Carnegie International: History

In May, the Carnegie Museum of Art will open the 55th Carnegie International featuring the works of nearly 40 artists from around the world. Over the years the show has changed the way it looks and feels while still spotlighting artists that are destine for greatness. It all started in 1896 when Andrew Carnegie decided the city needed an art museum. There were two problems, he did not have many pictures to put on display and he did not want to spend too much to start a collection. So he told his employees to build a museum by purchasing the works of the “old masters of tomorrow” and the museum has been growing with the help of the exhibition ever since.

The Carnegie International enjoyed varying degrees of success over the decades and soon fell into a grove of hiring a new curator for each show including Richard Armstrong who did the 1995 show and then stuck around as the director of the museum where he is today. Now Douglass Fogle is putting together the 55th Carnegie International and has been scouring the world for two years looking for those “old masters of tomorrow” and maybe even a few good bargains to add to the museum’s growing collection

Listen to a longer version of this story.


WDUQ’s Mark Nootbaar will examine a different aspect of the Carnegie International every month through the opening of the show.

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