1. Two New Web Features Launch

Bronze and Boxwood: Renaissance Masterpieces from the Robert H. Smith Collection
January 27–May 4, 2008
This exhibition presents bronze sculptures, more than one dozen of which are recent additions to the Robert H. Smith Collection, in context with outstanding boxwood and ivory carvings from the same collection. Among the works on display are the newly acquired and superb early cast of Giovanni Bologna's Cesarini Venus and the finest and earliest version of Giovanni Bologna's famous Birdcatcher. This new Web feature allows viewers to examine these Renaissance masterpieces in the round, just as the artists intended them to be seen.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2008/bronze/index.htm

Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860
February 3–May 4, 2008
The first exhibition to highlight British photographs made from paper negatives, this exhibition includes approximately 120 works by leading artists such as Roger Fenton and William Henry Fox Talbot, as well as a host of less familiar practitioners. In this Web feature, viewers may browse through a gallery of images, enlarge them to fill the screen, and reverse virtual paper negatives into positives.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2008/british/index.htm

2. This Month's Featured Artwork from the National Gallery of Art Collection: Lever No. 3 by Martin Puryear

A native of Washington, DC, Martin Puryear became fascinated by the tribal wooden sculpture of Sierra Leone while serving there as a Peace Corps teacher in the 1960s. This large wooden sculpture—with a seven-foot appendage that suggests the elongated neck and head of an animal and a title that calls to mind an antique hand tool used for woodworking—alludes simultaneously to organic and man-made forms. Don't miss the upcoming Martin Puryear exhibition at the Gallery, June 22–September 28, 2008. Meanwhile, listen to what our curators have to say about this and other works in the East Building cell-phone tour (202-595-1857, #11).
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=70066+0+none

3. Listen to a Sample from the East Building Cell-Phone Tour

The Gallery's first cell-phone tour introduces visitors to the East Building and 10 artworks from the collection. Gallery director Rusty Powell is joined by curators and architect I. M. Pei in discussing the works and their relationship to the architecture. All the stops on the tour—including this month's featured artwork, Martin Puryear's Lever No. 3—can now be heard online, in MP3 format.
http://www.nga.gov/cell

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=56253+0+none (Alexander Calder)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=130693+0+none (Andy Goldsworthy)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=56124+0+none (David Smith)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=56841+0+none (Max Ernst)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=124416+0+none (Ellsworth Kelly)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=115992+0+none (Richard Serra)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=81692+0+none (Sol LeWitt)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=128234+0+none (Rachel Whiteread)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=124632+0+none (Tony Smith)
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=70066+0+none (Martin Puryear)

4.Online Tour: Selected African American Artists at the National Gallery of Art

The Gallery's collection of American art includes some 154 works by African American artists. These works cover two centuries of African American art, from Joshua Johnson's painting The Westwood Children (c. 1807) to Romare Bearden's collage Tomorrow I May Be Far Away (1967) to Martin Puryear's sculpture Lever No. 3 (1989). Learn more about the artists and their works on our online tour.
http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/ggafamer/ggafamer-main1.html

5.New Acquisition: Mental Reactions by Marius de Zayas and Agnes Ernst Meyer

Mental Reactions—by general accounts the earliest example of visual poetry in America—is the original maquette for a printed version published in the avant-garde magazine 291. Both a drawing and a poem, the work is a collaboration between the Mexican-born caricaturist Marius de Zayas and the American journalist and art patron Agnes Ernst Meyer.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/acquisitioninfo.shtm

6. Volunteer at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden

The Sculpture Garden plantings—including witchhazel, Japanese anemones, paperbark maples, and more—are maintained by the National Gallery of Art horticulture staff. The division of horticulture is currently accepting applications for volunteers. For more information on opportunities, candidates should submit a letter of interest including all vital contact information to gardens@nga.gov.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/sculptureinfo.htm

7.New Video Podcast: J.M.W. Turner Film

This video podcast is an excerpt from a new 30-minute documentary produced by the National Gallery of Art, chronicling the rise of one of the greatest landscape painters of all time, Joseph Mallord William Turner. An overview of Turner's career and influences includes footage of locations important to him in Wales, Switzerland, and England, and readings from writers and artists of the era, including John Ruskin and Lord Byron. Narrated by Jeremy Irons and produced in conjunction with the exhibition J.M.W. Turner, the documentary film may be purchased in the Gallery shops.
http://www.nga.gov/podcasts/index.shtm#video

8. February Calendar of Events

Plan your visit to the Gallery with the help of the February Calendar of Events. Schedules of films, lectures, gallery talks, family activities, and concerts are listed along with information about each event.
http://www.nga.gov/ginfo/calendar.htm