Collection Features

Notable Work from Our Collections

Abstract artwork

FWMoA Highlights

With nearly 5,000 American paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs, our collection is a diverse reflection of American history. The FWMoA collection includes art created after 1850 from notable artists like Janet Fish, George Inness, Alma Thomas, Mark di Suvero, Richard Greenough, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns and many more.

Cut glass bowl

American Brilliant Cut Glass

In 2012, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and the American Cut Glass Association (ACGA) joined a collaborative partnership which named FWMoA as the repository and managers of the ACGA Permanent Collection—highlights of which you see displayed at our museum.

The ACGA is a nonprofit, national organization devoted to the advancement of this unique American industrial art form. Generated by an increased interest in this antique specialty, the ACGA was formed in the summer of 1978 in Indianapolis, Indiana, with a group of 39 charter members. The ACGA has expanded throughout the United States into numerous regional chapters and to over 2000 members.

Read Cut Glass: A Short History by John C. Roesel, June 1983

“Cut glass” is glass that has been decorated entirely by hand by use of rotating wheels. Cuts are made in an otherwise completely smooth surface of the glass by artisans holding and moving the piece against various sized metal or stone wheels, to produce a predetermined pleasing pattern. Cutting may be combined with other decorative techniques, but “cut glass” usually refers to a glass object that has been decorated entirely by cutting.

Although glass making was the first industry to be established in America at Jamestown, Virginia in 1608, no glass is known to have been cut in the New World until at least 160 years later. Henry William Stiegel, an immigrant from Cologne, Germany, founded the American Flint Glass Manufactory in Manheim, Pennsylvania, and it was there in about 1771 that the first cut glass was produced in America.

Several exciting events dramatically improved Americans’ cut glass industry, and brought about a superiority that won world acclaim. Near the beginning of the Brilliant Period, deposits of high grade silica were discovered in this country, leading to glass-making formulas vastly better than those used in Europe.

At the same time, many of Europe’s finest glass makers and cutters were immigrating to this country to seek their fortunes, and they found ready markets for their talents when America moved into a very prosperous era in the closing quarter of the 19th century. Cut glass became a symbol of elegance and leisure, and demand for beautiful glass products spurred intense competition and creativity within the industry.

High labor cost inherent in the manufacture of cut glass has always made it a luxury item. Unfortunately, until late in the nineteenth century, American glass houses found it difficult to compete against a vogue that held European glass to be superior to the domestic product. The prejudice began to disappear when eight enterprising American companies showed their beautiful wares at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. A boom was sparked throughout the northeast, and the Brilliant Period had indeed begun.

But by 1908, less than 100 glass cutting shops remained, when at the period’s peak, there existed over 1,000. Since true cut glass is entirely hand-decorated, high labor costs made it extremely expensive and out of reach to all but the affluent class. Intense competition, both domestic and from abroad, and the introduction of inexpensive pressed glass in patterns imitating cut glass, forced cost cutting short cuts on the dynamic, new American industry.

The outbreak of World War I dealt the final blow to the fascinatingly brief birth, growth and decline of a uniquely American achievement. Brilliant cut glass. Lead oxide – an essential ingredient in glass made for cutting was needed for more urgent uses, and by the time the war ended, the few factories that had managed to survive used their resources to produce less costly glass. Thus ended an era of Yankee ingenuity, never to return.

Painting of flowers

Indiana Impressionism

Impressionism represents an important turning point in American art. It strayed from what was taught in academic art and is rooted in techniques that evoke emotional and sensual responses (as opposed to detailed work that might represent realistic elements of people, places or things). Our collection of Indiana Impressionism started with a generous gift of ten paintings in 1921 from Theodore Thieme. These paintings featured the work of notable Brown County artists William Forsyth, J. Ottis Adams and Homer Davisson.

Indiana Impressionists are known for their love of the untouched natural environment, isolated from developed towns and cities, and their compositions emphasize the trees, hills and natural lakes of Indiana’s landscape. Their works were begun (and often finished) outdoors, with a range of colors dotting the canvases to represent changing light and shifting winds. The colors in these works are warm and rich, with hues of red, orange, green and brown used to convey the colors of Indiana.

Block print

Prints and Drawings

The history of American printmaking stretches over the last three centuries and is as vibrant as any other medium in the visual arts. But, many people are unfamiliar with the process of printmaking; it’s a delicate and complex medium. To demystify it and open everyone’s eyes to the rich and engaging realm of prints and printmaking, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art has created a center through which the public can explore the many dimensions of prints, their makers and their processes. Much of this collection is housed in the Print and Drawing Study Center, a hybrid gallery and research center open to the public.

Sculpture at FWMoA

Enjoy a half hour walking tour of the sculptures found in and around the grounds of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and the Arts United Center. Starting in the Sculpture Court with Cary Shafer’s Tilted Arch, move through the museum and out to the front patio to see David Black’s Crossings and Mark di Suvero’s Helmholtz in Freimann Square.

These images are selections from our collection and may or may not be on physical display, although some are shown from time to time. Please visit the exhibitions page to see what’s on display in our galleries.