National Gallery of Art, Washington, April 26, 2025–January 3, 2027 

Back and Forth: Rozeal., Titian, Cezanne brings together four major works spanning centuries and continents to reveal how artists remix and reinterpret the conventions of portraiture and allegory as well as contemporary culture. Featuring works from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art—afro.died, T. (2011) by contemporary artist Rozeal., Titian’s Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555) and Ranuccio Farnese (1541–1542), and Paul Cezanne’s Boy in a Red Waistcoat (1888–1890)—this exhibition considers how artists construct meaning through focused pairings examining Gaze, Space, Pose, and Subject.  

The phrase “back and forth”— which is repeated in the background of Rozeal.’s afro.died, T., inspired in part by the lyrics of Willow Smith’s 2010 hit, “Whip My Hair” — evokes a shifting dialogue between centuries and styles. It encourages close looking and offers an opportunity to see how each artist engaged with and transformed artistic traditions. Each pairing opens a thematic lens that breaks down boundaries between old and new, and portrait and allegory.

Gaze pairs Titian’s Venus with a Mirror, which represents the ideal of beauty in the Italian Renaissance, with Rozeal.’s afro.died, T., which challenges and plays with notions of beauty, culture, and race through the present. Both paintings evoke the Greco-Roman goddess of beauty (Venus and Aphrodite) while the pairing questions how ideals vary for women from different cultural backgrounds. Space showcases how Rozeal. and Cezanne construct disorienting yet intimate interiors that blur abstraction and realism.  

Pose juxtaposes Cezanne’s Boy in a Red Waistcoat with Titian’s Ranuccio Farnese. With their strikingly similar contrapposto stances, each portrait projects a confidence that belies youthful fragility and innocence. Subject pairs both works by Titian to encourage reflection on how the artist depicted surface and psychology when painting an allegory or a portrait.

Back and Forth offers insight into how artists make choices—about composition, gesture, and detail—to construct meaning, while also revealing how these works illuminate and complicate one another when seen together.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.  

The exhibition is curated by Molly Donovan, curator of contemporary art and acting head of modern and contemporary art; Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, curator and head of the department of Italian and Spanish paintings, both at the National Gallery of Art; and Aaron Wile, former associate curator in the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art.