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Image: Glenn Ligon, Untitled (I Am a Man), 1988, oil and enamel on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons' Permanent Fund and Gift of the Artist, © Glenn LigonGlenn Ligon, Untitled (I Am a Man), 1988

The work of Glenn Ligon (b.1960) powerfully articulates issues of race and gender while leading viewers to reconsider problems inherent in representation. Acquired from the artist through Luhring Augustine Gallery, Untitled (I Am a Man) (1988) is the Gallery’s first painting by Ligon, complementing a suite of etchings and a print portfolio. A reinterpretation of the actual signs that were carried by 1,300 striking African American sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968, and which were made famous in Ernest Withers’ photographs of the march, this small, roughly made painting combines layers of history, meaning, and physical material in a dense, resonant object. As the first painting in which he appropriated a text, Untitled (I Am a Man) is Ligon’s breakthrough. His work was recently featured in the 2011 midcareer retrospective Glenn Ligon: AMERICA organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Untitled (I Am a Man) will be on view in the modern and contemporary galleries on the East Building Concourse beginning November 20. The acquisition was made possible by the Patrons’ Permanent Fund and the artist.

Glenn Ligon, Untitled (I Am a Man), 1988, oil and enamel on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons' Permanent Fund and Gift of the Artist, © Glenn Ligon

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Video: The Collecting of African American Art VIII: Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker in Conversation with Michael Harris

Recorded on February 26, 2012, as part of the National Gallery of Art lecture series The Collecting of African American Art, former National Basketball Association players Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker discuss their collections of African American art and art of the African diaspora with Professor Michael D. Harris. Perry and Walker began to collect art during their extensive travels for their professional sports careers, and both have amassed important holdings of modern and contemporary art that have been exhibited throughout the United States. Both have also dedicated themselves to educational and philanthropic causes to preserve and showcase African American culture. Professor Harris is an artist, curator, and scholar of contemporary African and African American art and has contributed to the exhibition catalogue Images of America: African American Voices: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Walker.

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Video: Ann Hamilton

Ann Hamilton presented a lecture on her nearly 30-year career as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series at the National Gallery of Art on September 16, 2011. Hamilton has made multimedia installations with stunning qualities and quantities of materials: a room lined with small canvas dummies, a table spread with human and animal teeth, the artist herself wearing a man's suit covered in a layer of thousands of toothpicks. Along the way, she has constantly set and reset the course of contemporary art. Often using sound, found objects, and the spoken and written word, as well as photography and video, her objects and environments invite us to embark on sensory and metaphorical explorations of time, language, and memory. Textiles and fabric have consistently played an important role in her performances and installations—whether she is considering clothing as a membrane or (more recently) treating architecture itself as a kind of skin. The Gallery owns 15 works by the artist, including photographs, prints, sculptures, and a video installation.

mage: From the Library
Citizens of the Republic: Portraits from the Dutch Golden Age

Dutch citizens distinguished for their contributions to the arts and the state are featured in a selection of 17th- and 18th-century engravings, including portrait prints after celebrated old masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669); rare books from the National Gallery of Art Library; and a grisaille portrait of scholar Anna Maria van Schurman by Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen (1593-1661), from the Gallery's collection. This important painting will for the first time hang alongside an engraved portrait of Van Schurman by Cornelis van Dalen the Younger (1638-1664), illuminating the relationship between painter and engraver.

mage: Video: George Bellows

Narrated by actor Ethan Hawke, this film was made in conjunction with the exhibition George Bellows, on view through October 8. In a 20-year career cut short by his death at age 42, Bellows depicted an America on the move. Available to view online in two parts, the documentary includes original footage shot in New York City and Maine; examples of Bellows' paintings, drawings, and prints; and archival footage and photographs.

