The Contemporary Collection
About
Since opening in 2005, the Nasher Museum has been dedicated to building a groundbreaking collection of contemporary art. In this effort, the museum recognizes and supports global artists of extraordinary vision, whose works spark opportunities for deep and thoughtful engagement. The Nasher’s collecting strategy emphasizes works by diverse artists who have been historically underrepresented, or even excluded, by mainstream arts institutions, and maintains a particular focus on artists of African descent. This strategy also includes work by emerging artists, self-taught artists, and outstanding work by artists who live in North Carolina and the South who contribute to the surrounding creative community.
View the most recent additions to the contemporary collection.
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Barkley L. Hendricks, Under Zim’s Tree, 1998. Oil on canvas, 17 1/4 inches (43.82 cm) diameter. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Susan and Barkley L. Hendricks in honor of Director Trevor Schoonmaker, 2020.6.1. © Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks. Image courtesy of the artist's estate and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
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Barkley L. Hendricks, Treasure Birds (Thoughts of Christmas), 1999. Oil on canvas, 21 1/2 inches (54.61 cm) diameter. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Gift of Susan and Barkley L. Hendricks in honor of Director Trevor Schoonmaker, 2020.6.1. © Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks. Image courtesy of the artist's estate and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
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Hassan Hajjaj, Nisrin, 2010. Metallic Lambda print on 3mm white Dibond, painted wood, and aluminum cans, 53 1/2 × 36 3/4 inches (135.9 × 93.4 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
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Jeffrey Gibson, I PUT A SPELL ON YOU, 2015. Repurposed punching bag, glass beads, artificial sinew, and steel; 40 × 14 × 14 inches (101.6 × 35.6 × 35.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Museum purchase, 2015.11.1. © Jeffrey Gibson. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
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Barkley L. Hendricks, Bahsir (Robert Gowens), 1975. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 83 ½ x 66 inches (212.1 x 167.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Museum purchase with additional funds provided by Jack Neely, 2007.5.1. © Barkley L. Hendricks. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
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Njideka Akunyili Crosby, "The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” Might Not Hold True For Much Longer, 2013. Acrylic and transfers on paper, 64 × 82 7/8 inches (162.6 × 210.5 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art. Gift of Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (T’84, P’16, P’19, P’19). © Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
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Carrie Mae Weems, I Looked and Looked to See What so Terrified You from the Louisiana Project, 2003. Chromogenic prints, 35 ¾ x 23 ¾ inches (90.8 × 60.3 cm) each. Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase. © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
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Deborah Grant, In the Land of the Blind the Blue Eye Man is King from the series By the Skin of Our Teeth, 2007. Oil, archival ink, paper, Flashe paint, and enamel on five birch panels; 72 × 180 × 2 inches (182.9 × 457.2 × 5.1 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase with additional funds provided by JoAnn and Ronald Busuttil. © Deborah Grant. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
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Maria Berrio, Syzygy (detail), 2017. Collage with Japanese paper and watercolor on canvas, 80 × 96 inches (203.2 × 243.8 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Gift of Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger. Image courtesy of Praxis Gallery, New York, New York. © Maria Berrio.
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Wangechi Mutu, Family Tree, 2012. One of 13 mixed-media collages on paper, 20 x 14 1/4 inches (50.8 x 36.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase with additional funds provided by Trent Carmichael (T’88, P’17), Blake Byrne (T’57), Marjorie and Michael Levine (T’84, P’16, P’19, P’19), Stefanie and Douglas Kahn (P’11, P’13), and Christen and Derek Wilson (T’86, B’90, P’15). © Wangechi Mutu. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Browse the Collection Up Close
The Nasher Museum has joined Google Arts & Culture, which offers virtual experiences of thousands of the world’s great museums. Download the app for free or visit from your desktop and zoom in close to view important works in our collection. The Nasher is excited to have brought many of these artists to Google Arts & Culture for the first time.
Bibliographic Resource
Reading Black Art: A Bibliography is an online resource that will aid in a better understanding of and engagement with work by Black artists in the Nasher Museum collection. It is a non-exhaustive bibliography on art, art history and visual culture of the African Diaspora. This curated selection presents a wide array of instructive texts and will be updated monthly.
Contemporary Interventions within The Collection Galleries
Works of contemporary art from the Nasher Museum’s collection are on view in Wilson Pavilion, creating new conversations among historical works in The Collection Galleries. An early, breakthrough work by New...
Published
Collecting and Presenting Work by Artists of African Descent
This video documents a lively and critical conversation, “Collecting and Presenting Work by Artists of African Descent,” hosted by the Nasher Museum on February 11, 2016. The panel was moderated by Richard J. Powell, John ...
by Nasher Museum Duration 50m 44s Published
Cosmic Rhythm Vibrations
This exhibition highlights works from the Nasher Museum collection that engage visual and musical rhythm. Rhythm may be expressed through repeated patterns of color, form or movement, or, in other cases, implied sound and ...
People Get Ready: Building a Contemporary Collection
Since opening in 2005, the Nasher Museum has been dedicated to building a groundbreaking collection of contemporary art centered on diversity and inclusion. The museum’s emphasis is on artists historically underrepresented...
People Get Ready: Southern Lens
This installation complemented People Get Ready: Building a Contemporary Collection, drawing from the museum’s...
John Akomfrah: Precarity
The Nasher Museum presented Precarity, a new three-channel video installation created by John Akomfrah, a London-based artist and filmmaker. Precarity works with the themes of risk, hybridity and the unfa...
Disorderly Conduct: American Painting and Sculpture, 1960-1990
The decade immediately following World War II was one of significant artistic achievement in the United States. In the late 1950s, artists took divergent aesthetic paths in reaction to the dominance of Abstract Expressioni...
All Matterings of Mind: Transcendent Imagery From the Contemporary Collection
To transcend is to go beyond, to surpass, to exceed or rise above in extent or degree. Transcendence can be physical, spiritual, emotional or mental and allows for an encounter that defies expectations. The works that were...
Odili Donald Odita Murals
As part of Nasher10, a celebration of the first decade and beyond, the Nasher Museum commissioned two large-scale murals by abstract painter Odili Donald Odita. His wall paintin...
Barkley L. Hendricks: Works from the Collection
The Nasher Museum presented Barkley L. Hendricks: Works from the Collection, at the entrance to Wilson Pavillion, as part of The Collection Galleries. American artist Barkley L. Hendricks was a great frie...
National Press for The Contemporary Collection
The Brooklyn Rail Review
Reality of My Surroundings: The Contemporary Collection
In celebration of the museum’s 10th anniversary, the Nasher Museum presented some of its most significant works from the contemporary collection. Reality of My Surroundings demonstrated the museum’s ongoing commit...
Sound Vision: Contemporary Art from the Collection
The Nasher Museum presented an exhibition of recent acquisitions of contemporary art and other highlights from the collection. Sound Vision: Contemporary Art from the Collection includes paintings, works on paper,...
Recent Acquisitions
The Nasher Museum presented an installation of important contemporary art that reflects an ongoing focus on global, emerging artists of African descent. The installation, all recent gifts and purchases for the permanent co...
Building The Contemporary Collection: Five Years Of Acquisitions
In its first five years, the Nasher Museum focused on collecting modern and contemporary art with particular emphasis on global, emerging artists of color. Building the Contemporary Collection, in celebration of t...
New at the Nasher
New at the Nasher, the museum’s first exhibition of contemporary work from the collection, showcased recent acquisitions and loans in a lively two-part installation, on view for an entire year. Visible from the en...
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