The Collection Galleries
About the Pavilion
The Collection Galleries feature rotating installations of the Nasher Museum’s extensive holdings of historical art. Eight galleries, as well as the entrance to Wilson Pavilion, are dedicated to the museum’s strengths, which represent a brief history of human creativity from different times and parts of the world. Just beyond the entrance, visitors will find the Incubator, a flexible space for rotating student- and faculty-curated exhibitions. Visitors are invited to return again and again to The Collection Galleries, where Nasher curators continue to refresh the galleries with gems from the collection. The museum’s contemporary collection is showcased through rotating exhibitions within a separate pavilion. Works from the contemporary collection create new conversations and connections among historical works in The Collection Galleries. A breakthrough work by New York artist Fred Wilson from 1990, Colonial Collection, anchors the Arts of Africa Gallery. A painting by Kehinde Wiley is on view in the European Art Gallery.
Gallery
Modern & Contemporary
Artwork featured in gallery: Firelei Báez, Tignon for Ayda Weddo (or that which a center can not hold) (detail), 2019. Acrylic and oil on archival printed canvas, 91 1⁄2 × 114 1⁄4 inches (232.41 × 290.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Museum purchase with additional funds provided by the Office of the Provost, Duke University; 2019.26.1. © Firelei Báez. Image courtesy of James Cohan, New York..
Gallery
Incubator
Artwork featured in gallery: Joseph Wright of Derby (attributed), British, Portrait of an Artist, 18th century. Oil on canvas, 29 1/8 x 24 1/2 inches (74 x 62.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Bequest of Mary D.B.T. Semans in memory of her mother, Mary Duke Biddle; 2013.3.1. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion..
Artwork featured in gallery: Joseph Wright of Derby (attributed), British, Portrait of an Artist (detail), 18th century. Oil on canvas, 29 1/8 x 24 1/2 inches (74 x 62.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Bequest of Mary D.B.T. Semans in memory of her mother, Mary Duke Biddle; 2013.3.1. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion..
Artwork featured in gallery: Joseph Wright of Derby (attributed), British, Portrait of an Artist (detail), 18th century. Oil on canvas, 29 1/8 x 24 1/2 inches (74 x 62.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Bequest of Mary D.B.T. Semans in memory of her mother, Mary Duke Biddle; 2013.3.1. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion..
Off the Map: The Provenance of a Painting
UPCOMING EXHIBITION:
September 18, 2021 through
January 9, 2022
Gallery
Art of the United States
Gallery
Art of the Americas
Artwork featured in gallery: Nazca (South Coast Peru), Dish with Warrior Wearing a Feline Mask, 100 - 300 CE. Ceramic with red, orange, cream, black, gray and white slip, 1 3/8 x 5 13/16 x 5 13/16 in. (3.5 x 14/7 x 14.7 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. From the The Paul A. and Virginia Clifford Collection..
Artwork featured in gallery: Teotihuacán, Central Mexico, Mural fragment with dancing bird-shaman, c. 400 – 550 CE. Fresco, 27 x 42 in. (68.6 x 106.7 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Schaeffer.
The Art of the Americas Gallery focuses on one aspect of this vast collection – the ceramics, stonework and mural painting of Mesoamerica – and highlights a wide array of Maya cylinder vases.
View Gallery
Gallery
Ancient World
Artwork featured in gallery: Polygnotos, attributed, Greek (Athenian), Red-figure calyx krater (detail), 460-450 BCE. Ceramic, 18 1⁄8 x 18 5⁄16 x 18 5⁄16 inches (46 x 46.5 x 46.5 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum, the Duke Classical Collection, gift of Dr. and Mrs. James H. Semans; the Thomas and Virginia B. Semans Teaching Collection..
Artwork featured in gallery: Cypriot, Beardless male votary (detail), 6th – 5th century BCE. Limestone, 47 3⁄4 × 20 × 8 inches (121.3 × 50.8 × 20.3 cm). Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription..
Artwork featured in gallery: Roman (Palestinian), Double unguentarium (detail), 3rd - 4th century CE. Glass, 4 1⁄8 x 2 3⁄16 x 1 1⁄8 inches (10.5 x 5.6 x 2.8 cm)..
This gallery features works from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures.
View Gallery
Gallery
Arts of Africa
Artwork featured in gallery: This image shows a carved wood very stylized African female figure seated with a large head..
Artwork featured in gallery: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua..
Artwork featured in gallery: 1920's carving of African figures carved in a wood door. Figures are performing various tasks in horizontal rows. Every other row is a patterned row that separates the rows of figures. One main figure is riding a bicycle and smoking, other figures seem to be feeding animals and getting ready for a battle..
This gallery presents many of the Nasher museum’s best masks, figural sculpture and beadwork from Liberia, Nigeria and other parts of the African continent, including works from the renowned George Harley collection.
View Gallery
Gallery
Medieval European Art
Artwork featured in gallery: A stained glass image of two figures embracing. They have their faces facing the viewer and very close together. Their arms are wrapped around each other..
Artwork featured in gallery: Austrian, Top of lancet window with architectural canopy, 1400-1430, Stained glass and lead. 29 1/2 x 19 1/8 in. (74.9 x 48.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Gift of Mrs. Ella Brummer in memory of her husband, Ernest Brummer. 1978.20.7..
This gallery displays important architectural sculpture, devotional objects and stained glass from the Romanesque and Gothic periods.
View Gallery
Gallery
European Art
Artwork featured in gallery: Curabitur tristique orci ut lorem sollicitudin fringilla. Donec aliquet laoreet diam, id convallis diam blandit quis..
Artwork featured in gallery: Vicente Carducho (attributed), Italian, The Virgin Contemplating Instruments of the Passion (detail), c. 1620 – 1630. Oil on canvas, 52 3⁄4 x 43 11⁄16 inches (134 x 111 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum. Museum purchase with funds provided by the John A. Schwarz III and Anita Eerdmans Schwarz Family Endowment Fund. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion..
This gallery illustrates cultural and aesthetic changes from the Renaissance to the dawn of the modern period (1400 – 1900) through a variety of objects, paintings and sculptures.
View Gallery