The splendors of Italian draftsmanship from the late Renaissance to the height of the neoclassical movement are showcased in an exhibition of 65 superb drawings assembled by the European private collector Wolfgang Ratjen (1943−1997) and acquired by the Gallery in 2007. Works by the most important artists of the period are featured, from Giulio Romano to Canaletto, whose elegant rendering of the "Giovedi Grasso" festival in Venice is one of his finest surviving drawings.

 

May 8–November 27, 2011

West Building, Ground Floor

With astonishing dexterity and an eye for minute detail, John Taylor Arms (1887–1953) created prints of monumental presence despite their modest size. The exhibition features nearly 60 prints, drawings, and etching plates that span the artist's career from his early New York series to his finest images of cathedrals. Born in Washington, DC, Arms gave up a successful career as an architect to become a printmaker, devoting many years of European travel and study to rendering architecture.

 

May 8–November 27, 2011

West Building, Ground Floor

The Collectors Committee of the National Gallery of Art recently made possible the acquisition of Great America (1994) by Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955)—the Gallery's first painting by the artist. Marshall reimagines a boat ride into the haunted tunnel of an amusement park as the Middle Passage of slaves from Africa to the New World, delicately interweaving the histories of painting and race. The Collectors Committee also purchased Knight's Heritage (1963), a sculpture by Anne Truitt (1921–2004).

 

East Building, Concourse Galleries

On May 6, artist Jenny Holzer appears in conversation with curator of modern and contemporary art Harry Cooper. Beginning in 1977 with her breakthrough Truisms—a series of witty and salient aphorisms that she anonymously distributed in the urban environment—to her Redaction Painting series started in 2004 using declassified government documents, Holzer's powerful text-based work has enlivened public spaces for nearly 35 years. The artist gave the Gallery six Redaction Paintings in 2010. (Image: Jenny Holzer, Left Hand DOD-044401, 2007, oil on linen, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Artist (c) Jenny Holzer)

 

May 6, 3:30

East Building Auditorium

Visconti's epic adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella, filmed on location in the Grand Hotel des Bains, Piazza San Marco, and other sites around Venice and the Veneto, changes Mann's writer protagonist into the composer Gustav von Aschenbach. With its sensuous soundtrack of Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony and sections from the composer's Third Symphony, Death in Venice is screened on the occasion of the centennial of Mahler's death. (Image: Still from Death in Venice, Luchino Visconti, 1971, 35 mm, 130 minutes, Warner Bros/Photofest)

 

May 15, 4:00

East Building Auditorium

Music by master composers fills the West Garden Court as pianist Thomas Pandolfi plays Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann on May 1 and the Gallery's resident ensembles play Bach and Mozart on May 8. On May 15, the winners of the 2011 WPAS Feder Memorial String Competition will perform. The Gallery observes the centennial of Gustav Mahler's death with a performance of his First Symphony on May 22 by the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kim Allen Kluge. (Image: Thomas Pandolfi)

 

May 1, 8, 6:30

West Building, West Garden Court

May 15, 6:30

East Building Auditorium

May 22, 6:30

East Building atrium

Take a closer look at some of the paintings on display in the West Building and visit people, places, and scenes from distant lands and times. In addition to the online tour featuring 50 videos, "Time Travel" is also available on handheld digital audio players that allow you to listen while standing in front of the original works of art. The audio guides are available free of charge in the West Building Rotunda.

 

Explore Paul Gauguin's sumptuous, colorful images of Brittany and the islands of the South Seas using the new online exhibition feature. Gauguin: Maker of Myth is the first major look at the artist's oeuvre in the United States since the blockbuster National Gallery of Art retrospective of 1988–1989, The Art of Paul Gauguin.

 

A new online feature investigates how groundbreaking French photographer Eugene Atget (1857–1927) expanded photography's formal and expressive possibilities through his documentation of France's landscape and culture. The feature looks in depth at 32 photographs selected from the Gallery's collection, includes maps showing where Atget photographed, and allows viewers to enlarge the images to observe their remarkable detail. (Image: Eugene Atget, Parc de Sceaux, 1925, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons' Permanent Fund)

 

Designed exclusively for the Gallery, exhibition tee shirts are now available! The unisex Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals tee features Saint Mark's winged lion, which has long been the state symbol of Venice, while Paul Gauguin's bold signature graces the men's and women's designs for Gauguin: Maker of Myth. The 100 percent cotton short-sleeved tees have been "power washed" for a soft feel and are available for 30 dollars online or in the exhibition shop on the East Building Concourse.

 

DC's favorite summer tradition, the Jazz in the Garden concert series begins its 11th season on May 27, with weekly performances through September 9 amid large-scale sculptures by modern and contemporary artists. The free concert series features an array of jazz artists performing a wide variety of styles—including salsa, blusion, vibraphone, and Afrofunk—every Friday evening, rain or shine. Bring a picnic or purchase refreshments at the Pavilion Cafe. Please note that outside alcoholic beverages are not allowed in the Sculpture Garden.

 

Fridays, May 27–September 9, 5:30–8:30

Sculpture Garden

Two of Hendrick ter Brugghen's greatest masterpieces—this beautiful and haunting history painting from the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, and the Gallery's own striking and luminous genre painting, Bagpipe Player—are exhibited together for the first time.

 

Through May 15

Dutch and Flemish Collection, Gallery 44

West Building, Main Floor

The city of Venice inspired a school of competitive view painters whose achievements are among the most brilliant in 18th-century art. The exhibition celebrates the rich variety of these Venetian views, known as vedute, with some 20 masterworks by Canaletto and more than 30 by his rivals, including Guardi, Bellotto, and Marieschi. Responding to an art market fueled largely by the Grand Tour, these gifted painters depicted the monuments and vistas of Venice in different moods and seasons.

 

Through May 30

East Building, Mezzanine and Upper Level