Collection

Description

The MCA’s permanent collection includes more than 2,500 artworks that span media and movements from the 1920s to the present. Although not on permanent display, works from the collection appear regularly in our many rotating exhibitions. The entire collection, with images and descriptions, is presented here for the first time. Explore it by artist, title, or creation date. Images in this section are published for educational use under the umbrella of the Fair Use doctrine.

Artist last name index

Title index

Decade index

A primarily beige-looking canvas is actually composed of many small dots of light blues, pinks, oranges, and purples.

...Pindell has said, “in graduate school I remember that a woman artist would be criticized if she used pink. If a man used pink it was considered a mix of red and white… . When I noticed this, I started using the things that I was told not to use. Glitter. Pink. This was my way of resisting.”

Short A primarily beige-looking canvas is actually composed of many small dots of light blues, pinks, oranges, and purples.

Works on View

On viewMike Cloud, Cycle and Stable, 2015
Image not available
On viewDIS, Apology, 2016
Image not available
On viewMona Hatoum, Measures of Distance, 1988
Image not available
On viewJene Highstein, Floating World, 1986
1. Short Photograph of a person-sized rounded outdoor sculpture made of grey, textured stone
On viewAlfredo Jaar, Cries and Whispers, 1988
On viewEmily Jacir, Mahmoud, 2002-2003, from the series "Where we come from"
Image not available
On viewSol LeWitt, Lines In Two Directions And In Five Colors On Five Colors With All Their Combinations, 1981
On viewSol LeWitt, The Location of Straight, Not-Straight and Broken Lines and all their Combinations, 1976
On viewSol LeWitt, The Location of Lines, 1974
On viewSol LeWitt, Four Basic Kinds of Lines and Colour, 1971
On viewSol LeWitt, Untitled, 1971
On viewSol LeWitt, Untitled, 1971
On viewSol LeWitt, Untitled, 1971
On viewSol LeWitt, Untitled, 1971
On viewSol LeWitt, Untitled, 1971
On viewSol LeWitt, Untitled, 1971
On viewAna Mendieta, Untitled, 1982
On viewAnnette Messager, Mes Trophees (My Trophies), 1986–88
On viewGladys Nilsson, Reclyning Blackveenus Rabbit, 1971
On viewJim Nutt, She Seams Up Set, 1971
On viewDan Peterman, Accessories to an Event (plaza), 1998
Image not available
On viewHowardena Pindell, Video Drawings: Abstract, 1976
On viewHowardena Pindell, Video Drawings: Hockey, 1975
On viewHowardena Pindell, Video Drawings: Swimming, 1975
1. Short A grainy image of an outstretched person is seen in profile against a blue background and covered with numbered black arrows and dots in a seemingly random arrangement.
2. Short A grainy image of an outstretched person is seen in profile against a blue background and covered with numbered black arrows and dots in a seemingly random arrangement.
3. Short A grainy image of an outstretched person is seen in profile against a blue background and covered with numbered black arrows and dots in a seemingly random arrangement.
On viewPope.L, Crying Painting, 2016
Image not available
On viewCharlotte Posenenske, Vierkantrohre Series DW (Square Tubes, Series DW), 1967
Image not available
On viewCharlotte Posenenske, Vierkantrohre Series DW (Square Tubes, Series DW), 1967
Image not available
On viewGeorge Rickey, Two Lines Oblique, 1968
Image not available
On viewThomas Schütte, Ganz Grosse Geister (Big Spirits XL), 2004
1. Short Three yellow sculptures of abstract human figures stand as if communicating with each other outdoors in an urban setting.
2. Long Three yellow and white forms are installed on an outdoor terrace. The forms resemble human bodies, yet they have no faces. The heads of the forms are created from coiled, hard textured material and the bodies are similarly constructed of coiled material, arranged into torsos, arms and legs. The scale of the figures is about double the size of an average person and the are arranged about a half of a figure length apart from each other. The figure on the left appears to have its head tilted to the sky, while the center figure faces to the right, where the third figure bends lightly towards the ground, hand upraised. The bright color of the figures contrasts with urban scene in the background: behind the figures a black fence, green leafy trees and tall gray buildings are visible. The sky is bright blue and the bright light of mid-day casts sharp shadows below the figures.
On viewErin Shirreff, Sculpture for Snow, 2011
1. Short A matte black geometric sculpture juts out from the snowy ground. Two of its faces, one square and one triangular, are perfectly covered by a white layer of snow.
On viewGedi Sibony, The Silly Tuck It In, 2011
Image not available
On viewJesús Rafaël Soto, Jai-Alai, 1969
On viewBuzz Spector, Malevich, 1992
On viewBuzz Spector, Malevich: With Eight Red Rectangles, 1991
1. Short A vertical white surface has eight rectangular depressions. Beneath this surface are eight red books in the same shape as the unique rectangles, as if they fell from their depressions.
On viewDaniel Spoerri, Dinner by Dorothy Podber, 1964
On viewTakis, Magnetic Mobile, c. 1964
On viewRosemarie Trockel, Ich kenne mich nicht aus (I am Stumped), 1988

Gloved hands review a 4x5 color transparency and a roll of 35mm black and white film over a light box with a viewing loupe.

To request images—including exhibition installation views and permanent collection works—or MCA-created text or media, fill out a media and image application.

Short Gloved hands review a 4x5 color transparency and a roll of 35mm black and white film over a light box with a viewing loupe.

Works that are titled Untitled

Short A blue-and-white graph shaped like a ring with one-sixth solid and the rest checkered is titled "As on Nov 2015."