The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is located at the cultural district of Fort Worth, Texas. This museum features a permanent collection of sculptures, paintings, photography, and works on paper by artists in the United States as well as its other territories during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The best concentration of works is from the 1820s to the 1940s. In this article, we are going to know more about the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
History
The museum of western art was conceived by Amon G. Carter Sr., a publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which is a large-circulation daily newspaper in Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Carter’s wife took the first step in creating the museum’s collection in 1945 when she founded a non-profit foundation called the Amon G. Carter Foundation. The family then invests most of its wealth into it to provide money to support different civic causes. During the time when the foundation was established, Amon Carter has been actively collecting art done by Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington for over ten years.
In October 1950, Carter told the City of Fort Worth that he has intentions to build and equip a museum and give it to the city. A year later, the Amon G. Carter Foundation decided to purchase a part of the museum’s future location in order to protect it from commercial encroachment. However, in 1955, Amon G. Carter died, and he stated in his last will that he wishes to empower the foundation in order to make a museum to put his art collection. He also hoped for the museum to be operated as a non-profit artistic enterprise for the public and be able to help promote the cultural spirit of the City of Fort Worth.
Amon Carter’s daughter and New Yorker architect Philip C. Johnson had a chance encounter at a Houston dinner party. This meeting led to the commissioning of Johnson to be the future lead architect of the museum. In 1959, the Amon G. Carter Foundation and the City of Fort Worth signed a contract to create a museum of western art. The agreement states that the city will give the remainder of the land that is needed to build the museum. In 1960, the museum’s construction began, and the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art was opened on January 21, 1961.
Location and Design
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is located on 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd. It is situated on a gentle hillside overlooking downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Amon Carter personally chose the location of the museum. Architect Philip Johnson made sure that he positioned the building as high as possible on the hillside so that visitors can witness a maximized panoramic view to the east.
When it comes to the design to the museum, Philip Johnson said that the Renaissance-style lodge inspired it with a covered and open gallery that leads you to an open plaza. The east façade of the museum has a grassy square that is surrounded by a promenade.
The Museum’s Collection
The collection in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art is mainly focused on the depictions of the Old West done by Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington. These artworks portray nineteenth-century exploration and settlement of the North American continent. There is also a full spectrum of American photography here in the museum. It is documented in 45,000 exhibition quality prints that are dated from the earliest years of photography to the present. The museum also features a rotating selection of works from its permanent collection during regular museum hours. Several of these artworks can also be viewed and studied online via the Collection tab on the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s official website. The admission for all exhibits, as well as the special exhibitions at the ACMAA, are free.
