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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Carrie Mae Weems: Kitchen Table Series
Closed May 18, 2018
In the Library: Jost Amman and Sixteenth-Century Woodcut Illustration
Closed January 5, 2018
Edvard Munch: Color in Context
Closed January 28, 2018
Matthias Mansen: Configurations
Closed April 20, 2018
The image displays a vertical arrangement of geometric shapes and brush strokes forming a grid-like pattern. The abstract composition is filled with patches of vibrant colors, predominantly red, yellow, blue, and brown, against a white background. The design may evoke stained glass windows or a mosaic mural, with blocks of color interspersed with earthy hues and occasional dark shadows.
Bodies of Work
Closed February 18, 2019
A man and a woman with black skin stand in a sage and olive-green boat that comes toward us on a wavy, dripping band of cobalt blue that spans the lower edge of this loosely hanging, square canvas. The word “WANDERER” is written in white capital letters along the bow of the boat. Closer to us, in the boat, a woman is seen from the hips up. An oval, cloud-like form covers her torso, shoulders, and the area behind her head. It is white with rose-pink swirls, and has a few black lines creating scallops around the edge. A black shape at her waist, just over a cobalt-blue skirt, could indicate that at least one arm is bent behind her back. The penis, thighs, and knees of a man are seen between the boat and the triangular, pale lilac-purple sail. The sail is painted with long, curling strokes of violet purple up its center. A long, white pennant with two gold stars flutters from the boat’s burgundy-red mast, which has a crosspiece just below the pennant. The water is painted with strokes of royal blue, which partially drip over a white skull at the lower center. The boat is set against a background layered in washes of white, shell pink, and baby blue, with swirls and thin strokes of brick red scattered across it. A yellow sun outlined in deeper gold peeks above the horizon in the lower left, and is repeated with more orbs that together make an arc that curves to the upper right corner. A few geometric line drawings hover next to the woman, on our left, such as a compass-like cross with a crosshatched oval at each end. A black number "1" floats in the lower left, above the water, and a black number "7" floats near the upper left. Two more black sevens float near the upper right, next to another heart-shaped line drawing. The background transitions from the pale washes to darker orbs of pink and blue, that overlap a band of black that nearly spans the top edge. In that upper zone, a black, gold, and red compass floats near the top of the mast, to our left. A sheet with anatomical illustrations hangs from the left arm of the mast. The drawings show cell clusters and human fetuses, some circled in red. A second drawing of a house circled in lilac purple hangs on the right arm, next to a third drawing of concentric circles.
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting
Closed August 20, 2017
In the Library: Companion Pieces
Closed August 25, 2017
Made in America: Radical Figures
Closed November 15, 2017

Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 gallery in New York City (1905–1917) was not much bigger than this room, but it sparked great debates about modern art. Pioneering exhibitions of work by such Europeans as Constantin Brancusi, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Auguste Rodin challenged Americans like Georgia O’Keeffe and Max Weber to reconceive the body in more expressive and abstract ways. In his photographs, Stieglitz explored how body parts—neck, torso, hands, legs, even feet—could convey the whole.

The image displays hands and forearms of a person. The forearms are crossed over one another, and the hands are resting with fingers intertwined. The person is wearing long-sleeved clothing. The fabric is smooth and light-colored, extending from the wrists. There is a ring on the middle finger of the left hand. A string of beads encircles the wrists and trails to one side. The background appears to be a dark, textured surface. The photograph is in sepia tone.
Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism
Closed July 9, 2017

This exhibition brings together some 74 paintings and two sketchbooks that helped to lay the groundwork of impressionism. Bazille’s works are exhibited alongside works by the predecessors who inspired him, as well as his contemporaries including Rousseau, Courbet, Manet, and Monet.

East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography
Closed July 16, 2017
The image shows a construction site by a body of water, with workers laboring on a structure made of stones and logs at the water's edge. In the background, a range of hills covered in foliage can be seen. The scene is captured from a slightly elevated angle, with a cyanotype color palette emphasizing different shades of blue. The workers are depicted engaged in various tasks, conveying human activity and teamwork in a natural setting.
The Woodner Collections: Master Drawings from Seven Centuries
Closed July 16, 2017
The image shows two full-length figures facing each other. The person on the left is standing and playing a long trumpet-like instrument. They have curly hair, delicate facial features, and wear a flowing gown. The person on the right is also standing, holding a long staff, with straight hair and a serene expression. Both figures wear detailed gowns and are set against a plain, grid-patterned background.
In the Tower: Theaster Gates: The Minor Arts
Closed September 4, 2017

Salvaging discarded materials found in and around his native Chicago, Gates responds to the decline of urban institutions and traditions and resurrects them as art. Gates gives new form to the outdated and the left-behind and stakes a claim for the artfulness of the everyday.

Narrow boards of a wood gymnasium floor were taken apart and reassembled as vertical planks that make up this wide, rectangular panel, which hangs on a wall. Several boards have long strips of black tape and one, near the top right corner, has a band of red tape. Most of the markings are short checks of black, white, red, and green tape. The wood stain is dark in some areas, gray with damage in others, or flaking in places. The two longest horizontal black stripes are near the top left corner and across the right half, about a third of the way down from the top edge of the piece. The room where this hangs has wider planked wood floors and a white wall.

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