Indianapolis Museum of Art
IMA, Indiana: Origins, History, Collection
Highlights.
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Indianapolis Museum of Art |
 Indianapolis Museum of Art. One of the best art museums in America. |
Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA)Contents • Introduction |
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BEST ART MUSEUMS IN AMERICA |
Located on its own 152-acre campus and the subject of a recent $74 million expansion program, the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is the eighth largest and ninth oldest encyclopedic art museum in the United States. In addition to its collections of fine art (painting, drawing and sculpture), decorative art (from Africa, Polynesia, Asia and Europe) and American art of all types, the museum also owns The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park, a restored country estate (Oldfields), and Miller House - designed by Eero Saarinen - an indication of its involvement in the natural environment, as well as various types of design. Now recognized as one of the best art museums in America, the IMA is an acclaimed innovator in the area of online art, and in 2008 became the first fine arts museum to be named an Energy Star partner as a result of its environmental activities and reduction in energy consumption. In 2009, its free admission policy and educational program was rewarded with the National Medal for Museum and Library Service for public service. Also in 2009, the IMA became famous for its purchase of Light and Space III, a $1 million work of installation art made out of neon light tubes by the "abstract sublime" artist Robert Irwin (b.1928), which now stands by the escalator in Pulliam Great Hall. The IMA receives approximately 428,000 visitors annually. |
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LEARN ART APPRECIATION ART EDUCATION: INDIANA LATEST
ARTS EXHIBITIONS |
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FINE ARTS |
The museum was founded in 1883 by the Art Association of Indianapolis, led by the suffragette head-teacher May Wright Sewall (1844–1920). The museum's first exhibition (453 exhibits by 137 artists) was held in 1883 at the English Hotel, and its popularity helped to launch the Art Association as a noteworthy influence in the culture of the city. Twelve years later, the Association was endowed with $225,000 from the estate of Indianapolis businessman John Herron in order to build a permanent art gallery and school. The first permanent museum duly opened its doors in 1906 as part of the John Herron Art Institute. In 1910, the museum held its first major show at the Herron Museum - a retrospective of the work of Dublin-born American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), noted for such works as the General Sherman Monument (1897-1903, Grand Army Plaza, New York). Over 55,000 visitors saw the exhibition during its three-month run, setting an attendance record that lasted for eighty years. In 1969, the long-serving Art Association of Indianapolis changed its name to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and in the following year relocated to its present site at Michigan Road and 38th Street. In 2005, the museum received a 3-year,
$74 million renovation, which added three additional wings and 50 percent
more gallery space - a total of some 164,000 extra square feet. The aim
was to unify the building and campus and at the same time to provide a
more convivial environment for visitors. In 2010, the Indianapolis Museum
of Art was put in charge of all commissions for the United States pavilion
at the Venice Biennale Exhibition. Highlights of the Permanent Collection The IMA permanent collection spans 5,000 years and numbers over 54,000 items, including African, American, Asian, and European artworks. Highlights include: a special collection of Chinese art (ceramics, jades and bronzes); Japanese art (hanging scrolls and screens of the Edo period); Korean art (c.57 CE onwards); oil painting by Old Masters including Lucas Cranach, El Greco, Jusepe de Ribera, Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt; the largest series of watercolour painting by the English landscape genius J.M.W. Turner outside Britain, featuring 50 watercolours, as well as oil paintings and etchings; the largest public collection of Neo-Impressionism in America; over 100 works by Paul Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School of landscape painting; modern art by artists like Cezanne, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani and Chagall; and an important assembly of contemporary art. • Ancient Art of the Americas • Ancient Art of the Mediterranean • Art of Asia • African Art • Oceania • European Painting and Sculpture
to 1945 • American Painting and Sculpture
to 1945 • Prints, Drawings and Photographs • Textile and Fashion Arts • Design Arts • Contemporary Art Looking Ahead With a newly renovated and expanded campus, together with its ongoing program of temporary exhibitions, conservation projects, online arts services and design projects, as well as the development of its contemporary art collection, the Indianapolis Museum of Art is now one of the top arts institutions in the USA, and well positioned to cater for the cultural needs of its city and state well into the 21st century. |
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