The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

s, founded in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1825 by

Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse, in his middle age, contributed to the invention of a Electrical telegraph#Morse ...

, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright,

Ithiel Town Ithiel Town (October 3, 1784 – June 13, 1844) was an American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the f ...

, and others "to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition." Membership is limited to 450 American artists and architects, who are elected by their peers on the basis of recognized excellence.

History

The original founders of the National Academy of Design were students of the American Academy of the Fine Arts. However, by 1825 the students of the American Academy felt a lack of support for teaching from the academy, its board composed of merchants, lawyers, and physicians, and from its unsympathetic president, the painter

John Trumbull John Trumbull (June 6, 1756 – November 10, 1843) was an American painter and military officer best known for his historical paintings of the American Revolutionary War, of which he was a veteran. He has been called the "Painter of the Revolut ...

. Samuel Morse and other students set about forming a drawing association to meet several times each week for the study of the art of design. Still, the association was viewed as a dependent organization of the American Academy, from which they felt neglected. An attempt was made to reconcile differences and maintain a single academy by appointing six of the artists from the association as directors of the American Academy. When four of the nominees were not elected, however, the frustrated artists resolved to form a new academy and the National Academy of Design was born. Morse had been a student at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and emulated its structure and goals for the National Academy of Design. The mission of the academy, from its foundation, was to "promote the fine arts in America through exhibition and education."Historical Overview
National Academy of Design. In 2015, the academy struggled with financial hardship. In the next few years, it closed its museum and art school, and created an endowment through the sale of its New York real estate holdings. Today, the academy advocates for the arts as a tool for education, celebrates the role of artists and architects in public life, and serves as a catalyst for cultural conversations that propel society forward. According to the academy, its 450 National Academicians "are professional artists and architects who are elected to membership by their peers annually."

Official names

After three years and some tentative names, in 1828 the academy found its longstanding name "National Academy of Design", under which it was known to one and a half centuries. In 1997, newly appointed director Annette Blaugrund rebranded the institution as the "National Academy Museum and School of Fine Art", to reflect "a new spirit of integration incorporating the association of artists, museum, and school", and to avoid confusion with the now differently understood term "

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

". This change was reversed in 2017. * 1825 The New York Drawing Association * 1826 The National Academy of The Arts of Design * 1828 The National Academy of Design * 1997 The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Art * 2017 The National Academy of Design

Locations

The academy occupied several locations in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

over the years. Notable among them was a building on

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...

and 23rd Street designed by architect P. B. Wight and built 1863–1865 in a Venetian Gothic style modeled on the Doge's Palace in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. Another location was at West 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.Cassell, Dewey, with Aaron Sultan and Mike Gartland. ''The Art of George Tuska'' (

TwoMorrows Publishing TwoMorrows Publishing is a publisher of magazines about comic books, founded in 1994 by John and Pam Morrow out of their small advertising agency in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Its products also include books and DVDs. List of maga ...

, 2005), , p. 10 From 1906 to 1941, the academy occupied the American Fine Arts Society building at 215 West 57th Street. From 1942 to 2019, the academy occupied a mansion at 1083

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

, near 89th Street; it had been the home of sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Archer M. Huntington, who donated the house in 1940. The National Academy of Design shared offices and galleries with the National Arts Club located inside the historic Samuel J. Tilden House, 14-15 Gramercy Park South from 2019 until 2023. Currently the home of the National Academy of Design is at 519 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor with offices as well as meeting, event and exhibition space.

Organization and activities

The academy is a professional honorary organization, with a school and a museum. One cannot apply for membership, which since 1994, after many changes in numbers, is limited to 450 American artists and architects. Instead, members are elected by their peers on the basis of recognized excellence. Full members of the National Academy are identified by the post-nominal "NA" (National Academician), associates by "ANA".

Notable instructors

Among the teaching staff were numerous artists, including Will Hicok Low, who taught from 1889 to 1892. Another was Charles Louis Hinton, whose long tenure started in 1901. The famous American poet William Cullen Bryant also gave lectures. Architect

Alexander Jackson Davis Alexander Jackson Davis (July 24, 1803 – January 14, 1892) was an American architect known particularly for his association with the Gothic Revival style. Education Davis was born in New York City and studied at the American Academ ...

taught at the academy. Painter Lemuel Wilmarth was the first full-time instructor. Silas Dustin was a curator.

Notable members

* Marina Abramović * Benjamin Abramowitz * Tore Asplund * James Henry Beard * Edwin Blashfield * Lee Bontecou * Stanley Boxer * Walker O. Cain * John F. Carlson * Vija Celmins * William Merritt Chase *

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for paintin ...

Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealism, photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits ...

* Thomas Cole * Colin Campbell Cooper * Leon Dabo * Cyrus Dallin * William Parsons Winchester Dana * Charles Harold Davis * Henry Golden Dearth * Jose de Creeft * Richard Diebenkorn * William Henry Drake *

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American Realism (visual arts), realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artist ...

* Lydia Field Emmet * Herbert Ferber * François Flameng * Bruce Fowle * Helen Frankenthaler * Gilbert Franklin * Daniel Chester French * Frederick Carl Frieseke * Sonia Gechtoff *

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...

* John George Brown * Paul Georges * Arthur Hill Gilbert * Aaron Goodelman * Hardie Gramatky * Horatio Greenough * Red Grooms * Armin Hansen * L. Birge Harrison * Edward Lamson Henry * Itshak Holtz * Winslow Homer * Cecil de Blaquiere Howard * George Inness * Hazel Brill Jackson * Jasper Johns * Frank Tenney Johnson * Lester Johnson * Wolf Kahn * Charles Keck * Ellsworth Kelly * Greta Kempton * Everett Raymond Kinstler *

Chaim Koppelman Chaim Koppelman (November 17, 1920 – December 6, 2009) was an American artist, art education, art educator, and Aesthetic Realism consultant. Best known as a Printmaking, printmaker, he also produced sculpture, paintings, and drawings. A membe ...

* Leo Lentelli * Emanuel Leutze * Hayley Lever * Maya Lin * Frank Lobdell * Evelyn Beatrice Longman * Frederick William Macmonnies * Knox Martin * Henry Mattson * Michael Mazur * Jervis McEntee * Gari Melchers * Alme Meyvis * Raoul Middleman * F. Luis Mora * Henry Siddons Mowbray * John Mulvany * David Dalhoff Neal * Victor Nehlig * Eliot Noyes * Kate Orff * Tom Otterness * William Page * Philip Pearlstein * I. M. Pei * John Thomas Peele *

Judy Pfaff Judy Pfaff (born 1946) is an American artist known mainly for installation art and sculptures, though she also produces paintings and prints. Pfaff has received numerous awards for her work, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Founda ...

* Renzo Piano * William Lamb Picknell * Albin Polasek * Alfred Easton Poor * John Portman * Alexander Phimister Proctor * Harvey Quaytman * Andrew Raftery *

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...

* Benjamin Franklin Reinhart * Paul Resika * Priscilla Roberts * Dorothea Rockburne * Mario Romañach *

Albert Pinkham Ryder Albert Pinkham Ryder (March 19, 1847 – March 28, 1917) was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegory, allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric personality. While his art shared an ...

* Robert Ryman *

Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculpture, sculptor of the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin to an Iris ...

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...

* Eugene Francis Savage * Emily Maria Scott * Richard Serra * Susan Louise Shatter * Lorraine Shemesh * Elliott Fitch Shepard * Rhoda Sherbell * Cindy Sherman * William Siegel * Hughie Lee-Smith * Nancy Spero * Frederic Dorr Steele * Theodore Clement Steele *

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

* Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait * Katharine Lamb Tait * Jesse Talbot * Reuben Tam *

Henry Ossawa Tanner Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 – May 25, 1937) was an American artist who spent much of his career in France. He became the first African-American art, African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, ...

* Edmund C. Tarbell *

Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is associated with the art nouveauLander, David"The Buyable ...

* Cy Twombly * Edward Charles Volkert * Robert Vonnoh * William Guy Wall * John Quincy Adams Ward * Harry Watrous *

Carrie Mae Weems Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and Video installation, installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photog ...

* Stow Wengenroth * Frederic Whitaker * Carleton Wiggins * Guy Carleton Wiggins * Anita Willets-Burnham * Catharine Wharton Wright *

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

* Jimmy Wright * Dorothy Weir Young * Milford Zornes * Alfred Cheney Johnston

References

External links

*
Virtual tour of the National Academy of Design
at Google Arts & Culture {{DEFAULTSORT:National Academy Of Design 1825 establishments in New York (state) 23rd Street (Manhattan) Academies of arts Art museums and galleries in Manhattan Art museums and galleries established in 1825 Art schools in New York City Clubs and societies in New York City Design museums in New York (state) Fifth Avenue Learned societies of the United States Museums in Manhattan Organizations established in 1825 Upper East Side Venetian Gothic architecture in the United States