Smithsonian American Art Museum receives $2M gift from Frankenthaler Foundation

Research fellows share new discoveries about artworks on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) as part of a regular series of gallery talks. On July 31, SAAM received a gift of $2 million from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation to fund a fellowship in modern and contemporary art and related efforts. Image courtesy of SAAM, photo by Charla Jasper
Research fellows share new discoveries about artworks on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) as part of a regular series of gallery talks. On July 31, SAAM received a gift of $2 million from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation to fund a fellowship in modern and contemporary art and related efforts. Image courtesy of SAAM, photo by Charla Jasper
Research fellows share new discoveries about artworks on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) as part of a regular series of gallery talks. On July 31, SAAM received a gift of $2 million from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation to fund a fellowship in modern and contemporary art and related efforts. Image courtesy of SAAM, photo by Charla Jasper

WASHINGTON, DC – On July 31, the Smithsonian American Art Museum announced a $2 million gift from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation that culminates a major campaign to support the museum’s fellowship program, considered the preeminent program for American art scholarship since being founded in 1970. The gift will establish an endowment to support the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Fellowship in modern and contemporary art and the professional development of fellows at the museum. It is the largest single gift to the campaign and the largest gift ever to the museum’s fellowship program.

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Smithsonian doubles African American photography holdings

Hooks Brothers, ‘Pullman Porters,’ undated silver emulsion photograph. Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Dr. Robert L. Drapkin collection, museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen endowment, TL-20-2022-114. Courtesy of SAAM
Hooks Brothers, ‘Pullman Porters,’ undated silver emulsion photograph. Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Dr. Robert L. Drapkin collection, museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen endowment, TL-20-2022-114
Hooks Brothers, ‘Pullman Porters,’ undated silver emulsion photograph. Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Dr. Robert L. Drapkin collection, museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen endowment, TL-20-2022-114. Courtesy of SAAM

WASHINGTON — The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has acquired a wide-ranging collection of photographs that represent African Americans from the medium’s early years to the near present — roughly the 1840s to the 1970s — from Dr. Robert Drapkin. The collection includes 404 objects, including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes, as well as mixed paper prints. The Dr. Robert L. Drapkin collection looks broadly at how photography was adapted by Black makers and consumers to self-represent, and how it was used by others to recast racial tropes using the new medium to represent and to misrepresent African American history and culture.

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Smithsonian acquires stellar early American photography collection

Unidentified artist, ‘Untitled (family, painted backdrop),’ undated, tintype. Smithsonian American Art Museum, the L. J. West Collection of Early American Photography, Museum purchase made possible through the Franz H. and Luisita L. Denghausen Endowment
Unidentified artist, ‘Untitled (family, painted backdrop),’ undated, tintype. Smithsonian American Art Museum, the L. J. West Collection of Early American Photography, Museum purchase made possible through the Franz H. and Luisita L. Denghausen Endowment

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has acquired a collection of objects related to early American photography from the collector Larry J. West that transforms the museum’s photography holdings. The L.J. West Collection includes 286 objects from the 1840s to about 1925 in three groupings: works by early African American daguerreotypists James P. Ball, Glenalvin Goodridge and Augustus Washington; early photographs of diverse portrait subjects and objects related to abolitionists, the Underground Railroad and the role of women entrepreneurs in it; and photographic jewelry that represents the bridge between miniature painting and early cased photography such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes.

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Trio of women artists showcased in Smithsonian’s ‘Welcome Home’

Joan Clark Netherwood, ‘Two Viewers of the ‘I Am an American Day’ parade,’ East Baltimore Street, 1977, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1983.63.998
Joan Clark Netherwood, ‘Two Viewers of the ‘I Am an American Day’ parade,’ East Baltimore Street, 1977, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1983.63.998
Joan Clark Netherwood, ‘Two Viewers of the ‘I Am an American Day’ parade,’ East Baltimore Street, 1977, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1983.63.998

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Smithsonian American Art Museum announces the opening of Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore, 1975–1980. The exhibition began on July 16 and will continue through January 17, 2022.
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