The University of Arizona Museum of Art houses wide-ranging collections of over 5,000 paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings, with an emphasis on European and American fine art from the Renaissance to the present.

The SAMUEL H. KRESS COLLECTION, given in the early 1950s, consists of more than 60 European paintings, sculptures and decorative objects dating from the 14th through the 19th centuries. A highlight of the collection is the 26 panel Retablo of the Cathedral of the Ciudad Rodrigo by 15th century Spanish painters Fernando Gallego and Maestro Bartolomé (and their workshops), which is not only the most important altarpiece produced by the Spanish masters, but is also perhaps the finest example of late Gothic Spanish painting in a U.S. collection. In addition the Kress holdings include paintings by Vittore Carpaccio, Jusepe de Ribera, Domenico Tintoretto, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Horace Vernet and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.

The C. LEONARD PFEIFFER COLLECTION, donated in 1944 by a UA alumnus, is comprised of nearly 100 American paintings and drawings from the early 20th century. The collection includes works by John Sloan, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Isabel Bishop, Jacob Lawrence, Reginald Marsh, John Steuart Curry, and Philip Evergood.

The EDWARD J. GALLAGHER, JR. MEMORIAL COLLECTION features more than 200 European and American paintings, sculptures and works on paper from the late 19th and 20th centuries. The sculpture holdings, considered one of the finest in the Southwest, include pieces by Auguste Rodin, Jean Arp, Aristide Maillol, Alexander Archipenko, Jacques Lipchitz, David Smith, Isamu Noguchi, Henry Moore, and Alexander Calder. The collection is particularly strong in Abstract Expressionism, with important paintings by Morris Louis, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell. Other artists represented include Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Joán Miró, Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall, Emil Nolde, and Kurt Schwitters.

THE JACQUES AND YULLA LIPCHITZ COLLECTION: SKETCHES AND MODELS, donated by the artist's widow in 1980, includes 60 plaster and clay models by Lipchitz, various tools from the artist's studio, numerous portrait busts, and several fully-realized sculptures. With its intensive focus on the work of a single artist and its chronological range, spanning 1911 to 1971, this comprehensive collection provides rare access to the working process of one of the most important sculptors of the Modern era. The ROBERT MCCALL COLLECTION and the Archive of Visual Arts are our newest collecting initiatives.

The EDWARD J. GALLAGHER, JR. MEMORIAL BEQUEST, an endowment which funds the selective growth of the permanent collection, has made possible since 1980 the acquisition of more than 1,000 works of art, including pieces by Honoré Daumier, James McNeill Whistler, José Posada, Käthe Kollwitz, Frank Stella, Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Elizabeth Catlett, and Robert Colescott. The majority of the Gallagher Bequest acquisitions have augmented the Museum's substantial print collection, which has extensive WPA/FAP holdings in addition to significant representation by Old Masters such as Albrecht Dürer, Hendrik Goltzius, Jacques Callot, Rembrandt van Rijn, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Francisco de Goya, William Blake, John Martin, and Eugène Delacroix.

University art museums are a unique breed. A university art museum has the responsibility to exhibit art, yet its mission must be accomplished in the context of the larger educational overlay of the university dialogue. For a university art museum to fulfill its role within the university structure, it must participate in the education of artists, art historians, and others. Part of the educational mandate is facilitating research into the process of making art, the business of art, and the examination of the experiences of successful artists -- all of which enriches the learning experience for the student. An archive provides such a fertile environment for the exploration of the visual arts.