Q1117704

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a 152-acre campus in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1883 as the Art Association of Indianapolis, it is the ninth oldest and eighth largest encyclopedic art museum in the United States. The institution occupies a campus at the corner of North Michigan Road and West 38th Street, about three miles north of downtown Indianapolis, which also includes Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park, and the Garden at Newfields. In 2017 the campus and organization were renamed Newfields as part of a rebranding campaign, while Indianapolis Museum of Art now refers specifically to the main art museum building and remains the legal name of the organization.

The museum traces its origins to the Art Association of Indianapolis, established in 1883 by suffragist May Wright Sewall, her husband Theodore, and a small group of art enthusiasts. Their first exhibition opened on November 7, 1883, at the English Hotel, displaying 453 artworks by 137 artists. The death of John Herron in 1895 brought a substantial bequest for a gallery and school bearing his name; the John Herron Art Institute opened in 1902, with the museum building completed in 1906 to designs by Vonnegut and Bohn in Italian Renaissance style. The art school building followed in 1908, replaced by a larger Paul Philippe Cret design in 1929. Director Wilbur Peat, who served from 1929 to 1965, significantly expanded collections and cultivated benefactors including George H. A. Clowes, Booth Tarkington, and Eli Lilly. Caroline Marmon Fesler, president of the Art Association, donated important Post-Impressionist works in the 1940s. In 1966, Ruth and Josiah K. Lilly donated the family estate Oldfields to the museum, and in 1967 the Herron Art School was ceded to Indiana University. The Art Association renamed itself the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1969, and the Krannert Pavilion opened at the new site in October 1970. The museum received the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2009 for its public service and free admission history, and in 2008 became the first fine art museum named an Energy Star partner.

The permanent collection comprises over 54,000 works spanning African, American, Asian, and European art. Particularly strong areas include Neo-Impressionist paintings, Japanese Edo-period paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, works by Paul Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School, a large holding of J. M. W. Turner, and contemporary art and design. The museum also emphasizes textiles, fashion arts, and modern design. The African art collection, numbering about 400 objects, features significant donations from Harrison Eiteljorg, including Fang guardian figures, Edo royal portrait heads, Kuba face masks, and Senufo ancestor figures. The Asian collection was notably strengthened by Eli Lilly, who gave approximately 200 Chinese bronzes, ceramics, and jade works between 1947 and 1961. Major later acquisitions include the W. J. Holliday collection of Neo-Impressionist works in 1979, the Kurt F. Pantzer collection of Turner paintings the same year, Harrison Eiteljorg's African and South Pacific art in 1990, and over 100 works by Gauguin and Pont-Aven artists from the Samuel Josefowitz collection in 1997. The Clowes Collection, acquired in 1999, brought works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, and El Greco.

The museum's collection includes significant works across multiple periods and schools. European highlights include paintings by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The Italian school is represented by Titian's Portrait of Ariosto, Paolo Uccello's Portrait of a Young Man, Giovanni Bellini's Madonna and Child with Saint John, and works by Modigliani and Barnaba da Modena. French holdings include Seurat's The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort-Philippe and paintings by Paul Gauguin such as The Flageolet Player on the Cliff, Still Life with Profile of Laval, and Farm at Arles. American art features works by Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Winslow Homer, and Childe Hassam, as well as Robert Indiana's LOVE in both painting and sculpture versions. Other notable works include Albrecht Durer's The Holy Family with the Dragonfly, Francisco de Goya's Portrait of Felix Colon de Larriategui, Katsushika Hokusai's Fine Wind, Clear Morning, and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's The Negress. The museum also holds Lucas Cranach the Elder's The Crucifixion and Valentin de Boulogne's The Concert.

The current museum complex developed through multiple construction phases following the 1966 acquisition of Oldfields. Architect Ambrose Madison Richardson designed the Krannert Pavilion, which opened in 1970 as the first of four original buildings, followed by the Clowes Pavilion in 1972 and the Showalter Pavilion with the Indianapolis Civic Theatre in 1975. The Mary Fendrich Hulman Pavilion, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and opened in 1990, added 7,400 square meters dedicated to African and South Pacific art. In 2005, architect Jonathan Hess designed the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion, Wood Gallery Pavilion, and Deer Zink Special Events Pavilion. The campus setting northwest of downtown Indianapolis, near Crown Hill Cemetery, incorporates natural features into an acropolis-inspired cultural campus originally envisioned by board chairman Herman Krannert. The historic Miller House in Columbus, Indiana, has served as an off-site location since 2010.

The museum is located at 1200 West 38th Street at the corner of North Michigan Road, approximately three miles north of downtown Indianapolis. The 152-acre Newfields campus encompasses the main museum building, Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park, and the Garden at Newfields. The institution offers exhibitions, classes, tours, and seasonal events. The museum's admission policy has shifted over time: free admission was instituted in 1941, replaced by fees for non-members in 2007, restored in 2008, and reinstated in 2014. The organization operates under the legal name Indianapolis Museum of Art while doing business as Newfields, with information available through its website at discovernewfields.org.