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Inheritance

Scaife Gallery 3 Ongoing
photograph of a woman statute from above
Installation view of Louise Lawler, Woman (Statue), from above (adjusted to fit), 1985/2024, Carnegie Museum of Art, Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers

As possessions pass from one generation to the next, personal values, social hierarchies, and belief systems do too. In 1895, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who amassed his wealth from steel, established the Carnegie Institute and inscribed on its stone edifice, “Gift to the People of Pittsburgh.” In his dedication speech for the building, he also stated, “Nothing is given for nothing,” prompting the question: What did he expect in exchange?

The artworks chosen for this gallery span different periods in the museum’s collecting history. Through their selection and their relation to each other, the artworks invite reflections, questions, and conversations about the social and personal dimensions of inheritance, gifts, and exchange. How have artists responded to the region’s inherited legacy of steel and the repercussions of extractive resource industries more broadly? What ideas of art, beauty, and culture do the objects on view here perpetuate or disrupt as time passes? What choices are possible today based on decisions of the past? And what impact will our decisions have on future generations of inheritors?

Read, Watch, Listen

As possessions pass from one generation to the next, personal values, social hierarchies, and belief systems do too.

Select Works

Support

Leadership support is provided by the Drue and H. J. Heinz II Charitable Trust. Major support provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Henry Luce Foundation promotional

Carnegie Museum of Art is supported by The Heinz Endowments and Allegheny Regional Asset District. Carnegie Museum of Art receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In Our Collection Galleries

gallery featuring rocks in the center
Ongoing

Recognizing that a museum is a place to gather for art, conversations, ideas, and social interactions, this gallery foregrounds works that invite visitors to explore how art shapes perceptions, memories, and understandings of a shared place.

Ongoing

This gallery is an expansive expression of the archive, offering unparalleled access to the breadth of Harris’s body of work with never-before-seen color photographs and moving images alongside iconic black-and-white photographs, film negatives, and recorded oral histories.

a nuclear bomb denoting in the ocean as a part of a nuclear bomb test This exposed people on the military ships nearby to high doses of radiation
Ongoing

Crossroads mines our collection for stories that resonate today by highlighting the critical role of the artist in everyday life.

Inside of Bruce galleries for the exhibition Extraordinary Ordinary Things
Ongoing

Featuring more than 300 objects, Extraordinary Ordinary Things presents a selection of pieces ranging from the evocative and extraordinary to the practical and every day.