ARTnews Names America's 30 Best Art Museums
Editors from ARTnews and Art in America have compiled a list of the 30 top art museums in the U.S., evaluating them on their permanent collections, temporary exhibitions, and architectural design. Among the highlighted institutions are the Baltimore Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Barnes Foundation, Clark Art Institute, Kimbell Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Detroit Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Frick Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Menil Collection, Dia Beacon, Whitney Museum of American Art, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and Getty Center. The selection exhibits a noticeable New York bias, showcasing notable collections and architectural attributes from each museum.
Key facts
- List compiled by editors of ARTnews and Art in America
- Based on permanent collection breadth, exhibition program, and architecture
- Includes 30 museums across the US
- Baltimore Museum of Art has over 1,200 Matisse works
- Seattle Art Museum features Olympic Sculpture Park
- MFA Houston has deep Latin American art holdings
- Barnes Foundation displays art without wall text
- Clark Art Institute received 331 artworks from Aso O. Tavitian Foundation
- Kimbell Art Museum designed by Louis Kahn
- Yale University Art Gallery is America's first university art museum
- NMAAHC opened in 2016 with 40,000 objects
- Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth designed by Tadao Ando
- High Museum tripled nonwhite audience from 15% to 45% (2015-2017)
- Crystal Bridges founded by Alice Walton in 2011
- Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco include Legion of Honor and de Young
- Detroit Institute of Arts has Diego Rivera murals
- Walker Art Center manages Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum suffered largest art heist in 1990
- Cleveland Museum of Art holds Picasso's La Vie (1903)
- Frick Collection has three Vermeer paintings
- Philadelphia Museum of Art houses Duchamp's Étant donnés
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum expanded in 2023
- LACMA opened David Geffen Galleries in April 2024
- Menil Collection designed by Renzo Piano
- Dia Beacon opened in 2003 in former factory
- Whitney Museum founded in 1931 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
- John Michael Kohler Arts Center features Art Preserve
- Getty Center holds collection from 6000 BCE to today
- Editors acknowledge New York skew in selection
Entities
Artists
- Henri Matisse
- Pablo Picasso
- Claude Monet
- Edgar Degas
- Alexander Calder
- Mark Rothko
- Lee Krasner
- Alberto Giacometti
- Joan Mitchell
- Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
- Yayoi Kusama
- Jacob Lawrence
- Amoako Boafo
- Lauren Halsey
- Richard Serra
- Louise Nevelson
- Beverly Pepper
- Albert Barnes
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Paul Cézanne
- Tadao Ando
- William Bouguereau
- Robert Sterling Clark
- Caravaggio
- El Greco
- Duccio
- Georges de la Tour
- Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
- Gustave Caillebotte
- John Trumbull
- Winslow Homer
- Georgia O'Keeffe
- Edward Hopper
- Sol LeWitt
- Louis Armstrong
- Chuck Berry
- Harriet Tubman
- David Hammons
- Sam Gilliam
- Rashid Johnson
- Lorna Simpson
- Kara Walker
- Elizabeth Catlett
- Alma Thomas
- Jenny Holzer
- Roxy Paine
- Gordon Parks
- Ernest Withers
- Danny Lyon
- Ted Gordon
- Nellie Mae Rowe
- Ulysses Davis
- Minnie Evans
- Isamu Noguchi
- Alice Walton
- Dave Chihuly
- Louise Bourgeois
- Marina Abramović
- Annie Leibovitz
- KAWS
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Peter Paul Rubens
- Tiepolo
- Rembrandt
- Thomas Gainsborough
- Auguste Rodin
- Diego Rivera
- Vincent van Gogh
- Andy Warhol
- Claes Oldenburg
- Coosje van Bruggen
- Isabella Stewart Gardner
- Johannes Vermeer
- Willard Sears
- Giovanni Bellini
- Henry Clay Frick
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard
- James McNeill Whistler
- Marcel Duchamp
- Constantin Brancusi
- Rocky Balboa
- A. Conger Goodyear
- Frida Kahlo
- Giacomo Balla
- Paul Gauguin
- Georges Seurat
- Marisol
- Peter Zumthor
- Francis Bacon
- Lucian Freud
- Elaine Wynn
- Chris Burden
- Michael Heizer
- John de Menil
- Dominique de Menil
- Renzo Piano
- Cy Twombly
- Dan Flavin
- Donald Judd
- Robert Smithson
- Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
- Jasper Johns
- George Bellows
- Franz Kline
- Sam Barsky
- Eugene von Bruenchenhein
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Institutions
- ARTnews
- Art in America
- Institute of Museum and Library Services
- Baltimore Museum of Art
- Center for Matisse Studies
- Seattle Art Museum
- Olympic Sculpture Park
- Asian Art Museum
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- Kinder Building
- Caroline Wiess Law Building
- International Center for the Arts of the Americas
- Barnes Foundation
- Clark Art Institute
- Aso O. Tavitian Foundation
- Kimbell Art Museum
- Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
- Yale University Art Gallery
- MASS MoCA
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Smithsonian
- High Museum of Art
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Legion of Honor
- de Young Museum
- Detroit Institute of Arts
- Arab American National Museum
- Walker Art Center
- Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Frick Collection
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum
- Museum of Modern Art
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- David Geffen Galleries
- Menil Collection
- Cy Twombly Gallery
- Menil Drawing Institute
- Rothko Chapel
- Dia Beacon
- Dia Art Foundation
- John Michael Kohler Arts Center
- Art Preserve
- Getty Center
- Getty Villa
- Getty Foundation
- PST ART
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Louvre
- Singer Sewing Machine
- Walmart
- Gladstone Gallery
Locations
- United States
- New York State
- New York City
- Baltimore
- Charm City
- Seattle
- Houston
- Texas
- Philadelphia
- Berkshires
- Fort Worth
- Dallas
- New Haven
- Connecticut
- Washington, D.C.
- Atlanta
- Bentonville
- Arkansas
- Ozark
- San Francisco
- Detroit
- Michigan
- Dearborn
- Minneapolis
- Minnesota
- Boston
- Cleveland
- Ohio
- Rust Belt
- Buffalo
- Upstate New York
- Canadian border
- Los Angeles
- Wilshire Boulevard
- La Bear Tar Pits
- Pacific Palisades
- Malibu
- Sheboygan
- Wisconsin
- Hudson River Valley
- Manhattan
- Meatpacking District
- Upper East Side
- Benjamin Franklin Parkway
- Chicago