This summer the National Gallery of Art hosts the city's first solo exhibition of the work of American artist Kerry James Marshall. On view from June 28 through December 7, 2013, In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall presents 10 paintings and more than 20 works on paper, affording a context for understanding the Gallery’s own Marshall painting, Great America (1994), and its powerful imagery. As a group, these paintings evoke the Middle Passage of slave ships between West Africa and North America, and the themes of immigration, class mobility, and aspiration central to American life.
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This morning at the National Gallery of Art, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata opens 2013—The Year of Italian Culture by unveiling Michelangelo's David-Apollo, which will be on view in the West Building's Italian galleries from December 13, 2012, through March 3, 2013. First displayed at the Gallery in 1949, this rare marble statue from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, is now among the renowned masterpieces—ranging from classical and Renaissance to baroque and contemporary—that Italy is bringing to some 70 U.S. museums and cultural institutions in 2013. The Gallery will also display The Dying Gaul (1st or 2nd century AD) from the Capitoline Museum, from October 2013 through February 2014, as part of The Dream of Rome, a project initiated by the mayor of Rome to exhibit timeless masterpieces in the United States from 2011 to 2014.
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The National Gallery of Art presents 'Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700–1830.' When this installation opens on October 7, 2012, on the Ground Floor of the West Building, it will be a landmark moment for the nation's capital, which until this time has had no major presentation of early American furniture and related decorative arts on permanent public view. The installation follows the promised gift in October 2010 of one of the largest and most refined collections of early American furniture in private hands, acquired with great connoisseurship over five decades by George M. (1932–2001) and Linda H. Kaufman (b. 1938).
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The National Gallery of Art explores how the practice of making multiple portraits of the same subjects produced some of the most revealing and provocative photographs of our time in The Serial Portrait: Photography and Identity in the Last One Hundred Years, on view in the West Building's Ground Floor photography galleries from September 30 through December 31, 2012. Arranged both chronologically and thematically, the exhibition features 153 works by 20 artists who photographed the same subjects—friends, family, and themselves—numerous times over days, months, or years to create compelling portrait studies that investigate the many facets of personal and social identity.
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The National Gallery of Art presents the first exhibition in the United States to focus on Augsburg's artistic achievements in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. 'Imperial Augsburg: Renaissance Prints and Drawings, 1475–1540' will be on view in the West Building Ground Floor galleries from September 30 through December 31, 2012. The last major exhibition on this subject was mounted more than three decades ago in Augsburg—one of Germany's oldest cities—whose Renaissance heritage has long been eclipsed in America by Albrecht Dürer's Nuremberg.
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Since 1909, major artists from nearly every art movement have co-opted, mimicked, defused, undermined, memorialized, and rewritten newspapers. Shock of the News will examine the myriad manifestations of the \newspaper phenomenon\ through 65 collages, paintings, drawings, sculptures, artists' newspapers, prints, and photographs by European and American artists, from F. T. Marinetti and Pablo Picasso to the Guerrilla Girls and Robert Gober. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, East Building, from September 23, 2012, through January 27, 2013, the exhibition will also include the large-scale multimedia installation To Mallarmé (2003) by Mario Merz. With two exceptions, the 60 artists in the exhibition will each be represented by one exemplary work.
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Celebrated as one of the greatest modern artists, Joan Miró (1893–1983) developed a visual language that reflected his vision and energy in a variety of styles across many media. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, East Building, from May 6 to August 12, 2012, 'Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape' reveals the politically engaged side of Miró through some 120 paintings and works on paper that span his entire career. They reflect the artist's passionate response to one of the most turbulent periods in European history that included two world wars, the Spanish Civil War, and the decades-long dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Through it all, Miró maintained a fierce devotion to his native Catalonia, a region in northern Spain.
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The National Gallery of Art presents 'I Spy: Photography and the Theater of the Street, 1938–2010,' on view in the West Building from April 22 through August 5, 2012. The exhibition is devoted to street photographs by some of the genre's greatest innovators: Walker Evans (1903–1975), Harry Callahan (1912–1999), Robert Frank (b. 1924), Bruce Davidson (b. 1933), Philip-Lorca diCorcia (b. 1951), and Beat Streuli (b. 1957).
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One of Japan's most renowned cultural treasures will come to Washington, DC, in celebration of the centennial of Japan's gift of 3,000 cherry trees to the nation's capital. Entitled 'Colorful Realm of Living Beings' (J. D shoku sai-e; c. 1757–1766), this 30-scroll set of bird-and-flower paintings on silk is the centerpiece of the landmark exhibition 'Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by It Jakuch (1716–1800),' on view at the National Gallery of Art's West Building from March 30 through April 29, 2012. Exhibited for four weeks only (owing to their fragility), these works will be in Washington during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs from March 20 through April 27, 2012
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The artist Christo presented the National Gallery of Art with two original preparatory collages for 'Over The River,' both dating from 2010, for the Gallery's permanent collection. The gifts were unveiled during a press conference on November 8, 2011, with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, a day after Interior's Bureau of Land Management officially approved 'Over The River,' a project for the Arkansas River in Colorado that Christo developed with his late wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude. The collages are on view with four earlier related works by Christo in the lobby of the East Building Auditorium through January 23, 2012.
