The Speed Art Museum, originally known as the J.B. Speed Memorial Museum, now colloquially referred to as the Speed by locals, is the oldest and largest

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily con ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. It was established in 1927 in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

on Third Street next to the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one o ...

Belknap campus and receives around 180,000 visits annually. The museum offers visitors a variety of "art experiences" outside its collection and international exhibitions, including the Speed Concert Series, the Art Sparks Interactive Family Gallery, and the late-night event, ''After Hours at the Speed''. The Speed houses

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

, classical, and modern art from around the world. The focus of the collection is Western art, from antiquity to the present day. Holdings of paintings from the Netherlands, France, and Italy are prominent, and contemporary art and sculptures are also heavily featured.

History

The museum was built in 1927 by

Arthur Loomis Arthur Loomis (January 28, 1859 – January 8, 1935) was an architect who worked from 1876 through the 1920s in the Louisville, Kentucky area. After working for noted architect Charles J. Clarke for several years, they became partners in 1891, cr ...

in the

Neo-Classical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

. Loomis was already well known in Louisville for landmarks like the Louisville Medical College and Levy Brothers. The original building was designed as an understated Beaux-Arts limestone facade. Hattie Bishop Speed established the museum in memory of her husband James Breckenridge Speed, a prominent Louisville businessman, art collector, and philanthropist. Speed set up the endowment to fund the museum, encouraging the museum to never charge admission. The museum underwent a $60 million expansion and renovation project from September 2012 to March 2016, designed by architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY architecture. During the closure, the museum opened Local Speed, a satellite space in Louisville's East Market District (NuLu) for rotating exhibitions, programs, and events. The 62,500-square-foot North Building doubled the overall square footage and nearly tripled the gallery space from the previous wing. The expansion created a space for larger special exhibitions, new contemporary art galleries, a family education welcome center, a 150-seat cinema, indoor/outdoor café, museum shop, and a multi-functional pavilion for performances, lectures and entertainment. Additionally, the new Elizabeth P. and Frederick K. Cressman Art Park and Public Piazza was created for the display of sculptures.

Timeline

1927 – The Speed Art Museum is built. More than 74,000 visitors fill the museum in the first year. 1928 – The centenary of Kentucky portrait painter Matthew Harris Jouett is celebrated with a major exhibition of his portraits, many owned by prominent Louisvillians. 1933 – The museum is incorporated as a privately endowed institution and its

board of governors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

was established. 1934 – The museum received its first major

donation A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as ...

, a valuable collection of

North American Indian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

artifacts given by Dr. Frederick Weygold. 1941 – Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite makes a significant gift to the museum – his collection of 15th century and 16th century French and Italian

Decorative Arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

including

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

and furniture. 1944 – Satterwhite donates the

English Renaissance The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th cent ...

room, which was moved in its entirety from

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England. Dr. Satterwhite's gift necessitated an enlargement of the museum and in his will he provided for the addition that bears his name. Completed in 1954, it was the first of three additions to the original building. 1946 – Paul S. Harris becomes the first professional director of the museum. During his tenure, acquisitions to the collection were made mostly in the areas of decorative arts and furniture. 1964 – Recently donated paintings and furniture from the collection of Mrs. W. Blakemore Wheeler go on view including works by

Mary Cassatt Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...

, John Constable,

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and ...

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

, Pierre-Auguste Renoir,

Maurice Utrillo Maurice Utrillo (), born Maurice Valadon; 26 December 1883 – 5 November 1955), was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous pain ...

, and

James Abbott 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 ...

. 1966 – Charter Collectors Group forms to assist museum in the acquisition of pre-1940 art. 1970 – New Art Collectors Group forms to assist museum to acquire

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

. 1973 – The North Wing of the museum opens, giving new space for a theatre, offices, indoor sculpture court, and library. 1977 – The Speed celebrates its 50th anniversary in 1977 with the acquisition of Rembrandt's ''Portrait of a Woman'', one of the museum's most significant acquisitions. 1983 – The 1983 Wing opens, designed by Robert Geddes of Princeton. The new wing adds gallery space for permanent collections and special exhibitions. 1996 – Mrs. Alice Speed Stoll dies, leaving behind an estate that bequeaths over $50 million to the museum. The Speed closes to undertake an extensive renovation and renaissance. Newer lighting, heating and cooling systems, bold wall colors, multi-layered labels about the collection, and the Laramie L. Learning Center, Art Sparks Interactive Family Gallery are put into place. 1997 – The museum reopens. 2012 – The museum begins another major transition with a $60 million expansion project that will create a space for larger special exhibitions, new contemporary art galleries, a family education welcome center, 150-seat cinema, indoor/outdoor café, museum shop, and a multi-functional pavilion for performances, lectures and entertaining. The museum is closed to the public for three years during the construction period. 2013 – The Speed staff relocates offsite to the downtown Louisville neighborhood of Phoenix Hill and opens Local Speed, a satellite space for exhibitions, family activities, programs and special events. 2016 – The museum reopens on March 12 with a 30-hour celebration.

Collection

The Speed houses a collection of

African art African art describes the modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual culture from native or indigenous Ethnic groups of Africa, Africans and the African continent. The definition may also include the art of the ...

ancient art Ancient art refers to the many types of art produced by the advanced cultures of ancient societies with some form of writing, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The art of pre-liter ...

Native American art Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...

American art Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arc ...

European art The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleo ...

, and

. Highlights of the collection include works by: Rembrandt van Rijn Portrait of a Forty-Year-Old Woman, possibly Marretje Cornelisdr

;European painting and sculpture ;Modernism ;American painting and sculpture ;Contemporary art

Directors

* 2017 - 2021: Stephen Reily * 2021 - present: Raphaela Platow

References

External links