Highlights of the Permanent Collection

In celebration of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s 75th Anniversary in 2016, this installation highlights some of the most celebrated works of art from SBMA’s permanent collection, as well as several of the most exciting gifts and acquisitions in the areas of modern and contemporary art, photography, and the arts of Asia. 

This eclectic group of objects, meant to sample the breadth and diversity of the permanent collection while some of the Museum’s galleries are temporarily closed for renovation, includes favorites such as the sensual life-size bronze Bather Putting Up Her Hair (1930) by Aristide Maillol, the haunting Yuan dynasty Seated Luohan (13th century), whose parted lips give the compelling illusion of speech, and the important, early painting by the famed Bay Area Figuration artist Richard Diebenkorn. Ridley-Tree Gallery also continues to showcase favorites of 19th-century Impressionism, such as the beloved Villas in Bordighera (1884) by Claude Monet, along with the long-term loans from the Armand Hammer Foundation and the collection of Michael Armand Hammer.