This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery. Please follow the links below for related online resources or visit our current exhibitions schedule.
In 1967, when Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce offered funds for a new building for the National Gallery of Art, the need for the structure was clear. Additional space was required for public services and exhibitions, for a growing collection of twentieth-century art, and for the library and a planned art history research center. Yet neither Andrew Mellon's children nor the museum's leaders had any conception of the form that the proposed building should take or who should create it for them.
This special installation explores the history of the East Building and its unique site from 1967 until the building's opening in 1978. Highlights include copies of the architect's drawings, photographs, and other archival materials, many never seen before. A three-dimensional model of the West and East Buildings provides additional insight concerning the building's design and relationship to the surrounding city.
