The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San Diego Museum of Art in 1978. The official Balboa Park website calls the San Diego Museum of Art "the region's oldest and largest art museum". Nearly half a million people visit the museum each year.

Structure

The museum building was designed by architects

William Templeton Johnson William Templeton Johnson (1877 – 1957) was a notable San Diego architect. He was a fellow to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1939. Johnson is known for his Spanish Revival buildings, all in San Diego unless otherwise noted: * L ...

and

Robert W. Snyder The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

in a

plateresque Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" (''plata'' being silver in Spanish), was an artistic movement, especially architectural, developed in Spain and its territories, which appeared between the late Gothic and early Renaissance ...

style to harmonize with existing structures from the Panama–California Exposition of 1915. The dominant feature of the façade is a heavily ornamented door inspired by a doorway at the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is th ...

. The

Cathedral of Valladolid The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Assumption ( es, Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción), better known as Valladolid Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic church in Valladolid, Spain. The main layout was designed by Juan de Herrera in a Renai ...

also influenced the museum's exterior design, and the architects derived interior motifs from the Santa Cruz Hospital of

Toledo, Spain Toledo ( , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, capital of the province of Toledo and the ''de jure'' seat of the government and parliament of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. Toledo was declare ...

. The original construction took two years. Sponsor Appleton S. Bridges donated the building to the

City of San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

upon its completion. In 1966 the museum added a west wing and a sculpture court which doubled its size, and an east wing in 1974 further increased its exhibition space. Plans are underway for a renovation to the rotunda, sculpture garden, façade, auditorium, and other features.

Collections

The Museum's collections are encyclopedic in nature, with pieces ranging in date from 5000 BC to 2012 AD. The museum's strength is in Spanish works by Murillo, Zurbarán, Cotán, Ribera and El Greco. Much of the museum's old master collection was donated by sisters Anne, Amy, and Irene Putnam. The museum's first major acquisition was the 1939 purchase of

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

's ''El Marques de Sofraga'', which had belonged to a private family collection until that time and had never before been on public exhibition. The Putnam sisters provided financial backing for the purchase. The following year, director Reginald Poland acquired a portrait by Giovanni Bellini for the museum's collection. Then in 1941 the museum purchased a

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

portrait of the Infanta Margarita of Spain, which was possibly a study for a larger portrait of her in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Other major benefactors during the museum's first quarter century were Archer M. Huntington and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Timken, whose small art collection is housed in the nearby

Timken Museum of Art The Timken Museum of Art is a fine art museum, established in 1965 and located at 1500 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, close to the San Diego Museum of Art. History The groundwork for the museum was laid in 1951 when Walter ...

, established in 1965. In 2012, the Museum of Art received 48 German Expressionist paintings, drawings and prints from a range of artists, including

Otto Dix Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with George ...

, Egon Schiele,

Alexej von Jawlensky Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (russian: Алексе́й Гео́ргиевич Явле́нский, translit=Alekséy Geórgiyevich Yavlénskiy) (13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941), surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expressioni ...

Gabriele Münter Gabriele Münter (19 February 1877 – 19 May 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding mem ...

and

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's prim ...

from the collection of Vance E. Kondon and his wife Elisabeth Giesberger. The museum houses works by Italian masters

Giorgione Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic qualit ...

, Giambattista Pittoni,

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period. Giot ...

, Veronese, Luini and

Canaletto Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. Painter of city views or ...

. Works by Rubens, Hals and

van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh ...

represent the

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School. The museum regularly hosts touring exhibits and has lately been working to display its standard collection in new ways, including an upstairs gallery discussing information which can be gathered by looking on the back of the canvas. The exhibition is complemented with a large collection of images, including portraits, Arnold Newman's work, and Mexican landscapes from the early twentieth century.

Collection highlights

File:Hieronymus Bosch Workshop (1450-1516) - The arrest of Christ (1515 ca.) - SDMA San Diego Museum of Art.jpg, Workshop of

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oa ...

, ''The Arrest of Christ, c. 1515, oil on panel File:Sánchez Cotán (Bodegón con membrillo, repollo, melón y pepino).jpg,

Juan Sánchez Cotán Juan Sánchez Cotán (June 25, 1560 – September 8, 1627) was a Spanish Baroque painter, a pioneer of realism in Spain. His still lifes and '' bodegones'' were painted in an austere style, especially when compared to similar works in the Neth ...

, 1602, ''Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber'' File:Aeneas and his Father Fleeing Troy by Simon Vouet, San Diego Museum of Art.JPG,

Simon Vouet Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and ...

, c. 1635, ''Aeneas and his Father Fleeing Troy'' File:The Vision of Saint Anthony of Padua painting by Giovanni Battista Pittoni, San Diego Museum of Art.JPG, Giambattista Pittoni, 1730, ''The Vision of Saint Anthony of Padua'', oil on Canvas, 35 1/2 in. x 23 1/4 in. File:An Afternoon Stroll by William Merritt Chase, San Diego Museum of Art.JPG,

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

, c. 1895, ''An Afternoon Stroll'' File:Woman Combing her Hair by Renoir, San Diego Museum of Art.JPG, Auguste Renoir, 1907, ''Woman Combing her Hair' File:Joaquin Sorolla - María en La Granja.jpg, Joaquin Sorolla, 1907, ''María en La Granja'' File:Red Blossom by Alexei Jawlensky, Russia, 1910, oil on board - San Diego Museum of Art - DSC06745.JPG,

, 1910, ''Red Blossom'', oil on board File:Female Nude Reading by Robert Delaunay, San Diego Museum of Art.JPG,

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstra ...

, 1915, ''Female Nude Reading'' File:Henri Matisse, 1917-18, Fleurs (Bouguet), oil on canvas, 139.7 x 102.2 cm, San Diego Museum of Art.jpg,

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

, 1917–18, ''Fleurs (Bouguet)'', oil on canvas, 139.7 x 102.2 cm File:Still-life_by_José_Agustín_Arrieta,_San_Diego_Museum_of_Art.JPG, Still-life, oil on canvas painting by José Agustín Arrieta, c. 1870, San Diego Museum of Art

Special exhibitions

Important special exhibitions that the museum has hosted include '' The Precious Legacy'' (1984).

Contemporary art programming

In 2010, The San Diego Museum of Art in conjunction with the Agitprop gallery created The Summer Salon Series. The program, curated by Alexander Jarman and David White, featured local emerging artists who presented and performed temporary art works and workshops in direct response to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition. Each of the ten presentations involved Contemporary Artists' responses to the Modern Art on display in the museum.

Special events

Each April since 1981 the Museum hosts its major fundraiser, "Art Alive". Floral designers use flowers and other organic materials to express their interpretation of a work of art from the Museum's permanent collection. For four days the resulting creations are displayed next to the art work that inspired them. The museum also hosts events such as "Art after Hours" and "Culture and Cocktails", which encourage attendees to sample the collection into the evening during extended opening hours or partake in social events centered in the gallery.

References

External links

San Diego Museum of Art website

Summer Salon Series, 2010
{{Authority control 1926 establishments in California Art museums established in 1926 Art museums and galleries in California Asian art museums in California Museums in San Diego Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in California Balboa Park (San Diego)