From ancient mythology to contemporary cinema, the motif of the double―which repeats, duplicates, mirrors, inverts, splits, and reenacts―has captured our imaginations, both attracting and repelling us. The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 examines this essential concept through the lens of art, from the paired paintings of Henri Matisse and Arshile Gorky, to the double line works of Piet Mondrian and Marlow Moss, to Eva Hesse’s One More Than One, Lorna Simpson’s Untitled (Two Necklines), Glenn Ligon’s Double America, and Rashid Johnson’s The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Emmett).

James Meyer, curator of modern art at the National Gallery, explores four modes of doubling: Seeing Double through repetition; Reversal, the inversion or mirroring of an image or form; Dilemma, the staging of an absurd or impossible choice; and the Divided and Doubled Self (split and shadowed selves, personae, fraternal doubles, and pairs). Authors Julia Bryan-Wilson, Tom Gunning, W.J.T. Mitchell, Hillel Schwartz, Shawn Michelle Smith, and Andrew Solomon consider the double in terms of ethics, psychoanalysis, double consciousness, the queer double, and the doppelgänger in silent cinema.

Richly illustrated throughout, The Double is a multifaceted exploration of an enduring theme in art, from painting and sculpture to photography, film, video, and performance.