The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University is an art museum at Indiana University Bloomington. It was opened in 1941 as the Indiana University Museum of Art under the direction of Henry Radford Hope.
The present museum building was designed by I.M. Pei and Partners and dedicated in 1982. The collection includes items ranging from ancient jewelry to paintings by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. In May 2016, after the announcement of the largest cash gift in the museum's history, the museum was renamed the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art in honor of Indianapolis-based philanthropists Sidney and Lois Eskenazi. The museum is located on the Indiana University Bloomington campus at 1133 E. Seventh Street.
History
The Eskenazi Museum of Art opened in 1941 in a gallery space in Mitchell Hall under the newly appointed head of the Department of Fine Arts, Henry Radford Hope. The first exhibition, Sixteen Brown County Painters, opened on November 21, 1941. Solley, a trained architect, was perfectly suited to start the process of establishing a separate building for the art museum. In May 2017, the museum closed for renovation. The renovation was completed in 2019, and the museum reopened to the public in November that year.
In late 2023, the museum canceled a planned retrospective exhibition of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby, a 1963 graduate of the university's MFA program. A university spokesperson told The New York Times in early 2024 that "academic leaders and campus officials canceled the exhibit due to concerns about guaranteeing the integrity of the exhibit for its duration," but Halaby told the Times that before the cancelation the museum's director had informed her of staff members' concerns over her social media posts in support of Palestinian causes and her comparing of the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in the Gaza war to genocide. Michigan State University's Broad Art Museum hosted the exhibition in June 2024 as originally planned.
Collections
The museum features four permanent collections galleries: the Jane Fortune Gallery, featuring European and American art through the 18th century; the Modern and Contemporary gallery, featuring European and American art from the 19th century on; the Ancient, Asian, and Islamic Art gallery; and the Raymond and Laura Wielgus Gallery of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Art of the Americas. In addition to the permanent collections galleries, the museum has three gallery spaces for rotating exhibitions: the Special Exhibitions gallery; the Time-based Media Gallery, which focuses on film, new media, and similar types of art; and the Rhonda and Anthony Moravec Gallery in the Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Center.
In the museum's Ancient, Asian, and Islamic Art gallery, ancient Chinese porcelains, Japanese paintings, classical Greek, Roman, and Etruscan vases, bronzes, and mosaics are on display. The Burton Y. Berry Collection of Ancient Jewelry consists of 5,000 pieces from across the ancient world.
Works by German and Austrian Expressionists August Macke, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alexej von Jawlensky, Max Beckmann, and Emil Nolde, along with early modern European and American masters such as Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, and Kurt Schwitters, are in the museum's collection.
There are also European Old Master paintings by Niccolo di Buonaccorso, Apollonio di Giovanni, Taddeo Gaddi, Vittore Crivelli, Felipe Vigarny, Gerard Terborch the Elder, Emanuel de Witte, Bernardo Strozzi, and Jean Louis Laneuville, among others. There are also 19th century European paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Charles Daubigny, Gustave Caillebotte ("Yerres, Rain Effect"), and Claude Monet ("Port of Argentieul") among others.
The museum features temporary exhibitions in its Featured Exhibitions, Time-based Media, and Rhonda and Anthony Moravec galleries.
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File:Female Cycladic figurine, Eskenazi Museum of Art.jpg|alt=The female figure is displayed in a standing position with pointed feet and folded arms. Anatomical forms are minimal and stylized.|Cycladic, attributed to the Goulandris Master. Woman, ca. 2500–2400 BCE. Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 76.25
File:Red-figure vase painting with Ionic building.jpg|Late fourth-century BCE Greek red-figure volute krater. Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
File:Copy of the Resting Satyr by Praxiteles in the Eskenazi Museum of Art.jpg|alt=A torso of a young man with legs broken off at the upper thigh, arms broken at the shoulder joints, and head broken off at the base of the neck. His body is twisted into an S-curve as if he was in a leaning position. He wears a panther skin draped over his right shoulder and wrapped across his chest.|Roman, after Greek original by Praxiteles. Torso with Panther Skin, 100–200 CE. Marble, 33 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 11. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Adams and Dr. and Mrs. Henry R. Hope in memory of George Heighway, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 64.104
File:Ancient Greek figurine of an Amazon on horseback, taken at Eskenazi Museum of Art on 3 December 2019 (2).jpg|alt=A female warrior is seated on the back of a rearing horse. She wears a one-shouldered tunic that flows behind her, a feathered helmet, a shield and jewelry, which are decorated with reds, browns, white, and gold. The horse's bridle and reins are similarly decorated.|Greek. Amazon Riding Horse, 330–280 BCE. Terracotta, added color, and gold. Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 81.8
