Founded in 1951, the
Birmingham Museum of Art in
Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham is the largest city in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and includes part of Shelby County. According to a 2007 estimate, the city had a population of 229,800 The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, as of the 2008 census estimates,...
today has one of the finest collections in the Southeast US, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts representing a numerous diverse cultures, including
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
n,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an,
AmericanThe Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America...
,
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
n,
Pre-ColumbianThe Pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during the...
, and
Native AmericanThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
. Among other highlights, the Museum’s collection of Asian art is considered the finest and most comprehensive in the Southeast, and its Vietnamese ceramics one of the finest in the U.S. The Museum also is home to a remarkable Kress Collection of
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
and
BaroqueBaroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in...
paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from the late 13th century to c.1750, and the 18th-century European decorative arts include superior examples of English ceramics and French furniture.
The Birmingham Museum of Art is owned by the City of Birmingham and encompasses in the heart of the city’s cultural district. Erected in 1959, the present building was designed by architects Warren, Knight and Davis, and a major renovation and expansion by
Edward Larrabee BarnesEdward Larrabee Barnes was a prolific American architect.Barnes was a Harvard graduate and over the years taught variously at Harvard, the Pratt Institute, and the University of Virginia...
of New York was completed in 1993. The facility encompasses , including an outdoor sculpture garden.
Highlights of the Permanent Collection
African Art
The Museum’s growing collection of nearly 2,000 objects is derived from the major culture groups of
sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
and dates from the 12th century to the present. The collection features fine examples of figure sculpture, masks, ritual objects, furniture and household and utilitarian objects, textiles, ceramics and metal arts, with an
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian false door,
YorubaThe Yoruba of South Western Africa , has a very rich and vibrant artisan community, creating traditional and contemporary art...
mask,
BeninBenin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north; its short coastline to the south leads to the Bight of Benin....
bronze hip pendant, divination portrait of a king from
DahomeyDahomey was the name of a country in west Africa now called the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state founded in the seventeenth century which survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of...
.
American Art
Spanning the late 18th through mid-20th century, the Museum’s collection of American painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts features paintings by
Gilbert StuartGilbert Charles Stuart was an American painter from Rhode Island.Gilbert Stuart is widely considered to be one of America's foremost portraitists...
,
Childe HassamFrederick Childe Hassam was a prominent and prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and the museums...
, and Georgia O'Keefe; sculptures by
Hiram PowersHiram Powers was a U.S. neoclassical sculptor.-Biography:The son of a farmer, Powers was born in Woodstock, Vermont, on the July 29, 1805. In 1818 his father removed to Ohio, about six miles from Cincinnati, where the son attended school for about a year, staying meanwhile with his brother, a...
and
Frederic RemingtonFrederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West, specifically concentrating on the last quarter of the 19th century American West and images of cowboys, American Indians, and the U.S...
; and important decorative pieces by
TiffanyLouis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
Studios and
Frank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works....
. Considered one of the three most important American landscape paintings, the Museum’s
Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California (1865) by
BierstadtAlbert Bierstadt was a German-American painter best known for his large landscapes of the American West. In obtaining the subject matter for these works, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion...
was recently chosen by The
National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
as one of 40 American masterpieces that best depict the people, places, and events that have shaped our country and tell America’s story.
Asian Art
The Museum’s Asian art collection started with a gift of Chinese textiles in 1951 and today, with more than 4,000 objects, is the largest and most comprehensive in the Southeast. The collection hails from
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
,
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, and
Southeast AsiaManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
, featuring the finest collection of
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
ese ceramics in the U.S., as well as outstanding examples of Buddhist and
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
art, lacquer ware, ceramics, paintings, prints, and sculpture. Highlights include a rare
Ming dynastyThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
temple wall and
Tang dynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
tomb figures from China; Jomon period pottery from Japan; and contemporary works such as
The Grand Residence, considered by Chinese painter
Wu GuanzhongWu Guanzhong is a contemporary Chinese painter. Wu has painted various aspects of China including much of its architecture, plants, animals, people, as well as many of its landscapes and waterscapes in a style reminiscent of the impressionist painters of the early 1900s...
among his most important works. Also, on long-term loan from The
Smithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazines...
is the
Vetlesen Jade Collection of 16th- to 19th-century pieces, one of the most important jade collections in the U.S. The Museum has the only gallery for Korean art in the Southeast.
