General overview The RISD Museum's collection of about 100,000 objects contains a broad range of works from around the world, including ancient Egypt, Asia, Africa, ancient Greece and Rome, Europe, and the Americas. Over 2,000 of these artworks are typically on display at any time. The collection is managed by seven curatorial departments.
Ancient art in the distance The department of Ancient Art includes bronze figural sculpture and vessels, a notable collection of Greek coins (grown out of the collection donated by
Henry A. Greene), stone sculpture, Greek vases, paintings, and mosaics, a fine collection of Roman jewelry and glass, and teaching examples of
terracottas. A number of objects are excellent examples in their categories. Among these virtually unique works of art are an Etruscan bronze
situla (pail), a fifth-century
BCE Greek female head in marble, and a rare Hellenistic bronze
Aphrodite. Among the Greek vases are works by some of the major Attic painters, including
Nikosthenes; the
Brygos Painter; the
Providence Painter; and the
Pan, Lewis, and
Reed Painters. The cornerstone of the museum's Egyptian collection is the
Ptolemaic period coffin and mummy of the priest Nesmin. Among other highlights of the Egyptian collection are a rare
New Kingdom ceramic paint box, a relief fragment from the
temple complex at Karnak, and a first-class collection of
faience.
Asian art The RISD Museum's Asian Art collection contains ceramics, costume, prints, painting, sculpture, and textiles. One of the highlights of the collection is the peerless group of more than 700 19th-century Japanese prints which were collected by
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, considered among the finest assemblages of such work held outside Japan. The Japanese prints are shown, in rotation, in a gallery dedicated to their exhibition. A major attraction is the important 12th-century wooden Buddha Dainich Nyorai, the largest (over tall) historic Japanese wooden sculpture in the United States. The Buddha is on permanent exhibition in its own gallery. The Japanese textiles are the core and glory of the Asian textile collection. The
kesa, or Buddhist priests' robes, are the most numerous, with 104 examples. The 47 Japanese
Noh robes, meticulously documented, form a comprehensive collection of nearly every type of costume in use in the Noh drama of 18th- and 19th-century Japan. Their vivid colors and patterns, embellished with gold and silver, express perfectly the splendor of the traditional and highly stylized Noh theater. The museum also has a collection of Indian
saris and Chinese ceremonial robes. The Islamic and Indian collections include works of art in all media that celebrate the artistic heritage of the Arab, Indian, Persian, and Turkish cultures.
Contemporary art Created in 2000, the Department of Contemporary Art oversees a collection of painting, sculpture, video, mixed media, and interdisciplinary work, dating from 1960 to the present. It is also responsible for the development of solo artist exhibitions and projects as well as thematic group presentations exploring key issues and trends in recent art, culture, and history. Represented in the collection are significant paintings by Emma Amos, Peter Doig, Carroll Dunham, Nicole Eisenman, David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Karen Kilimnik, Agnes Martin, Joan Mitchell, Marina Perez Simão, Salman Toor, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol and Karl Wirsum, among others. The collection also includes important sculptural work by Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Nick Cave, Jeffrey Gibson, David Hammons, Simone Leigh, Rose B. Simpson, Sarah Sze, Robert Wilson, and Chen Zhen. The museum's video collection features works by such pioneers in the field as Vito Acconci, Lynda Benglis, Xavier Cha, Tony Cokes, Arthur Jafa, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Richard Serra, and William Wegman. The Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Latin American Art includes works by such important artists as Luís Cruz Azaceta, Fernando Botero, José Bedia, Jesús Rafael Soto, Joaquín Torres-García, and Roberto Matta Echuarren. The Richard Brown Baker Collection of Contemporary British Art features paintings, sculptures, and installations by Martin Boyce, Karla Black, Liam Gillick, Lucy McKenzie, Susan Philipsz, Yinka Shonibare, and Cathy Wilkes, among others. The department has a natural and strong connection with Providence's 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, Bob Dilworth, Jim Drain, Richard Fleischner, Ruth Dealy, Richard Merkin, Jordan Seaberry and Duane Slick.
