Past Exhibitions

Learn about past exhibitions going back as far as 1941 when the National Gallery of Art first opened to the public.

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Vermeer's Secrets
Closed January 8, 2023

This exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse, revealing our findings about Johannes Vermeer’s paintings and the mysterious artist who made them.

Sargent and Spain
Closed January 2, 2023
Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South
Closed June 11, 2023

Discover the remarkable stories of inventive works by Thornton Dial, James “Son Ford” Thomas, Lonnie Holley, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, and many other southern Black artists, including nine Gee’s Bend quilts.

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900
Closed October 31, 2022

The first major exhibition to consider how and why modern and contemporary artists have employed doubled formats to explore perceptual, conceptual, and psychological themes. This multimedia presentation features works by Kerry James Marshall, Glenn Ligon, Roni Horn, Yinka Shonibare, and more.

The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives
Closed November 27, 2022

Discover rare prints by Albrecht Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, and other influential artists alongside engravings, etchings, and woodcuts by other highly talented but less familiar figures, such as Erhard Schön and Jan Sadeler I.

This is a print of a battle scene in a forest, with men engaged in combat amidst a backdrop of dense trees. The men are a mix of armed and unarmed, some holding long swords, sticks, axes, or pitchforks. Some are lying on the ground. Some of the men are nude apart from small garments around their groins, while other men are wearing full outfits with tunics, jackets, and wide-brimmed hats. The background includes tall trees with heavy branches in front of a sky filled with thin, horizontal lines. In the bottom left and right corners of the paper, below the print, are small rectangles with text in them.
The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler
Closed October 10, 2022

Bringing together for the first time nearly all of Whistler’s depictions of Hiffernan, The Woman in White explores their partnership and the iconic works of art resulting from their life together.

Night Moods
Closed December 31, 2022
Afro-Atlantic Histories
Closed July 17, 2022

Taking an in-depth look at the historical experiences and cultural formations of Black and African people since the 17th century, this exhibition includes works of art like paintings, sculpture, photographs, and time-based media by artists from Africa, Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean.

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