The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA)

For more than 120 years the IMA has served the community of Indianapolis through its collections and programs. Most recently it has completed a building project that improved visitor access and amenities and created new gallery space for display of the Museum's collections. The building expansion has several components, the most visible of which are the Efroymson Entrance Pavilion, the Wood Gallery Pavilion and the Deer-Zink Events Pavilion.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is among the largest and oldest general art museums in the United States. Founded in 1883, the Museum now boasts a permanent collection of more than 50,000 works of art that span the range and scope of art history. In addition to housing its world-class art collections, the Museum is also a premier showcase for national and international exhibitions.

The IMA's acclaimed collection of European painting and sculpture comprises more than 500 works from the 12th through the 18th century, ranging in style from the Romanesque to the Rococo. Nearly one-fifth of these works constitute the Clowes Collection, notable for its concentration of masterworks of the Italian, Spanish, Netherlandish and German schools. Click here to visit the IMA's website.

The Clowes Collection

The Clowes Collection has been exhibited for more than a quarter of a century in the Clowes Pavilion and is the cornerstone of the Museum’s collection of Old Master paintings, including works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens and El Greco.

The collection includes paintings, drawings and various decorative arts, from the beginning of the fourteenth to the end of the nineteenth centuries. Dr. George H.A. Clowes and Edith Whitehill Clowes developed the collection through purchases dating back to the 1930's. For several decades, the paintings and objects that comprise the collection graced their home, Westerley, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Following Dr. Clowes's death in 1958, the collection became the property of The Clowes Fund and was first exhibited to the public at the John Herron Art Museum in 1959. Public viewings at Westerley followed until April 1972, when the Clowes Pavilion at the IMA was dedicated in memory of Edith Whitehill Clowes. Alec Clowes, President of The Clowes Fund, recalling his active involvement in the creation and design of the Clowes Pavilion, says "With a goal to recreate the original setting of the pictures at Westerley, we spent time replicating the study and drawing room—the two main rooms where art was displayed." He has a special affinity for the Clowes Pavilion because it was his first and most memorable experience as a Clowes Fund Director. Alec said the Fund "made sure to spend the time, money, and effort necessary creating an interior to house the collection rather than distribute art pieces around the museum."

The Clowes Fund's Board of Directors decided to transfer its entire interest in the collection to the IMA over the next decade or so.

In addition to the collection, the Fund's contributions to the IMA over the years have included approximately $4.5 million for construction of the Clowes Pavilion, its and the collection's ongoing maintenance, plus an endowment of $500,000 in 1999 to establish the Allen Whitehill Clowes Curatorial Fellowship.

The Allen Whitehill Clowes Curatorial Fellowship

The endowed Allen Whitehill Clowes Fellowship supports the scholarship and professional development of outstanding junior scholars who wish to pursue curatorial careers in art museums. The first two fellows, Andrea Golden and Cinzia Mancuso, focused their efforts on three paintings by Giovanni Bellini, two of which are included in the Clowes Collection. The research project, originated as an effort to explore different ways of presenting important works in the Clowes Collection, resulted in a new installation of two galleries in the Clowes Pavilion. The first of these galleries introduces the subject of private devotional art in the Renaissance with a display of twelve works from the collection. The second gallery shifts attention to the demand for such images and the ways in which Giovanni Bellini and his workshop accommodated it by replicating half-length images of the Madonna and Child. There is also an interactive website, Bellini: Creating and Re-creating, which can be viewed on-line and at two computer stations in the gallery. This project is intended as the first in a series of changing installations that will focus on works in the Clowes Collection.

A special thanks to Ronda Kasl, the IMA's Curator of Painting and Sculpture before 1800, who has been integral to the collection's preservation. Her dedication to overseeing the Clowes Fellows and her work as editor of the book Giovanni Bellini and the Art of Devotion, has exposed a new generation to the Clowes Collection. Giovanni Bellini and the Art of Devotion is distributed by University of Washington Press and is available in hardcover or paperback at the IMA.