Collections

The African collection at the Dallas Museum of Art focuses on sub-Saharan art from two important collections: the Clark and Frances Stillman Collection of Congo Sculpture and the collection of Gustave and Franyo Schindler.

The Museum’s collection of American art includes paintings, sculptures, and works on
paper spanning three centuries and encompassing the three countries of North America: the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Works in the ancient American collection span 3,000 years and represent twelve countries. Highlights include ceramics from the southwestern United States; ceramics and stone sculpture from Mexico and Guatemala; gold from Panama, Colombia, and Peru; and textiles and ceramics from Peru.

The Dallas Museum of Art has excellent works covering the major eras of ancient Mediterranean history, from c. 3000 B.C. to the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Asian collections range from Gandharan Buddhist art of the 2nd to 4th centuries to the arts of the Mughal Empire in India from the 15th to the 19th century. The world religions of Hinduisim, Buddhism, and Islam are all represented.

The contemporary art collection spans from 1945 to the present. Recently the Museum
has focused on major German artists such as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, and
Anselm Kiefer, while simultaneously collecting the young artists of the time.

Numbering over 6,000 works, the Museum's collections of American and European
decorative arts and design feature objects in a wide range of media. The collection
of 19th- and 20th-century American silver is widely considered among the finest in
the world.

The collection of European art at the Dallas Museum of Art is an exquisite grouping of
paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, with strengths in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

Sculpture and textiles in the regional art styles of Indonesia and Sarawak distinguish the
Museum’s Pacific collections. Highlights include works from the Mentawai Islands,
Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, Sumba, Flores, and the Southeast Moluccas.

This beautifully illustrated book showcases 110 objects from the Dallas Museum of Art's world-renowned African collection. In contrast to Western "art for art's sake," tradition-based African art served as an agent of religion, social stability, or social control. Chosen for their visual appeal, compelling histories, and cultural significance, the works of art in this volume are presented under the themes of leadership and status, the cycle of life, decorative arts, and influences (imported and exported). Also included are many fascinating photographs that show the context in which these objects were originally used.

In 1985 the Dallas Museum of Art received a one-of-a-kind gift of more than 1,400 works—impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, and decorative arts objects—authorized by Wendy Reves in honor of her late husband, Emery Reves.

New photography for the works on paper collection is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.