File:Roman marble bust of Septimius Severus, Eskenazi Museum of Art.jpg|alt=Bust of a man with curly hair and beard. He glances to his left. He wears a tunic and fringed cloak, fastened at his left shoulder with a circular brooch.|Roman. Bust of Emperor Septimius Severus, 200–210 CE. Marble, 30 5/16 in. Gift of Thomas T. Solley, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 75.33.1
File:Bust of an emaciated Buddha, Eskenazi Museum of Art.jpg|alt=The head and torso of the emmaciated Buddha with halo. Traces of gilding remain in the crevices of the stone.|Gandharan. Fasting Buddha, 2nd–3rd century CE. Schist with traces of gilding, 9 7/8 x 7 x 3 1/8 in. Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 79.53
File:Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Matteo di Giovanni, Eskenazi Museum of Art.jpg|alt=A woman in a red dress stands at the center of the painting, holding a sword above her head with her right hand and holding the decapitated head of a man in her left hand. The landscape behind her features an encampment with several tents and a man on a horse.|Attributed to Matteo di Giovanni (Italian, 1430–1495). Judith with the Head of Holofernes, ca. 1490. Oil on panel, 27 3/8 x 23 5/8 x 3 5/8 in. The Samuel H. Kress Study Collection, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 62.163
File:Altarpiece of the Resurrection by the Master of the Holy Kinship, Eskenazi Museum of Art.jpg|alt=Christ is the largest, central figure in a fantastical landscape filled with other figures and iconographic markers of his resurrection. Christ floats above his tomb, gesturing to show his stigmata, holding a staff with a cross, and adorned with a red robe and crown. In the distant background, the enthroned figure of Christ appears again in the clouds, surrounded by light.|Master of the Holy Kinship (German, active 1480–1518 in Cologne). Resurrection, ca 1490. Oil on panel, 56 x 39 1/4 x 2 1/2. Given in memory of Marguerite Lilly Noyes by Thomas T. Solley, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 78.62.2
File:Hendrick de Clerck - The Finding of Moses.jpg|alt=Seven women are gathered in a landscape, standing and sitting around an infant in a basket. At the center of the composition, one of the women points with her left hand to the infant. All of the women are finely dressed in bright, elaborate costumes while the infant is partially wrapped in a simple white cloth.|Hendrick de Clerck (Flemish, ca. 1570–1630). The Finding of Moses, ca. 1600–1620. Oil on panel, 61 1/2 x 72 x 3 in. Gift of Mr. Stanley S. Wulc, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 66.24
File:Jean de Bry, by Jean Louis Laneuville.jpg|alt=A waist-length portrait of a man seated in a simple chair against a plain green background. He is wearing a red waistcost and blue coat, holding a rolled document in his right hand. His expression is neutral as he looks directly at us.|Jean Louis Laneuville (French, 1748–1826). Portrait of Jean de Bry, ca. 1793. Oil on canvas, 34 x 29 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 77.54.1
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Education and programs
The museum has education programs where schools in 51 of the 90 counties in Indiana participate, allowing a reach of about 7,000 students per year. The museum partners with 55 different university academic departments to provide curriculum-based tours for students at the university. The museum also employs an art therapist for its Arts-based Wellness program, providing programming focused on mental health, well-being, and community to both university affiliates and the public.
Following the museum's renovation, four new learning were established to teach about the museum and its collection. These are the Center for Conservation, the Center for Curatorial Studies, the Center for Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, and the Kimberly and John Simpson Center for Education.
I.M. Pei-designed Building
The building, designed by I.M. Pei and Partners, was completed in 1982. The installation, titled A Gust of Wind, is made up of satin-finish acrylic cast into sheets made to resemble paper. They are suspended from the ceiling and give the appearance of a cloud of sheets of white paper blowing into the museum's Atrium from the outdoor Sculpture Terrace entrance. It was commissioned as a temporary installation to celebrate the 25–year anniversary of the Eskenazi Museum of Art building. Due to its popularity with the campus and community, Light Totem was approved by the Board of Trustees to become a permanent fixture outside the museum in 2010. Artist Robert Shakespeare used LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to illuminate both the 70-foot freestanding tower, and the 40-foot tube within the atrium of the museum.
The Light Totem also illuminates the wall of the Art Museum with a computerized display of changing colors. Each of the lighted sections can be programmed to project any color and change color up to every tenth of a second. The entire display uses only 3,000 watts of electricity, about the amount used when a hair dryer and toaster are running simultaneously, according to the artist. Students often can be seen lying on their backs with their feet up on the wall, watching the colors change.