In 80 years of its existence, the National Gallery of Art has amassed one of the world’s most significant collections of American and European masterworks of paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, prints, drawings, and photographs. Beginning with a selection of 126 paintings and 26 sculptures given by the National Gallery’s founder Andrew W. Mellon, the collection has grown to more than 145,000 works today.
Our treasures come from many diverse times and places of origin and each work of art in the permanent collection is a private donation, acquired either directly or with contributed funds. Listed below are some of the most important recent additions to our permanent collection.
Gretchen Woodman Rogers
Gretchen Woodman Rogers (1881–1967) is one of the most gifted artists of the Boston school and was highly regarded as a painter in her day. The National Gallery of Art has acquired its first work by Rogers, Five O’Clock (c. 1910). This addition to the collection demonstrates the National Gallery’s commitment to rewriting the art historical narrative and expanding the holdings of American women artists.
Fede Galizia
Fede Galizia (documented 1587–1630), whose work was overlooked for four centuries, is now known for her luminous and striking naturalism. The National Gallery of Art has acquired Still Life of Apples, Pears, Cucumbers, Figs, and a Melon (c. 1625–1630), a late work by the artist. This acquisition not only increases the National Gallery’s holdings of women artists and still-life paintings from this period, but also creates an important dialogue with contemporary Spanish still lifes, including works by Juan van der Hamen y León and Luis Egidio Meléndez.
Julie Blackmon
Julie Blackmon (b. 1966) explores domestic life and family dynamics in her richly detailed, orchestrated photographs. The National Gallery of Art has acquired two images by Blackmon, both from 2022: Flatboat, a gift from Bill Haw, Jr., and Paddleboard, a gift from the artist.
Caterina Angela Pierozzi
Active in Florence in the late 17th century, Caterina Angela Pierozzi (active c. 1670–1690) worked for the Medici Grand Duchess of Tuscany Vittoria della Rovere, who was well-known for her patronage of women artists. The National Gallery of Art has acquired the only known work by Pierozzi. Recently discovered, the signed and dated (1677) miniature on vellum depicts the Annunciation and is mounted in a period frame of metalwork and brilliant blue glass.
Sentinels (Large Yellow) by G. Peter Jemison
The National Gallery of Art has acquired its first work by G. Peter Jemison (Seneca Nation of Indians, Heron Clan, b. 1945), a deeply respected and influential Native American artist. Sentinels (Large Yellow) (2006) reflects the relationship of Native Americans to the land and the continuing stewardship of the Creator’s gifts. By visualizing land-based knowledge systems, Jemison’s art celebrates the multifaceted culture, beliefs, and history of the Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations, that comprise the Iroquois Confederacy.
Sculpture by Marie Watt
The National Gallery of Art has acquired Antipodes (2020), a two-part beaded work by Marie Watt (Seneca Nation of Indians/European descent, b. 1967). The sculpture addresses the temporal, material, linguistic, and spatial constructs of distance in Indigenous culture. In her artistic practice, which draws from Native histories, knowledge, biography, and belief systems, Watt investigates past, present, and future in community to better connect to place and to one another.
Painting by Emmi Whitehorse
The National Gallery of Art has acquired Fog Bank (2020), a mixed-media work by Emmi Whitehorse (Diné, b. 1957). It is the first by this highly respected Native American artist to join the collection. Whitehorse’s artwork embodies the natural harmony she observes in the landscape at her home near Santa Fe, New Mexico. It conveys her intimate knowledge of a place, in keeping with Diné philosophy.
Dread Scott, I Am Not A Man, September 9, 2009, inkjet print, Gift of Funds from Michael Findlay and Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2022.136.1
Dread Scott, On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide, October 7, 2014, inkjet print, Gift of Funds from Michael Findlay and Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2022.136.2
Dread Scott
The National Gallery of Art has acquired two photographs by the multimedia artist Dread Scott (b. 1965), whose work engages with some of the most significant social questions of our time. Made possible through a generous gift of funds by Michael Findlay and Victoria Findlay Wolfe, I Am Not A Man (2009) and On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide (2014) depict key moments from two of Scott’s performances that confront the legacy of racism in the United States. These pictures, the first works by the artist to enter the collection, reflect not only Scott’s desire to push formal and conceptual boundaries, but also his deep awareness of how history informs the present. His compelling images refer to seminal events from the Civil Rights Movement and promote critical reflection on contemporary events.