Costumes and textiles The RISD Museum has a large collection of historical textiles and items of dress, with a range that spans centuries from at least 1500 BCE to the present, and includes representative cloth and clothing from many geographic areas. Starting with items such a pair of Native American
moccasins and a Hawaiian
barkcloth acquired in the museum's early history, the collection has grown to include more than 26,000 objects. The earliest piece in the collection is a fragment from an ancient Egyptian tomb, but a major focus of the department's collecting agenda is the acquisition of contemporary fashion and textiles from all over the world. The Costume and Textiles collections extends from examples of
Elizabethan needlework,
Italian Renaissance textiles, French printed toile de Jouey,
Navajo chief's blankets, and fashions from famous European and American designers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Lucy Truman Aldrich is RISD's greatest single donor to the textile collection. Some of her donations include a Japanese
Noh theater robes and Buddhist priest robes.
Decorative arts The Decorative Arts collection encompasses European and American decorative arts (furniture, silver and other metalwork, wallpaper, ceramics, and glass) from the Medieval period to the present. A major highlight of the department is the Charles L. Pendleton Collection of furniture made by 18th-century Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Newport cabinetmakers. Pendleton House, the "wing" of the museum devoted to the exhibition of decorative arts, exhibits at least six pieces of furniture from the
Goddard and Townsend circle of Newport cabinetmakers, including two of the renowned block-front, carved-shell desks-and-bookcases. Also on view in Pendleton House's period rooms are fine examples of English pottery,
Chinese export porcelain, and a comprehensive survey of Rhode Island silver. The Harold Brown Collection of French Empire furniture and objects with Napoleonic associations is another highlight of the department's holdings, as is the Lucy Truman Aldrich collection of rare 18th-century European porcelain figures. Some 360 examples of 18th- and early 19th-century French wallpaper from the M. and Mme. Charles Huard collection constitute the backbone of the museum's wallpaper collection, which is among the finest in the world. Many antique examples of wallpaper are now known to contain the poisonous and
carcinogenic element
arsenic, and the RISD Museum has published an article on its hazards and how to handle them. The museum's collection is particularly strong in the area of 19th-century decorative arts. Important highlights include furniture by the American companies of Vose and Coates,
Herter Brothers, and Alexander Roux; the Englishman
Edward William Godwin (E.W. Godwin); and the French makers Guillaume Beneman and Hugnet Frères. Other highlights of the 19th century are works of art in glass by
Lalique,
Louis Comfort Tiffany, and
Hector Guimard; ceramics by
Wedgwood,
Sèvres, and
Royal Doulton; and silver by
Christopher Dresser and
Charles Robert Ashbee. Approximately 2,000 pieces produced by Providence's
Gorham Manufacturing Company from the mid-19th through the mid-20th century are the foundation of a collection of American silverware, which also includes work by colonial silversmiths such as
John Coney,
Paul Revere, and Samuel Casey. 20th-century design in the collection includes furniture by
Alvar Aalto,
Verner Panton,
Josef Hofmann, and
Charles and Ray Eames; metalwork by
Erik Magnussen; ceramics by
Auguste Delaherche; glass by
Frederick Carder; and wallpaper designs by Nancy McClelland,
Alexander Calder, and
Roy Lichtenstein. The mid 20th-century's revived interest in "craft" is represented by the work of
Tage Frid,
Wharton Esherick,
John Prip, and
Peter Voulkos. The RISD Museum is a leading collector of American contemporary craft and studio furniture, and many of the artists represented in the collection have ties to the school as alumni, faculty, or both. Among the contemporary craftspeople whose work is in the collection are:
Dale Chihuly,
Michael Glancy,
Akio Takamori,
Kurt Weiser,
Judy Kensley McKie,
Jere Osgood,
Rosanne Somerson, and Alphonse Mattia.
