According to the IMA website, "the Indianapolis Museum of Art is among the largest and oldest general art museums in the United States." It was founded in 1883 and boasts a permanent collection that is over 50,000 art pieces strong.
My favorite collection was the American art. We saw paintings by Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Georgia O'Keefe, Robert Henri, Mary Cassatt, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, John Singleton Copley, and T.C. Steele, to name a few. One of my favorites was a portrait of George Washington by Charles Wilson Peale and Charles Peale Polk. Striking. We also saw a pitcher and beaker made by Paul Revere. Here are a few of the pieces we saw:
Hotel Lobby, Edward Hopper
The Canal -- Morning Effect, Richard B. Gruelle(this is the canal that runs through downtown Indianapolis, as seen in 1894)
The Love Song, Norman Rockwell
Sunlight, Frank Weston Benson
The Boat Builders, Winslow HomerThe Contemporary collection was also pretty neat. We enjoyed an entire room designed by Ellsworth Kelly and decorated with some of his famous colorful geometic shapes. My favorite in the contemporary collection was Robert Indiana's ever-so-famous Love, in both the original painting and later sculpture forms:
Here's an interesting fact. Robert Indiana's real last name is Clark. But he was born in Indiana, in a small town called New Castle, which is just 30 minutes south of Muncie. When he created Love in 1966, he was not allowed to get it copyrighted because, the copyright office told him, you can't copyright a single word. Since then it has become one of the most reproduced pieces of art. Indiana later created the sculpture to sort of "prove" that he was the true original artist of the piece, but still not a lot of people believed him. Both the painting and the sculpture at the IMA are the originals.
We were sad that the European collection was not available for viewing while we were there because they're put away while that portion of the museum is being renovated. Had it been up, we would have seen the likes of Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Seurat, Picasso, Durer, and Rembrandt, among others. That collection will be back up until after Christmas, so we've already penciled in a trip back sometime in early 2007. We'd also like to go back this fall sometime between August and November because there will be a huge Rembrandt exhibit with pieces from their own permanent collection as well as pieces borrowed from other museums. (You are all welcome to come with us on these subsequent trips to the IMA. We'd love to have you.)
One temporary exhibit that was up featured items from their clothing and textiles collection. It was called "I Do: The Marriage of Fashion and Art," and it featured traditional wedding dresses from various cultures throughout recent history. I thought it was really neat (and I'm sure Blake also thought it was neat, although he's hesitant to admit it). There was one whole room dedicated to wedding dresses from England and the United States, dating from the late 18th century all the way to the present. I was quite partial to the Civil War-era dress mostly because it was poofy and frilly in all the right places, but the flapper-style 1920s dress was also pretty neat. Here's a picture of another one of my favorites, from 1875. Notice the tasteful use of the orange blossoms, which were a popular adornment for women at the time. The simultaneous blossoms and fruit produced on orange trees symbolized the two great qualities of women: beauty and motherhood.
Anyway, so there's your free sneak-peek of the treasures to be found in the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I hope you are left wanting more because we'd love to take you when you come. (But we'll only pay your admission fee if you come on a Thursday.)
Here's an interesting fact. Robert Indiana's real last name is Clark. But he was born in Indiana, in a small town called New Castle, which is just 30 minutes south of Muncie. When he created Love in 1966, he was not allowed to get it copyrighted because, the copyright office told him, you can't copyright a single word. Since then it has become one of the most reproduced pieces of art. Indiana later created the sculpture to sort of "prove" that he was the true original artist of the piece, but still not a lot of people believed him. Both the painting and the sculpture at the IMA are the originals.
We were sad that the European collection was not available for viewing while we were there because they're put away while that portion of the museum is being renovated. Had it been up, we would have seen the likes of Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Seurat, Picasso, Durer, and Rembrandt, among others. That collection will be back up until after Christmas, so we've already penciled in a trip back sometime in early 2007. We'd also like to go back this fall sometime between August and November because there will be a huge Rembrandt exhibit with pieces from their own permanent collection as well as pieces borrowed from other museums. (You are all welcome to come with us on these subsequent trips to the IMA. We'd love to have you.)
One temporary exhibit that was up featured items from their clothing and textiles collection. It was called "I Do: The Marriage of Fashion and Art," and it featured traditional wedding dresses from various cultures throughout recent history. I thought it was really neat (and I'm sure Blake also thought it was neat, although he's hesitant to admit it). There was one whole room dedicated to wedding dresses from England and the United States, dating from the late 18th century all the way to the present. I was quite partial to the Civil War-era dress mostly because it was poofy and frilly in all the right places, but the flapper-style 1920s dress was also pretty neat. Here's a picture of another one of my favorites, from 1875. Notice the tasteful use of the orange blossoms, which were a popular adornment for women at the time. The simultaneous blossoms and fruit produced on orange trees symbolized the two great qualities of women: beauty and motherhood.
Anyway, so there's your free sneak-peek of the treasures to be found in the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I hope you are left wanting more because we'd love to take you when you come. (But we'll only pay your admission fee if you come on a Thursday.)
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