Mezzanine
Shirley Chang Gallery of Chinese Art
UMMA’s Chinese collection spans three thousand years and many dynasties. It is particularly renowned for its paintings on silk (whose fragility demands that the paintings on view be changed frequently) and diverse ceramics demonstrating important technical innovations in glazes, shapes, and motifs over millennia. Guardian figures watch over the entrance to the gallery, while one particularly touching piece—a small ceramic dog, a burial object dating to the 1st century—documents an ancient connection to our canine friends.
Jan and David Brandon Family Bridge
The "Brandon Bridge" is a space for UMMA to present three special exhibitions per year.
Woon-Hyung Lee and Korea Foundation Gallery of Korean Art
UMMA’s exquisite Korean pottery, as well as an evolving collection of furniture, decorative arts and painting, are featured in the first gallery dedicated solely to the arts of Korea in an American university art museum. Don’t miss the celadon ceramics of the Goryeo Court (10th through the 13th centuries), the envy of Asia and an art form with richly intertwined cultural, political, and economic backstories.
Joan and Bob Tisch Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art
Don’t miss Max Beckmann’s Begin the Beguine—an important acquisition by former director and faculty member Jean Paul Slusser in the 1940s, when this represented the contemporary art of the time—along with other works of German Expressionism, European Surrealism, and sculpture by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, and Barbara Hepworth. An adjoining gallery of modern and contemporary art showcases many gems acquired in recent years—Betye Saar’s Colored, work by Carrie Mae Weems, Kara Walker, and Douglas Huebler, and a massive color photogragh by Candida Höfer—alongside old favorites that previous space limitations kept off view too much of the time.