Past Exhibitions

1227 results found

Closed February 24, 2013

This exhibition presents two crucial periods in Newman’s career. His paintings and drawings of the 1940s reveal a shift from biomorphic imagery to simple linear forms, while The Stations of the Cross, a cycle of 14 paintings plus a coda (Be II), dominated his mature career from 1958 to 1966.

Two black bands span the height of this vertical canvas against a field of white mottled with shades of ivory, bone, and parchment in this abstract painting. A narrow, solid black stripe lines the left edge of the canvas, like the spine of a book. About a quarter of the way in from the right edge, black paint swirls and wafts like smoke on either side of a narrow white stripe the same color as the background. The artist signed and dated the painting in black paint in the lower right corner of the canvas: “Barnett Newman 1958.”

Deacon Peckham's Hobby Horse

Closed October 28, 2012

Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape

Closed August 12, 2012

Through some 120 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints from a career spanning almost a century, the exhibition reveals a politically engaged side to Miró's work, including his passionate response to one of the most turbulent periods in European history as well as his sense of Spanish—specifically Catalan—identity.

Two angular, cream-white buildings flanking a central, stylized tree are surrounded by brown soil, small animals, and farmhouse objects like watering cans and buckets beneath a clear, azure-blue sky in this square landscape painting. We look straight onto the buildings and slightly down onto the earth in front of us. About a third of the way up the composition, the horizon is lined with trees and mountains in the deep distance. The long, spindly branches of the central tree nearly reach the top edge of the painting and abstracted, sickle-shaped leaves are silhouetted against the sky so no leaves overlap. The far edge of the whitewashed structure to our left is cropped. The façade is pierced by two small rectangular windows and an arched hatch at the top under a winch. The back end of a horse is visible through an open door at the bottom center. Horizontal bands in front of the building suggest furrows in plowed earth, and a single stalk of corn grows up into the scene, seeming close to us. A pen protected by netting stretches out in front of the second structure, to our right of center. That wood-frame building has a triangular peaked roof, and the left half is open, like a lean-to. A goat, rooster, birds, and several rabbits occupy the pen. Watering cans, buckets and pails, a hoe, newspaper, lizard, and snail are spaced around the buildings. A tiny stylized person, perhaps a baby, appears in the distance between the buildings near a well where a woman works. A covered wagon, a round mill, trees, and plants fill the rest of the space between the buildings. A disk-like moon hangs in the sky to the right of the tree. The artist signed and dated the lower left corner, "Miro. 1921-22."

I Spy: Photography and the Theater of the Street, 1938–2010

Closed August 5, 2012

The image shows a person standing in a frontal position. The individual has a serious expression, with deeply set eyes, a well-defined nose, and slightly pursed lips. They are wearing a black durag, a dark blue or black oversized t-shirt, and a gold chain with a cross pendant. The background is blurred, with hints of an industrial or dimly lit room.

Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800)

Closed April 29, 2012

Celebrating the centennial of Japan's gift of cherry trees to the nation's capital, this exhibition features one of Japan's most renowned cultural treasures, the 30-scroll set of bird-and-flower paintings by Itō Jakuchū.