Contemporary Art
The collection features painting, sculpture, video, photography, works on paper, and installation art that illuminate movements and trends from the 1960s to the present, by renowned artists such as
Joan MitchellJoan Mitchell was a ‘Second Generation’ Abstract Expressionist painter. Along with Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, and Helen Frankenthaler she was one of her era's few female painters to gain critical and public acclaim...
,
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
,
Bill ViolaBill Viola is a contemporary video artist. Viola is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic sound and image technology....
,
Lynda BenglisLynda Benglis is an American sculptor known for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. Benglis' work is noted for an unusual blend of organic imagery and confrontation with newer media incorporating influences such as Barnett Newman and Andy Warhol...
,
Kerry James MarshallKerry James Marshall is an artist born in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in South Central Los Angeles and now lives in Chicago where he previously taught at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago...
,
Callum InnesCallum Innes is a Scottish abstract painter and former Turner Prize nominee.-Life and work:Callum Innes was born in Edinburgh. He attended the Gray's School of Art and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1985....
,
Grace HartiganGrace Hartigan was an American Abstract Expressionist painter of the New York School in the 1950s.-Biography and early career:...
,
Larry RiversLarry Rivers was a Jewish American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York on and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...
, Louise Nevelson, Frank Fleming and
Philip GustonPhilip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning...
, as well as works by a younger generation who are defining the new century.
Folk Art
Since 2009 a permanent display of
Folk artFolk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic...
will feature works by
Bill TraylorWilliam "Bill" Traylor was a self-taught artist born into slavery on a plantation near Benton, in Lowndes County, Alabama. By 1939, he had moved to Montgomery, where he slept in the back room of a funeral home and in a shoemaker's shop...
,
Thornton DialThornton Dial is an artist who came to prominence in the United States in the late 1980s. Dial is perhaps most well known for his 2006 exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston....
, Alabama’s outstanding quilters, and other self-taught artists.
European Art
Among the highlights of the European art holdings is the
Kress Collection of Renaissance Art, featuring
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
and
BaroqueBaroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in...
paintings, sculpture and decorative arts dating from the late 13th century to c.1750, with works by
Pietro PeruginoPietro Perugino was the leading painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance.-Early years:...
, Antonio Canaletto, and
Paris BordoneParis Bordon or Bordone , was a Venetian painter of the Renaissance, who while training with Titian, maintained a strand of mannerist complexity and provincial vigor.-Biography:...
. Other strengths include 17th-century Dutch paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael,
Ferdinand BolFerdinand Bol was a Dutch artist, etcher, and draftsman. Although his surviving work is rare, it displays Rembrandt's influence; like his master, Bol favored historical subjects, portraits, numerous self-portraits, and single figures in exotic finery.The street Ferdinand Bolstraat in Amsterdam was...
, and
Balthasar van der AstBalthasar van der Ast was a Dutch painter. Van der Ast specialized in still lifes of flowers and fruit, as well as painting a number of remarkable shell still lifes; he is considered to be a pioneer in the genre of shell painting...
; British 18th-century painting, with portraits by
Thomas GainsboroughThomas Gainsborough was one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters of 18th century Britain.-Suffolk:...
and
Thomas LawrenceThomas Lawrence may refer to:*Sir Thomas Lawrence , British artist*Thomas Lawrence , mayor of colonial Philadelphia*Thomas Lawrence , governor of colonial Maryland*T. E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia"...
; and 18th- and 19th-century French paintings by
Francois-Hubert DrouaisFrancois-Hubert Drouais was a French painter and Jean-Germain Drouais's father.He specialized in portraits, some of which include Louis XV's last two mistresses, Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry respectively. He even painted the young Marie Antoinette....
,
Jean-Baptiste OudryJean-Baptiste Oudry Jean-Baptiste Oudry Jean-Baptiste Oudry (17 March 1686, Paris – 30 April 1755, Beauvais (Oise) was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game.-Biography:...
,
Mary CassattMary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists....
,
Gustave CourbetJean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
, and
Jean-Baptiste-Camille CorotJean-Baptiste Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...
.
