African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond

Now - September 3, 2012
1st Floor, West

Drawn from the museums' permament collection are 100 artworks -- paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs -- by 43 black artists who explored the African American experience from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil Rights era and beyond, decades that saw tremendous change in African American life. Included are paintings by Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, and Lois Mailou Jones, and photographs by Roy deCarava, Gordon Parks, Roland Freeman, and Marilyn Nance, More than half the artworks are on view at the museum for the first time, and 10 works are recent acquisitions.

Catalogue:$60 (cloth), $40 (paper)

The Art of Video Games

Now - September 30, 2012
Special Exhibition Galleries, 3rd Floor, North

Video games use images, actions, and player participation to tell stories and engage their audiences. In the same way as film, animation, and performance, they can be considered a compelling and influential form of narrative art. In this exhibition, the museum is the first to comprehensively examine the evolution of video games as an artistic medium. From the Atari VSC to the Playstation 3, this exhibition shows the development of visual effects and aesthetics since the 1970s, the emergence of games as a means for storytelling, the influence of world events and popular culture on game development, and the impact games can have on society. It includes multimedia presentations of video game footage, video interviews with developers and artists, large prints of in-game screen shots, historic video game consoles, and a selection of working video game systems for visitors to play. The public was asked to assist with the selection of materials for the show by choosing the 80 games that they feel best represent particular moments in the overall timeline. Voting for games to be included ended April 17, 2011; the winning games were announced May 5, 2011.

Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage

Now - May 20, 2012
2nd Floor, South

Unlike Annie Leibovitz’s staged and carefully lit portraits made on assignment for magazines and advertising clients, the photographs on view were taken simply because Leibovitz was moved by the subject. They speak in a commonplace language to her curiosity about the world she inherited, spanning landscapes both dramatic and quiet, interiors of living rooms and bedrooms, and objects that are talismans of past lives. Although there are no people in them, the pictures are in a certain sense portraits of figures that have shaped Leibovitz’s distinctly American view of her cultural inheritance. Visiting the homes of such iconic figures as Thomas Jefferson, Emily Dickinson, and Elvis Presley, as well as such places as Niagara Falls, Walden Pond, the Gettysburg battlefield, and the Yosemite Valley, she let her instincts and intuitions guide her to related subjects—hence, the title Pilgrimage. The pictures show Leibovitz at the height of her powers, unfettered by the demands of her career and pondering how photographs, including her own, shape a narrative of history that informs the present.

 

Related publication Pilgrimage: $50

Inventing a Better Mousetrap: Patent Models from the Rothschild Collection

Now - November 3, 2013
Allan J. and Reda R. Riley Gallery, 2nd Floor, South

Thirty-two models illustrate the variety of 19th-century patented inventions submitted by inventors from across the United States. All of the models on view were originally displayed in large cases in the grand galleries on the third floor of the building, which originally housed the Patent Office. Nineteenth-century American patent law required the submission and public display of a model with each patent application; these scale models in miniature illustrate not only the imaginative fervor of the era but also the amazing craftsmanship required to fabricate these often intricate works of art.

The models are grouped by category, including domestic life, leisure, agriculture, and machinery; they are complemented by drawings, illustrations, a rare early patent signed by George Washington, and a full-scale model of a "better" mousetrap -- with questions about its advantages over more conventional mousetraps. The installation also includes a case of "mystery models," each accompanied by a clue, which allows visitors to guess their purpose.

Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image

Permanent Exhibit
3rd Floor, North

In this rotating permanent gallery dedicated to the media arts, the museum takes stock of the cutting-edge tools and materials used by video artists during the past 50 years. This installation features key artworks from the history of video art and works by a new generation of artists on the cutting edge of new media art practices. 

The following works are on view:

• Peter Campus, Three Transitions (1973) and Barn at North Fork (2010)
• David Haxton, Painting Room Lights (1980)
• Joan Jonas, Vertical Roll (1972)
• Bruce Nauman, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968)
• Steina and Woody Vasulka, Reminiscence from Selected Works, I 
• Ernie Gehr, Surveillance (2010)
• Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, Swamp (1971)

Thomas Moran Landscapes

Permanent Exhibit
2nd Floor, North

On view are three large landscape paintings by Thomas Moran, two on long-term loan from the U.S. Department of the Interior -- The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872) and The Chasm of the Colorado (1873-1874) -- and the museum's The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893-1901), along with a smaller Moran painting.