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he artist Christo presented the National Gallery of Art with two original preparatory collages for 'Over The River,' both dating from 2010, for the Gallery's permanent collection. The gifts were unveiled during a press conference on November 8, 2011, with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, a day after Interior's Bureau of Land Management officially approved 'Over The River,' a project for the Arkansas River in Colorado that Christo developed with his late wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude. The collages are on view with four earlier related works by Christo in the lobby of the East Building Auditorium through January 23, 2012
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In the first monographic exhibition of Gabriel Metsu's work in the United States, 33 paintings reveal the artist's extraordinary ability to capture ordinary moments of 17th-century Dutch life with spontaneity and unerring realism. On view in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from April 10 through July 24, 2011, 'Gabriel Metsu, 1629–1667' includes 14 paintings that have never been on view in the U.S.
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On the occasion of the 200th anniversary celebration of President Abraham Lincoln's birthday, the National Gallery of Art will present a one-year focus exhibition, 'Designing the Lincoln Memorial: Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon,' on view in the West Building, Main Floor, starting February 12, 2009. The installation features the six-foot-high plaster final model of the most renowned Lincoln statue by American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), as designed for the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, and the original wood model of the Lincoln Memorial by American architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924)
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Mel Bochner's renowned innovations in conceptual art come to life in the words he paints on canvas. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from November 6, 2011, through April 8, 2012, 'In the Tower: Mel Bochner' presents 43 thesaurus-inspired works from the last 45 years, including many new and unseen works from his studio. The exhibition provides a compelling view of Bochner's early and recent work—of the young as well as the mature artist.
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The first exhibition to fully examine the works that Andy Warhol created on the theme of news headlines will premiere at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from September 25, 2011, to January 2, 2012. 'Warhol: Headlines' will define and present some 80 works—paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, film, video, and television—based largely on the tabloid news, revealing the artist's career-long obsession with the sensational side of contemporary media. Source materials for the art will be presented for comparison, demonstrating the ways in which Warhol cropped, altered, obscured, and reoriented the original texts and images, underscoring his role as both editor and author.
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The Pastrana Tapestries—among the finest Gothic tapestries in the world—will be on view together for the first time in the United States at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from September 18, 2011 through January 8, 2012. 'The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries' will feature the recently restored set of four monumental tapestries that commemorate the conquest of two strategically located cities in Morocco by the king of Portugal, Afonso V (1432–1481).
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The renowned painting 'Gallery of the Louvre' (1831–1833) by American inventor Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872) has been recently conserved and will be on view in a focus exhibition at the National Gallery of Art near the East Garden Court of the West Building. On loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art from June 25, 2011, through July 8, 2012, the painting depicts masterpieces from the Louvre's collection that Morse 'reinstalled' in one of that museum's grandest galleries, the Salon Carré. 'A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's 'Gallery of the Louvre'' was previously on view at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, from March 1 through June 12, 2011.
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The famed 'Capitoline Venus,' one of the best-preserved sculptures to survive from Roman antiquity, will be officially presented in the grand West Building Rotunda of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, when the Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno inaugurates it on June 7; it remains on view until September 5. Due to an early installation, visitors to the Gallery will be able to see 'A Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome' beginning June 4. The 'Capitoline Venus,' which measures approximately six feet six inches in height, derives from the celebrated 'Aphrodite of Cnidos' created by the renowned classical Greek sculptor Praxiteles around 360 BC. It has only left Rome on one other occasion—when Napoleon seized it in 1797 (it was returned in 1816).
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Splendors of Italian draftsmanship from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, spanning the late Renaissance to the height of the neoclassical movement, will be showcased at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. On view in the Gallery's West Building from May 8 to November 27, 2011, 'Italian Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, 1525–1835' will include 65 stunning Italian compositions and study sheets by the most important artists of the period, from Giulio Romano and Pellegrino Tibaldi to Canaletto, all three members of the Tiepolo family, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
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The astonishing dexterity and passion for detail of American printmaker John Taylor Arms (1887–1953) is revealed in the first exhibition of his works at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. On view in the West Building from May 8 to November 27, 2011, 'The Gothic Spirit of John Taylor Arms' features some 60 prints, drawings, and copperplates that span the artist's career, from his early New York series to his finest images of cathedrals.
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In the first monographic exhibition of Gabriel Metsu's work in the United States, 33 paintings reveal the artist's extraordinary ability to capture ordinary moments of 17th-century Dutch life with spontaneity and unerring realism. On view in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from April 10 through July 24, 2011, 'Gabriel Metsu, 1629–1667' includes 14 paintings that have never been on view in the U.S.
