Beginning with the founding bequest of 47 paintings from Hans Hofmann, the museum has developed an impressive art collection of nearly 7,000 paintings, sculpture, and works on paper.
Early twentieth-century masters such as Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Aristide Maillol, and Joan Miro are represented. The collection also contains works by old masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Giovanni Savoldo, and Giovanni Caracciolo; important collections of American primitive painting and early California landscapes; and a significant collection of European and American prints and drawings. Among other collection highlights are works by many of the major French painters of the nineteenth century, including Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, and Pierre Auguste Renoir.
The museum is particularly noted for its collection of late twentieth-century art, including works by Alexander Calder, Mark Rothko, Joseph Cornell, Clyfford Still, Helen Frankenthaler, Francis Bacon, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Nancy Spero, David Ireland, Betye Saar, and Nayland Blake.
The museum also houses an outstanding Asian art collection of paintings, drawings, woodblock prints, sculpture, and ceramics, primarily from China, Japan, and India.
International in scope, the UAM/PFA's gallery exhibition program draws from Western, African, and Asian cultures in all periods of history. The museum has presented exhibitions focused on the work of such eminent artists as Richard Avedon, Jonathan Borofsky, Joan Brown, James Lee Byars, Francesco Clemente, Terry Fox, Robert Frank, Juan Gris, Robert Mapplethorpe, Edvard Munch, and Rosemarie Trockel. Major thematic exhibitions have included The Independent Group: Postwar Britain and the Aesthetics of Plenty; Anxious Visions: Surrealist Art; Made in U.S.A.: An Americanization in Modern Art, the 50s & 60s; Shadows of Mt. Huang: Chinese Painting; Africa Explores: Twentieth-Century African Art; and J. M. W. Turner: Works on Paper from American Collections.
The MATRIX exhibition program embodies the museum's commitment to presenting new and experimental art. Started in 1978 as a continuing survey of contemporary art, MATRIX has initiated over 150 solo exhibitions. Among these have been exhibitions of work by Louise Bourgeois, Richard Diebenkorn, David Hockney, Jess, Raymond Pettibon, Jim Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, and Kiki Smith.
ALL THINGS ARE DELICATELY INTERCONNECTED
An extensive schedule of public programs highlights both special exhibitions and the UAM/PFA collection. The programs provide a cultural context for the works on display through an exciting variety of interdisciplinary events including musical performances, readings, lectures by distinguished scholars and artists, symposia, and demonstrations. Lively, informal gallery tours are offered regularly by UC Berkeley graduate students from a variety of backgrounds, as well as by museum staff.