Curator's Biography

Matthew S. Witkovsky

Matthew S. Witkovsky is assistant curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. He received his undergraduate degree in literature from Yale University (1989), and his doctorate in the history of art from the University of Pennsylvania (2002), with a thesis on avant-garde art in the former Czechoslovakia.

Witkovsky has worked in the art world since 1988, first in galleries of contemporary art and vintage photography in New York and Paris, and then at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he helped prepare the retrospective Constantin Brancusi: 1876–1957 (1995). Witkovsky returned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art as interim curator of photographs in 1998–1999. He has published and lectured widely on Czech art and architecture, Dada, and modern and contemporary photography, with articles in Harvard Design Magazine, The Art Bulletin, and October. Witkovsky joined the National Gallery of Art in 2002 to assist in the preparation of the large-scale touring exhibition Dada (2006). He has held a curatorial position in the Gallery’s department of photographs since 2003.

Recent publications include The Dada Seminars (2005, associate editor) and History of Photography (guest editor, fall 2005).

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

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Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

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