 The National Gallery of Art is now on Facebook. Become a fan and learn about upcoming events and exhibitions. Our page includes photo albums of exhibition objects and installation views and videos of exhibition press highlights, with more to come. Frequent announcements about lectures, films, exhibition openings, and concerts keep visitors informed of the Gallery's many activities.
www.facebook.com/NationalGalleryofArt |
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| THIS MONTH'S FEATURED WORKS OF ART FROM THE COLLECTION: CIRCLE I, CIRCLE II, AND CIRCLE III BY DAVID SMITH |
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 One of America's leading modern sculptors, David Smith (1906–1965) belonged to the generation of abstract expressionist artists that included Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Inspired by the welded sculptures of Pablo Picasso and Julio Gonzales, Smith incorporated machine parts, scrap metal, and found objects into his structures. Circle I, Circle II, and Circle III are obviously related, though subtly differentiated in color, size, and welded geometric shapes. Smith probably intended them as a kind of triptych, but the definitive arrangement of the group is aligned in order to be viewed concentrically. On view in the East Building, Mezzanine.
www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/20centpa/20centpa-56124.0.html (Circle I)
www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=56125+0+none (Circle II)
www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=56126+0+none (Circle III)
www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/tbio?tperson=2274 (Smith biography)
luxmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o10/clients/nationalgallery/audio/objects/1977.60.1.mp3 (curator speaking)
www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/20centpa/20centpa-main1.html (online tour: Selections from the Modern and Contemporary Collections) |
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| NEW VIDEO PODCAST: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF POWER |
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 The armor, paintings, and tapestries in The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain were made for the Spanish royal family—the nobles, kings, and Holy Roman Emperors who expanded Spain's influence throughout Europe and the New World. The objects' exquisite, intricate details reveal something more: an attempt to link the monarchy with the pieties of the Catholic Church, the power of the ancient Roman empire, and the cultural glories of ancient Greece. In our new video podcast, curator David Brown describes this subtle advertising campaign waged by the Spanish throne.
www.nga.gov/podcasts/index.htm#aop (video podcast)
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/armorinfo.htm (exhibition information) |
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| NEW VIDEO PODCAST: THE DARKER SIDE OF LIGHT |
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 Late 19th-century art is often identified with airy and colorful impressionist paintings and the radiant atmosphere of Paris. But in the shadowy recesses, an art of a very different kind thrived. Prints, drawings, and small sculpture from the period present an alternative vision in depictions of the inner worlds of emotions, anxieties, and fantasies. Mainly stored away rather than openly displayed by their owners, the works in this exhibition appealed to artists and audiences devoted to a private aesthetic experience. In this new video podcast, Peter Parshall, the Gallery's curator of old master prints, talks about the works in the exhibition and their subtle and complex depictions of human psychology decades before the publication of Sigmund Freud's theories on the unconscious.
www.nga.gov/podcasts/index.shtm#darker (video podcast)
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/darkerinfo.htm (exhibition information) |
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| NEW VIDEO PODCAST: ARSHILE GORKY: ARARAT (EXCERPTS) |
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 Years after campaigns against minority Armenians in Turkey caused his family to disperse and his mother to die before his eyes, Gorky found a 1912 photograph taken in the city of Van upon which he based drawings and paintings titled The Artist and His Mother. The video Ararat (Excerpts) investigates the fraught history of Gorky's lost childhood through his protracted work on the image of himself at age 12, standing beside his mother, Shushan. This podcast is derived from the feature-length film Ararat written and directed by Academy Award®-nominated director Atom Egoyan.
www.nga.gov/podcasts/index.shtm#ararat |
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| AUTUMN EXHIBITIONS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART |
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 A number of temporary exhibitions have recently opened at the Gallery, ranging from Renaissance drawings to contemporary street photography. The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850–1900 explores the discreet world of individual print collecting in which artworks were kept aside in portfolios or stored away in cabinets. Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500–1800 showcases the Gallery's outstanding collection of old master drawings and the remarkable richness and breadth of French draftsmanship before 1800. The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works tells the story of postwar American art through an outstanding modern art collection. Robert Bergman: Portraits, 1986–1995 includes 33 monumental portraits, never before exhibited, from a series of Bergman's color photographs. Editions with Additions: Working Proofs by Jasper Johns presents proofs for lithographs, etchings, and screenprints that Johns expanded in a range of media, including pastel, ink, and paint. Finally, In the Darkroom: Photographic Processes before the Digital Age chronicles the major technological developments in photographic processes from the origins of the medium until the advent of digital photography.
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/darkerinfo.shtm (The Darker Side of Light)
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/revolutioninfo.htm (Renaissance to Revolution)
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/meyerhoffinfo.htm (The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection)
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/bergmaninfo.htm (Robert Bergman)
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/editionsinfo.htm (Editions with Additions)
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/darkroominfo.htm (In the Darkroom) |
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| RECENT ACQUISITION: DAVID TRIUMPHANT BY THOMAS CRAWFORD |
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 American sculpture in the classical and beaux-arts traditions has gained a new importance in the West Building galleries. As the National Gallery of Art's earliest example of American sculpture, David Triumphant is a unique work of marble and bronze. Artist Thomas Crawford's most familiar work in Washington is the bronze statue of Freedom atop the Capitol dome, posthumously cast from his model. The sculptor, a pioneer of neoclassicism in this country, completed David Triumphant in Rome in 1848. On view in the West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery 9.
www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=140260 |
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| NEW AUDIO PODCASTS: RENAISSANCE TO REVOLUTION: FRENCH DRAWINGS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, PARTS 1-3 |
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| NGA SHOP: NEW EXHIBITION CATALOGUES |
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 With an abundance of new installations this season comes an outstanding selection of new exhibition-related catalogues, available from Gallery Shops. In the Darkroom: An Illustrated Guide to Photographic Processes before the Digital Age is written for students, museumgoers, amateurs, and professionals alike, and includes stellar examples from the National Gallery collection, diagrams, a time line, and a glossary. The Darker Side of Light explores the enigmatic, beautiful, and often melancholy subjects of 19th-century prints and drawings. The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection considers postwar American art through the brilliant stable of Meyerhoff artists. Lastly, Renaissance to Revolution presents the Gallery's most significant French drawings from three centuries, offering a visual exploration of graphic art in France.
shop.nga.gov/nga/category.cgi?category=exhibition-current_exhibitions |
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| FINAL CHANCE TO SEE ARCHITECTURAL BOOKS, JUDITH LEYSTER, AND MANET'S RAGPICKER |
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| NOVEMBER CALENDAR OF EVENTS |
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 Plan your visit to the Gallery with the help of the November Calendar of Events. Schedules of films, lectures, gallery talks, family activities, and concerts provide details about each event. Check back often for the most up-to-date information, as new events are regularly added.
www.nga.gov/programs/calendar |
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 On November 1, 1943, Wall Street millionaire Chester Dale was elected a trustee of the National Gallery of Art. Dale was a discerning art collector who commissioned a number of portraits of himself, including one by Salvador Dalí in which he is shown with his beloved black poodle, Coco.
www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=46486 |
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