Carnegie Museum of Art

04/29/2025

"In the process of painting, for the one thing that someone sees, there are innumerable things that they never see." —Raymond Saunders, Nothing to Say, 1987

Since the 1960s, artist Raymond Saunders (b. 1934) has developed a painting practice rooted in improvisation. Working across mediums, he combines everyday objects, found imagery, drawing, notational markings, and text in constellated compositions that blend abstraction and figuration against the complex backdrop of American history.

On view at Carnegie Museum of Art through July 12, Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden, is the artist’s first retrospective exhibition at a major American museum and the most comprehensive consideration of his practice to date.

Plan your visit and get tickets online: https://carnegieart.org/exhibition/raymond-saunders/

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Installation view of Raymond Saunders, Celeste Age 5 Invited Me To Tea (1986), Collection of Jill & Peter Kraus, in Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (March 22, 2025–July 13, 2025); © 2025, Estate of Raymond Saunders. All rights reserved. Photo: Zachary Riggleman / Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

04/27/2025

Have you heard? We’re offering art classes for adults!

Art School for Life! is a new series of technique-building, artist-led classes that draw inspiration from the museum’s collection and exhibitions! Sessions are offered on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, with the first class kicking off on May 4!

Registration is now open, and artists of all skill levels can join. Classes are divided by experience, and all materials are included.

Welcome (back) to Art School! It’s time to refresh and activate your creativity through this series of technique-building classes utilizing Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection and exhibitions as source material. Each artist-led class includes close looking and visual thinking in the galleries, i...

04/25/2025

On the occasion of our exhibition Gala Porras-Kim: The reflection at the threshold of a categorical division, join us for In Conversation: Navigating Classifications next Thursday, May 1, at 6:30 p.m.!

During this conversation, artist Gala Porras-Kim will be joined by Elizabeth Tufts Brown, manager of registration and archives and Travis Snyder, collections information manager and database administrator, and Cynthia Stucki, assistant curator. The group will discuss systems of organization in museums and their impact on how objects are brought into new contexts and methods of interpretation.

This conversation is free to attend, and museum admission is not required. Reserve your seat below!

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In Conversation: Navigating Classifications is supported by The Heinz Awards program of the Heinz Family Foundation.

Join us for a conversation with Gala Porras-Kim; Elizabeth Tufts Brown, manager of registration and archives; and Travis Snyder, collections information manager and database administrator; moderated by Cynthia Stucki, curatorial assistant. They will discuss systems of organization in museums and the...

04/24/2025

From his days as an erratic shortstop and founding member of the Negro League Pittsburgh Crawfords, to his journalistic coverage of sports for the Pittsburgh Courier, Charles “Teenie” Harris amassed a rich archive of over 700 images tracing the history of baseball in Pittsburgh.

This Saturday, April 26, at 2 p.m., Join Charlene Foggie-Barnett, Charles “Teenie” Harris Community Archivist, and Duane Rieder, Executive Director of The Clemente Museum, as they explore Pittsburgh’s baseball history through a selection of images from Harris’s archive!

This event is free with museum admission, learn more at the link below.

Co-Presented with the Clemente Museum Join Charlene Foggie-Barnett, Charles “Teenie” Harris Community Archivist, and Duane Rieder, Executive Director of the Clemente Museum, as they explore Pittsburgh’s baseball history and Charles “Teenie” Harris’s relationship with the Pittsburgh Crawf...

04/23/2025

Known as “Queen Gertrude” to her closest friends, artist Gertrude Abercrombie produced hundreds of paintings imbued with autobiography that revealed her emotional truth and declared it as real.

Currently on view at Carnegie Museum of Art Our exhibition Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery features 85 paintings including Queen (1954), pictured here. Tracing Abercrombie's career and development as an artist, this exhibition is the first nationally touring presentation of Abercrombie’s art and celebrates an artist who has been historically marginalized due to who she was and how she lived and worked.

Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World is a Mystery is on view through June 1, 2025. Plan a visit and get your tickets: https://carnegieart.org/exhibition/gertrude-abercrombie/

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Gertrude Abercrombie, The Queen, 1954, Collection of Bernard Friedman, Courtesy of Lincoln Glenn Gallery, New York; photo: Michael Tropea

04/22/2025

“The lasting pleasures of contact with the natural world are not reserved for scientists but are available to anyone who will place himself under the influence of earth, sea, and sky and their amazing life.” —Rachel Carson

Happy ! At Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, we're celebrating by reflecting on the words of Pittsburgh-born environmentalist Rachel Carson and spending time with the work of artist Andrey Avinoff, who served as director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History from 1926 to 1945.

In addition to his position at the museum, Avinoff maintained a simultaneous career as a watercolorist and illustrator. For Avinoff, art and science were united by a reverence for nature and the visible world, and elevated by a personal conception of beauty that encompassed butterflies, the spectacular optics of rainbows, luminescent bubbles, flora, fauna, and much more.

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Andrew Avinoff, Frustration, 1948, Carnegie Museum of Art Heinz Family Fund

04/20/2025

🐰🌸🥚 Get into the holiday spirit with a selection of photos from Easters past, courtesy of the Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive.

Both Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History are closed today and will reopen at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive is a living resource that captures 20th-century American life through the lens of legendary Pittsburgh photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris.

