Dallas Tourist Attraction – Dallas Art Museum

The Dallas Museum of Art, located at 1717 North Harwood in Dallas, Texas has existed in one form or other since 1903. It was originally known as the Dallas Art Association and exhibited paintings owned by the members at the Dallas Public Library. It moved to many different buildings over the years until it came to its current residence in 1984.
The current size of their collection is calculated at over 23,000 separate pieces of art representative of many different style, time periods, and cultures. This collection includes African art, pottery, and decorative clothing focusing on sub-Saharan art. This is made up primarily of two famous collections: the Clark and Frances Stillman Collection of Congo Sculpture and the collection of Gustav and Franyo Schindler. The American Historical collection exhibits paintings, sculptures, and manuscripts representative of the whole of North America. The collection at the Dallas Museum of Art also boasts many millions of dollars worth of art in the: Ancient Native-American, Ancient Mediterranean, Asian, Contemporary, European, Pacific Island- Polynesian, and Provenance Styles.
The jewel crowning the Dallas Museum of Art is the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection. It was donated in 1985 by Wendy Reves in memory of her late husband. This collection includes over 1,400 individual pieces of art composed of painting, sculpture, decorative pieces, textiles, ceramics, and worked silver in the Contemporary, Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist styles. Some of the more renowned works were done by Auguste Rodin, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Honor? Daumier, Gustave Courbet, ?douard Manet, Paul C?zanne, and Vincent van Gogh. The value of the Reves collection is estimated at over 30 million dollars. Such is its importance that the Dallas Museum of Art built a new 15,000 Square foot wing just to accommodate the collection.
A Museum of such size is also expected to host many traveling exhibitions, and the Dallas Museum of Art is no slouch in that regard. It hosts an average of 20 traveling exhibitions and displays each year. In the past two of the most notable have been Van Gogh’s Sheaves of Wheat and a large collection of paintings and sculpture by Matisse. The museum has been honored to be one of only four museums in the country that will be hosting the traveling exhibition “King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs”, which will be arriving in the Fall of 2008 and departing in mid May of 2009. As one can imagine the art community of Dallas, Texas itself, and many surrounding states are eagerly looking forward to the once-in-a-lifetime visit.