The story
Phoenix opened its art museum in 1959, in a low modern building by Alden Dow, a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and it grew into the largest art museum in the American Southwest.
Its collection is broad, but two strengths grow out of where it stands. There is a deep holding of art of the American West, portraits and then the wide landscapes that followed, and a strong collection of Latin American art reaching south across the border, including work by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
The museum is also known for a small room by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, one of her mirrored infinity chambers, where hanging lights repeat endlessly in the glass. Visitors are let in a few at a time, for about a minute each.