To learn more about Harris and the archive, visit us online at: https://carnegieart.org/art/charles-teenie-harris-archive/

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Charles "Teenie" Harris, Catherine Bernice Harris, and Louise Kemp holding easter bunny, standing on sidewalk in front of Centre Avenue YMCA, after Easter services, Hill District, 1945, Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Family Fund, © Carnegie Museum of Art

Charles "Teenie" Harris, Mary Elizabeth and William Lewis holding Easter baskets, standing on sidewalk on Centre Avenue near intersection of Vera Cruz Way, Hill District, ca. 1940–1945, Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Family Fund, © Carnegie Museum of Art

Charles "Teenie" Harris, Cynthia Pressley and Kimmy Hartman modeling clothing in Easter display for G. C. Murphy department store, Homewood, 1964, Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Family Fund, © Carnegie Museum of Art

Charles "Teenie" Harris, Group portrait of women and children, gathered for Modern Grandmother's Club Easter party in Centre Avenue YWCA, 1953, Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Family Fund, © Carnegie Museum of Art

04/17/2025

Two museums 🏛️, one ticket 🎟️, where you can experience this and that 🦭!

At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, get up close to Atlantic Walrus taxidermy mounts, preserved in perpetuity in the Hall of North American Wildlife.

Then jaunt over to Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection galleries to see Albert Bierstadt’s painting, Farallon Island, featuring Northern Fur Seals and Sea Lions native to the Californian Island.

Get your tickets and plan your visit online: https://carnegieart.org/visit/come-visit/

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Albert Bierstadt, Farallon Island, 1887, Carnegie Museum of Art, Acquired through the generosity of the Sarah Mellon Scaife Family

04/16/2025

This morning, we hosted the first Mindful Museum of 2025, kicking off another year of mindfulness through art for visitors ages 55+!

Every Wednesday, Mindful Museum participants can experience something new at the museum. Join us to expand your mind and refresh your body with chair yoga, drawing and art-making, 30-minute guided gallery tours, meditations, art history classes, and online offerings.

It’s not too late to register! A one-time registration fee grants you unlimited access to Mindful Museum programs through December 10, 2025.

Join the fun at https://carnegieart.org/programs/mindful-museum/

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Photos: Zachary Riggleman

04/15/2025

Inspired to add more color to your day-to-day life this spring?

The Carnegie Museum of Art Store is stocked with fresh museum merchandise including exclusive tote bags, color block bumper stickers, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive postcards, and so much more!

Swing by the shop during your next visit to the museum or browse online at https://stores.carnegiemuseums.org/carnegie-museum-of-art/

04/13/2025

🎉 The 2025 Youth Exhibition is officially open at the Carnegie Museum of Art!

Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday on opening day to celebrate the talented young artists who participated in The Art Connection, Youth Art Studio, and Museum Makers.

Be sure to stop by the Hall of Architecture during your next visit to see it for yourself! The Youth Exhibition will be on view through April 21, 2025.

04/11/2025

Tomorrow, April 12, at 7 p.m., celebrate the legacy of Saturday Art Classes at Carnegie Museum of Art!

In the spirit of longtime museum instructor Joseph C. Fitzpatrick gather to look, to see, to remember, to enjoy!

Fitzpatrick—pictured here in photos from the museum’s archive—taught Tam O’Shanter Saturday art classes at the museum for 50 years, mentoring thousands of students including Andy Warhol, Raymond Saunders, and Mel Bochner.

Tickets to this event are available online, all are invited to celebrate the power and impact of art, expression, and creativity. The evening will be full of reunions, art-making, participatory close looking tours of both exhibitions, and delectable sweet and savory hors d’oeuvres.

Register today: https://carnegieart.org/event/saturday-at-the-museum-legacy-party/

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Carnegie Museum of Art Archives

04/09/2025

“In the end, my art is about myself, it’s not about being art. It is not about people reading into it what I want them to. Each person comes to my work as themselves and brings their own experiences to it.” —Raymond Saunders, 1995

Bring yourself, your friends, and your family to the museum to experience the work of artist Raymond Saunders!

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he attended Saturday art classes at Carnegie Museum of Art, Saunders’s career charts an unexpected path through the medium of painting—blending abstraction and figuration against the complex backdrop of American history.

On view through July 13, Raymond Saunders: Flowers From a Black Garden is the artist’s first retrospective exhibition at a major American museum and the most comprehensive consideration of his practice to date.

Learn more and plan your visit online: https://carnegieart.org/exhibition/raymond-saunders/

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Installation view of Raymond Saunders: Flowers From a Black Garden, Carnegie Museum of Art, 2025; photo: Zachary Riggleman

04/07/2025

During Day Off at the Museum, young artists ages 6 through 10 can spend their days off from school immersed in art, learning, and fun at Carnegie Museum of Art!

On Monday, April 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., students on spring breaker can experiment with diverse materials, make new discoveries, and learn techniques to help them grow as an artist.

Space is limited, and this program is filling up fast—reserve a spot for your young artist!

Young artists ages 6 through 10 are invited to spend their days off from school immersed in art, learning, and fun! Kids can experiment with diverse materials, make new discoveries, and learn techniques to help them grow as an artist. During Day Off at the Museum, participants will be able to explor...