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In the first monographic exhibition of Gabriel Metsu's work in the United States, 33 paintings reveal the artist's extraordinary ability to capture ordinary moments of 17th-century Dutch life with spontaneity and unerring realism. On view in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from April 10 through July 24, 2011, 'Gabriel Metsu, 1629–1667' includes 14 paintings that have never been on view in the U.S.
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Lewis Baltz' black-and-white series of photographs called Prototypes will be featured at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from March 20 through July 31, 2011, in the West Building. 'Lewis Baltz: Prototypes/Ronde de Nuit' includes some 60 works that question the transformation of the postwar industrial landscape of America. The exhibition also includes works by Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, and Richard Serra—artists who inspired Baltz—as well as Baltz' remarkable 12-panel color mural 'Ronde de Nuit' (1991–1992).
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A new exhibition featuring 20 works by groundbreaking contemporary artist Nam June Paik (1932–2006) will be on view March 13 through October 2, 2011, in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. 'In the Tower: Nam June Paik' is the third in a series of shows installed in the Tower Gallery that centers on developments in art since midcentury. The Paik exhibition is presented in two galleries and includes closed-circuit video works, a variety of previously unseen works on paper, and a short film about the artist. The centerpiece of the show, 'One Candle, Candle Projection. (1988-2000), receives its most ambitious installation ever, taking full advantage of the vaulting, self-contained space of the I.M. Pei-designed tower
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Paul Gauguin's (1848–1903) sumptuous, colorful images of Brittany and the islands of the South Seas, some of the most beloved in modern art, are among 100 works by the artist in the first major exhibition of his career in the United States in some 20 years. On view from February 27 through June 5, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington—the sole U.S. venue—the exhibition 'Gauguin: Maker of Myth,' along with its accompanying catalogue, examines the role that myth-making played in Gauguin's art, shedding new light on his life and career.
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The National Gallery of Art, Washington, will present 20 of Canaletto's finest paintings of Venice with 33 by his most important contemporaries, including Gaspar Vanvitelli, Luca Carlevarijs, Michele Marieschi, Bernardo Bellotto, and Francesco Guardi, in 'Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals,' on view from February 20 through May 30, 2011, in the East Building. These dazzling cityscapes represent the best view painters of Venice—each responding to the city in his own way, and each competing in a market driven largely by the British Grand Tour, at its height during the 18th century.
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The first exhibition to explore the rich dialogue between Victorian-era British photography and Pre-Raphaelite painting showcases how these parallel artistic phenomena informed and inspired one another. 'The Pre-Raphaelite Lens: British Photography and Painting, 1848–1875' includes some 100 photographs and 20 paintings and watercolors by leading artists such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, West Building, from October 31, 2010 through January 30, 2011, the exhibition chronicles the roles photography and Pre-Raphaelite art played in changing concepts of vision and truth in representation in the Victorian era.
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The bizarre yet scientifically accurate composite heads painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526–1593) will be exhibited together for the first time in the United States, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from September 19, 2010 through January 9, 2011. 'Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy' includes 16 of the most spectacular of these paintings of heads composed of plants, animals, and other objects. They are joined by 32 additional works, such as drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, small bronzes, illustrated books and manuscripts, and ceramics, to provide a context for Arcimboldo's inventions, revealing his debt to established traditions of physiognomic and nature studies.
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Haunting images of love, attraction, alienation, death, and other universal human experiences in the work of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) will be presented in a fascinating exhibition of nearly 60 of his most important prints. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from July 31 through November 28, 2010, 'Edvard Munch: Master Prints' examines the artist's stylistic approach to each of these themes, a process that involved transforming ideas into an evocative motif and exploring that image through numerous variations over a lifetime.
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One of the finest, most selective private collections of works by the first wave of American modernists will premiere at the National Gallery of Art, East Building, from May 16, 2010, through January 2, 2011. 'American Modernism: The Shein Collection' presents 20 masterpieces by Patrick Henry Bruce, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marcel Duchamp, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, Man Ray, Charles Sheeler, and other renowned artists. The collection demonstrates the importance of the early American modernists in the development of the avant-garde in the United States and Europe during the 20th century.
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The National Gallery of Art, Washington, will present for the first time worldwide 120 stunning German watercolors and drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection—one of the finest private European holdings of old master drawings. On view in the Gallery's West Building from May 16 to January 2, 2011, 'German Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, 1580–1900' will include rare and influential examples of German works on paper encompassing 16th-century mannerism, the 17th-century baroque, the 18th-century rococo, early 19th-century romanticism, and late 19th-century realism.
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Some of the most compelling photographs taken by renowned 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) of himself and his fellow Beat poets and writers—including William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, and Jack Kerouac are the subject of the first scholarly exhibition and catalogue of these works. 'Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg' will explore all facets of his photographs through 80 black-and-white portraits, on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from May 2 through September 16, 2010.