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Download the iPad App for Deacon Peckham's Hobby Horse

The Hobby Horse (c. 1840) by Deacon Robert Peckham is one of the most beloved American paintings in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Use the free Deacon Peckham's "Hobby Horse" iPad app to explore an exhibition that brings together nine of Peckham's charming children's portraits along with an exquisite 19th-century rocking horse similar to the one in the painting.

Browse crisp, high-resolution color reproductions of the works in the exhibition. Learn more about Peckham, his career as a self-taught artist, and Massachusetts history from the 1800s through the essay and entries with clickable notes and interactive rollover glossary and images, a timeline of the artist's life and works of art, and more.

Image: Johannes Vermeer A Lady Writing, c. 1665 Gift of Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer, Jr., in memory of their father, Horace Havemeyer 1962.10.1 Beloved Dutch Old Master Paintings Temporarily on View in Ground Floor Galleries

As Elegance and Refinement: The Still-Life Paintings of Willem van Aelst has temporarily taken residence in the Dutch Cabinet Galleries on the Main Floor of the West Building, a number of small-scale Dutch masterpieces usually found in these galleries—including Vermeer′s A Lady Writing (c. 1665)—have been relocated to Gallery 13a on the West Building′s Ground Floor through October. Newly on view with these perennial favorites is Thomas de Keyser′s stunning Portrait of a Gentleman Wearing a Fancy Ruff (1627), a recent acquisition that is the Gallery's first work by this renowned Dutch portraitist.

mage: Listen: Introduction to a Painting-Edouard Manet’s The RailwayListen: Introduction to a Painting-Edouard Manet’s The Railway

This audio recording by Lorena Baines, museum educator at the National Gallery of Art, describes in detail Edouard Manet's The Railway, one of the most iconic paintings within the Gallery's nineteenth-century French collection. It is designed to aid our visitors who are blind or have low vision, as well as to engage anyone interested in exploring the painting at leisure from a descriptively visual point of view.

Image: Listen: Introduction to a Painting-Edouard Manet’s The RailwayDownload the digital brochure for Deacon Peckham's Hobby Horse

This digital brochure offers full-color reproductions of the nine Peckham works in the exhibition, plus an introductory essay with clickable notes, interactive rollover glossary and images, a timeline of Peckham's life and works of art, and more. (Interactive features available with Acrobat Reader, Version 9 or higher.) Plans include the release of an app for the iPad during the course of the exhibition.

Download the digital brochure (PDF, 29.5MB) Download Adobe Acrobat 9 or higher

Image: Submit a Haiku Inspired by Itō Jakuchū's Colorful Realm of Living BeingsVideo Podcast
David McCullough, "Morse at the Louvre"

David McCullough, a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author and recipient of the National Book Award, discusses his new book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. In this video recorded on September 26, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art, McCullough tells the story of America's longstanding love affair with Paris through vivid portraits of dozens of significant characters. Notably, artist Samuel F. B. Morse is depicted as he worked on his masterpiece Gallery of the Louvre. McCullough spoke at the Gallery in honor of the exhibition A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's "Gallery of the Louvre," on view from June 25, 2011 to July 8, 2012. The exhibition, program, and video were coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Image: Submit a Haiku Inspired by Itō Jakuchū's Colorful Realm of Living BeingsVideo Podcast
Itō Jakuchū's "Colorful Realm"
Press Conference Highlights

Featured are highlights from the National Gallery of Art's press preview for the landmark exhibition of Itō Jakuchū's Colorful Realm of Living Beings, a set of 30 bird-and-flower paintings on display at the Gallery from March 30 through April 29, 2012. Widely considered one of the greatest achievements in the history of Japanese nature painting, this Edo masterpiece is on view for the first time outside Japan. The occasion for this exhibition is the centennial of the gift of cherry trees from Tokyo to Washington, DC, in 1912.

ou, Paris, in 2013 will bring him international attention.

