The Carnegie Museum of Art is an

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 (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

in the

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

neighborhood of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The museum's first gallery was opened for public viewing on November 5, 1895. Over the years, the gallery vastly increased in size, with a new building on Forbes Avenue built 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 "Carnegie Museum of Art" to indicate it clearly as one of the four Carnegie Museums.

History

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

first thought of setting up a museum in 1886W. J. Holland, LL.D., "The Carnegie Museum", in ''Popular Science'', May 1901. that would preserve 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 Library of Pittsburgh's Main Branch in

. Carnegie initially 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 A. 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 Edward Larrabee Barnes (April 22, 1915 – September 22, 2004) was an American architect. His work was characterized by the "fusing fModernism with vernacular architecture and understated design." Barnes was best known for his adherence to st ...

, it first opened in 1974 and more than doubled the museum's exhibition space, also adding a children's studio, theater, café, offices, and bookstore.Ellen S. Wilson, "The Continuing History of the Scaife Galleries", in ''Carnegie Online'', July/August 2003 . ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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 also stages 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 ...

every few years. Numerous significant works from the Internationals have been acquired for museum's permanent collection including

Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters of 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

's ''The Wreck'' (1896) and James A. McNeill Whistler'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. Every year, the museum hosts up to 15 different exhibitions. Approximately 35,000 pieces make up its permanent collection, which also includes works on paper, paintings, prints (particularly Japanese prints), sculptures, and installations from the late seventeenth century to the present. The museum has notably strong collections of both aluminum relics 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

ChrisLitherlandcarnegiemuseumarchitecturalroom-2

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 a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

and Herculaneum. The gallery was renovated in 2009, and currently exhibits more than 500 objects representing American and European decorative arts from the

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

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 Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, and from Romanesque, Gothic and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

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 The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

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 the

Musée national des Monuments Français The Musée national des Monuments Français (; ) is today a museum of plaster casts of French monuments located in the Palais de Chaillot, 1, place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris, France. It now forms part of the Cité de l'Architectur ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. * Hall of Sculpture (1907) – The Hall of Sculpture was modeled after the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...

's inner sanctuary and was originally created to house the museum's 69 plaster casts of

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

Near Eastern The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, and

Roman sculpture The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Sculpture of Ancient Greece, Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the ''Apollo Belvedere'' and ''Barberini Faun'', are known only from Roman ...

. 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 the Carnegie Museum of Art have been conducted for over 75 years. Alumni of the program include

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

, photographer

Duane Michals Duane Michals ( "Michaels"; born February 18, 1932) is an American photographer. Michals's work makes innovative use of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy. Education and career Michals's interest in ar ...

, and contemporary artist

Philip Pearlstein Philip Martin Pearlstein (May 24, 1924 – December 17, 2022) was an American painter best known for Modernist Realist nudes. Cited by critics as the preeminent figure painter of the 1960s to 2000s, he led a revival in realist art. Biography ...

. The museum has classes specific to various age groups.

Looted art controversy

In 2023 the Manhattan District Attorney seized a drawing by

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painters, painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude sel ...

entitled ''Portrait of a Man'' within the framework of a criminal investigation concerning the Nazi-era looting of the collection of Fritz Grunbäum, who was murdered in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

Gallery

File:CarnegieMuseumofArtAncientChina.jpg, Bronze ritualistic vessel, 1300–1150 BCE,

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou d ...

, China File:CarnegieMuseumofArtIndianHistory.jpg, Stele of

Vishnu Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation ( ...

with

Avatar Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

s and attendant deities, 12th century, central

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

File:ChrisLitherlandCarnegieAfricanroom.jpg, Housepost, ,

Yoruba culture Distinctive cultural norms prevail in Yorubaland and among the Yoruba people.Kola Abimbola, Yoruba Culture: ''A Philosophical Account'', Iroko Academic Publishers, 2005. Religion (Ẹ̀sìn) The Yoruba people, Yoruba are said to be religious peop ...

, Africa File:CarnegieMuseumofAncientGreek.jpg, Ancient

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and co ...

vase File:CarnegieMuseumofArtChristianArtifact.jpg, Casket for relics of a saint (châsse), 13th century, French File:CarnegieMuseumofArtportablereliquary.jpg, Ivory portable altar, 14th century, French File:CarnegieMuseumofArtKnightArmour.jpg, Armour, with Helmet, , by Anton Peffenhauser File:ChrisLitherlandWilliamWallPittsburghFire.jpg, ''View of the Great Fire of Pittsburgh'', 1846, oil on canvas, by William Coventry Wall File:Albert Bierstadt, Farallon Island 1887 Oil on Canvas.jpg, ''

Farallon Island The Farallon Islands ( ), or Farallones (), are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The islands are also sometimes referred to by mariners as the Devil's ...

'', 1887, oil on canvas, by

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

File:CarnegieMuseumofVincentGoghAfterRain.jpg, ''Wheat Fields After the Rain (The Plain of Auvers)'', 1890, oil on canvas, by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

File:Place des Lices Paul Signac.jpg, ''Place des Lices'', 1893, oil on canvas, by

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, with Georges Seurat, helped develop the artistic technique Pointillism. Biography Paul-Victor-Jules Signac was born in Paris on ...

File:LitherlandCarnegieMuseumSteamboatontheOhio.jpg, ''Steamboat on the Ohio'', 1896, oil on canvas, by

Thomas Pollock Anshutz Thomas Pollock Anshutz (October 5, 1851 – June 16, 1912) was an American painter and teacher. Known for his portraiture and genre scenes, Anshutz was a co-founder of The Darby School. One of Thomas Eakins's most prominent students, he succeede ...

File:Claude Monet - Nymphéas - Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2019-12-11.jpg, '' Water Lilies (Nymphéas)'', 1915–1926, oil on canvas, by

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

File:RuthMcChesneyMiniatureRoomCarnegieArt.jpg, Miniature

room box A room box is a display box used for three-dimensional :wikt:miniature, miniature scale environments, or scale models. Although the name would suggest room boxes generally only represent typical rooms such as those found in houses or other build ...

on display, Ruth McChesney

Past directors

* John W. Beaty (1896–1921) *

Homer Saint-Gaudens Homer Shiff Saint-Gaudens (1880–1953) was the only child of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his wife Augusta (née Homer). He served as the director of the Art Museum of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute and was a fou ...

(1922–1950) * Gordon Bailey Washburn (1950–1962) * Gustave Von Groschwitz (1963–1968) * Leon Arkus (1968–1980) * John R. Lane (1980–1987) * Phillip M. Johnston (1988–1996) * Richard Armstrong (1996–2008) * Lynn Zelevansky (2009–2017) * Eric Crosby (2018–present)

References

External links

* *
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 and galleries 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