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Masterpieces created to shock the senses and stir the soul are spotlighted in 'The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700,' on view at the exhibition's only U.S. venue the National Gallery of Art from February 28 through May 31, 2010. This landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age includes 11 paintings by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and others, displayed for the very first time alongside 11 of Spain's remarkable polychromed (painted) sculptures, many of which have never before left Spain and are still passionately venerated across the Iberian Peninsula in monasteries, churches, and processions.
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ew York investment broker Chester Dale's 1962 bequest made the National Gallery of Art one of the leading repositories in North America of French art of the late-19th and early 20th centuries. 'From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection,' on view in the Gallery's West Building from January 31, 2010 through January 2, 2012, will bring together 81 of the finest French and American paintings that Dale and his wife Maud, an artist and critic, assembled from the 1920s through the 1950s.
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The extraordinary range and complexity of the photographic process is explored, from the origins of the medium in the 1840s up to the advent of digital photography at the end of the 20th century, in a comprehensive exhibition and its accompanying guidebook at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. On view in the West Building, from October 25, 2009 through March 14, 2010, 'In the Darkroom: Photographic Processes Before the Digital Age' chronicles the major technological developments in the 170-year history of photography and presents the virtuosity of the medium's practitioners. Drawn from the Gallery's permanent collection are some 90 photographs—ranging from William Henry Fox Talbot's images of the 1840s to Andy Warhol's Polaroid prints of the 1980s.
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The private worlds of late 19th-century Paris, London, and Berlin are reflected in some 120 beguiling, often enigmatic prints, drawings, illustrated books, and small sculptures in 'The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850–1900.' On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in the West Building, from October 1, 2009, through January 18, 2010, the exhibition reveals a late romantic sensibility, an art for collectors who kept their prints and drawings under wraps, compiled in albums and portfolios; who stored bronze medals in cabinets; or set a statuette on a table in the stillness of the library.
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Some 135 of the most significant and beautiful drawings made over a period of three centuries by the best French artists working at home and abroad and by foreign artists working in France will be on view in 'Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500–1800' in the Gallery's West Building from October 1, 2009, through January 31, 2010. This is the first comprehensive exhibition and catalogue to focus on the Gallery's permanent collection of French old master drawings, which is remarkable for its breadth, depth, and individual masterpieces.
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Ten themes—Scrape, Concentricity, Line, Gesture, Art on Art, Drip, Stripe to Zip, Figure or Ground, Monochrome, and Picture the Frame—reveal surprising juxtapositions among the 126 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints selected from the famed collection of Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, amassed between 1958 and 2004, the year of Jane Meyerhoff's death. While six American masters—Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella—figure prominently, all of the leading abstract expressionists and several younger artists are also represented. 'The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works' will be on view in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art from October 1, 2009, through May 2, 2010.
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In the first exhibition dedicated to Venetian Renaissance sculptor Tullio Lombardo (c. 1455–1532), his romantic approach to portraiture is revealed in four of his greatest marble carvings, which are joined by eight related works from his closest circle. On view at the National Gallery of Art's Italian galleries in the West Building from July 4 through November 1, 2009, 'An Antiquity of Imagination: Tullio Lombardo and Venetian High Renaissance Sculpture' celebrates the artist's pioneering talent.
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The 'Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior,' a bronze statuette from the Museum of Fine Arts (Szépmúvészeti Múzeum), Budapest, is the focus of recent technical examinations by National Gallery of Art conservators and is also the centerpiece of a small exhibition, 'The Budapest Horse: A Leonardo da Vinci Puzzle.' On view from July 3 through September 7, 2009, in the Gallery's West Building Sculpture Galleries, the intriguing work is joined by two additional bronze horses and two warriors associated with Leonardo da Vinci from international collections, along with two Renaissance bronze horses by known masters for comparison. Illustrative panels present evidence related to the works' origins, including reproductions of drawings by Leonardo, x-radiographs, and computer models.
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Armor from the renowned Spanish Royal Armory in Madrid will be paired for the first time with portraits by masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Alonso Sánchez Coello, Anthony van Dyck, and Diego Velázquez depicting emperors and kings wearing the same armor in 'The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain' at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, June 28 through November 29, 2009, the sole venue worldwide.
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Judith Leyster's 400th birthday will be celebrated at the National Gallery of Art with an exhibition of ten of her most engaging paintings, joined by some 20 works by 17th-century contemporaries, including her presumed teacher Frans Hals and her husband Jan Miense Molenaer, as well as musical instruments of the period depicted in the art. 'Judith Leyster, 1609–1660' will be on view from June 21 through November 29, 2009, in the Dutch Cabinet Galleries in the Gallery's West Building.
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Delights of the Spanish table depicted by 18th-century painter Luis Meléndez (1715-1780) will be presented to American audiences for the first time in nearly 25 years at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, May 17 through August 23, 2009. In a rare opportunity to explore the artist's working method, 'Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life' will showcase 31 paintings, some of which have never been exhibited publicly, and nine examples of 18th-century kitchenware similar to those used as studio props by Meléndez.
