Since 1931 · Omaha, five millennia of art and architecture in renewal

Founded as a civic memorial in Omaha, Joslyn brings together ancient arts, European masters, American art, modernity and indigenous cultures in an ever-expanding museum.

The Joslyn Memorial opened in Omaha on November 29, 1931. Sarah H. Joslyn financed the building in memory of her husband George A. Joslyn, a press contractor. Designed by John and Alan McDonald, the Art Deco building combines marble, pink stone and sculpted decorations at galleries, a concert hall, a library and teaching spaces. The memorial gradually became a specialized art museum and took the name Joslyn Art Museum. Its collection exceeds twelve thousand objects and covers more than five thousand years of creation. Mediterranean antiquities, European painting, Asian arts, art from the Americas and modern creation rub shoulders with a particularly important collection of American Western art and art indigenous. The museum expanded in 1994 with the Walter and Suzanne Scott pavilion designed by Norman Foster, then initiated a new transformation led by Snøhetta, accompanied by a reinstallation of the collections. The works selected show the amplitude of the European route. Boudin observes the Giudecca canal and makes the Venetian sky the true driving force of view. The portrait of Dirck van Os attributed to Rembrandt concentrates light, age and status in a contained presence. Delacroix gives the Entombment a dark and compassionate movement. Matisse finally reduces the Head of Woman to frank relationships of line and color. In Omaha, these paintings do not form an isolated sequence: they dialogue with ancient objects, American landscapes and indigenous traditions that shift the usual reading of art history. The "Joslyn Art Museum" selection notably compares the Giudecca Canal and San Giorgio Maggiore and Portrait of Dirck van Os. His reading favors figures.

The Joslyn combines the civic monument with a global collection: each expansion renews the way Omaha meets the works.