Talks & Conversations

Finding Awe: Simone Leigh’s Sentinel 

Part of Finding Awe
The sculpture depicts an elongated figure with exaggerated proportions. The figure stands upright with no visible arms. It has a long legs and torso, with visible hips and breast-like shapes. A long and thin neck supports a round, cup-like shape. The sculpture is made of a dark material with a smooth surface and glossy black finish. It is placed on a round pedestal against a light-colored stone tile background.
Simone Leigh, Sentinel, 2022, bronze, Gift of the Glenstone Foundation, 2023.25.1

Explore Simone Leigh’s “collapsing of time” and the awe of interconnectedness across generations.  

During this 90-minute pause from your daily route, we’ll look slowly and mindfully at Simone Leigh’s Sentinel. You’ll be invited to look closely, wonder, and share your insights with the group.  Together, we’ll learn “awe practices” that you can bring to your everyday life.  

The workshop exploring Sentinel will be offered on January 9 at 2:15 p.m. and on January 10 at 10:30 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. We encourage you to register for one workshop on this topic and to join us for future topics as well.

Ages 18 and up. Questions? Email us at [email protected].

“Finding Awe” is grounded in the National Gallery’s mission to welcome all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity. It offers new “awe practices” drawn from the research of Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California-Berkeley, director of The Greater Good Science Center, and author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life (2023). Research shows that experiences of awe help support mental and physical wellbeing and open us up to greater creativity and deeper empathy. 

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Shown from the knees up, a woman with brown, wrinkled skin, wearing a white blouse, apron, and black skirt is shown in front of a pale gray background in this vertical portrait painting. Straight-backed, she faces and looks at us with her hands resting in her lap. Her wavy, iron-gray hair is parted in the center and pulled back from her face. Her eyebrows are slightly raised, and her face is deeply lined down her cheeks and around her mouth. She wears a heart-shaped brooch with a red stone at its center at her neck and a gold band on her left ring finger. The light coming from our left casts a shadow against the wall to our right. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner: “A.J. MOTLEY. JR. 1922.”

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Shown from the knees up, a woman with brown, wrinkled skin, wearing a white blouse, apron, and black skirt is shown in front of a pale gray background in this vertical portrait painting. Straight-backed, she faces and looks at us with her hands resting in her lap. Her wavy, iron-gray hair is parted in the center and pulled back from her face. Her eyebrows are slightly raised, and her face is deeply lined down her cheeks and around her mouth. She wears a heart-shaped brooch with a red stone at its center at her neck and a gold band on her left ring finger. The light coming from our left casts a shadow against the wall to our right. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner: “A.J. MOTLEY. JR. 1922.”

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