Sheldon Museum of Art | |
 Front (east) entrance | |
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| Location | R St & N 12th St Lincoln, Nebraska U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 40°49′03″N96°42′16″W / 40.8175°N 96.704444°W |
| Built | 1963 |
| Architect | Philip Johnson |
| Website | sheldonartgallery |
| NRHP reference No. | 13000676 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | September 3, 2013 [1] |
The Sheldon Museum of Art is an art museum in the city of Lincoln, in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. Its collection focuses on 19th- and 20th-century art.
In 1888, The Sheldon Art Association was founded as the Haydon Art Club. It got its name in honor of the British painter, Benjamin Robert Haydon. The Haydon Art Club held an annual art exhibit and supplied art education to the university. In the early 1900s, the club underwent a reorganization and was incorporated under its new name, the Nebraska Art Association. [2]
The Sheldon Art Association is a non-profit organization that has over 500 members.
The Sheldon Museum of Art was initially known as the University of Nebraska Art Galleries, and was then formerly known as Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. The museum's name was changed in 2008, along with the support organization that supports the museum, which is now known as the Sheldon Art Association, formerly the Nebraska Art Association. [2]
The museum exhibited its collection in locations around the university, including Morrill Hall, until a dedicated building was completed in 1963. [3] Located at the junction of 12th and R Streets, on the city campus of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the Sheldon was designed by architect Philip Johnson and is a U.S. National Register of Historic Places. [4] The building's other distinctive features are a great hall with golden disks suspended from the ceiling, a spacious Great Hall, and a bridge-type grand staircase.
In 1959, Phillip Johnson proclaimed the Sheldon as the best building he had ever designed. [5] As part of Johnson's artist statement, [6] he said of the Sheldon “[T]oday the museum building stands as a community like the church courthouse of the last century. The architect must therefore create, inside and out, a symbolic structure which the community can refer to with some pride … The symbolic function of the Sheldon Gallery is fulfilled, I feel, not only the ‘classical’ exterior of travertine but mainly by the great hall which orients the visitor, as well as elevating his spirits.” The museum was designed with the idea of avoiding what he referred to as “museum fatigue”. This is the idea that visitors to museums often feel alienated from the museum environment. [7] This is a result of the freedom which he was given to him by the art association and its first director, Norman Geske. [7]
The building was funded by a gift of Frances Sheldon and her brother A. Bromley Sheldon. [8] The building was funded by two bequests by Frances Sheldon of $921,660 and her brother, A. Bromley Sheldon or $675,000. The Sheldon family owned a number of farms and a lumber yard in Lexington, Nebraska. [9] The building features Roman travertine, which is a type of limestone. [10] For many decades one of the key features of the great hall was an installation by Japanese-American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, called “Song of the Bird.” He was invited to create and install a work as part of the building's opening ceremonies in May 1963. [11]
In 1956, Norman Geske was the first director of the Sheldon Museum of Art, and is widely credited with establishing the Sheldon's modern art collection, as well as other regional cultural programs and institutions like Interstate 80 Bicentennial Sculpture Project, the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney and the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, originally known as the Sheldon Film Theater. [16]
In 2014, Wally Mason, the former director and chief curator at Haggerty Museum of Art from Marquette University in Milwaukee, became director of the Sheldon. [17]
The Sheldon houses both the Sheldon Art Association collection (founded in 1888 as the Haydon Art Club), and the University of Nebraska collection, initiated in 1929. Together they comprise more than 12,000 works of art in all media. This comprehensive collection of American art includes prominent holdings of 19th-century landscape and still life, American Impressionism, early Modernism, Geometric abstraction, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Lyrical Abstraction, Color Field painting, Minimalism and Contemporary Art. In April 1965, "Golden Age", a painting by Benjamin West was stolen and recovered by the FBI. Charged in the incident was a student from the University of Nebraska. [18]
In the sculpture garden, more than 30 monumental sculptures are exhibited year-round. Among them are works by Gaston Lachaise, Jacques Lipchitz, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, David Smith, Lyman Kipp, William G. Tucker, Bryan Hunt, Mark di Suvero, Michael Heizer, and Richard Serra. When the sculpture garden's first installations occurred, they were sometimes controversial. A woman once called a secretary and complained “I think Norman Geske should be fired, and what's more, he should be asked to leave the state because of all the junk he's introduced into the sunken garden south of the gallery. [19]
In 1998, Man in the Open Air, a 1915 bronze sculpture by Elie Nadelman, was stolen from the sculpture garden. Police speculated that it had been taken in the course of post-game revelry following the university football team's victory in the Orange Bowl. About a week later, it was recovered on the university's East Campus. The gallery's director hypothesized that the thief or thieves had been unaware of the work's value, estimated at over $500,000, and, after learning this, had placed it where it would be discovered by security guards during their rounds. Following $15,000 in restoration and repair, the sculpture was put on display inside the building. [20] [21] [22]
The Sheldon's exhibition program comprises approximately 20 exhibitions per year and focuses on American art in all media. The curatorial staff organizes exhibitions drawn from the permanent collection, many of which circulate nationally. The program also includes exhibitions organized by peer institutions throughout the United States. Educational programs such as symposia, lectures, children's workshops and tours are organized in conjunction with each exhibition.
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the United States Congress. Andrew W. Mellon donated a substantial art collection and funds for construction. The core collection includes major works of art donated by Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Samuel Henry Kress, Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Browne Widener, Joseph E. Widener, and Chester Dale. The Gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile created by Alexander Calder.
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The Joslyn Art Museum is a fine arts museum in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn, in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. Since its opening there have been multiple building expansions to house the museum's growing collection. It is the only museum in Nebraska with a comprehensive permanent collection. Some of the main works in the museum are part of the nineteenth and twentieth-century collections of American and European artists.
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Hazen and Robinson was an architecture firm that practiced in Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1947 to 1967. N. Bruce Hazen and Marvin Robinson were the two principle architects and founders of the firm. Together they created buildings that till this day shape the landscape of downtown Lincoln Nebraska, the Nebraska State Capitol, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, one of the largest universities in the American Midwest. Additionally, they did many historic home districts in Lincoln. The firms’ modernist approach to design was reflected in their design. This is most noticeable in their partnership with Philip Johnson on the Sheldon Art Gallery, and other buildings including Kimball Recital Hall, Westbrook Music Building and Pershing Auditorium.
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40°49′03″N96°42′16″W / 40.81750°N 96.70444°W
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