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 viewMichael Armitage, The Flaying of Marsyas, 2017
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On viewLynda Benglis, Bhai, 1981
1. Short A golden object, that may or may not be enclosing something, is composed of many folds almost like a stiff fabric, but appears to be hand-shaped metal.
On viewJonathan Borofsky, As I was awakening, it seemed I was being chased by the spirits at 2, 783, 194, 1982
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On viewDIS, Apology, 2016
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On viewFelix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled" (The End), 1990
1. Short A rectangular column of white paper with a black border rests on a concrete floor in a neat stack that is nearly as tall as the paper is wide.
On viewDavid Hammons, Praying to Safety, 1997
On viewLeslie Hewitt, Untitled, 2007
On viewJene Highstein, Floating World, 1986
1. Short Photograph of a person-sized rounded outdoor sculpture made of grey, textured stone
On viewJim Isermann, Untitled (flower painting) (1586), 1986
On viewArthur Jafa, Ex-Slave Gordon, 2017
On viewArthur Jafa, LeRage, 2017
On viewArthur Jafa, Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death, 2016
On viewJason Lazarus, Standing at the Grave of Emmett Till, day of exhumation, June 1st, 2005 (Alsip, IL), 2005
On viewGlenn Ligon, Untitled, 1992
1. Short A framed text, black on white, reads "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background". This phrase is repeated and gradually becomes distorted until illegible at the bottom.
2. Long A body of black text is printed on a white rectangle with even borders of white space on all four sides. The text reads "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background," repeated without punctuation or line breaks to separate the repetitions. The text is printed in a stenciled font with gritty smudges that become more and more prominent as the text continues, eventually blending with the text at the bottom of the image, rendering it almost illegible. It has a narrow black frame.
On viewGlenn Ligon, Untitled (Study #1 for Prisoner of Love), 1992
1. Short Black stenciled text that reads "WE ARE THE INK THAT GIVES THE WHITE PAGE A MEANING" repeats for twenty-nine lines, gradually becoming distorted until it's almost illegible at the bottom.
On viewRobert Mapplethorpe, Sebastian and Nda, 1981
On viewKerry James Marshall, Mementos, 1998
On viewKerry James Marshall, Scout (Boy), 1995
1. Short A young African-American boy with jet black skin wearing a scouts uniform and a small gold earring stares at the viewer. A halo of white surrounds his head.
On viewAna Mendieta, Untitled from the Silueta series, 1973–77
1. Short A statue made of loosely woven branches fills a niche in a crumbling stone wall. The statue is in the rough shape of a human figure with its elbows bent and arms raised to its sides.
On viewAna Mendieta, Untitled from the Silueta series, 1973–77
1. Short A photograph of a hard dirt landscape with a rectangle of planted grass that frames a depression filled with white flowers in the silhouette of a human body.
On viewAna Mendieta, Untitled from the Silueta series, 1973–77
On viewAna Mendieta, Untitled from the Silueta series, 1973–77
1. Short A white piece of fabric with a blood red imprint of a human figure is suspended on the back wall of a stone alcove. Dried branches rest in the bottom of the alcove.
On viewBruce Nauman, Life, Death, Love, Hate, Pleasure, Pain, 1983
1. Short A circle of words formed by neon lights in green, blue, pink, and yellow reads, clockwise from the top: "LOVE HATE PLEASURE PAIN LIFE DEATH."
On viewBruce Nauman, Henry Moore Bound to Fail, 1967
On viewPaul Pfeiffer, Fragment of a Crucifixion (after Francis Bacon), 1999
1. Short A palm-sized digital projector is mounted a few inches away from a white wall. It projects a small image of a uniformed athlete standing in a crowded arena.
On viewPope.L, Crying Painting, 2016
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On viewGeorge Rickey, Two Lines Oblique, 1968
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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 viewPaul Mpagi Sepuya, Darkroom (_1990407), 2017
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On viewAndres Serrano, Untitled (Knifed to Death I and II), 1992
1. Short Two side-by-side photos each show a light-skinned hand extending away from the other. The hands each have small, bloodied wounds on their wrists and blackened fingertips.
On viewErin Shirreff, Sculpture for Snow, 2011
On viewTakis, Magnetic Mobile, c. 1964

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.