Painting and sculpture displays many paintings on multiple levels. The Painting and Sculpture collection contains more than 2,500 works of European and American art from the medieval period up through 1960. The
Italian Renaissance, and
Baroque periods are represented by the work of
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo,
Lippo Memmi,
Jacopo Sansovino,
Alessandro Magnasco, and others. The collection also includes major work by such northern European masters as
Tilman Riemenschneider,
Hendrick Goltzius,
Joachim Wtewael,
Salomon van Ruysdael, and Georg Vischer. The 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces include paintings by
Francisco Collantes,
Sébastien Bourdon, Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin,
Nicolas Poussin,
Angelica Kauffman, and
Joshua Reynolds. Early 19th-century European art is represented by
Thomas Lawrence,
Hubert Robert, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont,
Joseph Chinard,
Théodore Géricault, and others. The department has excellent examples of
French Impressionism and
Post-Impressionism paintings by such artists as
Édouard Manet,
Claude Monet,
Edgar Degas,
Paul Cézanne, and
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. There is important work by 19th-century French sculptors
Auguste Rodin,
Charles Henri Joseph Cordier,
Jules Dalou, and
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Among the 20th-century European painters in the collection are
Pablo Picasso,
Georges Braque,
Henri Matisse,
Raymond Duchamp-Villon,
Fernand Léger,
Oskar Kokoschka, and
Henri Le Fauconnier. The 18th- and 19th-century American collection is particularly strong, with important examples by such artists as
John Singleton Copley,
Gilbert Stuart,
Thomas Cole,
Winslow Homer,
William Merritt Chase,
Martin Johnson Heade,
Mary Cassatt,
John Singer Sargent, and
Edward Mitchell Bannister, an African-American landscapist who spent his career as a painter in Rhode Island. Significant works by
George Wesley Bellows,
Robert Henri,
Charles Sheeler,
Maxfield Parrish,
Georgia O'Keeffe,
John Twachtman,
Hans Hofmann,
Paul Manship, and
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, among others, represent American artistic achievements of the early 20th-century. File:Bruges Master - Portrait of a Cleric - 45.042 - Rhode Island School of Design Museum.jpg|
Bruges Master,
Portrait of a Cleric () File:Charles Lock Eastlake - The Celian Hill from the Palatine - 56.099 - Rhode Island School of Design Museum.jpg|
Charles Lock Eastlake,
The Celian Hill from the Palatine, (1823) File:Édouard Manet - Le repos.jpg|
Manet,
Repose () File:Paul Cézanne - Still Life with Apples - 41.012 - Rhode Island School of Design Museum.jpg|
Cézanne,
Still Life with Apples () File:Renoir 1880 Young woman reading a Journal.jpg|
Renoir,
Young Woman Reading an Illustrated Journal () File:Vincent van Gogh - View of Auvers with Church (1890).jpg|
Vincent van Gogh,
View of Auvers with Church (1890)
Prints, drawings, and photographs The Prints, Drawings, and Photographs collection comprises more than 25,000 works dating from the 15th century to the present. The holdings include a large group of
Old Master engravings and
etchings, and particular strengths in prints and drawings of 18th-century Italy, 19th-century France, and 19th- and 20th-century America. The department also holds one of the largest collections of late 18th- and early 19th-century British watercolors in the United States, featuring work by
J. M. W. Turner,
George Chinnery,
John Sell Cotman,
William Blake, and
Thomas Rowlandson. The collection of French prints and drawings includes work by
Nicolas Poussin,
Hubert Robert,
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,
Édouard Manet,
Claude Monet,
Honoré Daumier,
Vincent van Gogh,
Paul Cézanne,
Edgar Degas,
Pablo Picasso, and others. Notable in the collection of American watercolors and drawings are works by
Benjamin West,
Mary Cassatt,
Thomas Eakins,
Eastman Johnson,
Winslow Homer,
Maurice Prendergast, and
Maxfield Parrish. Among the important 20th-century artists represented in the collection are
Franz Kline,
James Rosenquist,
Helen Frankenthaler,
Robert Motherwell,
Jennifer Bartlett,
Eric Fischl,
Wayne Thiebaud,
Kara Walker, and
Francesco Clemente. Both the Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Modern Latin American Art and the Richard Brown Baker collection of contemporary British art have depth in works on paper. The history of the art of the book is represented, in one of its earliest forms, by the
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499), a masterpiece of Renaissance illumination. In later centuries, work by masters of printing and illustration provides a link between the earliest books and 20th-century "
artists books" that push limits and challenge traditional interpretations of the form. Contemporary works on paper in all media are the fastest growing segment of the collection. An overview of the
history of photography is provided by 5,000 photographs, among them significant works by
Gustave Le Gray,
Julia Margaret Cameron,
Nadar,
Frederick Sommer,
Carrie Mae Weems, and the past RISD professors
Aaron Siskind and
Harry Callahan. The department also oversees the Minskoff Center for Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, which is open to students, faculty, and researchers. ==References==