Corcoran Gallery of Art
Encyclopedia
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art
. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix
, Edgar Degas
, Thomas Gainsborough
, John Singer Sargent
, Claude Monet
, Pablo Picasso
, Edward Hopper
, Willem de Kooning
, Joan Mitchell
, Gene Davis
, and many others. There are always several exhibitions on display, regularly featuring contemporary work on the second floor with modern and early American work on the first floor. The Corcoran is the oldest and largest non-federal art museum in the District of Columbia. Its mission is to be "dedicated to art and used solely for the purpose of encouraging the American genius."
, the co-founder of Riggs Bank
, it was one of the first fine art
galleries in the country. Corcoran established the gallery, supported with an endowment
, "for the perpetual establishment and encouragement of the Fine Arts."
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was originally located at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
, in the building that now houses the Renwick Gallery
. Construction of that building started before the Civil War
. The building, near completion, was used by the government as a warehouse during the Civil War. It was finally completed in 1874 and the gallery opened to the public.
By 1897, the Corcoran Gallery collection outgrew the space of its original building. A new building was constructed, designed by Ernest Flagg
in a Beaux-Arts style. The building spans 135,000 square feet (12,500 m²). A proposed addition by Frank O. Gehry would have more than doubled the museum's size, but the plan was scrapped due to funding problems in the summer of 2005.
The museum and its affiliated art and design college Corcoran College of Art and Design
together have a staff of about 185 and an operating budget of about $20 million. Revenue comes from various sources, including grants and contributions, admissions fees, tuition, membership dues, gift shop and restaurant sales, and an endowment
currently worth around $30 million. In February 2001, two AOL executives (Robert W. Pittman
and Barry Schuler
) and their wives donated $30 million to the museum, its largest single donation since its founding.
were horrified when the works were revealed to them, and the museum refused to go forth with the exhibit.
There was a public protest.
In June 1989, pop art
ist Lowell Blair Nesbitt
became involved with a scandal involving Mapplethorpe's work.
It was at this time that Nesbitt, a long-time friend of Mapplethorpe, revealed that he had a $1.5 million bequest to the museum in his will. Nesbitt publicly promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition he would revoke his bequest. The Corcoran refused and Nesbitt bequeathed the money to the Phillips Collection
instead.
After the Corcoran refused the Mapplethorpe exhibition, the underwriters of the exhibition went to the nonprofit Washington Project for the Arts
, which showed the controversial images in its own space from July 21 - August 13, 1989, to large crowds.
The 1990 NEA
Appropriations Bill included language against "obscene" work.
Artists canceled exhibitions.
The director Christina Orr-Cahall resigned and moved to the Norton Museum of Art
.
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: 10:00am–5:00pm
Thursday: 10:00am–9:00pm
Friday: 10:00am–5:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am–5:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am–5:00pm
Adult admission is $10.00. Admission for seniors and students is $8.00. Children under 12 and gallery members enjoy free admission. More information is available on the gallery's admissions website.
Visual arts of the United States
American art encompasses the history of painting and visual art in the United States. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, artists primarily painted landscapes and portraits in a realistic style. A parallel development taking shape in rural America was the American craft movement,...
. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
, Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
, Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
, John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
, Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
, Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
, Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell was a "second generation" abstract expressionist painter. She was an essential member of the American Abstract expressionist movement, even though much of her career took place in France. Along with Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, and Helen Frankenthaler she was one of her era's few...
, Gene Davis
Gene Davis
Gene or Eugene Davis may refer to:*Gene Davis , US painter, from Washington, DC*Gene Davis , born Eugene M. Davis, US actor*Gene Davis , American Olympic wrestler...
, and many others. There are always several exhibitions on display, regularly featuring contemporary work on the second floor with modern and early American work on the first floor. The Corcoran is the oldest and largest non-federal art museum in the District of Columbia. Its mission is to be "dedicated to art and used solely for the purpose of encouraging the American genius."
History
When the gallery was founded in 1869 by William Wilson CorcoranWilliam Wilson Corcoran
William Wilson Corcoran was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector.-Early life:Corcoran was born in Georgetown in the District of Columbia, the son of a well-to-do father whom the electors of Georgetown twice chose as mayor. His father, Thomas Corcoran, came to Georgetown in 1788...
