WASHINGTON – The National Gallery of Art has acquired Fog Bank (2020), a mixed-media work by Emmi Whitehorse (Dine, b. 1957-). It is the first piece by this highly respected Native American artist to join the collection. Whitehorse’s artwork embodies the natural harmony she observes in the landscape at her home near Santa Fe, New Mexico. It conveys her intimate knowledge of a place, in keeping with Navajo philosophy.
WASHINGTON — On the morning of Tuesday, October 11, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) held a ceremony to mark the transfer of ownership of the National Gallery of Art’s sole Benin bronze to the Nigerian National Collections along with 29 sculptures from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art (NMAfA) and one sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum. These 31 objects from the National Gallery, NMAfA and RISD Museum are among the first Benin bronzes to be repatriated to Nigeria by American institutions on the basis of the 1897 British colonial raid of the Royal Palace of Benin.
WASHINGTON — John Singer Sargent’s (American, 1856–1925) decades-long captivation with Spain yielded a remarkable body of work depicting the rich and diverse culture he encountered. Sargent and Spain is the first exhibition to reveal the depth of this engagement and the intentional approach the artist adopted there. Presenting some 140 oils, watercolors, drawings and never-before published photographs, several almost certainly taken by the artist himself, the exhibition is on view from October 2 through January 2, 2023, in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.
WASHINGTON — Photographer James Van Der Zee (1886–1983) created an extraordinary chronicle of Black life in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood during the first half of the 20th century. On view from November 28, 2021, through May 30, 2022 at the National Gallery of Art, James Van Der Zee’s Photographs: A Portrait of Harlem presents some 40 works from the institutional collection, providing a window into life in the historic neighborhood during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Harlem residents flocked to Van Der Zee’s studio to mark milestones in their lives, posing for portraits against elaborate backdrops. The exhibition highlights these portraits, as well as photographs of the community, revealing how Van Der Zee’s pictures, and the photographer himself, played a formative role in the community life of Harlem.