Permanent Collection
Fra Dana, On the Window Seat,
undated, oil on canvas,
MMAC Permanent Collection
Gift of the Artist
From Rembrandt to Warhol: Nearly 12,000 art treasures
The MMAC Permanent Collection, begun in 1895, includes nearly 11,000 objects. Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection include a wide range of art and artifacts of significant quality from various periods, cultures, countries and categories, including the work of living artists. The Permanent Collection is searchable online.
The core holdings of MMAC’s Permanent Collection include works of art that describe the aesthetic development of the Rocky Mountain west, historic European works, Southeast Asian collections, American Impressionist works, contemporary Native American art, important ceramics works and public art sited across the campus. Permanent Collection holdings are also on loan to other Montana institutions including the Charles W. Clark Chateau in Butte, the Daly Mansion in Hamilton, the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell and the Federal Reserve Bank in Helena.
The MMAC Permanent Collection includes European masters such as Rembrandt Van Rijn, Gerrit Dou, Honoré Daumier, Eugene Delacroix, Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jean-François Millet, Virgilio Narcisso Diaz de la Pena, Abraham van Strij, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, François Boucher, the Master of St. Gregory and others.
Significant 20th century European artists include Augustus John, Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marc Chagall, Georges Rouault, Max Pechstein, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Peter Blake, Dieter Roth, Patrick Caulfield
American artists include Edgar Paxson, Frederic Remington, Ralph DeCamp, Elizabeth Lochrie, William Standing, Julius Seyler, John Fery, William Merritt Chase, Joseph Henry Sharp, Alfred Maurer, Fra Dana, Josephine Hale, Frances Carroll Brown, Norman Rockwell, Rockwell Kent, Emmy Lou Packard, Charles Burchfield, R.B. Kitaj, Robert Motherwell, David Salle, Larry Rivers, Edward Ruscha, Theodore Stamos, Wolf Kahn, John Buck, Rudy Autio, Peter Voulkos , Dennis Oppenheim and Andy Warhol among others. The collection of Contemporary Native art includes work by Erica Lord, Jim Denomie, Neil Parsons, Jenesse Hilton, Jane Ash Poitras Midewiwin, Gloria Emerson, Percy Bull Child and others.
Long term loans include the Henry Meloy Collection and a Collection of New Deal Prints Courtesy of the U.S. General Services Administration.
A focus collection of Asian art, an array of vintage clothing, and an emphasis on Montana art-including both historical and contemporary American Indian Art-rounds out the collection.
The museum has strong holdings in the following categories:
American Artwork - Including Historical American Painting (1800-1899), American Indian Art, 20th Century American Art, New Deal Prints, WWII Propaganda Posters, the Bill and Polly Nordeen Collection of Western Art, and Contemporary Montana Artists
Asian Art Collection
Books and Book Illustration
Ceramics - Including the Rudy Autio Ceramic Collection, University of Montana Student and Faculty Work, Chinese Ceramics, and Japanese Ceramics
Edgar Samuel Paxson Collection
European Artwork - Including the Stella Duncan Collection, European Paintings (1490-1940), Honoré Daumier from the Fra Dana Collection, and 16th and 18th Century Italian Majolica
Henry Meloy Collection and Archive
Period Art, Clothing and Furniture in Historic Buildings - Including the UM Prescott House, the Daly Mansion, the Clark Chateau, the Conrad Mansion Museum
The MMAC Photographic Collection
Textiles - Including vintage clothing, tapestries, and the Helen Cappadocia Collection of Southeast Asian Textiles
The University of Montana Public Art Works