Baltimore Museum of Art: Difference between revisions

Baltimore Museum of Art

Baltimore Museum of Art
Established	1914
Location	10 Art Museum Drive Baltimore, Maryland 21218 United States
Director	Christopher Bedford BMA Museum Director (Effective August 15, 2016)
President	Clair Zamoiski Segal BMA Board of Trustees Chair Frederick Singley Koontz BMA Immediate Past Board of Trustees Chair
Curator	Jay McKean Fisher Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs
Public transit access	Bus lines 1, 3, 11.
Website	http://www.artbma.org

39°19′34″N 76°37′9″W / 39.32611°N 76.61917°W / 39.32611; -76.61917 The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), located in

, though the museum is an independent institution that is not affiliated with the University.

The highlight of the museum is the

, nearly all of which were donated to the museum.

The BMA is currently led by Director Christopher Bedford, who was appointed in May 2016, after a year-long search. Prior to joining the BMA, Bedford led the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Massachusetts for 4 years. He helped the Rose Art Museum out of international controversy it sparked in 2009 when, during the economic recession, the museum proposed selling off their top-notch art collection to help with its struggling finances.^[1][2]

Since October 2006, The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum (formerly Walters Art Gallery), have offered free general admission year-round as a result of grants given by Baltimore City and Baltimore County, as well as several foundations.^[3]

The Baltimore Museum of Art is the site of Gertrude's Restaurant, owned and operated by chef John Shields.

History

In February, 1904, a major fire destroyed much of the central part of the downtown business district of the city of Baltimore. In response, the municipal government established a City-Wide Congress to develop a master plan for the city's recovery and future growth and development. The congress, headed by Dr. A.R.L. Dohme, decided among other things that a major deficiency of the city was the lack of an art museum. This decision led to the formation of an 18-person Committee on the Art Museum led by art dealer and industrialist Henry H. Wiegand as the Chairman. Ten years later, the museum was officially incorporated on November 16, 1914.^[4] Along with Minneapolis and Cleveland, Baltimore's museum was "modeled after two prominent 1870s predecessors, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston".^[5] According to a booklet published at the time of incorporation, it was stated that Baltimore lagged behind other cities “in regard to matters of aesthetic interest.”

Still without a permanent site, the fledgling museum was founded with but a single painting,

At this time, the committee began planning a permanent home for the museum's holdings.

In 1916, a building was purchased on the southwest corner of

banking firm in the city. In 1923, the museum’s inaugural exhibition opened there with attendance topping 6,775 during its first week.[7] The house was offered by Miss M. Cary as a home for the "collections" and a meeting place for the board of trustees. The old Garrett mansion was acquired in 1925 by the group of art enthusiasts who bought the property for the purpose of keeping the museum intact. Despite having limited space, the museum offered accommodations to art associations and a hall for meetings.

Meanwhile, back at

His distinct brand of classicism, both serene and monolithic at once, was perhaps the perfect choice for such an ambitious project.

The cornerstone was laid on October 20, 1927, facing the future Art Museum Drive running diagonally from North Charles Street. The systems engineering for the building's original design was completed by Henry Adams, noted local mechanical engineer. The building consists of three floors and includes several rooms that were reconstructed and/or replicated from six local Maryland historic houses before their loss or razing.^[9] The building phase was marked by controversy over its location, cost, and the quality of workmanship, but on April 19, 1929, it opened on schedule without much fanfare. The first visitors were greeted by Rodin's "The Thinker" in the Sculpture Court and most of the objects on display were lent by Baltimore and Maryland collectors. An average of 584 visitors attended the museum each day during the first two months of its opening.

