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Scope of Collection

Artwork in the collection are acquired and preserved because of their aesthetic or educational importance in support of the museum’s mission.Ìý

The collection comprises accessioned artwork that are individually identified by a unique accession number. Named collections including, the Polly & Mark Addison Collection, The Warren and Shirley King Collection and the Sharkive are part of the collection.

The museum houses artwork and objects that are not accessioned and are designated with temporary inventory numbers (TIN) where the status of ownership is currently undetermined and undocumented. Museum staff intend to resolve the status of artwork through curatorial research conducted in concert with collection/ registration staff and in accordance with the guidelines established by Colorado law. Once ownership and identification status are resolved to best of our ability, the objects will be returned to legal owners, accessioned into the collection or disposed of in accordance with University property guidelines.

Artwork in the collection represent diverse aesthetic and cultural origins and encompass more than 12,000 years of human history. Originally under the stewardship of the university’s Department of Fine Arts, the collection was established in 1939 with acquisition of artwork by regional, Southwestern artists. In 1953, the Carnegie Corporation established a transformative endowment that enabled faculty members to develop a collection of old master prints and drawings. In addition to acquisition through purchase, the museum has benefitted from significant gifts, including gifts from Anna C. Hoyt of old master prints and drawings, Warren and Shirley King of ancient Chinese ceramics and from Polly and Mark Addison of 20th and 21^st century artwork. The recent acquisition of the print production and archives of Shark’s Ink Press positions the museum as a regional destination for the study of historical and contemporary printmaking.

Our growing collection of more than 9,500 artwork represents the wide range of materials used in the creation of art. Highlights of the collection include:

1. Ancient art encompasses cultures from Asia and the Mediterranean region. This includes an impressive numismatics assemblage of close to 800 coins, including the Wilton Jaffee Roman Coin Collection, which represents the history of the Roman Empire. Ancient art also includes notable s and vessels and features sculptural artwork— primarily ceramic vessels— from ancient Burma, China and Iran.
2. Arts of the Americas are represented by an array of North, Central and South American art. Our collection is particularly rich in painting and works on paper (prints, drawings and photographs) from the late 19th and 20^th centuries. Artwork in this category demonstrate the museum’s commitment to Western landscape, works by contemporary artists of regional significance and our collection of santos and bultos, a Southwestern religious folk tradition.
3. Asian art in the collection includes ancient Iranian pottery from the early first millennium BCE and an assortment of Southeast Asian pottery with works by the ancient Ban Chiang culture and 16^th- to 19^th-century Khmer and Vietnamese ceramics. Examples of 19th-century Japanese Ukiyo-e prints by masters of the tradition such as Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi feature famous kabuki actors. Chinese art, from ancient to contemporary, is well represented. Highlights include a Buddhist stone sculpture from the fifth to sixth century CE and contemporary works by noted artist Zhang Xiaogang, whose works explore Chinese identity in the modern era.

The Asian art collection was greatly enhanced by a gift from Warren and Shirley King in 2012. The gift of 200 artworks, referred to as the King Collection, contains Asian vessels dating as far back as Neolithic China and Burma. This gift enriches the museum’s sizable collection of ancient works and provides many opportunities for cross-cultural study within the ancient world.

1. European art works include a wide range of historic European art, beginning with medieval ivory carving, architectural stone carving and manuscripts. Renaissance and Baroque works capture the richness and variety of drawings made during the Early Modern period, with figure studies, imaginative landscapes and preparatory works, primarily by Italian masters. Paintings from this period include a northern European mystical representation of the Holy Family taking rest on the flight into Egypt.

Other highlights include over 100 works by and related to British artist and humorist William Hogarth. Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s inventive engravings of Carceri d’Invenzione (Imaginary Prisons) are an example of the continuing influence of ancient Rome in the 18^th century, while 19th- and 20th-century artists, including Käthe Kollwitz, Henry Moore and Jean Dubuffet, engaged with events that shaped modern Europe and provided a new interpretation of classical forms.

1. Modern and Contemporary artwork encompass drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, photography, video and digital media. Among the highlights are paintings by Elizabeth Murray and Marsden Hartley, and minimalist sculptures by Sol LeWitt and Jackie Winsor.

The contemporary ceramic collection reveals how today’s artists respond to the global history of ceramic materials and techniques. Major works by Graham Marks, Jean-Pierre LaRocque, Annabeth Rosen, Peter Voulkos and Betty Woodman demonstrate how contemporary ceramicists extend the traditional boundaries of material and form.

The collection of modern art includes 19th-century photography, which highlights the convergence of science and art in the modern development of photographic techniques and processes such as daguerreotype, tintype and stereoscopic photography.

Generous patrons Polly and Mark Addison have donated significant works to the museum, forming the Polly and Mark Addison Collection, which runs the gamut of contemporary art forms, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, video and digital media.

The print productions and archives of Shark’s Ink Press, known as the Sharkive, are an internationally important collection of prints created in the studio of Bud and Barbara Shark. The collection represents a significant chapter in postwar American printmaking, featuring works by an impressive roster of contemporary artists. In early 2018, through a partnership with the Sharks and the Kemper Family Foundations, UMB Bank Trustee, the museum acquired The Sharkive, ensuring its long-term preservation as a learning resource for students.