CMA Collection

The Columbia Museum of Art is the only art museum in South Carolina with an international collection, focused on four main collecting areas: American art, Asian art, European art, and Modern and Contemporary art.

The CMA cares for a collection of over 7,000 works, reflecting over 5,000 years of human history. Significant gifts distinguished the CMA’s holding from early in its history, including 78 pieces from the Samuel H. Kress collection of Renaissance and Baroque art, a contribution which laid the groundwork for the CMA’s evolution. Notable holdings from the Kress gift include a fresco by Sandro Botticelli, the only fresco by the artist in an American museum collection.

Ranging across time periods and cultures, other significant works in the collection include two large format Slice paintings by Sam Gilliam, a portrait of General George Washington by Charles Willson Peale, an early Mediterranean landscape by Washington Allston, a bronze sculpture by Audrey Flack, and compelling examples by living artists including Anila Agha, Reneé Cox, Osamu Kobayashi, and Rodney McMillian.

The museum’s Asian collection is largely centered on historical Chinese objects, especially strong in ceramics from the Tang Dynasty (618–907), also including tea bowls, snuff bottles, and objects with connections to religious values.

The CMA has long been recognized for its strong holdings in decorative arts and industrial design, with important examples by varied makers including Frank Lloyd Wright, Thomas Day, and Louis Majorelle. The CMA holds one of the best collections of American works on paper in the region, including Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe’s Daufuskie suite of photographs, and prints by the likes of Josef Albers, Louise Bourgeois, and Helen Frankenthaler, among others.