[1] The new building was designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and John MY Lee Associates, the 2007 winner of the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.

It is still possible to visit this building.In 1943, Jerry Bywaters, artist and Professor at Southern Methodist University, became the director of the museum, a position he held for the next twenty-one years.

The 1950s proved a tumultuous time for the DMA and Bywaters, as a local movement arose to purge the museum of pieces by "communist" artists, such as Pablo Picasso, whose work was banned.

The permanent collections of the two museums were then housed within the DMFA facility, suddenly holding significant works by Paul Gauguin, Odilon Redon, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Gerald Murphy, and Francis Bacon.

The $54 million facility, designed by New York architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, was financed by a 1979 City bond election, together with private donations.

Among the highlights of the collection are Duck Island (1906) by Childe Hassam, Lighthouse Hill (1927) by Edward Hopper, That Gentleman (1960) by Andrew Wyeth, Bare Tree Trunks with Snow (1946) by Georgia O'Keeffe and Razor and Watch by Gerald Murphy (1924, 1925).

The more extensive Greek collection includes a marble Figure of a man from a funerary relief from 300 BC, bronze sculptures, decorative objects, and gold jewelry.

In recent years, the museum has shown a strong interest in collecting the work of contemporary German artists such as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, and Anselm Kiefer.

The expansive collections of Decorative Arts and Design feature over 8,000 works mostly from Europe and America in various media including furniture, ceramics, glass, textiles, and metalware.

Two exceptional early silver objects are a cup and cover (1742) by silversmith Paul de Lamerie and a massive wine cistern (1761–62) by Abraham Portal for Francis Hastings, the 10th Earl of Huntingdon.

American 18th-century furniture forms the core of the Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Collection, featuring seating and case pieces from Boston, Connecticut, New York, Philadelphia and other regions.

In addition to a unique solid silver dressing table (1899) made by Gorham for the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900 other highlights include a Gothic revival bed (c. 1844) made for Henry Clay, a Herter Brothers sideboard (c. 1881–82) for William Henry Vanderbilt, a pair of Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass windows (c. 1885-95) depicting an undersea scene and a collection of Arts and Crafts movement and early modern designs by Gustav Stickley, Charles Rohlfs, Christopher Dresser, Louis Majorelle, Frank Lloyd Wright and others.

The contemporary design holdings include exceptional works by Ettore Sottsass, Zaha Hadid, Richard Meier, the Campana brothers, and a newly formed collection of jewelry.

Some of the earlier works include paintings by Giulio Cesare Procaccini (Ecce Homo, 1615–18), Pietro Paolini (Bacchic Concert, 1630), and Nicolas Mignard (The Shepherd Faustulus Bringing Romulus and Remus to His Wife, 1654).

Art of the 18th century is represented by artists like Canaletto (A View from the Fondamenta Nuova, 1772), Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (The Abduction of Europa, 1750), and Claude-Joseph Vernet (Mountain Landscape with Approaching Storm, 1775), Guillaume Lethière, ''Erminia and the Sheperds'', 1795.

Among significant works in this collection are Silence by sculptor Auguste Preault, Fox in the Snow by Gustave Courbet (1860), The Seine at Lavacourt by Claude Monet (1880), I Raro te Oviri by Paul Gauguin (1891), Interior (1902), Les Marroniers ou le Vitrail (1894) by Édouard Vuillard, and The Harbor (Le Port), 1912, by Jean Metzinger.

[29] A growing collection of 19th and 20th century European paintings from Denmark, Fredericksborg by Moonlight Johan Christian Dahl, Belgium, Abundance by Léon Frédéric, Germany Italian Landscape by Hans Thoma, and Swiss The Halberdier by Ferdinand Hodler, offers a more comprehensive view of the art scene for this period.

The sculpture collection from the first part of the 20th century includes important works such as Constructed Head n°2 by Naum Gabo, Three men Walking by Alberto Giacometti, 1936, White Relief by Ben Nicholson, and Beginning of the World by Constantin Brâncuși (1920).

The Reves collection is housed in an elaborate 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m2) reproduction of the couple' home in France, the Villa La Pausa, where the works were originally displayed in situ.

Among the 1,400 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper Emery Reves had collected are works from leading impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist artists, including Paul Cézanne, Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh.

Christian Dior was showcased in the exhibition along with his successors including Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons, and Maria Grazia Chiuri.