Explore the Nasher Museum of Art’s collection and exhibitions across art galleries that fan out from the Museum’s central courtyard. Also off the central courtyard is a café and gift store.
Nasher Museum of Art Collection
The Nasher Museum boasts more than 10,000 works of art including some of today’s best contemporary art, with a rare focus on works by artists of African descent. The Nasher collection’s additional strengths include medieval art, art of the Americas, classical antiquities and modern and international contemporary art. Other works within the collection include traditional African art, European and American art prior to 1945, Asian art and Russian art.
African
Nasher Museum’s African holdings number around 300 objects. Noteworthy objects include works from Nigeria, particularly those made by the Yoruba peoples and a group of 172 rare masks and objects from Liberia gifted to the Nasher Museum of Art by Dr. George Harley in 1974.
American
American art includes a representative group of works by Hudson River School painters, other 19th century American landscape painters and works by Ashcan School artists including George Bellow’s Benediction in Georgia, Mountain Brook by Albert Bierstadt and Charles Burchfield’s Row of Maples. A painting and 185 wood engravings made by Winslow Homer are also included in the art museum’s American Collection.
Antiquities
The Duke Classical Collection is comprised of works from Greece, Rome, Egypt and Etruria. Of great significance are 224 Greek works including ceramics, bronze, gold, amber and several small marble pieces from the Cycladic and Mycenaean to the Hellenistic Greco-Roman era.
Art of the Americas
Over 3,300 objects from nearly every culture of pre-Columbian Latin America are featured in the Ancient American Collection. At the core of the collection is a group of more than 175 Peruvian textiles and early ceramics from Moche, Paracas and Nasca cultures.
Asian
Nasher Museum owns a small collection of traditional Asian Art. Examples of Asian art include a group of Ming and Qing Dynasty jades and porcelains as well as 12 Japanese wood block prints from the Edo period by well-known artists including Utamaro, Hiroshige and Hokusai.
European
Strengths of the European collection include European Baroque and 18th century French art. Highlights include Claude Michel’s sculpture Vestal Virgin and Le Comptoir by Louis Marcoussis.
Medieval
The Medieval and Renaissance holdings have been described as the “best university medieval collection in America” and “ one of the six best medieval collections overall in America.” Holdings include 300 works from across Europe, ranging in date from the 9th to 17th centuries with focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods.
Russian
The Nasher Museum also boasts a significant collection of modern and contemporary paintings, sculptures and works on paper by Russian artists. The Russian collection’s concentration on post-Soviet works by Russian émigrés makes it unique among other Russian art collections in the U.S.
The Nasher Museum Café features local farm products and seasonal choices. Enjoy soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts made from scratch.
Shopping at Nasher Museum Store
Be sure to explore the Nasher Museum Store, offering a wide variety of products. Books that are both beautiful and engaging, jewelry crafted from unique mediums and other items inspired by the Museum’s collections and exhibitions are available to purchase.
Travel Tips
- Wheelchairs are available to rent from the Nasher Museum of Art’s information desk.
- Still photography for private, noncommercial use is permitted in galleries devoted to the Museum’s permanent collection.