The University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA) is the University of Arizona’s art museum and gallery and is located on campus near Park Avenue and Speedway Boulevard in Tucson. The Museum features a permanent collection of over 6,000 works of art with a focus on European and American fine art, including oils and watercolor paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures.
The collection spans from Renaissance to the present with old masters blending seamlessly with contemporary and modern art. The UAMA forms part of ‘the Museum Neighborhood,’ which is a group of four museums all within easy distance of each other in the same area, namely the Arizona State Museum, the Center for Creative Photography, the Arizona Historical Society and the UAMA.
1031 North Olive Road, Tucson, AZ 85721-0002, Phone: 520-621-7567, , Map
The University of Arizona Museum of Art was established in 1930 when 200 prints and lithographs were donated by artists that supported the Works Projects Administration, which formed the basis of the first collection. The Museum of Art then saw additional collections being donated by alumnus Charles Leonard Pfeiffer who proffered numerous American paintings and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation who gave the gallery 50 European paintings, among others, doubling the Museum’s holdings and helping it grow into the renowned art institution it is today.
The UAMA features an impressive permanent collection of more than 6,000 works of art, ranging from the Renaissance era to the Modern and Post-Modern genres. The Samuel H. Kress Collection consists of more than 60 European works dating back to the 14th century until the 16th century, including works by Maestro Bartolomé and Fernando Gallego. One of the Museum’s most inspiring pieces of work is a 26-panel retablo (a church altarpiece with a religious relief) of the Cathedral of the Ciudad Rodrigo and includes depictions of the Creation, Genesis, the Life of Christ and the Last Judgment. Considered to be ‘some of the most beautiful and iconographical ambitious paintings of the 15th century,’ a documentary was made on the famous work, tracing its journey through history from surviving the Napoleonic Wars to being stored in a bunker during World War II.
Other notable works from the Kress Collection include paintings by Domenico Tintoretto, Vittore Carpaccio, Jusepe de Ribera, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Late Medieval and Renaissance paintings include works by Niccolo Del Ser Sozzo Tegliacci, Jacopo del Casentino, Guidiccio Cozzarelli, and Taddeo di Bartolo
The C. Leonard Pfeiffer Collection includes an array of American works from the early 20th century, including Edward Hopper, Philip Evergood, John French Sloan, Reginald Marsh, Stuart Davis, and John Steuart Curry. The Edward J. Gallagher III Memorial Collection showcases over 200 European and American works from the late 19th and 20th centuries with sculptures by renowned artists Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, and Alexander Archipenko, as well as abstract expressionist paintings by Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko. Other noteworthy artists to view include Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Emil Nolde, and Kurt Schwitters
The Robert Priseman Collection comprises 71 of damaged religious icons that British artist Robert Priseman purchased from eBay and over-painted with a 20th-century celebrity, mimicking the replacement in the contemporary culture of faith with fame and of saints with ‘stars.’
The Jacques and Yulla Lipchitz Collection: Sketches and Models feature over 60 clay and plaster models by Jacques Lipschitz, tools from his studio and several full sculptures and portrait busts dating back to 1911.
The UAMA has a research arm known as the Archive of Visual Arts (AVA) and features over 200 paintings and drawings, including famous pieces of space art known as Mars Metropolis and Mars Outpost.
UAMA is committed to promoting the Museum’s collection as a University resource for both students and visitors that encourages communication, collaboration, and further learning. The Museum offers an array of educational programs, workshops, classes and community-based events that are designed to empower and engage audiences of all ages and inspire them to develop an interest in art and culture. Activities include reading, arts, and crafts, investigating objects and art materials and exploring works of art.
The University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA) is located on the University of Arizona’s campus at 1031 North Olive Road in Tucson and is open to the public Monday through Sunday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm with late closure on Wednesday at 7:00 pm. Free docent-led tours are offered around the museum for groups of eight or more and can be customized to cater for various ages and aims of the group.
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