About museum collections
Searching museum collections is one way to find comparable objects. The museums on this page all have strong collections in African Art. See also the Smithsonian Libraries list of Museums in the United States with collections of African Art.
Museum collections
- The Art Institute of Chicago
The arts of Africa collection contains over 500 works of art from the 11th through the 20th century. The collection is particularly strong in wood carvings from West and Central Africa.
- Baltimore Museum of Art
The BMA has one of the earliest and most important collections of African art in the United States. Featuring more than 2,000 objects that span from ancient Egypt to contemporary Zimbabwe, the collection includes works from more than 200 African cultures in a full range of media.
- Brooklyn Museum of Art
Numbering approximately 4,500 works, from 200 C.E. to today, the Arts of Africa collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Art is one of the most important of its kind in a U.S. art museum. Representing approximately 400 peoples and thirty-one countries, it has particular strengths in art from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Ghana.
- Cleveland Museum of Art
The African art collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art contains about 480 works. The collection's focus is on masks and figures from West and Central Africa, mostly carved in wood.
- Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art website lists approximately 450 objects with images.
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- Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University Bloomington
Browse almost 500 images of objects in the African Art collection.
- Fowler Museum, UCLA
Almost 800 objects of African art are available for viewing online.
- Indianapolis Museum of Art, African Art
Of the over 1,600 objects in the museum 700 have images online.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, NY
Search for "Africa" for 3,500 images of art in the collection. Results can be filtered by location with Africa, material/ object type, etc.
- Seattle Art Museum, African Art
Department of African and Oceanic art has over 2,000 images online.
- Stanley Musem, Univ. of Iowa
This rich collection of objects from African are found in the online encyclopedia "Art and Life in Africa."