Art + Artists

Featured Exhibitions

We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection

July 1, 2022 — March 26, 2023

Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and G Streets, NW)

We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and Douglas O. Robson.
This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World

May 13, 2022 — April 2, 2023

Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World showcases the dynamic landscape of American craft today. The exhibition highlights the role that artists play in our world to spark essential conversations, stories of resilience, and methods of activism—showing us a more relational and empathetic world. It centers more expansive definitions and acknowledgments of often-overlooked histories and contributions of women, people of color, and other marginalized communities.

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Today's Birthday

Linda Rich

Born: Cleveland, Ohio 1949

Died: Los Angeles, California 1998

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Black woman sitting on a chair in the center of the cover with her hand resting on her forehead set against a patchwork background of colorful geometric and floral patterns. Text at the top of the page reads “Mickalene Thomas: Portrait” — Illustrated by Shayna Cohen

A vividly colored cover with a patchwork of purple, yellow, pink, tan, and blue geometric and floral designs. Artist Mickalene Thomas, a black woman wearing glasses with her hair in dreads tied up in a bun, is seated in a chair with wheels in the center. The artist has her left arm resting on her forehead as she leans backward in a relaxed position. The background is full of many different patch work patterns in a variety of colors with various floral patterns and textures represented. Text at the top of the page reads “Mickalene Thomas: Portrait”

Portrait: A Comic About Mickalene Thomas

When contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas was in art school, she couldn’t afford traditional materials and gravitated towards craft stores and the glitter and rhinestones within. Her paintings speak to female empowerment and of women of color owning and defining their own spaces.

Discover all the stories in Drawn to Art

Collection Highlights

Media - 1991.189 - SAAM-1991.189_1 - 67574

Early American Art

The museum’s collection begins with works from the colonies of New Spain and New England.

Media - 1978.126 - SAAM-1978.126_1 - 5245

19th Century

The museum’s collection charts the nation’s growth from a young republic to an emerging world power. Landscapes extolling the nation’s geographic wonders from Niagara Falls to the Grand Canyon drove and documented westward expansion. Asher Durand’s Dover Plains, Dutchess County, New York presents an idyllic landscape where man and nature coexist.

20th Century

Artists in the twentieth century chose two distinct ways to depict modernism and the excitement of progress—realism and abstraction. Both are well represented in the collection. The museum has the largest collection of New Deal art and murals in the country. Images of jazz and street life, farms and factories, workers and families captured a changing America

Media - 2015.34 - SAAM-2015.34_1 - 116878

Contemporary Art

In recent years, the museum has strengthened its commitment to contemporary art through acquisitions, commissions, and exhibitions.

Media - 2011.16 - SAAM-2011.16_1 - 75736

African American Art

SAAM is home to one of the most significant collections of works by African American artists in the world with a long-standing commitment to Black artists and the acquisition, preservation, and display of their work. The collection spans three centuries of creative expression in various media, including painting, sculpture, textiles, and photography.

Media - 2016.11 - SAAM-2016.11_6 - 124929

Contemporary Craft and Decorative Arts

The museum’s collection of contemporary American craft is considered one of the finest in the United States.

Media - 2016.5.22 - SAAM-2016.5.22_1 - 119206

Folk and Self-Taught Art

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists. Represented in the museum’s collection are pieces that draw on tradition and artworks that reveal a more personal vision.

Media - 2020.25.1 - SAAM-2020.25.1_1 - 138936

Latinx Art

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s leading Latinx art collection represents a profound commitment to building a great national collection reflecting the rich contributions of Latinos to our country from the colonial period to the present and the diversity of Latino communities in the United States.

A portrait of a man with goatee contained in a brooch

Photography

America’s continuing love affair with the camera can be traced through the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection, which ranges from early daguerreotypes to contemporary digital works. In 1983, the museum began to seriously collect photography. That year, more than 1,800 photographs were transferred to the museum from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Media - 1969.158 - SAAM-1969.158_3 - 126665

Sculpture

The museum’s American sculpture collection is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world.

Media - 1999.80 - SAAM-1999.80_1 - 52092

Works on Paper

Graphic arts comprise a large part of the museum’s collection, which reveals the central importance of works on paper for American artists, both as studies for creations in other media and as finished works of art.

Media - 2006.20 - SAAM-2006.20_1 - 66616

Time-Based Media

The Time-Based Media Art Initiative at the Smithsonian American Art Museum reflects a commitment to develop the museum’s time-based media collections, research resources, and programs.

Media - 1984.92 - SAAM-1984.92_1-000001 - 7823

Asian American Art

SAAM’s collection includes many remarkable artworks that reflect the profound and longstanding contributions of Asian American and Asian diasporic artists in the United States. The study of this art contributes to a fuller understanding of the diverse people and influences that have shaped our national culture and raises important questions about what is meant by “American art.”