By the 1930s, the public reception was such that then-director Roland McKinney, in a letter to board chairman Henry Treide, noted, “People seem to feel that the Museum belongs to them and show that they are sincerely proud of it and its activities.” Unfortunately, these “people” were mostly upper- crust, privileged, and white, a fact duly noted in a 1937 Carnegie Corporation report. “[Baltimore] cultural institutions (outside of the library and the schools) have appealed to, been intended for, and been supported by a pretty small minority. . . .they need to be opened up, for the viewpoint of the entire community and its needs” it concluded. Local artists were feeling slighted, as well. “We, the living, resent being left to work in a vacuum of indifference and neglect while so much of the dead past is exhausted [by the BMA],” the president of the Artists’ Union of Baltimore complained to The Evening Sun in 1937. The writer of the letter was Morris Louis, whose work, decades later, would be in the BMA’s contemporary collection. Treide responded with an extensive community outreach survey and, in 1939, presented the city’s first exhibition of African-American art. The show drew over 12,000 visitors in two weeks.^[6]

Many of the objects lent to the museum when it opened were eventually donated to The Baltimore Museum of Art. Among the generous donors who have shaped the museum's collection are Blanche Adler,

. The growing collection is reflected in the three major expansions: the Saidie A. May Wing in 1950, the Woodward Wing in 1956, and the Cone Wing in 1957. The three additions were all designed by local architects Wrenn, Lewis and Jencks to harmonize with the original Pope Building.

Today, Baltimore Museum of Art's collection includes more than 95,000 objects, making it the largest art museum in Maryland. It is governed by a private Board of Trustees and receives funding from the City of Baltimore;

counties; the State of Maryland; various corporations and foundations; federal agencies; individual Trustees; and many private citizens. The BMA welcomes more than 200,000 visitors annually. In addition to its impressive art collection, it organizes and hosts traveling exhibitions and serves as a major arts center for the region through its programs.

Recent developments

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Renovation

The BMA recently completed a $28 million multi-year renovation (2012-2015) that dramatically improved galleries for contemporary, American, African, and Asian art collections; improved essential infrastructure, and created more welcoming spaces with more visitor amenities.

The first phase of the BMA’s ambitious renovation was completed in November 2012 with the successful reopening of the Contemporary Wing [1]. In November 2014, after being closed for almost 30 years, the neoclassical Merrick Historic Entrance was reopened to the public to coincide with the museum's 100 year anniversary.^[10] The next phase encompassed the Dorothy McIlvain Scott American Wing, comprising the first and second floors of the BMA’s original 1929 building designed by the acclaimed American architect John Russell Pope; the 1982 East Wing Lobby and Zamoiski East Entrance designed by Bower, Lewis & Thrower; and critically important upgrades to the museum’s infrastructure. The architect for this phase of the renovation was the Baltimore-based architecture firm Ziger/Snead with construction completed by Whiting-Turner Contracting Company of Towson, Maryland, and the project manager was Synthesis, Inc., of Columbia, Maryland. The BMA also greatly expanded galleries for its African and Asian art collections, which opened in April 2015.^[11] The culmination of the renovation was the opening of the new $4.5 million, 5,000 sq. ft. Patricia and Mark Joseph Education Center in October 2015.^[12]

The renovation was funded by the Museum's extraordinarily successful and ambitious philanthropic campaign, In a New Light: The Campaign for The Baltimore Museum of Art, which raised $80.7 million and added more than 4,000 artworks to the museum’s collection during the decade leading up to the BMA’s 100th anniversary thanks to the generosity of hundreds of donors from Baltimore and beyond.

Collections

African Art

The BMA was one of the first museum's in the United States to obtain a collection of

. Several of the pieces are known for their use in royal courts, performances, and religious contexts, and many are internationally known.

Highlights of the collection include works by carvers

American Art

The BMA has one of the best collections of American Art in the world with works spanning from the colonial era to the late 20th century. The exhibit contains American paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts. The museum contains several works of Art from the Baltimore area including portraiture by Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, and other members of the renowned Peale family; silver from Baltimore's prominent silver manufacturing company Samuel Kirk & Son; American Baltimore album quilts; and painted furniture by John Finlay and Hugh Finlay of Baltimore.

The American painting collection at the museum ranges from 18th-century portraits and 19th-century landscape painting to American Impressionism and modernism with works by acclaimed artists John Singleton Copley, Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, and Thomas Hart Benton. Notable canvases include A Wild Scene (1831–1832) by Thomas Cole, La Vachère (1888) by Theodore Robinson, and Pink Tulip (1926) by Georgia O'Keeffe. These are complemented by outstanding holdings of prints and drawings, as well as modern photographs from the Gallagher/Dalsheimer Collection. Artists represented include by Imogen Cunningham, Man Ray, Paul Strand, and Alfred Stieglitz.