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The first major exhibition of photographer Jaromír Funke's work outside of Europe in nearly 25 years will be on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from May 3 through August 9, 2009. Some 70 works in 'Jaromír Funke and the Amateur Avant-Garde' will reveal his influential role in the Czech and Slovak amateur photography movement in the 1920s and 1930s and will include works by Josef Sudek (1896–1976), one of the best-known Czech photographers worldwide, and Eugen Wi kovsk (1888–1964).
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Rare medieval manuscript illuminations, last exhibited in 1975, will be showcased in a stunning installation, 'Heaven on Earth: Manuscript Illuminations from the National Gallery of Art,' on view in the East Building from March 1 through August 16, 2009. Fifty-two single leaves and four bound volumes, among them a number of important recent acquisitions, date from the 12th to the 16th century and were made in France, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy. Comprehensive wall texts will include new scholarly information, uncovered since the last time these works were exhibited.
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On the occasion of the 200th anniversary celebration of President Abraham Lincoln's birthday, the National Gallery of Art will present a one-year focus exhibition, 'Designing the Lincoln Memorial: Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon,' on view in the West Building, Main Floor, starting February 12, 2009. The installation features the six-foot-high plaster final model of the most renowned Lincoln statue by American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), as designed for the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, and the original wood model of the Lincoln Memorial by American architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924)
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Visitors will travel back in time to Dutch cities of the 17th century during 'Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age,' on view February 1 through May 3, 2009, in the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition of 48 paintings and 23 maps, atlases, and illustrated books will offer a breathtaking survey of the Dutch cityscape, from wide-angle panoramas depicting the urban skyline with its fortifications, windmills, and church steeples, to renderings of daily life along the canals, in city streets, and in town squares.
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The 50th anniversary of a groundbreaking publication will be celebrated in the nation's capital with the exhibition 'Looking In: Robert Frank's 'The Americans',' premiering January 18 through April 26, 2009, in the National Gallery of Art's West Building ground floor galleries. In 1955 and 1956, the Swiss-born American photographer Robert Frank (b. 1924) traveled across the United States to photograph, as he wrote, 'the kind of civilization born here and spreading elsewhere.' The result of his journey was 'The Americans,' a book that looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a culture on the brink of massive social upheaval and one that changed the course of 20th-century photography.
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The life and career of Jan Lievens (1607–1674), one of the greatest yet most enigmatic Dutch painters of the 17th century, is finally brought to light in the exhibition 'Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered,' on view at the National Gallery of Art in the West Building from October 26, 2008, through January 11, 2009.
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'Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples' presents some 150 works of sculpture, painting, mosaic, and luxury arts, most of them created before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. They include recent discoveries on view in the U.S. for the first time and celebrated finds from earlier excavations. Exquisite objects from the richly decorated villas along the shores of the Bay of Naples and from houses in the nearby towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum reveal the breadth and richness of cultural and artistic life, as well as the influence of classical Greece on Roman art and culture in this region.
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Three important and beautiful series of black-and-white landscape photographs will be showcased in, 'Oceans, Rivers, and Skies: Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, and Alfred Stieglitz,' on view from October 12, 2008 through March 15, 2009 (West Building Ground Floor Gallery 34). This focus exhibition features 21 works in chronological order: ten by Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), five by Ansel Adams (1902–1984), and six by Robert Adams (b. 1937). The three series have never before been exhibited together, and Stieglitz's series Music: A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs, was last seen in its entirety in 1923. The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
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The first exhibition of George de Forest Brush's remarkable paintings of American Indians will be on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, September 14, 2008 through January 4, 2009. Inspired in part by the recent rediscovery of 'An Aztec Sculptor' (1887), an important work missing for a century, the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue will offer groundbreaking new research on Brush's works—long prized by collectors, yet rarely available for public viewing. 'George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings' is organized by the National Gallery of Art in association with the Seattle Art Museum, where it will be on view February 26 through May 24, 2009.
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Monumental color photographs explore the sublime beauty and inherent danger of the sea and its surroundings in the exhibition 'Richard Misrach: On the Beach,' on view in the photography galleries at the National Gallery of Art from May 25 to September 1, 2008. Drawn from one of Misrach's most recent series On the Beach, are 19 dramatic photographs—some as large as six feet high by ten feet wide. Major American photographer Misrach (b. 1949) is known for provocative work that addresses contemporary society's troubled relationship to nature, especially in the American West.
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Extraordinary artifacts uncovered in modern-day Afghanistan—once the heart of the Silk Road linking cultures from Asia to the Mediterranean—long thought stolen or destroyed during some 25 years of conflict until the dramatic announcement of their existence in 2003, begin their United States tour at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, May 25 through September 7, 2008.