Image: NGA ImagesNGA Images

NGA Images is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art. On this website you can search, browse, share, and download images. A standards-based reproduction guide and a help section provide advice for both novices and experts. More than 20,000 open access digital images up to 3000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use. NGA Images is designed to facilitate learning, enrichment, enjoyment, and exploration. To get started enter a search term in the Quick Search box located in the upper right-hand corner of this page or browse the regularly updated featured-image collections prepared by Gallery staff.

Image: http://www.nga.gov/collection/19th_frenchgalleries.shtmNewly Renovated and Freshly Installed 19th-Century French Galleries to Reopen At National Gallery of Art
West Building, Main Floor

Following a two-year renovation, the galleries devoted to impressionism and post-impressionism in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art reopened on Saturday, January 28, 2012. Among the world's greatest collections of paintings by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin, the Gallery's later 19th-century French paintings will return to public view in a freshly conceived installation–organized in thematic, monographic, and art historical groupings. Text panels in many of the galleries suggest the ideas behind these groupings. Thirteen paintings have been newly restored, and a new acquisition makes its debut.

Image: A Bouty of FramesA Bounty of Frames

Designed to protect the works of art they surround, as well as to enhance the works' aesthetic presence and at times their sacred aura, frames have always been of critical concern for artists and patrons. Literally at the margins of art, frames tell a varied and compelling story of their own: of style, use, materials, and history. This brief program introduces visitors to the National Gallery's magnificent collection of frames.

Image: Chim: David Seymour's Humanist PhotographyChim: David Seymour's Humanist Photography

A new online feature by the department of photographs looks in depth at the career of pioneering photojournalist David "Chim" Seymour (1911–1956). Chim's unapologetically compassionate work reflected both his deep-seated humanism and his belief in the unique capacity of photography to awaken the public's conscience. The feature examines 32 photographs selected from the Gallery's collection that range from Paris and the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s to the Suez Crisis in 1956, where Chim was killed.

Image: Conversations with Artists Podcasts Conversations with Artists Podcasts

These programs—now available as audio podcasts—began in 1985 to highlight distinguished contemporary artists whose work has been featured in Gallery exhibitions. Included are Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Misrach (pictured, copyright Richard Misrach), Claes Oldenburg, Pat Steir, Wayne Thiebaud, and Leo Villareal.

Image: Gemini G.E.L. Online Catalogue Raisonne, Second Edition Gemini G.E.L. Online Catalogue Raisonne, Second Edition

Since 1981, the Gallery has housed the Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited) Archive. The newly expanded version of the online catalogue raisonne introduces 333 works produced by the shop between early 1997 and late 2005, now presenting 2,069 online editions that record Gemini's creative activity from its inception in 1966.

Image: Children’s Video Tour Time TravelChildren's Video Tour
Time Travel

Take a closer look at some of the paintings on display in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art and visit people, places, and surprising scenes from distant lands and times.

If you are visiting the museum, this tour is available in the Rotunda, free of charge, on handheld digital audio players that allow you to listen while standing in front of the original works of art.

Image: Atget: The Art of Documentary PhotographyAtget: The Art of Documentary Photography

A new online feature by the department of photographs investigates the French photographer Eugène Atget's (1857–1927) groundbreaking work to expand the formal and expressive possibilities of photography through his documentation of the landscape and culture of France. Combining careful analysis and poetic intuition, Atget produced images that are strikingly clear and detailed but also deeply personal and ineffable. The feature examines 32 photographs selected from the Gallery's collection, includes maps showing the location of each shot, and allows viewers to enlarge the images to observe their remarkable detail.

Image: NGAkids: SEA-SAWSNGAkids: SEA-SAWS

SEA-SAWS is a new interactive activity developed by the Gallery's education department. Young artists choose photographs of natural and man-made objects, then assemble the pieces to create a seascape or an abstract composition. A "build" option allows them to construct animated characters and set them in motion. This Art Zone program is fun for children of all ages. (Requires Shockwave)

Image:m Fine Art Reproductions
Fine Art Reproductions

With a special emphasis on French and American paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries, the Gallery is working with ArtXP to produce giclée reproductions on canvas of works from the Gallery's collection. Printed from photography provided by the Gallery, these reproductions range from well known masterpieces to exceptional lesser known works—some of the hidden treasures of the National Gallery of Art.

