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The National Portrait Gallery, collections hold more than 20,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and photographs that portray men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development and culture of the people of the United States. The exhibitions listed below include objects from the museums permanent collection as well as loans from other organizations.


Temporary Exhibitions:

  • Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the Twentieth Century
  • Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture
          March 27 through August 2, 2009
  • Presidents in Waiting
          January 20, 2009 through January 3, 2010
  • Portraiture Now: Feature Photography
          November 26, 2008 through September 27, 2009
  • One Life: The Mask of Lincoln
          November 7, 2008 through July 5, 2009
  • Tokens of Affection and Regard: Photographic Jewelry and Its Makers
          October 24 through June 21, 2009



    Permanent Exhibitions

  • "America's Presidents"
  • "American Origins, 1600-1900"
  • "Jo Davidson: Biographer in Bronze"
  • "Twentieth-Century Americans"
  • "Bravo"
  • "Champions"

    Temporary exhibitions

    Reflections/ Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the Twentieth Century
    April 10, 2009 through August 16, 2009

    View exhibition slideshow
    (Expanded web feature coming soon.)

    Louis Lozowick This exhibition of approximately 75 works will probe the complex issues of understanding identity in the past century. Included in the exhibition are self portraits by Edward Hopper, Charles Sheeler, Louise Nevelson, Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, Chuck Close, Larry Rivers, Jacob Lawrence and Faith Ringgold. While the works by these artists reveal traditional themes, including impersonation, reinvention, self-consciousness, vanity and the complex game of seeing a mirrored image, the exhibition will also explore how issues of identity and self-portrayal were bent in new directions in the 20th century as if refracted through a prism.

    An illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition. Wendy Wick Reaves, curator of prints and drawings, is the exhibition curator.



    Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture
    March 27 through August 2, 2009

    View web exhibition

    Marcel Duchamp image This groundbreaking exhibition casts new light upon Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), one of the most influential artists of the recent past. This show demonstrates that Duchamp harnessed the power of portraiture and self-portraiture both to secure his reputation as an iconoclast and to establish himself as a major figure in the artworld. In the process, he played a key role in the reinvention of portraiture, exerting a transformative influence from the early 20th century to the present.

    The exhibition showcases approximately 100 never-before-assembled portraits and self-portraits of Duchamp ranging from 1912 to the present, including works by his contemporaries Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Francis Picabia and Florine Stettheimer as well as portraits by a more recent generation of artists, such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Sturtevant, Yasumasa Morimura, David Hammons, Beatrice Wood and Douglas Gordon.

    Co-curators for the exhibition are Anne Collins Goodyear, assistant curator of prints and drawings, and James W. McManus, professor of art history, California State University Chico.





    Presidents in Waiting
    January 20, 2009 through January 3, 2010

    View web exhibition

    Presidents in Waiting image John Adams, perhaps our most cantankerous founding father, viewed vice presidency as the “most insignificant office” ever invented by man. Adams would probably have never guessed that 14 vice presidents would succeed to the presidency. This National Portrait Gallery exhibition will focus on these men, almost one-third of America’s presidents, and how they—upon the death or resignation of an incumbent or by winning election on their own—became president. Co-curators of the exhibition are Sidney Hart, senior historian, and James Barber, historian.



    Portraiture Now: Feature Photography
    November 26, 2008 through September 27, 2009

    View web exhibition

    Feature Photography image "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography" focuses on six photographers who, by working on assignment for publications such as The New Yorker, Esquire and the New York Times Magazine each bring their distinctive perspective on contemporary portraiture to a broad audience. Critically acclaimed for their independent fine art work, these photographers—Katy Grannan, Jocelyn Lee, Ryan McGinley, Steve Pyke, Martin Schoeller and Alec Soth—have also pursued a variety of editorial projects, taking advantage of both the opportunities and the parameters that these assignments introduce. The resulting work builds upon a longstanding tradition of photographic portraiture for the popular press and highlights creative possibilities for 21st century portrayal.

    Curators of the exhibition are: Brandon Brame Fortune, curator of painting and sculpture; Anne Collins Goodyear, assistant curator of prints and drawings; Frank H. Goodyear III, associate curator of photographs; Wendy Wick Reaves, curator of prints and drawings; and Ann M. Shumard, curator of photographs.



