The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the southwest United States. The museum is located in Phoenix, Arizona, and is 285,000 square feet (26,500 m2). It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. A community center since 1959, it has hosted festivals, live performances, independent art films, and educational programs year-round. It also features The Hub: The James K. Ballinger Interactive Gallery, an interactive space for children; photography exhibitions through the museum’s partnership with the Center for Creative Photography; the landscaped Sculpture Garden; dining and shopping.
History
Opened in 1959, the Phoenix Art Museum is located on the Central Avenue Corridor. Shortly after Arizona became the 48th state in 1912, the Phoenix Women’s Club was formed and worked with the Arizona State Fair Committee to develop a fine arts program. In 1915, the club purchased Carl Oscar Borg’s painting Egyptian Evening for US$125 and presented it to the city of Phoenix to begin a community art collection. In 1925, the State Fair Committee expanded its community responsibilities and formed the Phoenix Fine Arts Association.
The next major advance in the local art community came in 1936 when the Phoenix Art Center was created under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. Its director was the painter Philip C. Curtis. Its success led to the creation in 1940 of the Civic Center Association, which set about raising funds and planning a building on a 6.5-acre plot donated by the heirs of Adolphus Clay Bartlett. These heirs included Maie Bartlett Heard, who founded the Heard Museum with her husband, Dwight B. Heard.
Collections
In addition to an annual calendar of exhibitions, the museum’s permanent collection galleries are drawn from more than 19,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. Visitors enjoy photography exhibitions through the museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. A1 Bed Bug Exterminator
The museum has European paintings by Ubertini, Girolamo Genga, Guercino, Carlo Dolci, Bernardo Strozzi, Marcellus Coffermans, Jacob Cornelisz, Master of Astorga, Bartholomeus Bruyn the Elder, Nicolas Lepicie, Giovanni Piazzetta, Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Antoine Vestier, George Romney, Camille Corot, Hippolyte Delpy, Eugène Boudin, Jean-Léon Gérôme (Thumbs Down), Claude Monet (Garden Arches, Giverny), Max Beckmann, Léon Portau, Eduard Villard, and Pablo Picasso. It has American paintings by Gilbert Stuart, Sanford Gifford, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jonas Lie, Lew Davis, Ernest Blumenschein, Joseph Sharp, Howard Post, and Ed Mell. It has contemporary art by Yayoi Kusama (You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies), Viola Frey, Donald Martiny Kehinde Wiley, Carlos Amorales (Black Cloud), and Helen Frankenthaler. It has 20th Century Sculpture by Aristide Maillol, Max Ernst, Hans Arp, Jacob Epstein, and Giacometti.
Address: 1625 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ
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