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Renwick Gallery Highlights

The Renwick Gallery is the nation's premier venue for viewing contemporary American craft. The gallery's permanent collection features one-of-a-kind pieces created from clay, fiber, glass, metal, and wood, with installations rotating throughout the year. Highlights of the collection include the works mentioned below.

In Game Fish, Larry Fuente transforms a trophy fish into a flamboyant multidimensional collage, made from colorful toys and game pieces such as dice, yo-yos, Scrabble tiles, badminton shuttlecocks, toy soldiers, poker chips, ping pong balls, and dominoes. Game Fish, an icon of the Renwick Gallery's permanent collection, is a play on words since "game fish" is covered with game-related artifacts.

At first glance Wendell Castle's Ghost Clock appears to be a grandfather clock hidden by a large white sheet tied with a rope. After closer examination, the piece reveals a masterful sculptural illusion by one of America's leading art furniture makers. The clock and its drapery are hand carved from laminated Honduras mahogany.

Albert Paley handles rigid handwrought iron in a spontaneous manner to create a handsome image of fluid organic growth in Portal Gates. The unique character of the gates includes detailing seldom seen in ironwork, with polished bolts and washers used as decorative accents. The 1,200-pound gates, made specifically for the Renwick, took Paley and his assistant seven months to construct and earned him the 1974–75 Design in Steel award for craftsmanship from the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Sam Maloof is one of America's most notable designer-craftsmen, famous for his sculptural furniture that is both beautiful to look at and comfortable. He became the first craft artist to receive a coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, or "genius" grant, in 1985 and was honored with the American Craft Council's prestigious Gold Medal in 1988. Double Rocking Chair is an example of Maloof's legendary all-wood rocking chairs, which three former U.S. presidents enjoy.

Pictured above:

Top image: Larry Fuente, Game Fish, 1988, mixed media, 51 1/2 x 112 1/2 x 10 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, (c)1988 Larry Fuente, photo by Bruce Miller

Second image: Wendell Castle, Ghost Clock, 1985, bleached Honduras mahogany, 86 1/4 x 24 1/2 x 15 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, (c)1985 Wendell Castle, photo by Bruce Miller

Third image: Albert Paley, Portal Gates, 1974, forged steel, brass, copper, and bronze, 90 3/4 x 72 x 4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Commissioned for the Renwick Gallery, photo by Bruce Miller

Bottom image: Sam Maloof, Double Rocking Chair, 1992, fiddleback maple and ebony, 42 5/8 x 42 x 44 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Hafif Family Foundation, the James Renwick Alliance and museum purchase made possible by the Smithsonian Institution, photo by Bruce Miller