Wolverhampton Art Gallery

The two-storey edifice is a Grade II* listed building with a decorative frieze comprising sixteen characters representing the Arts and Crafts. These encompass sculpture, painting, architecture, pottery, glassblowing, and wrought-iron work. It was opened to the public in 1884. In 2006-2007 the building was refurbished, partly modernized and extended to create additional exhibiting spaces.

Arguably the most important painting in the collection is by the Flemish Baroque painter Abraham Janssens van Nuyssen. It is the only known painting by Janssens van Nuyssen in a British public collection. In a similar 'vein' there is a collection of Old Master drawings and an etching by Wenceslas Hollar. Other than that the gallery is particularly strong in artworks from the Victorian period. As one would expect the gallery has strong holdings of works by local artists. These include John Fullwood, Joseph Vickers de Ville and Alfred Egerton Cooper. In 1990's, Wolverhampton acquired the art and local history collections of neighbouring Bilston Museum and Art Gallery which included much by Edwin Butler Bayliss known for his depictions of the Black Country industrial landscape.

During the inter-war years, artist Frank Brangwyn donated a large number of his works as did his friend local Wolverhampton Councillor Matthew Biggar Walker.

Since the late 1960's, Wolverhampton has adopted a policy of collecting Pop Art, a decision which at its inception caused much controversy. The now important and not insubstantial collection includes works by American artists Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Larry Rivers, George Segal and Richard Lindner. British Pop Art is represent by a sculpture of King Kong by Nicholas Monro, Allen Jones, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton.