Collection: Contemporary Art

Contemporary Art

Created in 2000, the department of Contemporary Art oversees an eclectic collection of painting, sculpture, video, mixed media, and interdisciplinary work, dating from 1960 to the present. In addition, the department regularly organizes exhibitions that highlight important issues, trends and individual explorations in recent art.

Represented in the collection are significant paintings by Richard Anuskiewicz, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Mangold, Agnes Martin, Sam Francis, Cy Twombly, Wayne Thiebaud, Larry Rivers, and Andy Warhol, among others. The collection also includes important sculptural work by Richard Artschwager, Louise Bourgeois, Louise Nevelson, Tom Otterness, Lucas Samaras, and Robert Wilson.

The museum's video collection features experimental works by such pioneers in the field as Vito Acconci, Linda Benglis, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Richard Serra, and William Wegman.

The Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Latin American Art includes contemporary paintings by such important artists as Luís Cruz Azaceta, Fernando Botero, José Bedia, Claudio Bravo, Wifredo Lam, and Jesús Rafael Soto.

The department has a natural and strong connection with Providenceís contemporary art community, and numerous RISD faculty and alumni and local artists are represented in the collection. Among them are Howard Ben Tré, Jonathan Bonner, Richard Fleischner, Ruth Dealy, Richard Merkin and Bunny Harvey.