Prints, Drawings & Photographs

Works on paper have long been engines that allowed ideas and images to circulate around the globe. With more than 68,000 works spanning over 500 years and much of the globe, the BMA’s Prints, Drawings, and Photographs collection represents the Museum’s largest and most wide-ranging area of holdings.

Prints anchor the collection, joined by drawings, photographs, and artists’ books that offer direct access to experimentation and process. From Old Master prints to contemporary works, these objects reveal how artists have used paper to respond to politics, daily life, and creative possibility.

Designed for close looking and deep study, the collection fuels research, teaching, and discovery. Continually evolving, it brings forward voices long excluded, underscoring works on paper as essential tools for understanding art and history.