The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The museum's first gallery was opened for public use on November 5, 1895. Over the years the gallery vastly increased in size, with new a new building on Forbes Avenue in 1907. In 1963, the name was officially changed to Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute. The size of the gallery has tripled over time and it was officially renamed in 1986 to - Carnegies Museum of Art - to clearly indicate it as on the four

Carnegie Museums Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh are four museums that are operated by the Carnegie Institute headquartered in the Carnegie Institute complex in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Carnegie Institute complex, which includes t ...

History

The museum's origins can be traced to 1886, with Andrew Carnegie's initial concept:W. J. Holland, LL.D., "The Carnegie Museum", in ''Popular Science'', May 1901. "I am thinking of incorporating with the plan for a library that of an art-gallery in which shall be preserved a record of the progress and development of pictorial art in America." Dedicated on November 5, 1895, the art gallery was initially housed in the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh Main Branch in

. Carnegie envisioned a museum collection consisting of the "

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

of tomorrow".About Carnegie Museum of Art: History
The museum received a major expansion in 1907 with the addition of the Hall of Architecture, Hall of Sculpture, and Bruce Galleries, with funds again provided by Carnegie.Memorial of the celebration of the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburgh, Pa., April 11, 12, 13, 1907. Under the directorship of Leon Arkus, the Sarah Mellon Scaife Gallery (125,000 square feet) was built as an addition to the existing Carnegie Institute. Designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, it first opened in 1974 and more than doubled the museum's exhibition space, plus added a children's studio, theater, offices, café, and bookstore.Ellen S. Wilson, "The Continuing History of the Scaife Galleries", in ''Carnegie Online'', July/August 2003 . '' The New York Times'' art critic John Russell described the gallery as an "unflawed paradise." The gallery has been renovated several times since its original creation, most recently in 2004. Today the museum continues Carnegie's love of contemporary art by staging the

Carnegie International The Carnegie International is a North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established th ...

every few years. Numerous significant works from the Internationals have been acquired for museum's permanent collection including Winslow Homer's ''The Wreck'' (1896) and

James A. McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

's ''Arrangement in Black: Portrait of Señor Pablo de Sarasate'' (1884).

Collections and departments

The museum's curatorial departments include: Fine Arts (Contemporary Art, Works on Paper), Decorative Arts, Architecture, and Photography. The museum presents as many as 15 changing exhibitions annually. Its permanent collection comprises roughly 35,000 works and includes European and American decorative arts from the late seventeenth century to the present, works on paper, paintings, prints (notably Japanese prints), sculptures and installations. The museum has notably strong collections of both aluminum artifacts and chairs. Approximately 1,800 works are on view at any given time. The museum also maintains a large archive of negatives from African-American photographer Charles "Teenie" Harris. Heinz Architectural Center - The collection includes works in architecture, landscape design, engineering, and furniture and interior design. The center's facilities includes 4,000 square feet of exhibition space and a library housing several thousand books and journals. The Hillman Photography Initiative - The Initiative hosts a variety of projects including live public events, web-based projects, documentary videos, art projects, and writing. Yearly programming is determine by a group of five "agents" who plan and curate each 12-month cycle of works hosted. Collection Themes * Contemporary Glass * Teenie Harris Photographs: Erroll Garner and Jazz from the Hill * Carnegie International * Japanese Prints * Pittsburgh Artists * The Art of the Chair * Pictorialist Photography * Painting and Sculpture 1860–1920 * W. Eugene Smith

Galleries

Portal of the North Transept of the Cathedral of Saint-Andre at Bourdaux at CMArt

* Ailsa Mellon Bruce Galleries (1907) – The Ailsa Mellon Bruce Galleries were originally constructed to display reproduction bronze casts from