Sculptures by Paul Manship

Permanent Exhibit
1st Floor, North

From the museum's collection of nearly 500 works by Paul Manship (1885-1966) are 25 graceful sculptures -- including such mythological figures such as Atalanta and Europa, as well as a collection of gilded animal figures. As a young artist studying in Rome, Manship fell in love with both Roman and Greek sculpture and was captivated by animals and mythological figures. He also studied Egyptian, Asian, and Assyrian art. An exponent of Art Deco in the United States, he developed a style that was both representational and highly stylized.

Notes:
• Additional works are on view in the Luce Foundation Center, 3rd floor.
• From time to time, the sculptures in this exhibit may rotate.

David Beck's MVSEVM

Permanent Exhibit
2nd Floor, South

Commissioned by the museum, David Beck created MVSEVM, an exquisitely crafted world in miniature; the work reflects the neoclassical architecture of the building, from the 1840s when it was the U.S. Patent Office, to the present day.

Related book: $16.95 (cloth)

American Experience

Permanent Exhibit
1st Floor, South

These introductory galleries feature 19th- and 20th-century landscapes from across the United States that convey a sense of place and the defining role of land in the American imagination, paintings by Edward Hopper, and 56  photographs from Lee Friedlander's series "The American Monument" (1963-2001) of  outdoor sculptures across the country.

Modern and Contemporary Art

Permanent Exhibit
Lincoln Gallery, 3rd Floor, East

Located in the Lincoln Gallery with soaring arches, this exhibition features modern and contemporary art.

Highlights include:

• Newly acquired room-size acquisitions, including David Hockney's Snails Space with Vari-Lites, "Painting as Performance"; Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii; and Edward and Nancy Kienholz's Sollie 17
• Large-scale works by Alfred Jensen, Sean Scully, Edward Kienholz, and James Rosenquist
• Duane Hanson's Woman Eating

Additions include:

• November 3, 2007, For SAAM (2007) by Jenny Holzer: Commissioned by the museum, this new contemporary site-specific light sculpture is a 28-foot-tall, floor-to-ceiling cylindrical column of LEDs (light-emitting diodes) with text -- varying in height, font, and intensity -- that is programmed to swirl and travel around the body of the piece. The text is from four of the artist's series -- Truisms, selections from Living, selections from Survival, and Arno. This sculpture is the only work by the artist on public view in the city. Located near Nam Paik's Electronic Superhighway.

Related book: America's Art: $65 (cloth), $45 (paper)

Lunder Conservation Center

Permanent Exhibit
3rd Floor Mezzanine and 4th Floor, West

The Lunder Conservation Center -- shared with the National Portrait Gallery -- is the first facility that provides a unique opportunity for the public to view through glass walls conservators at work in five different labs and studios examining, treating, and preserving art: Frames Studio, Paintings Studio, Paintings Lab, Paper Lab, and Objects Lab.

American Art through 1940

Permanent Exhibit
2nd Floor, East, South, and North

This exhibition links artworks to major moments in America's past in nine thematic sections in 31 galleries. The introductory area features Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's model for the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of America as a place welcoming to all immigrants whose ingenuity and creativity plays a key role throughout America's art.

