts and crafts and design departments contain mostly exhibits from Europe and the United States. These include pieces from the Renaissance, such as a majolica bowl from Italy from around 1510 and porcelain from the Meissen , Nymphenburg , Vienna , Sèvres , Worcester , Chelsea , Derby and Wedgwood factories . There are also glassware by French glass artists René Lalique and Émile Gallé , pieces from the Wiener Werkstätte by Josef Hoffmann and lamps, vases and glasses by New Yorker Louis Comfort Tiffany . In terms of silver, pieces by the American freedom fighter Paul Revere are among the special features of the collection. Brass candlesticks by Richard Riemerschmid are an example of German Art Nouveau . The inventory also includes some pieces of furniture, including European baroque furniture and American furniture from the colonial era, for example a cabinet from 1755. Well-known cabinet makers represented in the museum include André-Charles Boulle , Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Louis Majorelle . From the second half of the 20th century, there are chairs designed by Alessandro Mendini and Robert Venturi , a coffee service designed by Michael Graves for Alessi , a vacuum cleaner by the manufacturer Dyson and fly swatters designed by Philippe Starck .
English silver jug, 1764
Kiss on the hand , Meissen porcelain, around 1738
Cabinet, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, around 1847
Cabinet, Louis Majorelle, around 1900
Textiles and fashion
The collection of textiles and fashion includes around 7,000 objects. After embroidery from Ireland found its way into the museum as early as 1888, the systematic development of this department began in 1906 with the purchase of 100 Chinese fabrics and clothing items. The exhibits also include carpets from different regions of the world. These include Persian carpets , Berber carpets and Chinese silk carpets, tapestries from Morocco or by the Suzani from Uzbekistan as well as, for example, a prayer rug from the Baluch , a kilim prayer rug from Eastern Turkey and a prayer rug from Tibet . There are also various textiles such as a death blanket from the Paracas culture , American quilts or a painted Japanese fabric Fukusa intended for gift wrapping .
The stock of clothing is also extensive. These include traditional textiles from Indonesia , a Kente clothing material from the Ashanti or a clothing material from the Kuna from Panama . There are also Indian saris , Japanese kimonos , Mexican ponchos or a Moroccan bridal kaftan from the 19th century. Examples of European clothing range from an Italian chasuble to an English silk brocade women's dress from the 18th century to a silk dress designed by Charles Frederick Worth for the court of the Russian tsars. Fashion from the 20th century is represented by an evening dress from 1926 by the fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin , an evening dress from 1956 by Christian Dior , a ball gown from 1958 by Norman Norell , a short wool dress from 1968 by Rudi Gernreich , an evening dress from 1981 by the American fashion designer Halston or a 1991 costume by Franco Moschino . Other designers represented in the collection are Coco Chanel , Cristóbal Balenciaga , Gianni Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier . Accessories include a number of hats, including a designer hat by Bes-Ben from the 1950s. The Two Trees headgear created in 2003 by Sonya Clark is more of an art object . Other works by textile artists in the collection come, for example, from the American Jon Eric Riis or the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui .
Dress for the Russian court, Charles Frederick Worth, around 1888
Evening dress, Christian Dior, 1954
Japanese kimono, late 18th century
Traditional fabric from Indonesia, around 1900
Historic Buildings
The museum has two buildings from the 20th century that are listed as historical monuments and entered on the list of National Historic Landmarks . Not far from the museum is the estate of Oldfields , which by the architect Lewis Ketcham Davis in line with palace buildings of the French Renaissance was 1909-1913. Originally built for Hugh McKennan Landon's family, the 22-room house is surrounded by a garden area designed by landscape architect Percival Gallagher of the Olmsted Brothers office . The property came into the possession of the museum as a foundation of the Lilly family and exemplifies the living culture of the American upper class from the first half of the 20th century.
The entrepreneur J. Irwin Miller and his wife Xenia had a house built in Columbus, Indiana in 1952 . The Miller House was built according to plans by the architect Eero Saarinen in the international style (American also mid-century modern ). The one-story building with its flat roof, numerous glass surfaces and visible steel girders is exemplary of post-war modernism in the United States. The original furnishings by the designer Alexander Girard and the garden designed by the landscape architect Dan Kiley have also been preserved.
Oldfields
Miller House
literature
- Anthony F. Janson: 100 masterpieces of painting, Indianapolis Museum of Art . Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis 1980, ISBN 0-936260-01-7 .
- Ellen Wardwell Lee: Indianapolis Museum of Art, highlights of the collection . Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis 2005, ISBN 0-936260-77-7 .
- Robert A. Yassin: Indianapolis Museum of Art, collections handbook . Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis 1988, ISBN 0-936260-20-3 .
Web links
Coordinates: 39 ° 49 '33.7 " N , 86 ° 11' 7.6" W.