Art + Artists

Featured Exhibitions

New Glass Now 

October 22, 2021 — March 6, 2022

Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)

New Glass Now documents the innovation and dexterity of artists, designers, and architects from around the world working in the challenging material of glass. This global survey is designed to highlight the breadth and depth of contemporary glass making. Featuring objects, installations, videos, and performances made by fifty artists working in more than twenty-three countries this exhibition challenge the very notion of what the material of glass is and what it can do. 
Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano

October 8, 2021 — May 8, 2022

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

This exhibition brings to life the Venetian glass revival of the nineteenth century on the famed island of Murano and the artistic experimentation the city inspired for artists such as John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler.

National Tour

Amon Carter Museum of American Art

in Fort Worth, Texas

(June 25, 2022 – September 11, 2022)

Mystic Seaport Museum

in Mystic, Connecticut

(October 15, 2022 – February 27, 2023)

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Today's Birthday

Elihu Vedder

Born: New York, New York 1836

Died: Rome, Italy 1923

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Explore the Artist Comics

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

Art by African Americans

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.

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

Art + Artists

Featured Exhibitions

New Glass Now

October 22, 2021 — March 6, 2022

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano

October 8, 2021 — May 8, 2022

National Tour