The BMA has a long and distinguished record of collecting works by

are included among the 19th- and 20th-century African-American artists.

The BMA’s holdings of American decorative arts include an extensive furniture collection that represents the major historic cabinetmaking centers of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. Many of these objects came from Miss Dorothy McIlvain Scott, a generous Baltimore philanthropist and collector.

A remarkable gift in 1933 by Mrs. Miles White, Jr. of over 200 stunning pieces of Maryland silver formed the nucleus of an impressive silver collection that now embraces objects by leading 18th- and early 19th-century silversmiths in Annapolis and Baltimore, as well as elegant examples of early English silver owned by Maryland families during the Federal era. Among them is the Annapolis Subscription Plate, made by Annapolis silver smith John Inch and the oldest surviving silver object made in Maryland. Later masterworks by artists from Louis Comfort Tiffany to Georg Jensen are also on view.

Other notable aspects of the decorative arts collection include a rare set of five clerestory windows and two brilliant mosaic-clad architectural columns that represent Tiffany's lasting contribution to 20th-century ornament. Period rooms from six historic Maryland houses, along with architectural elements from other historic buildings, illustrate town and country building styles from the 18th and 19th centuries, and a dozen miniature rooms made by Chicago miniaturist Eugene Kupjack invite scrutiny of a variety of decorative styles at close range.

Antioch Mosaics

The BMA exhibits a distinguished collection of Antioch mosaics, the result of its participation in excavations of this ancient city, known today as Antakya in southeastern Turkey, near the border of Syria.

With the support of BMA Trustee Robert Garrett, The Baltimore Museum of Art joined the Musées Nationaux de France, Worcester Art Museum, and Princeton University during the excavations of 1932 to 1939, discovering 300 magnificent mosaic pavements in and around the lost city. The BMA received some of the finest mosaics from the excavation, totaling 34 pavements, 28 of which are on display in the Museum’s sunlit atrium court.

Discovered in the affluent suburb of

evolved into the art of the early Christian era and tell the story of how people lived in this ancient city prior to its destruction by catastrophic earthquakes in 526 and 528 A.D. The mosaics are notable for their grand scale and elaborately patterned borders, and the brilliance of their decorative and naturalistic effects.

Art of the Ancient Americas

This collection contains works from 59 distinct artistic traditions from

. The collection includes works from 2500 BC to AD 1521. The core collection of 120 objects was given to the museum by Alan Wurtzburger in 1958, which significantly expanded the scope of the existing collection and provided momentum for a traveling exhibition of Peruvian ceramics titled Myths of Ancient Peru (1969).

The collection is particularly admired for its West Mexico ceramics, including an important Nayarit house model and an enthroned chief. Also on display is a unique assemblage of 23 figures in dance regalia which celebrates ancient performance and highlights the diversity of Colima art.

Other notable pieces include a finely worked serpentine figure of

mastery, elegant portrayals of Maya and Aztec noblewomen showcasing the integral roles women played in the social, political, economic, and spiritual realms of society, and miniature gold votives in the Muisca tradition.

Art of the Pacific Islands

frigate bird (Kai Diba). From the Trobriand Islands, New Guinea. Made of wood and polychrome

.

This exhibit includes artwork from several cultural traditions of the Pacific Islands including those of

tapa cloths

.

Of notable interest is a finely carved lizard of dark wood and shell from Easter Island, a battle pectoral created from hundreds of Nassa shells, which highlights Middi art of New Britain, and an 18th-century royal Hawaiian necklace.

Other highlights of the collection include a breast ornament embellished with small birds and stars that figured as insignia of prestige for the Tonga of the Fiji Islands. Featuring whale ivory and pearl shell design, it is recognized as one of the largest of its kind.

Asian Art

Tang Dynasty

earthenware with green, straw, and amber lead glazes.

The museum's

(618–907) and utilitarian stonewares from the 11th through the 13th centuries. Although more than 1,000 objects are comprised in this collection, because of limited space, only a portion of the pieces are on display at one time. Works are on view in rotating installations in the museum's Julius Levy Memorial Gallery.

