Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Memphis, TN
901-544-6200
About the Museum
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is the oldest and largest fine arts institution in Tennessee. The Mid-South's leading encyclopedic art museum is located in its original, landmark 1916 building, and an award-winning 1989 addition. This addition includes the rotunda, an auditorium, art studio, an orientation theater, a recently renovated museum store, and a highly acclaimed restaurant, The Brushmark Restaurant, which features floor to ceiling windows, as well as an outdoor terrace (one of the largest in Memphis), overlooking historic Overton Park.
The Brooks permanent collection of paintings highlights Italian Renaissance and Baroque as well as British, French Impressionists and 20th Century artists. The Kress Collection is a magnificent assembly of the best of this millionaire's Renaissance paintings. The Brooks has one of the finest collections of English portraiture in the South, with works by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Lawrence and Romney among others. Impressionists include Pissarro, Sisley, and Renoir. Winslow Homer, Thomas Hart Benton, Childe Hassam and Robert Henri are just a few of the Americans represented at the Brooks, and many well-known figures in contemporary art are represented in the Brooks and in the Fogelman Collection, including Kenneth Noland, Robert Motherwell and Nancy Graves. In addition, one of the more noted collections is that of an internationally-acclaimed regional artist, originally from Arkansas, who lived in Memphis during the latter part of his life: Carroll Clear.
The Brooks is located in Overton Park, off Poplar Avenue just west of East Parkway and south of North Parkway and adjacent to the Zoo. Admission fee. For hours and admission fees please see the Museum's website.
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