The modern and contemporary art collection features artworks dating from around 1945 to present day in a wide range of media including painting, photography, sculpture, installation, time-based media, and works on paper. In the South Texas region, SAMA’s modern and contemporary collection is uniquely positioned within the context of the Museum’s global collections and includes work by international artists along with those based in the United States and Texas.
The founding collection emphasized twentieth-century American paintings by major artists including Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Philip Guston, Dorothy Hood, Hans Hofmann, Frank Stella, and Wayne Thiebaud. In recent years, acquisitions have focused on contemporary artists who employ varied materials and artistic approaches, expanding the collection to reflect a wide spectrum of voices and experiences. Additionally, SAMA’s collection of contemporary Indigenous Australian art represents artistic traditions from a range of geographical regions and language groups in a variety of media.