, the co-founder of Riggs Bank
Riggs Bank
Riggs Bank was a Washington, D.C.-based commercial bank with branches located in the surrounding metropolitan area and offices around the world. For most of its history, it was the largest bank in the nation's capital. Riggs had been controlled by the Albritton family since the 1980s, but they lost...
, it was one of the first fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
galleries in the country. Corcoran established the gallery, supported with an endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
, "for the perpetual establishment and encouragement of the Fine Arts."
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was originally located at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
, in the building that now houses the Renwick Gallery
Renwick Gallery
The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, located in Washington, D.C., and focuses on American craft and decorative arts from the 19th century to the 21st century...
. Construction of that building started before the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The building, near completion, was used by the government as a warehouse during the Civil War. It was finally completed in 1874 and the gallery opened to the public.
By 1897, the Corcoran Gallery collection outgrew the space of its original building. A new building was constructed, designed by Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg was a noted American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility.-Biography:...
in a Beaux-Arts style. The building spans 135,000 square feet (12,500 m²). A proposed addition by Frank O. Gehry would have more than doubled the museum's size, but the plan was scrapped due to funding problems in the summer of 2005.
The museum and its affiliated art and design college Corcoran College of Art and Design
Corcoran College of Art and Design
The Corcoran College of Art and Design, , founded in 1890, is the only professional college of art and design in Washington, DC, located in the Downtown area. The school is a private institution in association with the Corcoran Gallery of Art.The Corcoran Gallery of Art is Washington's first and...
together have a staff of about 185 and an operating budget of about $20 million. Revenue comes from various sources, including grants and contributions, admissions fees, tuition, membership dues, gift shop and restaurant sales, and an endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
currently worth around $30 million. In February 2001, two AOL executives (Robert W. Pittman
Robert W. Pittman
Robert Warren "Bob" Pittman , is an American businessman and the founder of MTV. On October 2, 2011, Pittman was named CEO of Clear Channel Media Holdings, Inc.. Pittman has also been the CEO of MTV Networks, AOL, Six Flags Theme Parks, Quantum Media, Century 21 Real Estate and Time Warner...
and Barry Schuler
Barry Schuler
Barry Martin Schuler is an American Internet entrepreneur and former chairman and CEO of America Online Inc...
) and their wives donated $30 million to the museum, its largest single donation since its founding.
Mapplethorpe Scandal
In 1989, the Corcoran Gallery of Art had agreed to host a traveling solo exhibit of Mapplethorpe's works, without making a stipulation as to what type of subject matter would be used. Mapplethorpe decided to show a new series that he had explored shortly before his death, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment curated by Janet Kardon of the Institute of Contemporary Art. The hierarchy of the Corcoran and several members of CongressUnited States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
were horrified when the works were revealed to them, and the museum refused to go forth with the exhibit.
There was a public protest.
In June 1989, pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
ist Lowell Blair Nesbitt
Lowell Blair Nesbitt
Lowell Blair Nesbitt was a painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor.-Early years:Lowell Nesbitt was a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and also attended the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England where he created a number of works in the...
became involved with a scandal involving Mapplethorpe's work.
It was at this time that Nesbitt, a long-time friend of Mapplethorpe, revealed that he had a $1.5 million bequest to the museum in his will. Nesbitt publicly promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition he would revoke his bequest. The Corcoran refused and Nesbitt bequeathed the money to the Phillips Collection
Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
instead.
After the Corcoran refused the Mapplethorpe exhibition, the underwriters of the exhibition went to the nonprofit Washington Project for the Arts
Washington Project for the Arts
Washington Project for the Arts, founded in 1975, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support and aid of artists in the Washington, D.C. area.-History:...
, which showed the controversial images in its own space from July 21 - August 13, 1989, to large crowds.
The 1990 NEA
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Appropriations Bill included language against "obscene" work.
Artists canceled exhibitions.
The director Christina Orr-Cahall resigned and moved to the Norton Museum of Art
Norton Museum of Art
The Norton Museum of Art is an art museum located in West Palm Beach, Florida. Its collection includes over 5,000 works, with a concentration in European, American, and Chinese art as well as in contemporary art and photography.-History:...
.
Operations
Museum hours are as follows:Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: 10:00am–5:00pm
Thursday: 10:00am–9:00pm
Friday: 10:00am–5:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am–5:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am–5:00pm
Adult admission is $10.00. Admission for seniors and students is $8.00. Children under 12 and gallery members enjoy free admission. More information is available on the gallery's admissions website.