Artist Name: Selecting this filter will only search by artist names. For example, searching “Wood” then using this filter will ensure that artist Grant Wood’s January appears at the top of the search results rather than a collection of objects made from wood.    

Culture: When an artwork does not have a known creator, it is catalogued by its affiliated culture. Selecting this filter will only search by culture.

Title: Selecting this filter will search only by title. If your search term was "landscape," go to the “Limit Results” box, click on the down arrow, and select "Title" to get results where the word "landscape" only appears in the title.

Medium: Artworks in the CMA’s collection are made of a variety of materials from wood to silver to bronze and even artificial fruits and vegetables. Selecting this filter will search only by what an object is made from or with. For example, searching “Gold” and then using this filter will highlight objects made from gold rather than objects with “gold” in the title or another field such as Gray and Gold by John Rodgers Cox.

Description: Many objects in the CMA’s collection have a completed description. This field is where you can gain more general information about the artwork or artist. For example, you can search “art nouveau,” select this filter, and then see only the artworks in which "art nouveau" appears in the description. Alternatively, you can leave the search bar blank, and then select this filter to see all the artworks in the CMA’s collection with a completed description.

Did You Know?: Many CMA artworks have an associated quick and interesting fact. This brief piece of information is meant to be easily accessible and surprising – think “tweetable.” You can use this filter to search, for example, “cameo,” and the search results will only list artworks with that term in the fun fact field. Alternatively, you can leave the search bar blank, and then select this filter to see all the artworks in the CMA’s collection with a fun fact.   

Location: Selecting this filter will search only by location in the Museum. For example, searching “206: American Landscape” and then using this filter will only show artworks located within that gallery.

Relevance: All search results default to sorting by relevance. This means that the artworks with the most citations and information appear automatically at the top of the search results. 

Accession Date: old-new: An accession number is how the museum labels artworks that are a part of the collection. Typically, the accession number starts with the year that the artwork entered the collection. Use this filter to sort results so that the oldest accession numbers appear at the top of the list and the most recent accession numbers appear at the bottom of the list.

Accession Date:  new-old: An accession number is how the museum labels artworks that are a part of the collection. Typically, the accession number starts with the year that the artwork entered the collection. Use this filter to sort results so that the most recent accession numbers appear at the top of the list and the oldest accession numbers appear at the bottom of the list.  

Title:  A-Z: Use this filter to sort results alphabetically by title.

Title:  Z-A: Use this filter to sort results reverse-alphabetically by title.

Date:  old-new: Use this filter to sort results so that oldest artworks appear at the top of the list and newest artworks appear at the bottom of the list.

Date:  new-old: Use this filter to sort results so that newest artworks appear at the top of the list and oldest artworks appear at the bottom of the list.

Medium:  A-Z: Use this filter to sort results alphabetically by medium. 

Medium:  Z-A: Use this filter to sort results reverse-alphabetically by medium.

Exhibitions: Select this dropdown to see all current exhibitions at the CMA. Select one exhibition from the list to see all CMA-owned artworks on-view in that specific exhibition.  

Popular: Select this dropdown to see some popular pre-populated searches including CMA artworks on loan around the world, female artists, recent acquisitions, and African American artists. This list is frequently updated with new, relevant searches.

Highlights: Selecting this button shows only collection highlights. These artworks are hand-selected by curators and represent every collection area. Curators regularly update their selections.

Open Access: Open Access content (images, data, software, and documentation) is content that the CMA publishes digitally online, free of charge, and without copyright and licensing restrictions. Select this button to show only artworks that are a part of CMA’s open access collection. These artworks can be downloaded in both high-resolution JPG and TIF formats and used for commercial and non-commercial purposes.  

With videos: For several years, the CMA has produced video content meant specifically to view on the CMA's museum-wide app, ArtLens, and that connects to the collection. These videos include interviews with curators, artists, and other creative professionals discussing themes within a specific artwork or artistic process. Select this button to show only artworks with videos.   

On view: Select this button to see only artworks that are on-view at the Museum.

In 3-D: A selection of artworks in the CMA’s collection have been photographed using a process called photogrammetry. This involves taking thousands of photos from many angles in order to generate a 3D model. Select this button to see all artworks with 3D models to explore.

On the main search page, click the “Sort: Relevance” (default) dropdown menu and select “Sort: new-old.” In the search results, you will see the entire collection listed by newest to oldest.

Read more about the extensive research the Museum has conducted related to Nazi-Era Provenance.

Some artworks are composed of multiple parts, like a tea set which might include multiple cups, plates, and saucers. By selecting the “Include object parts” filter, you are ensuring that all objects and the parts they might be comprised of appear in the search results. For the tea set example, searching with this filter will display the main or cover image of the entire tea set in addition to images for all its individually accessioned cups, saucers, plates, or other parts.

Yes, you can see CMA’s objects on loan at other institutions. To search for artworks on loan, from the main search page select the “Popular” dropdown and then select the “On loan” filter.  See a live map version that displays the location of loaned artworks on the Objects on Loan page. 

While nearly all the artworks in the CMA’s collection have images, there are still some that have yet to be photographed. The CMA has an efficient and streamlined process for ensuring all artworks are photographed when accessioned into the collection. 

Yes, after selecting whichever filters you prefer to achieve the desired search results, you can copy the entire URL and share it. All the selected filters will remain active.

To see additional images of an artwork, select “Alternate Views” beneath the artwork’s image and use the arrow icons to scroll through the images. The dark arrow beneath an image indicates which image is selected.

If an artwork is Open Access, you can download both a JPEG and TIFF of the image in addition to the artwork’s metadata. Open Access artworks are designated with the open access icon on both the search results list and the individual artwork page. To access the images, simply select the “Download” icon under the “Download and Share” header on an artwork page. For artworks that are under copyright, you can only download the artwork’s metadata. Read more about Open Access.

For copyrighted artworks, you can select the multi-directional arrow icon on the bottom right-hand side of the image to increase the image to a full-screen view. For Open Access images, you can do the same and also select the "mountain icon" on the bottom right-hand side of the image to view a full-screen high-resolution JPEG. 

To learn more about Open Access, please read our Open Access FAQs.

Individual artwork pages can be easily printed by selecting the “Print” icon under the “Download and Share” header.

To share a direct link to an artwork page, select the “Share” icon under the “Download and Share” header. There are options for sharing via Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, direct link, and email.

Yes. You can make an artwork’s image smaller to more easily read the associated text by selecting the icon on the bottom right-hand side of the image that features a small square and lines of text. When scrolling over this icon, you will see the tool tip, “Thumbnail view.”

On an individual artwork page, any information that appears with an underline is linked to additional similar search results. In the "See Also" section, find other artworks that are related due to their similar collection area, department, type, medium, and credit line.

To request more information about any object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.