While most art museums founded at the turn of the century focused on collections of Old Masters, Andrew Carnegie envisioned a museum collection consisting of the 'Old Masters of tomorrow'. Carnegie, thereby, founded what is arguably the first museum of modern art in the United States: Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA. Early acquisitions of works by such artists as Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler and Camille Pissarro laid the foundation for a collection that today is distinguished in American art from the mid-19th century to the present, in French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, and in significant late-20th-century works. Over the century, the Museum has amplified its scope of interest to include European and American decorative arts from the late 17th century to the present, as well as architect-designed objects and Asian and African art. AUTHOR: Lynn Zelevansky formerly served as the curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and as a curator in the department of painting and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 64 colour illustrations
