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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Kandinsky
Closed September 7, 1981
Contemporary American Prints and Drawings
Closed July 26, 1981
The image features an abstract composition of jagged and curved lines intertwined with geometric shapes, forming a lively scene. Dominating the center is a large swirling form in green and orange, surrounded by smaller rectangles, triangles, and dynamic scribbles. These shapes are scattered, overlapping, and intertwined throughout the canvas, creating a sense of movement. The use of vibrant reds, greens, blues, and yellows adds to the abstract nature of the image. The composition is bounded by a light background.
Hans Baldung Grien
Closed April 5, 1981
The image shows a pencil sketch of a man's head in side profile. The man has a large, flowing beard with intricate curls. His facial features include deep-set eyes and a slightly furrowed brow. His curly hair fills a significant portion of the portrait, blending into the voluminous beard. The drawing emphasizes line and form, with detailed texture on the hair and beard. Inscribed on the right side are the letters "JCB" and the year "1516." The background is plain, focusing on the intricacy of the hair.
Picasso
Closed March 15, 1981
The Search for Alexander
Closed April 5, 1981
A crowned man holding up a sword lunges toward another man who wears a helmet and holds up both hands in this vertical painting. This happens in front of a long banquet table set with a rumpled white cloth. About a dozen people react or cling to each other on the far side of the table and more gather farther in the background. Most of the people have pale, peachy skin and wear tunics, robes, and dresses in shades of celestial and sky blue, pale yellow, forest green, peach, or white. The man holding the sword has a furrowed brow, and his lips are parted. He wears a molded yellow breastplate over seafoam-green, knee-length tunic. A marine-blue cloak patterned with a gold design wraps loosely around his shoulders, and he wears toeless, shin-high sandals on bare legs. A white pearl earring hangs from the ear we can see, and more pearls are on his breastplate. He holds the sword up with his right hand, farther from us, and holds the sheath with the other. He steps to our left, toward the man who wears royal-blue armor with gold trim, including a gold lion’s head at the shoulder. His silver helmet has gold decorations and a fluffy sky-blue feather. He faces our right so his face is in shadow, but his mouth is open. He steps onto his right leg, closer to us, as he leans back with his hands raised. A vivid red cloth flutters from his shoulders to his knees. The table behind this pair is on a platform with five steps. A man lies on the green and white checked floor on our side of the steps with his head coming toward us. He grips an urn with one arm and holds his other hand out. One foot is raised and the other knee bent so that foot is on the ground. Silver urns, trays, and a chalice sit on the steps to our right. Two people in the crowd on the far side of the table stand out. One is an ashen-faced woman wearing a crown to the left, who clutches another woman as she looks at the conflict. The other person is to the right and has dark brown skin and short, dark hair. That person wears an iron collar around the neck over a white pleated shirt and a sage-green vest edged in gold. The space behind the table is enclosed with a person-high wall topped with thick, dark green columns. A man to our left stands above the melee and reaches for another person, presumably to rescue them from the chaos. The space beyond opens into a tall, light-filled, white stone-clad space where people line balconies. Several spears and the tops of people’s heads indicate another group on the far side of the wall. A green curtain is pulled up into the top right corner of the composition.
Gods, Saints, and Heroes
Closed January 4, 1981
A group of light-skinned people and animals gather in an oval ring around a shallow pool in a wooded landscape in this horizontal painting. Deep in shadow but closest to us, animals, objects, and people create a continuous band in the foreground. From left to right is a horse, a reclining woman and small child, a goat tended by a nude child, a dog sniffing at a pile of crockery, baskets, and metal pans and dishes, a cat lapping from a shallow pewter dish, and a young man drinking from a dish or large shell in the lower right corner. Beyond this and to our right, an older man with gray hair and beard and wearing turquoise, pink, and blue robes taps an outcropping of rocks with a thin rod. Water gushes in thin streams from the outcropping into the pool below. The bearded man is surrounded by several standing men and women. Men, women, and children bend over the edge of the pool around its perimeter, filling or drinking from jugs, dishes, and pans. Most of the men wear long robes and some wear turbans, and the women wear long dresses or robes in teal, aquamarine, shell pink, pale yellow, and ivory. Trees enclose this group to the left and at the center of the painting. Another band of dozens of people, animals, and wagons line the horizon in the distance. They are painted in pale gray, blue, pink, and white. The horizon line comes three-quarters of the way up the composition and glimpses of vibrant blue sky and white clouds are seen through breaks in the trees. Light glints off of clothing, smooth skin, the fur of the animals, and especially the metalware in the foreground to give the painting a glimmering, almost glossy look.
The Morton G. Neumann Family Collection
Closed January 11, 1981
American Indian Life
Closed December 31, 1980
This vertical portrait shows the head, shoulders, and chest of an indiginous Iowan man with brown skin whose face is mostly painted with red and green. His body and face are angled to our right and he looks into the distance with dark eyes. Crimson-red paint covers his forehead, the sides of his cheeks, and neck. Four parallel lines of pine green angle up his right cheek, on our left, like the four fingers of a hand. A green line on the other cheek could be the thumb, and the palm might have left the green mark on his chin. The man’s nose and cheeks near the nose are unpainted. His spiky headdress is ornamented with two feathers and is held in place with a wide band of dark fur that wraps across his forehead and around the back of his head. Earrings hang from the lobes and tops of his ears, and he wears a necklace made up of bear claws, beads, and seashells, including an oval shaped, medallion-like shell at his throat. His garment is made up of white fur and what appears to be tawny-brown animal hide. Tan-colored clouds create a screen across an ice-blue sky in the background.
The Busch-Reisinger Museum
Closed September 3, 1980
Post-Impressionism
Closed September 1, 1980
Pale beige, angular houses cluster at the center of the horizontal landscape painting. The hilly, rocky landscape around and below the houses is painted with cool blues and greens, and warm ivory and caramel brown beneath a pale blue sky. The artist applied the paint with regular, parallel, straight strokes.
Italian Drawings 1780-1890
Closed May 11, 1980
The image shows the upper half of a figure, focusing on a young woman who is looking at the viewer. Her facial features are delicately rendered with soft shading. Her hair is styled in an updo with accessories. She is dressed in a flowing garment with folds, highlighted with color. She is holding a platter with a man's head. In the background, there is a sketched figure of an older man. The background features earthy colors.
American Decorative Arts: Renderings from the Index of American Design
Closed July 27, 1980

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