LibGuides: Art: Find Museum & Gallery Collections

Museum & Gallery Collections

Museums and galleries help to preserve our cultural and natural heritage, and make artists' creative output accessible to researchers, academics, and the public. Many national museums make a large portion of their collections and exhibitions digitally available, as well as valuable research and learning materials. You can view these works individually or within the context of their collection to analyze and understand the materials used, artistic style, unique perspective, and their place within their broader culture.

Below you will find art galleries and museums from around the world, with contemporary and historical collections made available for your viewing online. Explore the wide variety of artworks and collections materials from these renowned institutions.

Canada

Art Gallery of Ontario
Located in Toronto, the AGO Collection of more than 120,000 works of art ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to significant works by Indigenous and Canadian artists and European masterpieces.
Dorset Fine Arts
Dorset Fine Arts was established to develop and serve the market for Inuit fine art produced by the artist members of the Co-operative
the plumb
DIY-artist run project dedicated to providing exhibition space to emerging artists, fostering dialogues with established voices, and providing a platform for culturally diverse artists and curators. Located in Toronto.

Africa

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa
The museum’s galleries feature rotating, temporary exhibitions with a dedicated space for the permanent collection. View works online from international artists.
Iziko South African National Art Gallery
Housing a vast and critically engaging collection of historical, modern and contemporary South African, African and international artworks. Explore the collections and exhibitions online.

Asia

National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo
The MOMAT contains works of art from Japan and overseas spanning more than a century, from 1900 to the present day. Currently, the collection contains more than 13,000 works of various genres including nihon-ga (modern Japanese-style paintings), oil paintings, prints, watercolors, drawings, sculptures, photography, and film. In recent years, the museum has increased its focus on acquiring works by major overseas artists who have had a significant influence on Japanese art.
The National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto
Established as the Annex Museum of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (MoMAK) collects outstanding works of art as well as related books and materials, with particular emphasis on nihonga (Japanese-style painting) and crafts.
National Museum of the Philippines
The National Museum of the Philippines develops the national reference collections in the areas of artistic and cultural heritage and natural history, and carries out permanent research programs in biodiversity, geological history, human origins, pre-historical and historical archaeology, maritime and underwater cultural heritage, ethnology, art history, and moveable and immoveable cultural properties. Many of these items are featured online.
Hong Kong Museum of Art
The Hong Kong Museum of art maintains a collection of over 17,000 items, representing the unique cultural legacy of Hong Kong's connection across the globe. View exhibitions and works from various collections online.
The National Art Museum of China
The museum houses more than 110,000 pieces of various collections, most of which are representative works of different periods and great artworks of Chinese art masters from ancient times till today, constituting art development history since the beginning of modern China. Collections also include some ancient paintings and calligraphy works, foreign artistic works as well as folk art.

AGO

Art Gallery of Ontario by Reg Natarajan, via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

United States

Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art
Over 490,000 works of art, from around the world and throughout history, digitized and available to explore online.
Museum of Modern Art
An evolving collection of over 200,000 works of modern and contemporary art, with more than 94,000 works available for review online.
The Guggenheim Museum
Featuring over 1,700 artworks by more than 625 artists, the Collection Online presents a searchable database of selected artworks from the Guggenheim’s permanent collection of approximately 8,000 artworks.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is the first museum in the world solely dedicated to championing women through the arts.
de Young Museum
de Young collections—encompassing American paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts; modern and contemporary art; art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; and textile arts—reflect an active conversation among cultures, perspectives, and time periods.
The Art Institute of Chicago
Explore thousands of artworks in the museum’s collection—from the renowned icons to lesser-known works from every corner of the globe—as well as books, writings, reference materials, and other resources.
American Illustrators Gallery
The American Illustrators Gallery features the foremost illustrators and exhibits only the highest-quality examples of their original artwork. Review their collections and traveling exhibitions online.

Mexico

Museo Jumex
Located in Mexico City, Museo Jumex is an institution devoted to contemporary art, whose aim was not only to serve a broad and diverse public, but also to become a laboratory for experimentation and innovation in the arts.
Museo Nacional de Arte
View the extensive online collection of graphic arts, paintings, sculpture, photography, and more from 16th to 20th century Mexico.

Australia

National Museum of Art Australia
With more than 210,000 objects representing Australia’s history and cultural heritage, with a focus on Indigenous histories and cultures, European settlement, and human interaction with the environment, the collection aims to build connections between objects, memory, imagination and lived experience – across cultures, communities and time.

Europe

Museo Del Prado
Located in Madrid, Spain, explore the collection online of over 6000 works.
Sofia Reina Museum
Located in Madrid, Spain, explore the collection online, as well as interactive videos of each collection.
Louvre Museum
Take a virtual tour of the renowned museum in Paris, France.
National Portrait Gallery
Explore over 138,000 images online from London's prominent gallery.
The Tate
Explore online collections from England's Tate Galleries: Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St Ives.
Guggenheim Bilbao
Explore the collection and exhibitions online, include works by Mark Rothko, Jeff Koons, and Jenny Holzer.
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
With over 100,000 works in the collection - a third of which are accessible online - the Stedelijk's exhibitions, publications, and educational programs offer unique insights into today's world.
Irish Museum of Modern Art
Home to over 3,500 modern and contemporary works from Irish and international artists. Explore items from the collection online.
Fashion Illustration Gallery
Based in England, FIG promotes and sells original art works and prints made by artists who have worked as fashion illustrators. View artists and their prints in this online gallery.

South America

São Paulo Museum of Modern Art
Explore more than 5000 modern and contemporary–mostly Brazilian—works of art. These are displayed in temporary exhibitions at the museum, and viewed online in Portuguese.
Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts
The MNBA preserves collections of Chilean and foreign art from the Colony to the present day, totaling more than five thousand pieces. These are exhibited through the permanent exhibition that is structured through various themes, many of which are available for viewing online.