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.
Browse the Collection
Artist last name index
Title index
Works on View
On viewBlythe Bohnen, Self-Portrait: Vertical motion down, medium, 1974- Long A black and white photograph of a blurred, gaunt face and the faded outline of the subject's neck and shoulders. The blurring produces a ghostly outline that issues from the subject. Both apparition and subject stare directly at the viewer; two parallel, white lines connect their eyes.
- On viewRashid Johnson, The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Marcus), 2010
- Long The masculine person, shown from the torso up, is wearing a vertically striped button-down shirt, a herringbone vest, and a dark tie. The subject takes up the majority of the image, with their shoulders extending to either of the vertical edges. The two superimposed faces, slightly overlapping, have a similarly stoic expression. Both of the faces have heavy, dark eyebrows, a wide rounded nose, a closed, expressionless mouth, and are crowned by a dark, curly afro hair style. The upper left and bottom corners all appear lighter in tone, as if overexposed. Surrounding the figure are lush, palm-like plant fronds, both in the background and foreground. Some of the fronds obscure the person's shoulders on both sides of the image.
- On viewKenneth Josephson, Washington, D.C., 1975, 1975
- Long This black and white photograph centers on the Washington Monument and smooth reflecting pool that reflects and inverts the monument. On the left side of the frame, an arm extends, holding a horizontally-oriented card against the sky to the left of the monument. A cut out in the bottom center of the card matches the shape and size of the peak of the obelisk; the top of the card extends upward as the positive mirror of the negative cutout below.
- On viewThomas Schütte, Ganz Grosse Geister (Big Spirits XL), 2004
- 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.
