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 and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry
Closed January 21, 2018

This landmark exhibition examines the artistic exchanges among Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries from the mid-1650s to around 1680, when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting.

In this vertical painting, a woman stands near the corner of a dimly lit room, facing our left in profile and looking down at a balance she holds suspended in her right hand over a wooden table. She wears a peacock-blue velvet jacket with a white hood and fur lining, and a voluminous, mustard-yellow skirt. A window near the upper left corner is partially covered by a canary-yellow curtain. Light coming in through that window falls on the pale skin of the woman's face and hands, and highlights the white trim of her garment. Her left hand, closer to us, rests on the edge of the table near two open boxes, and a blue cloth is bunched at the back of the table to our left. Gold chains and pearl strands drape over the edge of one box. The woman stands in front of a framed painting. Much of the detail is lost in shadow but at the top center of the painting, a person surrounded by a golden halo floats in the sky with both arms raised, and is flanked by people encased within a bank of clouds. Nude people on the ground below in the painting, seen to either side of the woman, writhe, twist, and point upward.
Bosch to Bloemaert: Early Netherlandish Drawings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Closed January 7, 2018
Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures
Closed December 3, 2017

Combining art, fashion, science, and conservation, this revelatory exhibition brings together—for the first time—some 14 of the paintings known as the fantasy figures by Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806).

Shown from the lap up, a young woman with pale skin, wearing a goldenrod-yellow dress, sits reading a small book, facing our left in profile in this vertical painting. The deep, scooped neckline of her rich yellow gown is edged with lace and decorated with a mauve-purple bow at the bust. Her chest is covered by sheer white fabric under a ruffled, pleated collar. The ruff is tied at the back with another mauve bow, and a ribbon of the same color ties up her chestnut-brown hair. She has a delicate nose and rosebud mouth, and she tips her head down to read the book she holds in one hand. She sits against an oversize pillow streaked with pale lilac and deep rose pink. Her left arm, closer to us, is draped over a railing that extends across the width of the canvas. The background behind her is streaked with tan and muted teal blue. A vertical strip of light caramel brown along the right edge of the canvas suggests another wall against which the pillow rests. The artist’s loose, lively brushstrokes are visible throughout.
Posing for the Camera: Gifts from Robert B. Menschel
Closed January 28, 2018
Recent Acquisitions: Made in California
Closed May 18, 2018
Exhibition: Saul Steinberg
Closed July 16, 2018
The image displays an intricate network of overlapping geometric shapes and lines, forming an abstract composition. Lines of varying thicknesses and colors intersect, creating a complex pattern reminiscent of an abstract city map or circuit board. Rectangles and other polygons are interspersed with circular arcs. Some sections suggest envelopes and postal marks, hinting at familiar elements like postal correspondence intertwined in the abstract design. The use of red, blue, and green lines adds dynamic movement across the piece.
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

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