[1] The university contains a comprehensive collection that represents more than 150 years of history, with over 20,000[2] works of art that span cultures, eras, and media.

[5][6] The museum's permanent collection includes work by James McNeill Whistler, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler, Pablo Picasso, Joshua Reynolds, Claude Monet, Max Beckmann, Walker Evans, Randolph Rogers, Kara Walker, Alvin D. Loving, Christian Boltanski, Donald Sultan, Jenny Holzer, Tracey Emin, Louise Nevelson, Yinka Shonibare, Romare Bearden, Michele Oka Doner, Hiram Powers, Mark di Suvero, Tiffany & Co., Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Toyokuni I, Shigeo Fukuda, Alexander Calder, Marian Spore Bush, Tracey Emin, and Grace Hartigan, among many others.

[7] The Mark di Suvero sculpture Orion was installed in front of the building from 2008 to 2018, then removed briefly for conservation, and reinstalled permanently in 2019.

[11] Temporary exhibitions at the museum have included work by Meleko Mokgosi, Mari Katayama,[12] Ceal Floyer,[13] Paul Rand,[14] and others.

In 2007, the museum concluded three-year investigation that found no evidence any of its artwork had been looted by Nazis during World War II.