Modern & Contemporary Art
Spanning from roughly 1900 to present day, the Modern and Contemporary Art department encompasses a dynamic collection of works of art, craft, and design from across the world.
Collection Highlights
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso
Constantin Brancusi
Henri Matisse
Cy Twombly
Helen Frankenthaler
Sarah Sze
Joan Mitchell
Alma Thomas
JosĂ© Diego MarĂa Rivera
Sam Gilliam
Barkley L. Hendricks
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Patricia Urquiola
Roberto Lugo
About the Collection
Since its founding as the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art in 1876, the Philadelphia Art Museum has actively collected and proudly displayed art and design of its time.
The Modern and Contemporary collection today similarly brings together wide-ranging practices and media—including painting, sculpture, ceramics, silver, fiber art, furniture, film, digital art, and beyond—to tell a story of global visual culture developed during a century of radical, fluctuating artistic and societal change through to the present.
Several extraordinary early gifts form the foundation of the collection, which includes transformative works by artists of the Surrealist and Dada movements. In succeeding decades, the museum has expanded to reflect critical developments in modern industrial, domestic, and avant-garde design, as well as deepened representation of the American studio craft movement. The department has simultaneously continued to build a rich collection of work by contemporary artists across disciplines and geography.
Beyond its permanent holdings, the Modern and Contemporary Art department is invested in commissioning new artworks and developing exhibition programming to engage audiences in experimental and compelling ways, aiming to continue serving as a valuable resource for students, educators, and the many artists who’ve made Philadelphia their home.