• "The American Colonies" and "The New Republic": The arts of New Spain and New England show how the cultures of colonial Britain, Spain, France, as well as American Indians and African Americans influenced the other while continuing to compete for land well into the 19th century. From independence through the Federal period, American art presented the nation as it wanted to be viewed and appreciated at home and abroad. Highlights include John Singleton Copley's Mrs. George Watson and colonial and federal furniture from the collection of Mrs. George M. Kaufman.
• "Western Frontier Art": The nation's westward expansion is explored through majestic landscapes of the western territories and portraits of American Indians. Highlights include Albert Bierstadt's "Great Picture" Among the Sierra Nevada, California and three rows of George Catlin's "Indian Gallery" portraits, all displayed as they would have been when they were first presented to the public.
• "Antebellum Art": Many 19th-century American artists traveled through Europe to pay their respects to the old masters and Antiquity. While there, they saw thousands of years of art that made their young country seem raw and primitive by comparison; many felt America needed a culture to match its political and economic power. This gallery features sculptures by Hiram Powers and others that represent the classical styles of art and architecture these 19th-century artists brought home with them -- styles that would dominate American public life for many decades. The museum has the world's largest collection of American sculpture.
• "Civil War": Prints by Winslow Homer, graphic early photographs, wood engravings, paintings, and sculptures illustrate how the Civil War tore apart the fabric of the nation (east wing).
•  "Impressionism": American artists in the 1880's were attracted to the light and color of painting outdoors and many studied abroad to absorb the new palette and compositions that were modernizing painting in France. On view are works by Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, William Merritt Chase, and Mary Cassatt, who were influenced by this movement.
• "Gilded Age": The final quarter of the 19th century was dubbed the "Gilded Age" by author Mark Twain. On view to represent the period are signature works by John Singer Sargent, Abbott Handerson Thayer, and Henry Ossawa Tanner. Also on view are rooms devoted to the works of Albert Pinkham Ryder and Thomas Wilmer Dewing. Highlights include a gilded Steinway and Sons piano decorated by Dewing and a stained glass window by John La Farge.
• "Modernism": On view are early 20th-century American paintings and sculptures to show the contrast between abstraction and realism. Highlights include a suite of Ashcan School paintings, works from the Stieglitz Circle and the Harlem Renaissance, paintings from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, Everett Shinn's The White Ballet, and Thomas Hart Benton's mural Achelous and Hercules.
• "Southwestern Art": Artists working in eastern cities around 1900 saw the Southwest almost as a foreign country, where the age-old Spanish Catholic culture seemed like an antidote to the pressure of "progress." Painters from New York and Chicago, attracted by the clear light, ancient rhythms, and rich artistic traditions of the Pueblo communities, settled and developed artists' colonies around Santa Fe and Taos. Highlights include works from the Dallas Nine and the Taos Society.

Related book: America's Art: $65 (cloth), $45 (paper)

With Liberty: Folk Art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Permanent Exhibit
1st Floor, West

These galleries serve as a reminder that not all artists are formally trained, and that the making of art is as much an act of passion as of intellect. Artists represented range from Mose Tolliver and Howard Finster to Felipe Archuleta and Thorton Dial, Sr. To provide the installation a particular point of view, the museum asked artist William Christenberry to curate -- choose the objects and provide the wall labels and quotes that express his deep regard for folk art.

Highlights include:

• James Hampton's The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly (1950-64), a visionary work made from salvaged materials covered in gold and silver foil (off view late January through June 2012).
• Selected objects from the Rosenak Collection of American Folk Art

Related book: America's Art: $65 (cloth), $45 (paper)

Outdoor Sculptures: Modern Head and Vaquero

Permanent Exhibit
Near entrances

• Modern Head (2008): This 31-foot-tall sculpture by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) is made of stainless steel painted blue and weighs 13,000 pounds. The sculpture is part of a series Lichtenstein began in the late 1960s that explored the idea of creating images of human figures that look like machines; this concept pervaded the artist's work throughout his career. Lichtenstein created the first Modern Head in 1974 out of wood that was painted blue. In 1989, he produced an edition of four in brushed steel. In 1990, the artist painted one a vibrant blue making it a unique work. Installed in 1996 in Battery Park City, one block from the World Trade Center, the sculpture survived the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack with only surface scratches and was temporarily used by the FBI as a message board during the investigation. It has had several homes before coming to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The museum acquired the sculpture in 2008. It is on view outside at F & 9th Sts., NW.

• Vaquero (1987): The colorful fiberglass sculpture of a Mexican cowboy on a bucking blue horse by New Mexico artist Luis Jimenez Jr. (1940-2006). It is on view outside at the G St. entrance.