European Decorative Arts
One of the foundations of the Museum’s permanent collection, the European decorative arts comprise more than 12,000 objects including ceramics, glass, and furniture dating from the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
to present day. Notable holdings include the only public collection of late 19th-century European
cast ironCast iron usually refers to grey iron, but also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys, which solidify with a eutectic. The colour of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due to its carbide impurities which...
items in the U.S. and the
Eugenia Woodward Hitt Collection of 18th-century French art, including furniture of the Louis XIV, XV, and XVI periods, mounted porcelain, gilt bronzes, paintings, and works on paper from the
RegénceThe Régence is the period in French history between 1715 and 1723, when King Louis XV was a minor and the land was governed by a Regent, Philippe d'Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV of France....
to the period following the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
. The
Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection is the finest outside
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, comprising more than 1,400 objects illustrating the entire production of the
WedgwoodWedgwood, strictly Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, is a British pottery firm, founded on May 1 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood, which in 1987 merged with Waterford Crystal, creating Waterford Wedgwood, the Ireland-based luxury brands group. The company still exists as a subsidiary within the group, with its own...
factory from its early years through the 19th century.
Native American Art
The museum features a large installation of
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
arts. The galleries are organized into four cultural groupings according to region: Eastern Woodlands,
PlainsPlains is the plural of plain, a geographical feature.Plains or The Plains may also refer to:-Locations:Canada*Three Mile Plains, Nova Scotia*Five Mile Plains, Nova ScotiaUnited States*Great Plains...
, Northwest Coast, and
SouthwestThe Southwestern United States is defined as the states that lie west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37, 38, 39, or 40 degree north latitude. A 97.33 longitude degree west could qualify as the separation of the American Southwest from the...
. Highlights of the collection include a large grouping of fine
NavajoThe Navajo or Diné of the Southwestern United States are the second largest Native American tribe of Northern America. In the 2000 U.S. census, 298,197 people claimed to be fully or partly of Navajo ancestry. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo...
blankets and rugs, an extensive collection of Northwest coast art, and important historic and contemporary
PuebloPueblos are traditional communities of Native Americans in the southwestern United States of America. The communities are recognized worldwide for their adobe buildings, which are sometimes called "pueblos"...
ceramics. There also are excellent examples of
PlainsPlains is the plural of plain, a geographical feature.Plains or The Plains may also refer to:-Locations:Canada*Three Mile Plains, Nova Scotia*Five Mile Plains, Nova ScotiaUnited States*Great Plains...
beadwork and stunning shaman headdresses.
Pre-Columbian
The collection features stunning objects from Meso-America,
Central AmericaManagua
Guatemala City
San Salvador
San Pedro Sula
Panama City
San José, Costa Rica
Santa Ana, El Salvador
León
San Miguel|-|}...
, and the Northern Andes. Highlights from Meso-America include
ZapotecThe Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca of southern Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows their culture goes back at least 2500 years...
ceramics, objects related to the ballgame,
MayaThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Preclassic period , many Maya cities reached their highest...
figure sculpture, ceramics and jewelry,
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
stone sculpture, and West Mexican figural tomb sculpture. Cultures of ancient
Costa RicaCosta Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east.Costa Rica, which translates literally as "Rich Coast", constitutionally...
,
GuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its size is just under 110,000 km² with an estimated population...
, and
PanamaPanama, officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of both Central America and, in turn, North America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the...
are well represented: works include gold jewelry, metates, censors, volcanic stone figure sculpture, and ceramics. Northern Andean objects include
SicanSican may refer to:*The Sican Culture in what is now Peru*The Sicani, a people of ancient Sicily...
ceremonial gold vessels and tumi, ceramics from the
Moche'The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru from about 100 A.D. to 800 A.D., during the Regional Development Epoch...
, Chimu,
ChancayChançay is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.-See also:*Communes of the Indre-et-Loire department...
, and
VicusVicus can refer to:* Vicus , a culture in Peru from about 1000BC to 300AD* Vicus , a settlement or part of town in Ancient Rome...
cultures, Incan keros and mummy masks, and
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
vian textiles.
The Charles W. Ireland Sculpture Garden
One of the most distinctive spaces for the display of outdoor art in the southeastern United States, this beautiful multi-level sculpture garden features works by artists such as
Fernando BoteroFernando Botero Angulo is a Colombian figurative artist, self-titled "the most Colombian of Colombian artists" early on, coming to prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1959.- Style :...
,
Jacques LipchitzJacques Lipchitz was a Cubist sculptor.Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, son of a Jewish building contractor in Druskininkai, Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire...
and
Auguste RodinAuguste Rodin[p] was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
as well as three site-specific artworks commissioned by the Museum:
Lithos II (1993) by Elyn Zimmerman, a water wall and pool of textured granite blocks set into the curving east wall of the garden,
Blue Pools Courtyard (1993) by artist Valerie Jaudon, featuring inlaid tile pools, plantings, and brick and bluestone pavers and
Sol LewittSol LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism. LeWitt rose to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" but was prolific in a wide range of media including drawing, printmaking, and painting.He has been the subject of...
