May 2007
In this Issue:

1. Three Exhibitions Opening in May

2. Closing Soon: Paris in Transition: Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

3. Rembrandt Masterpiece Returns to National Gallery of Art

4. Sol LeWitt Dies at age 78

5. New Installation: Mel Bochner's Theory of Boundaries (1969–1970)

6. Jazz in the Garden

7. Czech Modernism Film Series

8. Guided Tours: Daily tours of Collections in the East and West Buildings

9. May Calendar of Events

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1. Three Exhibitions Opening in May

Fabulous Journeys and Faraway Places: Travels on Paper, 1450–1700 runs from May 6 through September 16, 2007. The exhibition, which brings together more than 60 works on paper, takes viewers along an adventurous route through European perceptions of foreign realms from the 15th to the early 18th century.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/farawayinfo.htm

Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings runs from May 6 through September 16, 2007. Approximately 100 extraordinary drawings are shown chronologically by century and include Italian, French, English, German, and Netherlandish works. This exhibition offers an opportunity to enjoy works of art that are rarely on public view.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/treasuresinfo.htm

Claude Lorrain—The Painter as Draftsman: Drawings from the British Museum is the first exhibition in the United States devoted to Claude Lorrain (1604–1682) since the National Gallery's retrospective in 1982. It reveals the important role of drawing in his work, both as an exercise in itself and in relation to the development of his paintings. This exhibition runs from May 27 through August 12, 2007.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/lorraininfo.htm
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/index.htm (Current Exhibitions)

2. Closing Soon: Paris in Transition: Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

This exhibition ends on Sunday, May 6. The transformation of Paris from an epicenter of early photography to the capital of modernism is illuminated by 61 great works from the Gallery's collection. Renowned photographers include Le Gray, Marville, Atget, Brassaï, and others. View exhibition highlights.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/parisinfo.htm

3. Rembrandt Masterpiece Returns to National Gallery of Art

More than forty years after Rembrandt's painting Portrait of a Boy in Fancy Dress, "Titus," c. 1655, made its first Washington appearance, it will return to the National Gallery of Art from May 11 through September 4, 2007, as part of a new series of loan exchanges between the Gallery and the Norton Simon Foundations in Pasadena, California. The masterpiece, formerly identified as portraying the artist's son, Titus, will be installed in the Rembrandt galleries, West Building, Main Floor Gallery 48, close to the artist's Self-Portrait, 1659.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/simoninfo.htm

4. Sol LeWitt Dies at age 78

Sol LeWitt (1928–2007), one of the most important artistic voices of the last four decades, conceived of "the artist as a thinker and originator of ideas rather than as a craftsman." He was an originator of conceptual art, in which the work of art—typically an installation rather than an art object in the conventional sense—is either incarnated by language alone or produced according to the artist's written instructions. For LeWitt, the pursuit of art's intellectual, rather than emotive, foundation was also in keeping with the artist's own deep-seated personal modesty. View highlights of Sol LeWitt works in the Gallery's collection.
http://www.nga.gov/lewitt.htm

5. New Installation: Mel Bochner's Theory of Boundaries (1969–1970)

Over the course of three days, from February 14 to 16, 2007, Mel Bochner and his assistant Nicholas Knight installed Theory of Boundaries in the East Building, Concourse Gallery 29F. This important early work of conceptual art demonstrates an interest in the physical and mechanical processes that are involved in the act of painting. Watch the time-lapse video of the three-day installation.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/bochnerinfo.htm (Installation Information)
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/bochner/bochner_vr.htm (Installation Video)

6. Jazz in the Garden

The free and popular Jazz in the Garden series returns for a seventh summer in the verdant National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden on the National Mall, every Friday from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m., May 25 to August 31, with top local and regional musicians and a Pavilion Café menu that offers a combination of old favorites and new flavor pairings.
http://www.nga.gov/programs/jazz.htm

7. Czech Modernism Film Series

This film series accompanies the exhibition Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918–1945, which opens June 10. The retrospective of twelve restored films from the Czech National Film Archive shows the key role played by Czech filmmakers in creating central Europe's exciting film culture during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. These works anticipate the Czech new wave of the 1960s. Two films by the prominent director Gustav Machaty and a live violin and piano performance accompanying The Kreutzer Sonata (1926) on June 3 are among the highlights. Organized by Irena Kovarova, the series is presented through the cooperation of the Czech Center, New York, the National Film Archive in Prague, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The first film will be shown on May 12.
http://www.nga.gov/programs/filmczech.htm (Film Series)
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/fotoinfo.htm (Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918–1945)

8. Guided Tours: Daily tours of Collections in the East and West Buildings

Docent-led talks include 1900 to Now: An Introduction to the East Building Collection and, in the West Building, American Collection; Early Italian to Early Modern: An Introduction to the West Building Collection; Italian Renaissance Collection; French Collection; Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century; Points of View: The Painter's Choices; and The Sculpture Galleries.
http://www.nga.gov/programs/tours.htm

9. May Calendar of Events

Plan your visit to the Gallery with the help of the May Calendar of Events. Schedules of films, lectures, gallery talks, family activities, guided tours, foreign language tours, and concerts are listed along with detailed information about each event.
http://www.nga.gov/ginfo/calendar.htm