GREAT MUSEUMS

A Tour of the Great Museums of Art

In this lesson, we'll look at a few truly great museums. Probably the most famous museum in the world is the Louvre.

OBJECTIVES

• Understand the role of the art museum.

• Discuss the history of the Louvre.

• Explain the importance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Describe the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

THE ROLE OF THE ART MUSEUM

Probably the most famous museum in the world is the Louvre.

In an earlier lesson, you learned a few things about art museums. In this lesson, we'll review the history and the role of the art museum as well as take a closer look at the Louvre, the Met, and the Getty.

The museums that we are accustomed to were actually started in eighteenth century Europe. In France, the government allowed the public to view select works of art in the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. These collections were then moved to the Louvre.

In 1753, the British Museum, located in London, was open to the public. However, an individual had to have a written application to be admitted into the museum. This was a very popular outing, often requiring a two-week wait for admission. Other popular museums in Europe at this time were the National Museum in Naples, the Uffizi in Florence, the Museo Sacro, the Museo Pio Clementino, parts of the Vatican Museum, and the National Science Museum in Madrid. There were also royal collections of art opened to the public in cities such as Vienna and Dresden.

In America, there were museums formed by the various colonies. The Charleston Museum in South Carolina, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and Washington’s headquarters were all American museums that showcased the regional and national art of the era.

During the late nineteenth century, there was a huge growth of museums and institutions in the Northeast region of the U.S. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, the Pennsylvania Museum (now the Philadelphia Museum of Art) , and the Brooklyn Museum were all important parts of the culture of that day. These museums are still operating to this day.

Moving into the end of the twentieth century and present day, you will find a myriad of art museums throughout the U.S. Modern art, folk art, Native American art, and traditional art are displayed in thousands of cities and towns.

Many museums in the U.S. collaborate with public and private schools to help promote the arts. Most museums have tour guides and curriculum that help students interpret various collections that help promote an appreciation of art at an early age.

Many well known museums such as the Smithsonian and the Museum of Modern Art in New York have their collections freely available on websites for everyone to explore. Check out the following museum websites.

• Museum of Modern Art - New York

• Smithsonian Institution

• Museum of Fine Arts - Boston

• Art Institute - Chicago

THE LOUVRE

The Louvre first opened as a public museum in 1793, after the French Revolution, to display the former royal collections. One of its goals was to provide an opportunity for future artists to learn the styles of the grand masters of the past. They probably had no idea that one day nearly six million visitors would come to the museum each year from all around the world, and that most of those simply come to admire the art and not to become artists themselves. They would also be surprised to learn that the Louvre's collection would grow so large that only half is on display.

The earliest known building on the site of the Louvre complex was built as a fortress in the late 12th century. It protected Paris from invasions from the west and the the king from his own disgruntled subjects on the east. It also served as an arsenal and political prisoners were held in its dungeon.

The Louvre had become a royal retreat by about 1400. Gardens and an aviary were added, and Charles V greatly expanded and modernized it. After the English conquered the French in 1415, though, the Louvre was plundered and the complex fell into ruins. It was razed in the 1500s by Francis I to make way for a more grand residence, fit for a king. His son, Henry II, continued his father's vision, but it would be hundreds of years before the vision would become a reality.

In the 16th century, the Louvre began to become the artistic capital of the world, during the reign of Henry IV. Hundreds of artists were invited to live in the Louvre as guests of the king, and the palace started to fulfill its mission as home to the royal art collections.

Today, the Louvre houses such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and The Wedding Feast at Cana. The techniques used by Leonardo da Vinci in his painting of the Mona Lisa include moving from brown to blue, creating an abstract landscape made up of earth and water; playing with light and shade effects by making the contours hazy ("sfumato"); and glazes (very diluted, quasi-transparent layers of paint). The statue of Aphrodite, known as the Venus de Milo, is linked to the Hellenistic period of Greek art by such details as the elongated silhouette, the position in space, and sensual, realistic nudity. In the painting, The Wedding Feast at Cana, the symbolic images of the butchers chopping up meat, the hourglass on the musicians' table, and the dog chewing a bone all herald the death of Christ.

Notes

Read the article about artist and architect I. M. Pei. In 1989, he designed a 673-panel glass pyramid that would become the new entrance for the Louvre. The new entrance was needed to handle the growing number of visitors. Take special note of Pei's favored materials and styles. For example, Pei relies on abstract form and materials such as stone concrete, glass, and steel, and he frequently works on a large scale.

MUSEUMS IN THE UNITED STATES

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is affectionately known as "The Met" among New Yorkers. The Met is one of the world's largest and finest art museums. It has nearly three million objects in its collections, with a few hundred thousand of them on display, depending on the current exhibitions. The collections span 5,000 years of art history.

Founded in 1870 by a group of American business people, financiers, artists, and intellectuals, the museum's mission is to bring art and art education to the American people. Today more than five million people visit the museum each year.

The Met acquired its first object, a Roman sarcophagus, two years before it even had a building in which to exhibit it. Among the Met's many art objects is the Egyptian Temple of Dendur, which was brought over from Egypt in 1968. The rebuilt Temple is now housed in the Arthur M. Sackler Wing and is one of the most popular exhibitions in the museum. Visitors can also browse through galleries and see original works by European artists such as Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, and Edgar Degas.

Now read the article about the history of the Met Museum.

To learn more about the collections at the Met, check out this link, where you’ll end the tour with Andy Warhol’s huge portrait of Mao Tse Tung.

J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles

The Getty, which occupies 750 acres, opened on December 16, 1997. It is famous for its architecture, gardens, and stunning view of Los Angeles. Architect Richard Meier, who has been called "the ultimate voice of twentieth-century Modernism," designed the Getty Center. Using metal, Italian stone and glass, Meier created a sleek ultra-modern complex of buildings.

According to the Getty Museum website, the building stone is travertine, from Bagni di Tivoli, Italy — the same source as the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, and the colonnade of Saint Peter's Basilica. A “guillotine” cutting process exposed delicate fossils of both plants and animals in the stone, and twenty-four of these unique discoveries are set into walls and other aspects of the architecture as “feature” stones throughout the site.

Read about architect Richard Meier, known for using white rather than other colors. What are some other hallmarks of his style?

Afterword

Not all museums appeal to everyone. Some artists today criticize museums for only focusing on the works of mainly Western, mainly male, and mainly white artists. Listen to artist Kerry James Marshall's thoughts about this issue in this video. Marshall says that works by people of color were only admitted into museums after they have been colonized and began making art like the Europeans. What else does he say?

That being said, this is an aspect of museum culture that is rapidly changing. Today there are thousands of great museums around the world, and you probably live close to one.

LET'S REVIEW!

In this lesson you have learned about the following topics:

• Art museums house great works of art for the public to view.

• The Louvre was the first of the great museums, and it houses works such as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and many others.

• The Metropolitan Museum covers four New York City blocks and exhibits hundreds of thousands of art objects from the beginning of history to the present.

• The Getty Museum in Los Angeles is a modern example of how the museum itself is becoming a work of art. While it is home to many great works both ancient and modern, the building designed by Richard Meier is a marvel of modern beauty.

• Museums have not always been inclusive of art from all people, but that is changing as Westerners begin to realize the value of the expressions of many cultures.

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