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New York collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, with the assistance of the National Gallery of Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, have launched a national gifts program entitled 'The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States.' It is distributing 2,500 works from the Vogels' collection of contemporary art throughout the nation, with fifty works going to a selected art institution in each of the fifty states.
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Since 2003, the National Gallery of Art has acquired an exceptional group of drawings, prints, and rare illustrated books, which are the focus of the upcoming exhibition 'Medieval to Modern: Recent Acquisitions of Drawings, Prints, and Illustrated Books,' on view May 4 through November 2, 2008, in the West Building Prints and Drawings Galleries.
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The quiet but significant revolution that was launched by artists working outdoors in 19th-century France is explored through some 100 paintings, pastels, and photographs as well as artist and tourist ephemera assembled for the exhibition 'In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet' at the National Gallery of Art, East Building, from March 2 through June 8, 2008.
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An outstanding collection of Renaissance statuettes will go on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in 'Bronze and Boxwood: Renaissance Masterpieces from the Robert H. Smith Collection,' January 27 through May 4, 2008 in the West Building, main floor galleries 74 and 75. In addition to 46 beautiful bronze sculptures, this exhibition will include eight exceptional objects carved out of boxwood and ivory, which are similar in size to the bronzes and may be closely related to them.
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An outstanding collection of Renaissance statuettes will go on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in 'Bronze and Boxwood: Renaissance Masterpieces from the Robert H. Smith Collection,' January 27 through May 4, 2008 in the West Building, main floor galleries 74 and 75. In addition to 46 beautiful bronze sculptures, this exhibition will include eight exceptional objects carved out of boxwood and ivory, which are similar in size to the bronzes and may be closely related to them.
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The most important public collection of Renaissance-era medals in the United States resides at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and is the focus of a new publication, 'Renaissance Medals.' The first comprehensive catalogue of this collection is available as a two-volume set covering 957 medals acquired through 2003. Of these, 163 are currently on view at the National Gallery of Art in the West Building ground floor sculpture galleries.
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Renowned for his paintings, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) is equally regarded for his extraordinary accomplishment as a graphic artist. In his own time, his fame derived from his etchings as much as from his paintings. In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth, the National Gallery of Art is presenting 'Strokes of Genius: Rembrandt's Prints and Drawings.' The exhibition of approximately 190 masterworks from the Gallery's collection is on view in the West Building November 19 through March 18, 2007.
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Robert Rauschenberg's boundless experimentation and his rich collaborations with talented printers will provide the focus for 'Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg from the National Gallery of Art and Related Collections.' The exhibition will present 58 outstanding prints, including some never before seen in a museum, on view at the National Gallery of Art, October 28, 2007, through March 30, 2008, in the Gallery's West Building prints and drawings galleries.
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The last flowering of the woodcut in its classic form will be revealed in 'The Baroque Woodcut,' an exhibition of approximately 80 prints and illustrated books on view at the National Gallery of Art, October 28, 2007, through March 30, 2008, in the West Building prints and drawings galleries. Woodcuts achieved a final triumph in the baroque era when painters of outstanding caliber, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Guido Reni, chose it as a dramatic means for expressing the energy and refinement of their draftsmanship.
Audio
The range and creativity of amateur photography in the United States is revealed in approximately 200 anonymous works in the exhibition 'The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888–1978: From the Collection of Robert E. Jackson.' It is the first major exhibition, accompanied by a scholarly catalogue, to examine the evolution of snapshot imagery in America. The show begins with the invention of the Kodak camera in 1888 and extends through the 1970s, tracing a rich vocabulary of shared subjects, approaches, and styles.
Audio
The largest retrospective ever presented in the United States of the career of 'J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851),' one of the greatest landscape painters in the history of art, will premiere at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The exhibition of some 146 works, divided almost evenly between oils and works on paper, will include many masterworks that have never been shown in the United States. Turner's extensive range of subjects—including seascapes, topographical views, historical events, mythology, modern life, and scenes drawn from his own fertile imagination—will be represented.
Audio
The largest retrospective ever presented in the United States of the career of 'J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851),' one of the greatest landscape painters in the history of art, will premiere at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The exhibition of some 146 works, divided almost evenly between oils and works on paper, will include many masterworks that have never been shown in the United States. Turner's extensive range of subjects—including seascapes, topographical views, historical events, mythology, modern life, and scenes drawn from his own fertile imagination—will be represented.
Audio
'Edward Hopper' marks the first time in more than 25 years that a comprehensive exhibition of this great artist's work has been seen in American museums outside New York and is the most complete survey of his career ever presented in Washington. The exhibition of 96 paintings and works on paper focuses on the period of the artist's great achievements—from about 1925 to mid century—when he produced such iconic paintings as Automat (1927), Drug Store (1927), 'Early Sunday Morning' (1930), 'New York Movie' (1939), and 'Nighthawks' (1942).
