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The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Past Exhibition

July 10 – October 31, 2022
East Building, Concourse Galleries

When two forms or images are presented together, our eyes can’t help but compare them. We “see double” and identify differences and similarities. The art of the double causes us to see ourselves seeing.

The Double is the first major exhibition to consider how and why modern and contemporary artists have employed doubled formats to explore perceptual, conceptual, and psychological themes. From Matisse, Duchamp, and Gorky to Rauschenberg, Johns, Warhol, Truitt, and Hesse, this multimedia presentation features works by many of today’s leading artists, including Kerry James Marshall, Glenn Ligon, Roni Horn, and Yinka Shonibare.

Through art, The Double explores enduring questions of identity and difference, especially self-identity as defined by our own unconscious, by society, and by race, gender, and sexuality.

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Selected Works

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

The exhibition is curated by James Meyer, curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art

Sponsors
The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation has provided major support for the exhibition. 

It is also generously supported by Dr. Mihael Polymeropoulos and Mrs. Mahy D. Polymeropoulos.

It is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Additional funding is provided by the Tower Project of the National Gallery of Art.

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required

Banner detail: Alighiero Boetti, Gemelli (Zwei), 1974–1975, photograph on paper, Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels © Alighiero Boetti by SIAE 2022