African Art
Late 19th and 20th century objects from West and Central Africa form the museum's collection of African art. The collection features objects from the Yoruba, Benin, Kuba, and Dan people, and highlights include three magnificent carved Yoruba panels and a splendid Fang reliquary figure.

Art of the Ancient World
Assorted Greek, Roman, Etruscan, and Egyptian objects from 4000 BC to 400 AD comprise this collection. Included are a rare collection of carved and inscribed marble ash urns from a Roman burial chamber, painted Greek vases, and items from daily life, such as Roman oil lamps, an Etruscan razor, and Egyptian pottery.

American Painting and Sculpture
The Speed’s American collection includes paintings and sculpture produced in the United States since the 18th century. The collection features outstanding paintings by Benjamin West and James Peale, still lifes by William Mason Brown, figure paintings by Thomas Dewing and Willard Metcalf, Impressionist work by Mary Cassatt and Edward Redfield, and a collection of American Renaissance paintings and drawings by Elihu Vedder and Charles Caryl Coleman. Highlights of American sculpture include works by Hiram Powers, Franklin Simmons, Randolph Rogers, Thomas Ball, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, George Grey Barnard, and Paul Manship.

Contemporary Art
The Speed features a growing collection of work by contemporary artists in a broad range of media. The collection is global in its outlook and is focused upon the dominant issues and ideas that concern contemporary artists, as well as their bold spirit of experimentation and imaginative use of materials. The collection also creates a framework where regional work can be seen in a national and international context. From the work of Robert Rauschenberg to Kiki Smith, the contemporary collection contains fine examples of painting, sculpture, photo-based and mixed-media works. Highlights include works by Petah Coyne, Tony Cragg, Henry Moore, Alice Neel, Helen Frankenthaler, Ilse Haider, Sam Gilliam, Tania Kovats, Dinh Q. Lê, Vik Muniz, Elizabeth Murray, Tony Oursler, Carter Potter, Arturo Alonzo Sandoval, Lorna Simpson, Juan Muñoz, and Carrie Mae Weems.

Decorative Arts
The museum offers visitors the opportunity to explore a wide range of decorative arts objects ranging from traditional European and American ceramics and furniture, to an important collection of contemporary art glass. A magnificent 17th century paneled room from an English manor house, with its extensive wood carvings and moralizing mythological subjects, is another favorite among museum visitors, as is the Speed’s Tapestry Gallery. Other highlights of the decorative arts collection include stained-glass windows, Italian majolica, an extensive collection of silver by English silversmith Matthew Boulton, and an important coffee and tea service produced at the Sévres porcelain factory.

The English Room
This was a room in The Grange, the house of the Drewe family, in the county of Devon in southwestern England. All of the details in the room are symbolic; each had a meaning that people of the 17th century would have understood, but may need to be decoded for people today.

Although many of the details and images within the room are intended to encourage good and moralistic behavior they are not overtly religious. This was a reflection of England’s Protestant tradition, where images from classical Greece or Rome replaced those of the saints and other Christian figures to illustrate moral points.

Kentucky Collection
The Speed’s Kentucky Collection showcases painting, sculpture, and decorative arts created by and for Kentuckians, primarily during the 1800s. The works give a sense of the range and quality of artistic achievements in the state and of the evolution of styles and taste during this important time in Kentucky’s history. Portraiture quickly emerged as a leading art form, as the settlers wished to demonstrate both their success and their sophisticated cultural tastes. Highlights include portraits of some of the stateÕs most prominent citizens by Matthew Jouett and G. P. A. Healy, and the earliest known full-length group portrait by Chester Harding. Kentucky sculptors Joel Tanner Hart and Enid Yandell are well represented. Kentucky also strongly supported the work of skilled silversmiths and cabinetmakers and certain forms, such as sugar desks and silver julep cups, became intimately linked with Kentucky life and traditions.

Modernism
A gallery devoted to European and American art of the first half of the 20th century showcases a number of notable modernist works. The gallery is home to the museum’s Paul Cézanne painting Two Apples on a Table, about 1895-1900, American sculptor William Zorach’s direct carving Tiger, Tiger, about 1943, and Constantin Brancusi’s revolutionary sculpture Mademoiselle Pogany I, 1913, as well as changing selections of works from the half century that saw so many revolutionary and influential developments in art. Other works often on view in this gallery are by Picasso and Chagall.

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