Art Gallery of Ontario - Permanent Collection

Permanent Collection

The AGO's permanent collection holds over 80,000 pieces, representing many artistic movements and eras of art history.

It includes the world's largest collection of Canadian art, which depicts the development of Canada's heritage from pre-Confederation to the present. Indeed, works by Canadian artists make up more than half of the AGO's collection, with works from Tom Thomson, Group of Seven, Emily Carr, and Cornelius Krieghoff, among others. This collection also includes Inuit and Native art from the past and present, with artists such as Kenojuak Ashevak, Norval Morrisseau, and Jackson Beardy.

The museum has an impressive collection of European art, including a highly important collection of miniatures, sculptures, Medieval and Renaissance decorative arts, and major works by Tintoretto, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, Thomas Gainsborough, Anthony van Dyck, Francisco Goya, Emile Antoine Bourdelle, and Frans Hals, and works by other renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Raoul Dufy, Paul Cézanne, James Tissot, Alfred Sisley, and Edgar Degas.

A key feature to the gallery is a modern and contemporary art collection illustrating the evolution of modern artistic movements in Canada, the United States, and Europe, including works by Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, David Smith, Hans Hofmann, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, Amedeo Modigliani, Yves Tanguy, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Michael Snow, General Idea, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Paul-Emile Borduas, Barbara Hepworth, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Jack Chambers, Other contemporary artists include Shary Boyle, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella, Jenny Holzer, Gerhard Richter, Micah Lexier, Brian Jungen, Sol LeWitt, Iain Baxter&, and Richard Serra. The collection also extends to installations, photography, graphic art (such as concert, film, and historic posters), film and video art. It also holds the largest and most significant body of works from the late Montreal artist Betty Goodwin, with a bulk of the works given to the gallery by the artist. The same can be said for Canadian artists David Blackwood and David Milne.

The photography collection contains over 40,000 works mainly from Europe and North America, from historic prints to modernists to contemporary works. Contemporary photographers like Brassai, Edward Burtynsky, Julia Margaret Cameron, Walker Evans, Larry Fink, Robert Flaherty can be found in this collection. In addition to these, the AGO also has one of the most significant collections of African art in North America, as well as the largest collection of Oceanic art and artifacts in Canada.

Another significant collection at the gallery are the print and drawings, including one of the biggest holdings of Robert Motherwell works in the world. It also includes sketches from the Renaissance era such as Michelangelo, large works by Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, as well as works from Piet Mondrian, Egon Schiele, Édouard Vuillard, David Milne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Théodore Géricault, James Gillray, and Paul Gauguin. Also present are old English and French caricatures, Victorian etchings, and prints from James McNeill Whistler. This collection usually is displayed little at a time with revolving exhibitions. However, the collection is viewable by appointment. The museum vault also hosts tours few times a year or less, limited to certain members only.

There is also an extensive historic ship models collection located below ground level, in new spaces designed by Frank Gehry.

Other collections include the David Milne Research Centre, visible Inuit art storage, library, the TDSB collection, and free-entry space that displays art temporarily from local artists.

Finally, the AGO is home to the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre, which houses the largest public collection of works by this British sculptor. This is another of the gallery's collections that involve the artist as the major benefactor, as Moore donated almost his whole personal collection to the museum. Moore's bronze work, Two Large Forms (1966–1969) greets visitors at the museum's north façade, at the intersection of Dundas and McCaul Streets.