The Modern Collection
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
The AGO’s modern collection spans international art from 1900 to 2000, with foundational gifts from Sam and Ayala Zacks, the AGO’s pioneering Women’s Committee, and the British sculptor Henry Moore. Home to the world’s largest public collection of Moore’s work, most donated by the artist himself, the AGO opened The Henry Moore Sculpture Centre in 1974.
Early 20th-century highlights include paintings and sculptures by major figures in European avant-garde movements before and during the First World War, including Constantin Brancusi, Marc Chagall, Jacob Epstein, Natalia Goncharova, Henri Matisse, Amadeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and Gino Severini. Interwar works are another strength, with standout Surrealist pieces by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and Yves Tanguy, as well as works by Pierre Bonnard, Otto Dix, Alberto Giacometti, Barbara Hepworth, Fernand Léger, and Ben Nicholson. The collection also includes over 150 works from artists associated with Cologne Dada.
Post-World War II American painting and sculpture form a major focus, with strong holdings in Abstract Expressionism with artworks by Arshile Gorky, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith. Post-painterly abstraction is represented with paintings by Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Frank Stella. The collection also features European neo-avant-gardes such as Karl Appel, Jean Dubuffet, Luis Feito, and Marie-Helene Vieira da Silva.
From the 1960s on, most major movements are represented, including Pop Art, Minimalism, Post-minimalism, and Arte Povera, with works by Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, George Segal, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, John McCracken, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Luciano Fabro, Mario Merz, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Joseph Beuys, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, and Richard Long. Conceptual art is present with works by Daniel Buren, Hans Haacke, On Kawara, Lawrence Weiner, and Ian Wilson.
The collection’s 1980s holdings are anchored by European Neo-expressionism, with iconic works by artists Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, and Jörg Immendorff. Other important artists from the decade include Gilbert and George, Jack Goldstein, Mary Kelly, Cady Noland, and Nancy Spero.
While historically rooted in European and American art, the modern collection has expanded in recent years to include underrepresented artists, including women and global Indigenous artists, as well as works from Asia and global Africa and the diaspora, reflecting a growing commitment to a broader, more inclusive view of modern art.
