Columbus Museum of Art

History

The CMA was founded in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. Beginning in 1919, it was housed in the Francis C. Sessions house, a founder of Columbus Art School (later known as Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD). Sessions deeded the mansion and property to the art museum, which operated there until 1923. The house was demolished, with the current museum built on its site. The museum's Beaton Hall (administrative offices) includes elements from the entranceway of the Sessions house.

The current building was built on the same site from 1929 to 1931, opening on January 22, 1931. In 1974, a visually unobtrusive structure was added to the rear of the building. The museum building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 19, 1992, under its original name.

The Columbus Museum of Art began a massive reconstruction and expansion in 2007. The first new space opened on January 1, 2011, after 13 months of construction. The space, called the Center for Creativity, is an 18000 sqft space that includes galleries, gathering areas, and places for workshops that allow visitors to engage in hands-on activities. On October 25, 2015, the new Margaret M. Walter wing opened to the public, adding 50,000 square feet of addition and 40,000 square feet of major renovation to the Museum. The Margaret M. Walter Wing was designed by Michael Bongiorno of the Columbus-based architecture firm DesignGroup. The museum concurrently revealed a new brand identity led by the Columbus, Ohio-based branding agency Blackletter.

In September 2018, the Pizzuti Collection, a museum in the Short North, was donated to the CMA, along with part of its collection. The museum opened as a part of the Columbus Museum of Art that year. The museum and its Pizzuti Collection branch temporarily closed beginning in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Columbus Museum of Art is part of the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network, launched in 2021 by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.

Ross Building layout and architecture

The 1931 museum building, today known as the Elizabeth M. and Richard M. Ross Building, was designed in the Second Renaissance Revival style by Columbus architects Richards, McCarty and Bulford. It has a concrete foundation, walls of limestone and concrete, and a truncated copper hipped roof. The building is horizontal, two stories high, and has a central structure advanced several feet in front of its two wings. The wings feature large limestone friezes, together known as The Frederick W. Schumacher Frieze or Masters of Art. The work, by Robert Ingersoll Aitken and named after Frederick W. Schumacher, depicts 68 artists from 490 B.C. to 1925 A.D.

The original main entryway consists of three arched portals to the interior. The facade here includes decorative moldings, keystones, bulls-eye medallions, and stone quoins. A frieze hung above the arches, with the name "Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts". A set of sixteen limestone steps leads to the sidewalk, flanked by two Italian-style lamp posts.

The Center for Creativity, on the first floor of the museum, includes a Creativity Lounge, The Studio, The Wonder Room, the Big Idea Gallery, and an Open Gallery.

Gallery

File:Columbus Museum of Art 03.jpg|Current museum entrance File:Columbus Museum of Art.jpg|The Ross Building, built in 1931 File:Columbus Museum of Art 07.jpg|The Walter Wing, built in 2015

Collections

The permanent collection includes outstanding late nineteenth and early twentieth-century American and European modern works of art. Major collections include the Ferdinand Howald Collection of early Modernist paintings, the Sirak Collection of Impressionist and Expressionist works, the Photo League Collection, and the Philip and Suzanne Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary Art. The Museum houses the largest collections of works by Columbus born artists Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Elijah Pierce, and George Bellows.

Highlights include early Cubist paintings by Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris, works by François Boucher, Paul Cézanne, Mary Cassatt, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Edward Hopper, and Norman Rockwell, and installations by Mel Chin, Josiah McElheny, Susan Philipsz, and Allan Sekula.

Sculptures include: Hare on Ball and Claw, Intermediate Model for the Arch, Out of There, The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II, The Mountain, Three-Piece Reclining Figure: Draped 1975, Two Lines Up Excentric Variation VI, Wasahaban.

The collection can be browsed on the museum's website.

