Hammer Museum

The Hammer Museum was founded in 1990 by former Occidental Petroleum Corporation chairman Armand Hammer to display his personal collections of old master paintings and drawings as well as a collection of works on paper by French painter Honore Daumier and his contemporaries. Hammer died only three weeks after the opening of the museum, which was only partially filled. In 1994, UCLA signed an agreement to manage and operate the institution, and soon after it moved the collections and staff of the Wight Art Gallery and the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts to the museum.     

Today, the Hammer Museum at UCLA offers exhibitions, lectures, symposia, film series, readings, and musical performances. The Hammer Contemporary Collection, which contains more than 2,000 artworks, preserves and showcases international contemporary art since 1960 and specializes in Los Angeles-based artists and works on paper. The Grunwald Center Collection contains more than 45,000 prints, drawings, photographs, and artists' books, dating back to the 15th century. The five-acre Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden showcases 70-plus modern and contemporary works on the UCLA campus. In its mission to celebrate the art that questions and inspires, the Hammer offers free admission to all.