Benny Andrews
A deeply political artist, Benny Andrews (1930–2006) was known for exploring themes of race, power, and autobiography in his art. He focused on real and imagined Black subjects and, in his 1965 Autobiographical Series, he painted to reflect his background and life experiences.
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden (1911–1988) is recognized as one of the most important visual artists of the 20th century. His oeuvre consists of more than 2,000 known works in many media that reveals the diverse influences of Western masters, ranging from Duccio, Giotto, and Pieter de Hooch to Cézanne, Picasso, and Matisse. Bearden also was fascinated with African art (particularly sculpture, masks, and textiles), Byzantine mosaics, Japanese prints, and Chinese paintings.
Dindga McCannon
Multimedia artist Dindga McCannon centers Black women in what she has termed “imaginative portraiture,” vibrantly colored works often based on photographs of real people and historical figures, such as Hattie McDaniel, Bessie Smith, and other women who “refuse to take no for an answer, who push the limits of what’s possible.”
David Drake
Dave (c. 1801–1870s), later recorded as “David Drake,” was an enslaved African American potter who lived and worked most of his life in the Edgefield district of South Carolina. Active between the 1820s and his emancipation in 1865, Dave was one of the many enslaved African Americans who produced alkaline-glazed stoneware containers in the region, which became an important center of ceramic production in the South. In addition to his extraordinary talents at working clay, he is recognized for signing his works boldly with the name “Dave” and especially for inscribing many of them with poetry, often using rhyming couplets. He did this openly at a time when many state laws criminalized teaching enslaved people to read and write. The National Gallery of Art has acquired one of the largest surviving storage jars created by Dave.
Rashid Johnson’s Mirrored Tile Relief
Rashid Johnson (b. 1977) is a highly regarded contemporary artist known for his works in a variety of media, including sculpture, installation, photography, and painting. Often juxtaposing materials in unexpected combinations, Johnson’s works contain multilayered allusions to art history, the environment, mass media, and African American identity. The National Gallery of Art has acquired Planet (2014), its second work by the artist following the 2022 acquisition of the digital print The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Emmett) (2008).
Kiki Kogelnik’s Pop-Era Painting, Night
The National Gallery of Art has recently acquired Kiki Kogelnik’s Night (1964), from the artist’s breakthrough series depicting techno-bodies and avatars floating in vibrant compositions of bold shapes and patterns.
George Morrison
George Morrison (Grand Portage Band of Chippewa, 1919–2000) is perhaps best known for his brilliantly colored paintings of the late 1950s and 1960s, and his wood collages begun in the mid-1960s. The National Gallery of Art has acquired Morrison’s Untitled (1961), expanding its significant collection of abstract expressionist works by adding this key voice, and the first work by a Native American, to its New York School holdings.
17th-Century Nautilus Cup
In the 16th and 17th centuries, nautilus cups were among the most treasured objects in chambers of art and wonders (Kunstkammern in German)—collections of natural marvels and skillfully crafted artworks that became popular with princely collectors in Europe. The National Gallery of Art has acquired its first nautilus cup (c. 1650, etching; c. 1670, mount), an extraordinary object that may have been made for a member of the Swedish royal family.
Gift of Graham Nickson’s Painting Yellow Rise: Sun Watcher
Graham Nickson (British, b. 1946) makes paintings and drawings that place the human form in the landscape. His art combines close observation with expressive color; compositional geometry with strong illusion; and mysterious narrative with monumental calm. Yellow Rise: Sun Watcher (2017), a gift from Daniel L. Satterwhite and Audrey Shachnow, joins two other paintings and a drawing by the artist already in the collection.
Lee Ufan’s Dialogue
Lee Ufan (born Haman, Korea, 1936) is an internationally celebrated painter, sculptor, and theorist who is best known as a founder of Mono-ha (School of Things), one of the most important movements to emerge from postwar Japan. The group rejected Western notions of representation and emphasized making, perception, and the interrelationships between space and matter, creating works from raw, natural, and industrial materials with little manipulation. The National Gallery of Art has acquired the painting Dialogue (2011), a classic example of one of the artist’s most important series (Dialogue, 2006–present). Acquired using funds from the Patrons’ Permanent Fund and a generous gift from Milly and Arne Glimcher, this is the first work by the artist to enter the collection.