Selections from the permanent collection

File:Anthony van Dyck - Christian Bruce.jpg|Anthony van Dyck, Christian Bruce, 1635 File:David and Bathsheba by Artemisia Gentileschi.jpg|Artemisia Gentileschi, David and Bathsheba, c. 1610–1675 File:Vigée-Lebrun, Elisabeth - Varvara Naryshkina.jpg|Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Varvara Naryshkina, 1800 File:Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - Raphael and the Baker's Daughter (1840).jpg|Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Raphael and the Baker's Daughter, 1840 File:The Coal Carriers by Rosa Bonheur, Columbus Museum of Art.JPG|Rosa Bonheur, The Coal Carriers, 1851 File:Winslow Homer - Haymaking (1864).jpg|Winslow Homer, Haymaking, 1864 File:Albert Bierstadt - Landscape (c. 1867-1869).jpg|Albert Bierstadt, Landscape, c. 1867–1869 File:Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot - The Little Bird Nesters (1873-1874).jpg|Camille Corot, The Little Bird Nesters, 1873 File:Albert Pinkham Ryder - Spirit of Autumn (c. 1875).jpg|Albert Pinkham Ryder, Spirit of Autumn, 1875 File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Madame Henriot en travesti.jpg|Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Madame Henriot 'en travesti' (The Page), 1875–76 File:Portrait de Victor Chocquet assis, par Paul Cézanne.jpg|Paul Cézanne, portrait of Victor Chocquet, 1877 File:Carmela Bertagna John Singer Sargent.jpg|John Singer Sargent Carmela Bertagna Oil on canvas, 1879 File:Mary Cassatt - Susan Comforting the Baby No. 1 (c. 1881) 01.JPG|Mary Cassatt, Susan Comforting the Baby No. 1, c. 1881 File:William Michael Harnett - After the Hunt (1883) 02.jpg|William Michael Harnett, After the Hunt, 1883 File:The Mediterranean (Cap d'Antibes) by Claude Monet, Columbus Museum of Art .JPG|Claude Monet, The Mediterranean (Cap d'Antibes), 1888 File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Christine Lerolle Embroidering (c. 1895).jpg|Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Christine Lerolle Embroidering, c. 1895 File:Henri Rousseau - The tiger hunt.jpg|Henri Rousseau, Tiger Hunt, c. 1895 File:Cassatt - Portrait of a Young Woman.jpg|Mary Cassatt Portrait of a Young Woman, Pastel on paper, 1898 File:Girl Asleep by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Columbus Museum of Art .JPG|Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Girl Asleep, 1905–06 File:'Cosmos' by Marsden Hartley, Columbus Museum of Art.jpg|Marsden Hartley, Cosmos, Oil on Canvas, 1908–09 File:Men and Mountains by Rockwell Kent, Columbus Museum of Art.JPG|Rockwell Kent, Men and Mountains, 1909 File:Middleton Manigault - The Rocket (1909).jpg|Edward Middleton Manigault - The Rocket, 1909 File:Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Tower Room, Fehmarn (1913) 02.jpg|Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Tower Room, Fehmarn, 1913 File:Juan Gris - Glass of Beer and Playing Cards.jpg|Juan Gris, Glass of Beer and Playing Cards, 1914 File:Pre-War Pageant by Marsden Hartley, 1914.JPG|Marsden Hartley, Pre-War Pageant, 1914 File:Jacques Villon, 1914, Portrait de M. J. B. peintre (Jacques Bon), oil on canvas, 121.92 x 81.28 cm, Columbus Museum of Art.jpg|Jacques Villon, Portrait de M. J. B. peintre (Jacques Bon), 1914 File:Pablo Picasso, 1914-15, Nature morte au compotier (Still Life with Compote and Glass), oil on canvas, 63.5 x 78.7 cm (25 x 31 in), Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio.jpg|Pablo Picasso, Nature morte au compotier (Still Life with Compote and Glass), oil on canvas, 1914–15 File:George Wesley Bellows - Riverfront No. 1 (1915).jpg|George Wesley Bellows, Riverfront No. 1, 1915 File:Twilight Moon by Charles Burchfield, 1916, Columbus Museum of Art.JPG|Charles Burchfield, Twilight Moon, 1916 File:Lhasa,1916.jpg|Charles Sheeler, Lhasa, 1916 File:Delaunay Portuguese Woman.jpg|Robert Delaunay, Portuguese Woman, Oil on canvas, 1916 File:William Glackens - Beach Scene, New London (1918).jpg|William Glackens, Beach Scene, New London, 1918 File:The Tower by Charles Demuth, Columbus Museum of Art.jpg|Charles Demuth, The Tower, 1920

References

References

1. "Columbus Museum of Art Announces Brooke A. Minto as New Executive Director and CEO".
2. (28 October 2015). "Newly completed expansion gives Columbus Museum of Art a welcoming wow factor (Photos)".
3. [https://www.columbusmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Chronology-2015.pdf Museum chronology]
4. (August 2016). "Sessions Society". Columbus Museum of Art.
5. {{NRISref. 2008a
6. (31 August 2015). "Columbus Museum of Art names new wing in honor of benefactors". The Columbus Dispatch.
7. (25 November 2015). "Architect Michael Bongiorno on DesignGroup's New Wing at the Columbus Museum of Art - Architizer Journal".
8. Goldsmith, Suzanne. (September 6, 2018). "Pizzuti Collection to become part of Columbus Museum of Art". The Columbus Dispatch.
9. (March 13, 2020). "Columbus libraries, art museum to close amid coronavirus pandemic". Columbus Business First.
10. (2021-06-17). "A New Museum Network Is Focusing On the Monuments Men's Long-Overlooked Postwar Cultural Contributions".
11. "Ohio SP Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts".
12. "Columbus Museum of Art Online Collection".