The Colorado Collection, the permanent art collection for the CU Art Museum, University of Colorado at Boulder, contains over 5,000 works of art. The collection was started in 1939 to be used as a teaching tool for students. It has grown into a comprehensive art collection that enriches the educational experience of students, faculty, and the broader campus community, as well as the Colorado public, through exposure to original works of art and by furthering exposure to art history, museum studies, contemporary art practice, and other social and cultural issues that can be addressed through original works of art.
The Colorado Collection’s mission is to collect, preserve, exhibit, interpret, and contextualize original works of art within a pluralistic research and teaching context. The Colorado Collection focuses on modern and contemporary works of art, as well as works from a diversity of cultural and artistic heritages and histories that range from ancient art traditions through the present. The Colorado Collection is the only public resource of its kind for the state of Colorado and is the only public art collection in Boulder.
The collection has grown over the years through the generosity of many donors and modest acquisitions funds. The collection includes works from numerous time periods and cultures, including Old Master works on paper, Southwestern and South American Santos, Southeast Asian pottery, African sculpture, British 18th century prints, American prints of the 1930s and 1940s, Japanese ukiyo-e prints, 19th century photography, Pop art, Minimalist works on paper, and contemporary sculpture, prints, photographs, and paintings. Major gifts by Polly and Mark Addison beginning in the early 1990’s significantly expanded the representation of modern and contemporary art in the collection.
[Horie and Nekozane]
Utagawa Ichiyusai Hiroshige,
Japanese (1797-1858)
# 96, from the series
"One Hundred Views of
Famous Places in Edo"
1856
woodcut 13 1/4" x 8 1/2"
Helen Baker Jones Collection
--in memory of her father James H. Baker, former president of CU
Log Jam (Backwaters Up
Millinocket Way No. 3)
Marsden Hartley, American (1877-1943)
1939-40
oil on masonite
22" x 28"
Purchased from Raul Rosenberg & Co.,
New York
Snake Cup, 1984
Elizabeth Murray (1940- 2007)
Lithography
32 x 25 inches
GIft of Polly and Mark Addison to the Polly and Mark Addison COllection, Colorado Collection, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado at Boulder