NMA Docent Depot

In the following sections you will find links to web and print resources that pertain to the traveling exhibitions and permanent collections cared for by the Nevada Museum of Art. Please browse around, and if you find interesting sites that should be included, post them in a comment or email me.

The Altered Landscape is the NMA's largest and newest focus collection and features nearly 600 pieces of contemporary landscape photographs. The collection traces the 1970s New Topographics tradition through its derivations over the past four decades. Much of The Altered Landscape imagery focuses on topography of the new West, including nuclear and military landscapes, mining sites, housing developments, dams, and desert trails. Over 50 artists are represented in the collection including large bodies of work by Robert Adams, Mark Klett, John Pfahl, Frank Gohlke, Peter Goin, Richard Misrach, Patrick Nagatani, Terry Evans, Sharon Stewart, Wanda Hammerbeck, and Robert Dawson. In 1998, a $400,000 endowment for future Altered Landscape acquisitions was established through the generosity of the Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

The E. L. Wiegand Collection was founded with an endowment to support acquisitions around the theme of the work ethic in American art. The collection includes paintings by Charles Burchfield, Rutherford Boyd, Hugo Robus, Frank Van Sloun, and Lovell Birge Harrison as well as prints by Grant Wood and several bronze sculptures.

From images created by travelers and explorers to Romantic landscapes and scenes depicting the American West, the Sierra Nevada/Great Basin Collection surveys the art of our region, allowing NMA's audience the opportunity to explore their visual heritage. With this collection, the museum documents how artists have interpreted the landscape over the past 150 years through the works of Timothy O'Sullivan, John Henry Hill, Maynard Dixon, Carleton E. Watkins, and Edward Weston.

The Contemporary Collection is international in scope with a major focus on West Coast and Nevada based artists. The emphasis is on environmental art, Pop Art, assemblage, and installation art, represented with works by Michael Heizer, Michael Sarich, Dennis Oppenheim, Wayne Thiebaud, and Celeste Roberge.

The Historical Collection is a broad collection of American art including paintings, works on paper and sculpture. Founded through a major bequest in 1949, the core of the collection dates from 1900 to 1945, with works by Stuart Davis, Maynard Dixon, and Charlie Dye, as well as regional artists including Lorenzo Latimer, Robert Caples and Craig Sheppard. A 1998 gift from Wells Fargo of 49 prints and paintings expanded the collection's post-1945 work to include pieces by Roy Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Motherwell, Sam Francis, Robert Rauschenberg, and Christo.