Serving our community through the visual arts

Celebrating the rich artistic heritage of Central California, the Monterey Museum of Art offers exceptional collections of early California painting, photography, and contemporary art in two unique historic settings. The Museum has significant collections of work by Armin Hansen, William Ritschel, Ansel Adams, and Edward Weston. Our collections are supplemented by year-round exhibitions, lectures, classes, symposia, and travel opportunities. Whether you’re viewing the galleries at MMA Pacific Street or strolling the gardens at MMA La Mirada, there’s always something new and wonderful to see.

Admission is $5 for adults, $2.50 for students and military. Children under the age of twelve are free.

Membership

Become part of a community sharing a passion for the visual arts, stimulating educational programs and lively social events.

• Join one Museum and gain access to two fabulous locations, twelve galleries, lush gardens, and a fourteen thousand piece art collection.
• Enjoy thought-provoking exhibitions and lectures, lively receptions and stimulating educational workshops. The Museum’s calendar is full of programs and events designed to enrich and engage the lives of our members.
• Celebrate American art, particularly the work of painters active on the Monterey Peninsula such as Armin Hansen, Mary DeNeale Morgan and William F. Ritschel, as well as the work of world-renowned photographers including Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock and Imogen Cunningham.

Collections

Early California Painting

The Museum’s important collection of early California paintings and works on paper celebrates the Monterey Peninsula’s legacy as an influential art colony. Created from the mid-19th century to the 1940s, the notable holdings include the work of Charles Rollo Peters, E. Charlton Fortune, Gottardo Piazzoni, and Francis McComas, among others. Important gifts from the Ritschel Memorial Trust and the Mr. and Mrs. Justin Dart have solidified the Museum’s standing as the major repository of the works of William F. Ritschel and Armin Hansen – two of the figures who defined California landscape painting.

Photography

The distinguished photography holdings of the Monterey Museum of Art build on the rich exchange between photographers and the scenery of California’s Central Coast. Based on the works of Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham, the collection spans the history of the medium with a thematic focus on landscape photography. Some of the most notable holdings include the works of Carleton Watkins and William Henry Jackson; Pictorialist works by Anne Brigman and Johan Hagemeyer, and modern masters such as Charles Sheeler and Aaron Siskind. Contemporary photographs include important works by Richard Misrach, Sally Mann, Irving Penn, and Gary Winograd.

Contemporary Art

The Monterey Museum of Art’s contemporary art holdings include paintings and works on paper by Bay Area abstract and figurative artists such as Nathan Oliveira, David Park, Richard Diebenkorn and Roland Petersen plus sculptural works by artists including George Rickey. The Museum’s formidable collection of postwar and contemporary prints includes Henri Matisse’s Jazz series as well as notable works by Pablo Picasso, David Alfaro Siqueiros, James Rosenquist, Hans Hartung and Wayne Thiebaud.

Asian Art

The Monterey Museum of Art’s Asian art collection includes textiles, woodblock prints, jade and lacquer objects as well as ceramics from Japan, China and Korea. The collection is predominantly modern in scope and features masterful woodblock prints by masters such as Ando Hiroshige, Utagawa Kunisada and Katsushika Hokusai. Additional highlights include a formidable selection of Japanese netsuke; Chinese 19th and 20th century snuff bottles; fan ornaments from the 17th-19th centuries; and a collection of Chinese Yi Xing teapots.

American Art

The American Art collection includes works spanning major North American art historical movements of the late 19th and early to mid-20th century by important innovators such as Thomas Eakins. Paintings by members of the Ashcan School—including John Sloane—and examples by leading impressionists, such as Childe Hassam are also represented. The collection contains the works of modernists such as Oscar Bluemner, Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Rockwell Kent and masters of Regionalism, including Grant Wood. Works on paper by master Mexican artists, including David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo comprise an important aspect of the American Art collection.

Exhibitions:

• Earth, Water, Fire & Forge: Asian Vessels from Antiquity to the Modern Era
  February 2, 2007 – February 1, 2009

• The Monterey Cypress: Celebrating an Icon
  December 22, 2007 –– June 22, 2008

• Men, Ships and the Sea: Masterworks of California Painting by Armin Hansen and William Ritschel
  January 19, 2008 ––June 22, 2008

• The Etchings of Armin Hansen
  January 19, 2008 –– June 22, 2008

• From Martinez to Siquieros: Latin American Artists from the Permanent Collection
  December 1, 2007 – June 29, 2008

• Elkhorn Slough: Photographs by Michael Kenna
  February 9, 2008 –– July 13, 2008

• Painting in the 90s
  February 9, 2008 –– May 25, 2008

• MontereyNOW: Peter K. Brooks
  April 17 – June 29, 2008

• Scenes of the Old West
  June 30, 2007- July 13, 2008

• Youth Arts Collective (YAC)
  May 15, 2008 - July 31, 2008