PERMANENT COLLECTION
COLLECTING THE ART OF NOW
MOCA Jacksonville primarily collects work from 1960 to the present. The museum’s permanent collection currently consists of more than 1,000 works of art, including painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, works on paper, and new media. With more than 500 artists represented in the collection, MOCA Jacksonville endeavors to create a Permanent Collection of significant depth, scope, diversity, and quality to be used for study, scholarly research, and exhibition—all tools that foster education, awareness, and experience with contemporary visual art.
In 2016, the museum adopted a new thematic collecting strategy to chart the permanent collection’s growth and interpretation. Rather than discuss the collection in chronological terms, the six broad themes are:
- Art as Social Commentary
- The Evolution of Mark-making
- Material as Meaning
- New Media
- Process and Object Relationship
- (Re)presentation
Many artists and their works fall within multiple categories and highlight the depth and range of their artistic practices. These themes will grow in tandem with the growth of the permanent collection.
Should you have questions about the collection or interest in borrowing an artwork for an exhibition, please contact a member of the Curatorial Department at mocacuratorial@unf.edu.
Special Collections
MOCA Jacksonville’s permanent collection includes some special collections that have been donated to the museum by individual collectors. These collections add significant scope and depth to the collection, while also highlighting the long tradition of individuals building personal collections and sharing them with the community.
To learn more about donating your Collection to MOCA, please contact the Development team at mocadevelopment@unf.edu. Should you have questions about the collections or interest in borrowing an artwork for an exhibition, please contact a member of the Curatorial Department at mocacuratorial@unf.edu.
THE DONALD AND MARIA COX COLLECTION
Donated to MOCA in 2016 by Donald and Maria Cox, this impressive collection of ninety-eight objects includes works by Joan Mitchell, Philip Guston, Joel Shapiro, Frank Stella, Keith Haring, Malcolm Morley, Jasper Johns, and many more. The donation included sixteen paintings, twenty-seven sculptures, and fifty-two works on paper. Maria Cox has also created The Donald and Maria Cox Fund by pledging a gift to help support research, conservation, access, and future growth of the Permanent Collection. This gift propelled the museum towards its goal of creating a high-quality collection with areas of distinction that at the time helped define the institution regionally, nationally, and internationally.
>> Photo of Maria Cox by Doug Eng
NORMAN E. FISHER COLLECTION
Comprised of nearly 700 objects, the Norman E. Fisher Collection is a unique asset held by MOCA Jacksonville. Donated to the museum in 1979 by the family of Jacksonville native Norman E. Fisher, the collection maps an extraordinarily vibrant period in late 20th-century American culture when an informal, yet singular, group of artists collided in Manhattan and sparked a collective energy that was to drive intense experimentation across the arts.
Norman Fisher brought together visual artists, poets, performers, and writers in his living room on West Twelfth Street in Manhattan. He wasn’t wealthy, but he amassed a collection of hundreds of works by many of the artists active in the city at the time, to whom he gave friendship and support. Norman Fisher was a social phenomenon, almost a work of art himself, in his instinctive understanding of the creative spirit of the time and the genuine passion that he dedicated to supporting the artists around him.
Many of the artists Fisher befriended in New York were up-and-coming conceptual and performance artists, and the list of those that surrounded him included such seminal figures as Richard Serra, Joseph Kosuth, Gordon Matta-Clark, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jackie Winsor, and Nam June Paik, as well as writers, dancers, musicians, and singers including David Bowie, Lou Reed, Philip Glass, and Robert Wilson. It was a time of experimentation and exchanging ideas.
>> RICHARD “DICKIE” LANDRY, Portrait of Norman, 1976. Gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches. Norman E. Fisher Collection. © Richard “Dickie” Landry. Used by permission.