Audio
'Edward Hopper' marks the first time in more than 25 years that a comprehensive exhibition of this great artist's work has been seen in American museums outside New York and is the most complete survey of his career ever presented in Washington. The exhibition of 96 paintings and works on paper focuses on the period of the artist's great achievements—from about 1925 to mid century—when he produced such iconic paintings as Automat (1927), Drug Store (1927), 'Early Sunday Morning' (1930), 'New York Movie' (1939), and 'Nighthawks' (1942).
Audio
'Edward Hopper' marks the first time in more than 25 years that a comprehensive exhibition of this great artist's work has been seen in American museums outside New York and is the most complete survey of his career ever presented in Washington. The exhibition of 96 paintings and works on paper focuses on the period of the artist's great achievements—from about 1925 to mid century—when he produced such iconic paintings as Automat (1927), Drug Store (1927), 'Early Sunday Morning' (1930), 'New York Movie' (1939), and 'Nighthawks' (1942).
Audio
The first international exhibition devoted to Italian Renaissance sculptor Desiderio da Settignano (c. 1429–1464) comes to the National Gallery of Art—its only U.S. venue—from July 1 through October 8, 2007. 'Desiderio da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence' brings together approximately 28 works—many coming to the U.S. for the first time—by the artist and his immediate circle, ranging from highly original portrait busts of children to subtle low-relief carvings of religious subjects.
Audio
The story of photography's extraordinary success and popularity in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, and Poland during a time of tremendous social and political upheaval, is presented in 'Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918–1945,' the first survey exhibition devoted exclusively to this phenomenon. Premiering at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, June 10 through September 3, 2007, the exhibition includes more than 150 photographs, books, and illustrated magazines from several dozen American and international collections, among them many on view in the United States for the first time.
Audio
The art of one of France's greatest landscape draftsmen and painters, Claude Lorrain (1604/1605–1682), travels to the National Gallery of Art, when 'Claude Lorrain—The Painter as Draftsman: Drawings from the British Museum' goes on view in the West Building, May 27 through August 12, 2007. The exhibition includes 80 drawings from the extensive and important holdings at the British Museum. In addition, a selection of paintings and etchings broadens the representation of Claude's achievement as an artist. Many of the works have never before been seen in the United States.
Audio
oday's travelers capture their memories with digital cameras, sharing them with friends near and far on the Internet. A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, 'Fabulous Journeys and Faraway Places: Travels on Paper, 1450 – 1700,' on view from May 6 through September 16, 2007, takes us back to a time when European artists depicted real and imagined places and distributed their marvelous images to an intensely curious audience in the only way possible—through prints on paper.
Audio
'Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings' offers a selection of works from one of America's most significant private collections of master drawings. The exhibition, on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from May 6 through September 16, features 100 of the finest drawings from the collection, and represents 85 artists of the Italian, French, Dutch, Flemish, German, Swiss, British, and Swedish schools from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
Audio
The centenary of the birth of Paul Mellon (1907–1999) will be celebrated throughout 2007 by the National Gallery of Art with exhibitions, special installations, a new Gallery documentary, concerts, gallery talks, lectures, and a Web site feature. Mellon's visionary leadership of the National Gallery spanned some six decades, starting in 1938, when he was first elected to the Board of Trustees, a year after his father and Gallery founder Andrew W. Mellon died.
Audio
The art of French landscape painter Eugène Boudin (1824 – 1898) will get a rare showing in America, when 'Eugène Boudin at the National Gallery of Art' goes on view in the National Gallery of Art's East Building, March 25 through September 3, 2007. The exhibition of approximately 40 paintings and works on paper will honor the centenary of the birth of Paul Mellon, the Gallery's founding president and the benefactor largely responsible for its Boudin collection, which is one of the largest and most distinguished in this country. Proclaimed the 'king of the skies' by Camille Corot, Boudin influenced a number of impressionist painters, most notably Claude Monet.
Audio
A 1969 portfolio of 13 prints, '1st Etchings, 2nd State,' by renowned artist Jasper Johns (b. 1930) is the focus of 'States and Variations: Prints by Jasper Johns.' The exhibition, which includes 63 works dating from 1960—the year Johns first undertook printmaking—through 1982, highlights Johns' distinctive printmaking process. On view March 11 through October 28, 2007 in the National Gallery of Art, East Building, the exhibition complements 'Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965,' also on view in the East Building, through April 29, 2007.
Audio
The work of Jasper Johns (b. 1930) represents an important breakthrough in art at midcentury, a period of radical change in American art. Themes developed in the first decade of his career will be examined as a group for the first time in a comprehensive exhibition of 83 works, on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 28 through April 29, 2007.
Audio
A new exhibition drawn from the Gallery's collection of prints and drawings, combined with major loans from private collections, will survey the varied art of British romanticism. 'The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain,' on view in the West Building's prints and drawings galleries from November 19 through March 18, 2007, features approximately 70 works from the late 18th century through the early 20th century. The exhibition presents artworks by Samuel Palmer, J.M.W. Turner, William Blake, and more.
