ABOUT THE COLLECTIONs

Asian Art Collection

The permanent collection has over 2100 works of art. The largest area of the collection comprises modern drawings, paintings and prints by well known Americans such as John Marin, John Sloan, Charles Demuth, and Thomas Hart Benton and Europeans, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Klee, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro.

Paysage Avec Rivier

The collection also contains a sizable number of works by contemporary British artists such as Adrian Heath, Henry Moore, and Alan Reynolds. Smaller regional collections of the Fort Worth Circle ( 1945-1955 ) and Taos Modern artists round out the Museum's permanent holdings. Today, the Old Jail Art Center actively collects and showcases the work of young Texas artists.

The Old Jail Art Center's Asian Art Collection, while small, is impressive. From its earliest days, the Old Jail Art Center has had Asian art in its collection. The mothers of the museum’s co-founders, Reilly Nail and Bill Bomar, collected Asian art. At the time of the museum’s founding, the late Jewel Nail Bomar’s collection of ancient Chinese tomb figures was in her son’s hands, and he contributed it to the initial collection of the museum. Nail persuaded his mother, Wyldon Burgess Nail Harrold, to give pieces from her collection of more recent artifacts. Through the years, others have enriched the collection with their gifts, including co-founders Bomar and Nail.