Some notable works in the collection include the life-sized early-15th-century bronze Guanyin, known widely as "Goddess of Mercy"; the robust figure of a horse from a Han dynasty tomb; a 39-piece mortuary retinue, a rare example of the quantities of clay figures that were placed in tombs during the early Tang dynasty; and an outstanding foliate-shaped brush washer that represents the mastery of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Asian art is also represented in other areas of the museum's collection, including 475 Japanese prints and 1,000 textiles from across Asia.

European Art

The European Art collection at the BMA contains works from the 15th through 19th centuries. Most of the collection was formed through generous donations made by private citizens of the city of Baltimore, notably Mary Frick Jacobs, George A. Lucas, and Jacob Epstein. The collection contains a large selection of 19th-century French art including more than 140 bronze animal sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye and several paintings by Barbizon artists such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and impressionist Camille Pissarro. The collection also includes a wide array of decorative arts, including jeweled snuff boxes, porcelain, and silver. The museum also exhibits a large collection of works on paper from the 15th through the 19th century.

Highlights of the European art exhibit include

’s Portrait of a Gentleman (1561). There are also late-medieval and Renaissance paintings by Giovanni Dal Ponte, Biagio D'Antonio, Sandro Botticelli and Workshop, Bernardino Luini, Francesco Ubertini, and Master of View of Saint Gudule.

In 2012, a Renoir that was stolen from the museum resurfaced after being lost for 63 years. The Renoir went on to become the subject of a dramatic legal dispute involving the FBI, the woman who said she found the painting, an insurance company's rights to the artwork and the intentions of Saidie May, an art collector who bought the painting in Paris in 1925 and lent it to the Baltimore museum. A judge later deemed it to be the property of the museum after reviewing related documentation from its archives. At the time of its theft, Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., paid the museum about $2,500 for the loss in 1951. The company considered whether to make a claim for the painting when it resurfaced but decided "it belonged" at the museum, said the insurer's general counsel.[14]

Cone Collection

The Cone Collection was the work of the

among other major artists of the era.

Contemporary Art

The BMA's Contemporary Wing was built and opened in 1994, closed in January 2011 for renovations, and reopened in November 2012 with state-of-the-art lighting and new wall and floor finishes; a gallery dedicated to light, sound, and moving image-based art; a dedicated gallery for prints, drawings and photographs; and BMA Go Mobile, a brand new mobile website guide.

The newly renovated Contemporary Wing also houses a two-part architectural intervention that made the BMA the very first museum in the United States to commission and acquire a site-specific installation by award-winning artist Sarah Oppenheimer. It also showcases works by Olafur Eliasson, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Franz West, Yayoi Kusama, Donald Judd and other eminent artists alongside thrilling new acquisitions from 21st-century artists such as Guyton\Walker, Josephine Meckseper, Sarah Sze, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. There are also contemporary works by Oliver Herring, Phillip Guston, Sarah Oppenheimer, Ed Ruscha, and Olafur Eliasson at this art museum. The works of celebrated American artist Bruce Nauman, known for his work with neon lights, can be seen both in the contemporary collection and adorning the outside of the museum itself, as is the case with his piece entitled "Violins, Violence, Silence".^[15] The Baltimore Museum of Art has the second largest collection of Warhol's work in the U.S.

See also

• Walters Art Museum, (formerly the Walters Art Gallery), a public art museum in Baltimore
• William Thompson Walters
• Henry Walters
• Claribel Cone
  , donor, Cone Collection
• Etta Cone
  , donor, Cone Collection
• Saidie May, donor
• Paysage Bords de Seine, Renoir painting

References

Further reading

• Flam, Jack. Matisse in the Cone Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, 2001
  ISBN 0-912298-73-1
• Dackerman, Susan Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts, Baltimore Museum of Art, 2002
  ISBN 0-271-02235-3

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Baltimore Museum of Art.

• Baltimore Museum of Art Website
• Baltimore Museum of Art: the Cone Collection
• The Baltimore Museum of Art at Google Cultural Institute