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

and Herculaneum. The gallery was renovated in 2009, and currently exhibits more than 500 objects representing American and European decorative arts from the Rococo and Neoclassical periods of the 18th century to contemporary design and craft. * Hall of Architecture (1907) – The Hall of Architecture houses almost 140 full-size plaster casts of elements of buildings found in the ancient and classical civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and from Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance Europe. It is the largest collection of plaster casts of architectural masterpieces in America and one of the three largest in the world, along with those of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée national des Monuments Français in Paris. * Hall of Sculpture (1907) – The Hall of Sculpture was modeled after the Parthenon's inner sanctuary, and was originally created to house the museum's 69 plaster casts of Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman sculpture. Today it exhibits works from the permanent collections, with its balcony displaying decorative arts objects from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. * Heinz Architectural Center (1993) – dedicated to the collection, study, and exhibition of architectural drawings and models. * Scaife Galleries (1974) – The Scaife Galleries display the permanent collection of the museum, and contains paintings, sculptures, works on paper, film, and video pieces. * Forum Gallery – Located on the first floor of the museum just inside the Forbes Avenue entrance, this single room is dedicated to temporary exhibitions of contemporary art. It opened November 3, 1990 with support from the National Endowment of the Arts – The first exhibition, ''Forum 1'', was a solo show of Jeff Wall. Subsequent exhibitions were numbered sequentially (for example, ''Forum 40'' featured Felix de la Concha). Unlike larger museum exhibitions, which can take up to three years to plan and execute, Forum shows come together relatively quickly, and are open to any curatorial staff's vision. In the words of Vicky Clark, a longtime curator at the museum, "The idea was to make sure that we had an exhibition of contemporary art set up at all times."

Educational programs

Saturday art classes in the galleries of Carnegie Museum of Art have been conducted for over 75 years. Alumni of the program include Andy Warhol, photographer Duane Michals, and contemporary artist Philip Pearlstein. The museum has classes specific to various age groups.

Gallery

File:Place des Lices Paul Signac.jpg, ''Place des Lices'', 1893, oil on canvas, Paul Signac File:CarnegieMuseumofArtKnightArmour.jpg, Armour, with Helmet, circa 1555, Anton Peffenhauser File:CarnegieMuseumofArtportablereliquary.jpg, Ivory portable altar, 14th Century, French File:Claude Monet - Nymphéas - Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2019-12-11.jpg, '' Water Lilies (Nymphéas)'', 1915–1926, oil on canvas, Claude Monet File:ChrisLitherlandcarnegiemuseumarchitecturalroom-2.jpg, The 1907 Grand Staircase File:CarnegieMuseumofArtAncientChina.jpg, Bronze ritualistic vessel, 1300-1150 B.C.E., Shang Dynasty, China File:ChrisLitherlandWilliamWallPittsburghFire.jpg, ''View of the Great Fire of Pittsburgh'', 1846, oil on canvas, William Coventry Wall File:ChrisLitherlandCarnegieAfricanroom.jpg, Housepost, circa 1930s, Yoruba Culture, Africa File:CarnegieMuseumofAncientGreek.jpg, Ancient

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...

vase File:RuthMcChesneyMiniatureRoomCarnegieArt.jpg, Miniature room on display, Ruth McChesney File:CarnegieMuseumofVincentGoghAfterRain.jpg, ''Wheat Fields After the Rain (The Plain of Auvers)'', 1890, oil on canvas, Vincent van Gogh File:CarnegieMuseumofArtChristianArtifact.jpg, Casket for relics of a saint (châsse), 13th Century, French File:LitherlandCarnegieMuseumSteamboatontheOhio.jpg, ''Steamboat on the Ohio'', 1896, oil on canvas, Thomas Pollock Anshutz File:CarnegieMuseumofArtIndianHistory.jpg, Stele of Vishnu with Avatars and attendant deities, 1100s C.E., from central India File:Albert Bierstadt, Farallon Island 1887 Oil on Canvas.jpg, ''Farallon Island'', 1887, oil on canvas, Albert Bierstadt

Past directors

* John W. Beaty (1896–1921) * Homer Saint-Gaudens (1922–1950) * Gordon Bailey Washburn (1950–1962) *

Gustave Von Groschwitz T. F. Gustave Von Groschwitz (April 16, 1906 – 1991) was an American art administrator who served as director of the Carnegie Museum of Art and associate director of the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art. Biography Von Groschwitz was bor ...

(1963–1968) * Leon Arkus (1968–1980) * John R. Lane (1980–1987) * Phillip M. Johnston (1988–1996) * Richard Armstrong (1996–2008) *

Lynn Zelevansky Lynn Zelevansky (born 1947) is an American art historian and curator. Formerly Henry Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, she is currently based in New York City. Zelevansky curated "Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama" (1998) and "Beyond Geo ...

(2009–2017) * Eric Crosby (2018–present)

References

External links

*
Carnegie Museums

A finding aid to the Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records, 1883-1962, bulk 1885-1940, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
{{Authority control 1896 establishments in Pennsylvania Andrew Carnegie Art museums established in 1896 Art museums and galleries in Pennsylvania Asian art museums in the United States Edward Larrabee Barnes buildings Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Modern art museums in the United States Museums in Pittsburgh Plaster cast collections Tourist attractions in Pittsburgh