Image: NGA on ArtBabble NGA on ArtBabble

ArtBabble.org is a new online community showcasing educational videos about art and artists. The National Gallery of Art is one of its 23 international partners, all working to produce a collection of interviews with artists and curators, original documentaries, and videos about art conservation and installation. Visit ArtBabble, where you can view NGA videos as well as watch a conversation between Maxwell Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Earl A. Powell III, director of the NGA, as they discuss relevant issues facing art museums today—and stay tuned for more content in the near future.

Image: New Conservation Feature: "Saint John of the Cross"New Conservation Feature: "Saint John of the Cross"

The 2003 acquisition of Saint John of the Cross, a polychromed wood sculpture attributed to Francisco Antonio Gijón, offered the Gallery's object conservation department a unique opportunity to study the materials and processes used to create the sculptures of the Spanish Golden Age. Take a behind-the-scenes look at the conservators' examinations in our new online slideshow.

Image: Analytical Imaging of Picasso's Le GourmetAnalytical Imaging of Picasso's Le Gourmet

Pablo Picasso, like many other artists, is known to have recycled his painted canvases as well as to have made large "evolutionary" changes to his paintings. Conservation and imaging scientists at the Gallery have been working to improve the visualization of these paint changes by applying newly developed optical imaging methods. Working with researchers and specialized infrared cameras, they have been able to obtain a clear image of a portrait beneath Picasso's blue period painting Le Gourmet. The hidden portrait of a woman is executed in a style used by Picasso prior to his blue period, as indicated by the bold dabs of paint seen in the woman's mantilla. Visitors to our Web site may reveal this hidden portrait by viewing a short animation.

Image: Online Reference Database: The History of the Accademia di San Luca, c. 1590–1635: Documents from the Archivio di Stato di Roma" Online Reference Database: The History of the Accademia di San Luca, c. 1590–1635: Documents from the Archivio di Stato di Roma

"The History of the Accademia di San Luca, c. 1590–1635: Documents from the Archivio di Stato di Roma" is an online reference database that is one component of a CASVA research project to create the first institutional history of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, the model for all subsequent academies of art worldwide. Drawing from original statutes, meeting proceedings, ledger books, and court records, the project brings together a large number of new and previously unpublished documentary materials. Conceived as two complementary tools—an online database of documentation and a printed volume of interpretive studies (The Accademia Seminars)—the project follows the academy from its origins to its consolidation as a teaching institution.

Image: Faces & PlacesFaces & Places

NGAkids Faces & Places is a two-part interactive exploration of American folk art. Using pictorial elements inspired by the Gallery's extensive collection of naive paintings donated by Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, youngsters can construct panoramic landscapes and create portraits featuring a lively cast of characters. Traditional folk music and surprising animations enliven the online compositions. This Art Zone activity is suitable for all ages.

Image: NGA on FacebookNGA on Facebook

The National Gallery of Art is now on Facebook. Become a fan and learn about upcoming events and exhibitions. Our page includes photo albums of exhibition objects and installation views and videos of exhibition press highlights, with more to come. Frequent announcements about lectures, films, exhibition openings, and concerts keep visitors informed of the Gallery's many activities.

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Calendar of Events

Find out what's happening this month at the National Gallery of Art. To obtain a free bimonthly calendar of events by mail, call (202) 842-6662, or contact us by e-mail at calendar@nga.gov. The current bimonthly Calendar of Events is available in PDF format. (Download Acrobat Reader)

Film Calendar

To obtain a free quarterly film calendar by mail, contact us by e-mail at film-department@nga.gov. Please include your mailing address. The current quarterly Film Calendar is available in PDF format. (Download Acrobat Reader)