    One Life: The Mask of Lincoln
    November 7, 2008 through July 5, 2009

    View web exhibition

    lincoln image No American has had more written or said about him than Abraham Lincoln. To both his contemporaries and posterity, Lincoln has been an endless subject of mystery and fascination. "One Life: The Mask of Lincoln" will examine how Lincoln used the new art of photography to convey his image to Americans, letting them see in him what they most desired. The National Portrait Gallery will commemorate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth with this "One Life" exhibition that draws on the Portrait Gallery's extensive collection of Lincoln portraits, a collection that charts Lincoln's passage from a fresh-faced Illinois congressman to his grizzled isolation as president. The exhibition will provide many faces of Lincoln for the public to ponder. It will be one of the rare times that the original cracked-plate portrait of Lincoln by Alexander Gardner will be displayed (in order to preserve the original, most often a facsimile of the photograph is on view). David Ward, historian, is the exhibition curator.



    Tokens of Affection and Regard: Photographic Jewelry and Its Makers
    October 24 through June 21, 2009

    View web exhibition

    jewelry image Photographic jewelry flourished throughout the period from 1840 to 1875 and beyond. This poignant exhibition, drawn primarily from the collection of Larry J. West, features rare and exquisite jewelry containing portraits in the 19th century's four main photographic processes—daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes and paper prints. Produced, exchanged and treasured as "tokens of affection and regard," these relics of loving attachments speak to the deepest of human sentiments. They are complemented in the exhibition by portraits (a gift from Mr. West) of some of the pioneering American photographers who created and marketed photographic jewelry, including Mathew Brady, Jeremiah Gurney, Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes. Ann Shumard, curator of photographs, is the exhibition curator.


    Permanent Exhibitions

    "America's Presidents"
    Permanent exhibition

    Browse the Online Collection

    George Washington The nation's only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House, this exhibition lies at the heart of the Portrait Gallery's mission to tell the American story through the individuals who have shaped it. Visitors will see an enhanced and extended display of multiple images of 42 presidents of the United States, including Gilbert Stuart's "Lansdowne" portrait of George Washington, the famous "cracked plate" photograph of Abraham Lincoln and whimsical sculptures of Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and George H. W. Bush by noted caricaturist Pat Oliphant. Presidents Washington, Andrew Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt will be given expanded attention because of their significant impact on the office. Presidents from FDR to Bill Clinton are featured in a video component of the exhibit.



    "American Origins, 1600-1900"
    Permanent exhibition

    View web exhibition

    A "conversation about America" is on view in a series of 17 galleries and alcoves chronologically arranged to take the visitor from the days of contact between Native Americans and European explorers through the struggles of independence to the Gilded Age. Major figures from Pocahontas to Chief Joseph, Alexander Hamilton to Henry Clay, and Nathaniel Hawthorne to Harriet Beecher Stowe are be among those included. Three of the galleries are devoted exclusively to the Civil War, examining this conflict in depth. A group of modern photographic prints produced from Mathew Brady's original negatives complement the exhibition. Highlights from the Gallery's remarkable collection of daguerreotypes, the earliest practical form of photography, are on view in "American Origins," making the National Portrait Gallery the first major museum to create a permanent exhibition space for daguerreotype portraits of historically significant Americans.



    "Jo Davidson: Biographer in Bronze"
    Permanent exhibition

    Fourteen portraits in bronze and terra-cotta made by renowned American sculptor Jo Davidson between 1908 and 1946 are on view. These include depictions of Gertrude Stein, Franklin D. Roosevelt, artist John Marin, and Lincoln Steffens.



    "Twentieth-Century Americans"
    Permanent exhibition

    Four newly created galleries opening onto the museum's magnificent third-floor Great Hall showcase the major cultural, scientific and political figures of the 20th century. From the reform movements of the first two decades to the movements for social justice and civil rights of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and from the Great Depression to the Vietnam era and beyond, visitors can explore the never-ending struggle to attain the American goal of justice for all.



    Bravo!
    Permanent exhibition

    "Bravo!" showcases the composers and performers who brought the performing arts to life from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Collaborative performances such as John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn in "Rooster Cogburn" and Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copeland in a People's Concert are featured in a video component of the show.



    Champions
    Permanent exhibition

    A salute to the dynamic American sports figures whose impact has extended beyond their sports and made them a part of the larger story of our nation. A lively combination of portraits, artifacts and memorabilia and video will enhance the exhibition. Video clips of the famous athletes in the exhibit are narrated by Michael Wilbon of ESPN and The Washington Post





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