’s
Bands of Color in Various Directions, commissioned in 2001 in celebration of the Museum’s 50th anniversary.
The Clarence B. Hanson, Jr. Library
Named for
Clarence Bloodworth Hanson, Jr., former publisher of The Birmingham News and a Birmingham Museum of Art board member for 24 years, the Museum’s library is one of the most comprehensive art research libraries in the southeastern U.S. Holdings include a broad range of materials including general art reference works, auction catalogues, artists’ files, periodicals, indexes, exhibition catalogs, and databases. The
Chellis Wedgwood Collection, the largest and most comprehensive special collection in the world related to
Josiah WedgwoodJosiah Wedgwood was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin-Wedgwood family...
and his manufactures, along with the Beeson rare book holdings, make this the U.S. center for the study of Wedgwood. Among these holdings are letters from
John FlaxmanJohn Flaxman , was an English sculptor and draughtsman.-Early life:He was born in York. His father was also named John, after an ancestor who, according to family tradition, had fought for Parliament at the Battle of Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer in Buckinghamshire...
and
Benjamin WestBenjamin West RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
, and
Sir William Hamilton’s Collection of Engravings from Antique Vases, known as the
Hamilton Folios, the first European color-plate books.
Birmingham Art Club
The roots of the museum date back to 1908 and the founding of the "Birmingham Art Club" which endeavored to amass a public art collection for the benefit of the citizens of Birmingham, which had been founded as a new industrial city only 37 years prior. In 1927 they were able to display their collection in the galleries of the new
Birmingham Public LibraryFor the main library in Birmingham, England see, Birmingham Central Library.The Birmingham Public Library, one of the largest and most well-respected library systems in the southeastern United States, consists of 19 branches and a main or central library located in downtown Birmingham, Alabama...
. Over the next two decades the club continued to add to the collection and raise support in the press and in City Hall for the concept of a new building.
First Exhibition
In September 1950 a governing board was created to oversee the creation of a museum as "an institution of public service, educational and recreational, with all the people welcome." The following February the board hired Richard Foster Howard to serve as the first museum director. In April 1951 the newly-established "Birmingham Museum of Art" presented a public "Opening Exhibition" housed in five unused rooms in City Hall. The exhibition included some pieces from the existing Art Club collection as well as a large number of loaned works from museums across the Eastern half of the United States. The result was considered to be "the finest showing of great objects of art in the South to date."
New Building
The publicity created by the exhibition led to several important gifts, notably of Chinese ceramics and textiles,
Japanese prints' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
,
Old master printAn old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are others...
s, costumes, glass, and oil paintings. In 1952 the
Samuel H. KressSamuel Henry Kress was a businessman and philanthropist, founder of the S. H. Kress & Co. five and ten cent store chain. With his fortune, Kress amassed one of the most significant collections of Italian Renaissance and European artwork assembled in the 20th century...
Foundation presented 29 paintings from the
Italian RenaissanceThe Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
as a long-term loan to the new museum, forming the core of the collection of European paintings. A large bequest in 1954 made possible a new museum building. Land was purchased the following year and a design commission for a new museum building was given to the office of Warren Knight & Davis. The "Oscar Wells Memorial Building" opened to the public on May 3, 1959. In the following years the Kress Foundation made two important gifts to the museum: the trusteeship of a collection of Renaissance furniture and decorative objects in 1959, and the deed to the Italian paintings already on loan, along with eight additional works from the same period. The following year, the American Cast Iron Pipe Company loaned its Lamprecht Collection of German cast-iron objects (the largest in the world).
Expansions
A level of upper floor galleries was added to the building's west wing in 1965, and the following year, the Clarence B. Hanson, Jr. Library was opened on the building's first floor. In 1967 a new east wing was completed. Additional land was purchased in 1969, and in 1974 another addition included a three-story rebuilding of the east wing. Further reworking of the east wing added a conservation lab, loading dock, and a second public entrance to the building in 1979, and the following year, gallery space was expanded by
28,000 square feet (2,600 m²). In 1986 another expansion project was planned and architect
Edward Larrabee BarnesEdward Larrabee Barnes was a prolific American architect.Barnes was a Harvard graduate and over the years taught variously at Harvard, the Pratt Institute, and the University of Virginia...
, in conjunction with local architect KPS Group, Inc., was selected to oversee the design, which included provision for a new outdoor sculpture garden and
50,000 square feet (5,000 m²) of exhibition space bringing the total to
180,000 square feet (15,400 m²).
External links