Collections

Castellani Art Museum Permanent Collection

The Castellani Art Museum collection was initiated in 1976 by Dr. Armand J. Castellani for the purpose of  encouraging the study and love of art and improving cultural understanding by forming a significant collection for Niagara University students and the Western New York public. The Castellani family continues to enlarge the collection, while friends of the Museum and University, corporations, alumni, collectors, artists, and others have also been generous donors.

Currently numbering over 5600 works of art, the collection includes prints, photographs, paintings, drawings, and sculpture dating largely from the 1850's to the present. The collection illustrates the development of modern art, but focuses primarily on art from the 1970's to the present.

Excellent examples represent the following categories:

• 19th century works of art including European artists Daumier, the impressionist Guillaumin, and American landscapists Twatchman, Bierstadt, Cropsey, and Potthast;
• Early 20th century European artists including Utrillo, Rouault, Modigliani, Picasso, Moholy-Nagy, Puni, Dali, Matta, and American artists MacDonald-Wright, Avery, Burchfield, and Tomlin;
• Mid-20th century artists such as Motherwell, DeKooning, Bearden, Jensen, Hepworth, Mitchell, Nevelson, and Rauschenberg;
• Contemporary artists of the last two decades, including Basquiat, Borofsky, Dill, Gornick, Rothenberg, Murray, Gilliam, Pfaff, Garet, Salle, Benglis, Haring, and Baselitz.