High Museum of Art

High Museum of Art
Established	1905
Location	1280 Peachtree Street NE Atlanta
Type	Art museum
Director	Michael E. Shapiro
Public transit access	Arts Center station
Website	www.high.org

The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High), located in Atlanta, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States and one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district, the High is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center.

History

Retracings, a digital transparent work by Deanna Sirlin

Part of the new addition to the High designed by Renzo Piano.

Claude Monet's Houses of Parliament

An Auguste Rodin sculpture piece called "The Shade," donated to the High by the French government in memory of victims of a plane crash during a museum-sponsored trip in Paris, France.

The Museum was founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association. In 1926, the High family, for whom the museum is named, donated their family home on Peachtree Street to house the collection following a series of exhibitions involving the Grand Central Art Galleries organized by Atlanta collector J. J. Haverty. Many pieces from the Haverty collection are now on permanent display in the High. A separate building for the Museum was built adjacent to the family home in 1955.

On June 3, 1962, 106 Atlanta arts patrons died in an airplane crash at Orly Airport in Paris, France, while on a museum-sponsored trip. Including crew and other passengers, 130 people were killed in what was, at the time, the worst single plane aviation disaster in history. Members of Atlanta's prominent families were lost including members of the Berry family who founded Berry College. During their visit to Paris, the Atlanta arts patrons had seen Whistler's Mother at the Louvre. In the fall of 1962, the Louvre, as a gesture of good will to the people of Atlanta, sent Whistler's Mother to Atlanta to be exhibited at the Atlanta Art Association museum on Peachtree Street.

To honor those killed in the 1962 crash, the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center was built for the High. The French government donated a Rodin sculpture "The Shade" to the High in memory of the victims of the crash.

In 1983, a 135,000-square-foot (12,500 m²) building designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier opened to house the High Museum of Art. The Meier building was funded by a $7.9 million challenge grant from former Coca-Cola president Robert W. Woodruff matched by $20 million raised by the Museum.

In 2002, three new buildings designed by Renzo Piano more than doubled the Museum's size to 312,000 square feet (29,000 m²). The Piano buildings were designed as part of an overall upgrade of the entire Woodruff Arts Center complex.

In 2008, the Museum inked an US$18 million deal for a three-year revolving loan of art from the Musée du Louvre in Paris, resulting in the museum’s highest attendance ever. Its most popular individual show was 2009's Louvre Atlanta: the Louvre and the Masterpiece. Negotiations are also taking place with Metropolitan Museum of Art for possible major loans.

The Museum is also a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate.

Collection

The interior of the High

The High Museum holds more than 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection. Included in this collection are 19th and 20th century American art; European art; decorative arts; modern and contemporary art and photography. Highlights of the permanent collection include works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Martin Johnson Heade, Dorothea Lange, Clarence John Laughlin, and Chuck Close.

The High places special emphasis on supporting and collecting works by Southern self-taught artists, such as Howard Finster, and includes a contextual installation of sculpture and paintings from his Paradise Gardens. The Museum includes a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of self-taught art, a distinction unique among North American museums. The High’s Media Arts department produces an annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic film. Special exhibitions at the High feature strong global partnerships with other museums such as the Louvre and with the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and the Opificio delle pietre dure in Florence.

Exhibits

Signs for the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the High Museum of Art

Across from the High during the "Picasso to Warhol" exhibit

• October 2007-September 2008: Louvre Atlanta: The Louvre and the Ancient World
• October 2007-May 2008: Louvre Atlanta: Eye of Josephine
• December 2007-August 2008: Street Life: American Photographs form the 1960s and 70s
• May 2008-August 2008: Young Americans: Photographs by Sheila Pree Bright
• June 2008-September 2008: Louvre Atlanta: Houdon at the Louvre: Masterworks of the Enlightenment
• June 2008-October 2008: Road to Freedom: Photographs from the Civil Rights Movement, 1956–1968
• June 2008-October 2008: After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy
• November 2008: The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army
• 2008: Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from the Victoria and Albert Museum
• 2008: Louvre Atlanta: The Louvre and the Masterpiece
• 2008: The Treasure of Ulysses Davis
• April 2009: Anthony Ames, Architect: Residential Landscapes
• October 2009-February 2010: Leonardo da Vinci: The Hand of the Genius
• 2009: Monet "Water Lilies" Exhibit
• March 2010-June 2010: The Allure of the Automobile
• August 2010-January 2011: Dali: The Late Work
• October 15, 2011 - April 29, 2012: Picasso to Warhol - modern art including Picasso, Pollock, Matisse, Mondrian, and Warhol.

External links

• High Museum of Art official website