Berkeley - University Art Museum

An attraction of interest in Berkeley is the University Art Museum, with a collection of paintings by 19th and 20th century artists and an important film archive.

This museum, situated on the university campus, was built in 1970 to the design by Mario Campi, and in the following two decades has earned a good reputation. The surprisingly large stocks held by this young museum stem from works of art collected at the time the university was founded (1873).

Hans Hofmann

The decisive impetus leading to the building of the museum came from the German painter Hans Hofmann, who lived in America from 1932 and had already held summer courses at the University of California in Berkeley from 1930 to 1931. As a teacher (he opened his own art schools) he had a great influence on young American painters, such as Louise Nevelson, Helen Frankenthaler and Larry Rivers.

In 1963 he presented 45 of his paintings to the university and promised to donate money for the building of a museum.

Seven years passed before it was completed. Today, about a half of all Hofmann's works to be found here are displayed in one big hall, so that in no other museum can you get a better view of the work of this painter.

The museum also has a big collection of orientalia, as well as numerous paintings from the 19th century. Special exhibitions are often held, particularly of painters, sculptors and photographers of the 20th century.