Audio
For the first time an exhibition will focus on Netherlandish diptychs, featuring some of the most beautiful and intriguing paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries. Premiering at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from November 12, 2006, through February 4, 2007, 'Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych' includes 89 paintings, presenting 37 complete diptychs or pairs of paintings, reuniting some panels that have been separated for centuries, with 22 pairs on loan in the United States for the first time. Often small and depicting religious images as well as portraits of donors, the diptychs were painted by such Renaissance masters such as Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling, and Rogier van der Weyden. After closing in Washington, the exhibition will travel to the only other venue worldwide: the Koninklijk Museumúvoor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, from March 3 through May 27, 2007.
Audio
For the first time an exhibition will focus on Netherlandish diptychs, featuring some of the most beautiful and intriguing paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries. Premiering at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from November 12, 2006, through February 4, 2007, 'Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych' includes 89 paintings, presenting 37 complete diptychs or pairs of paintings, reuniting some panels that have been separated for centuries, with 22 pairs on loan in the United States for the first time. Often small and depicting religious images as well as portraits of donors, the diptychs were painted by such Renaissance masters such as Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling, and Rogier van der Weyden. After closing in Washington, the exhibition will travel to the only other venue worldwide: the Koninklijk Museumúvoor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, from March 3 through May 27, 2007.
Audio
John Constable's (1776–1837) seminal six-foot landscapes—among the best-known and beloved images in British art—are reunited with their groundbreaking full-size sketches for the first time since the artist's death in 'Constable's Great Landscapes: The Six-Foot Paintings,' at the National Gallery of Art, East Building, October 1 through December 31, 2006. Fifty-five works include oils and drawings that are related to the large landscapes, an early pencil portrait, and a series in varied media brought together for the first time, illustrating areas along the Stour River in Suffolk known to many as 'Constable Country.' The exhibition and its companion catalogue examine why Constable produced the six-foot sketches.
Audio
John Constable's (1776–1837) seminal six-foot landscapes—among the best-known and beloved images in British art—are reunited with their groundbreaking full-size sketches for the first time since the artist's death in 'Constable's Great Landscapes: The Six-Foot Paintings,' at the National Gallery of Art, East Building, October 1 through December 31, 2006. Fifty-five works include oils and drawings that are related to the large landscapes, an early pencil portrait, and a series in varied media brought together for the first time, illustrating areas along the Stour River in Suffolk known to many as 'Constable Country.' The exhibition and its companion catalogue examine why Constable produced the six-foot sketches.
Audio
A major new international exhibition, 'Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting,' will present more than 50 masterpieces from the most exciting period of the Renaissance in Venice. Premiering June 18 through September 17 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the exhibition explores the relationships between these and other artists, emphasizes their innovative treatments of new pictorial themes such as the pastoral landscape, and reveals what modern conservation science has discovered about the Venetian painters' techniques.
Audio
'Paris in Transition: Photographs from the National Gallery of Art' presents 61 of the Gallery's photographs revealing the transformation of the French capital city and the art of photography from the mid-19th to early 20th century. The exhibition, organized from the perspective of a flâneur—an aimless wanderer, will be on view in the ground floor photographs galleries of the West Building from February 11 through May 6, 2007. It includes photographs by Eugène Atget, André Kertész, Brassaï, Alfred Stieglitz and others.
Directory
Upcoming Exhibitions
In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall
June 28–December 7, 2013
Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris
September 29, 2013–January 5, 2014
Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections
October 6, 2013–March 2, 2014
Garry Winogrand
March 2–June 8, 2014
Current Exhibitions
A World of Bonds: Frederick Sommer’s Photography and Friendships
June 16–August 4, 2013
Edvard Munch: A 150th Anniversary Tribute
May 19–July 28, 2013
Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929: When Art Danced with Music
May 12–September 2, 2013
Pre-Raphaelites and the Book
February 17–August 4, 2013
Ellsworth Kelly: Colored Paper Images
December 16, 2012–December 1, 2013
Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700–1830
Opens October 7, 2012, on display indefinitely
Civic Pride: Group Portraits from Amsterdam
March 10, 2012–March 11, 2017
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900
February 17–May 19, 2013
Pre-Raphaelites and the Book
February 17–May 19, 2013
Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop
February 17–May 5, 2013
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900
February 17–May 19, 2013
Pre-Raphaelites and the Book
February 17–May 19, 2013
Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop
February 17–May 5, 2013
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900
February 17–May 19, 2013
Pre-Raphaelites and the Book
February 17–May 19, 2013
Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop
February 17–May 5, 2013
Special Installations
Leo Villareal, Multiverse
on view indefinitely
Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #65
on view indefinitely
Andy Goldsworthy, Roof
on view indefinitely
Exhibitions On Tour
Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective
National Gallery of Art, Washington, October 14, 2013–January 13, 2013
Tate Modern, London, February 21–May 27, 2013
Centre Pompidou, Paris, July 3–November 4, 2013
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