Luce Foundation Center

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Open daily, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

The nation’s first collection of American art, an unparalleled record of the American experience.

Plan your visit

Renwick Gallery Stairwwell

Renwick Gallery

Open daily, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Located just feet from the White House, a branch of the museum that is home the nation's collection of contemporary craft and decorative art.

Plan your visit

How Do I Research My Art?

Want to learn more about the painting you found while clearing out the attic? For answers, be prepared for a little detective work.

How to Care for Your Collections

Regardless of the monetary value of your artwork, if it is personally meaningful, you should consider having the object conserved.

Recording a Changing Nation

This resource uses images from photographic surveys in 55 communities in 30 states across the United States as source documents to spark sustained inquiry.

Critical Thinking in Action

These 60-to-95-minute units pair thinking patterns with works of art to instill a thinking disposition transferable across classroom curriculum and into the wider world.

Event Venues and Space Rental

Museum Store Online

Detail of brown ceramic jar with writing and the signature "Dave" inscribed around the top.

David “Dave” Drake: Potter and Poet

Craftsman David “Dave” Drake, enslaved for most of his life, produced uncommonly large ceramic jars in 19th-century South Carolina adorned by his poetic verses

Artist Tanya Aguiñiga wearing a suit made of glass elements while standing next to the U.S./Mexico border wall

Exploring Border Stories with Artist Tanya Aguiñiga

Curator Mary Savig details an artist’s journey to create the powerful performance work Metabolizing the Border that explores the physical and psychological experiences migrants face while crossing the borderlands.

Director’s Circle

A national membership group of museum friends who share a love of American art and craft and our commitment to celebrating the extraordinary creativity of our nation’s artists.

A membership group for young professionals who are interested in immersing themselves in the American art experience.

Going West

Media - 1973.149.1 - SAAM-1973.149.1_1 - 4467

Copied Jackson Pollock, Going West, ca. 1934-1935, oil on fiberboard, 15 ¹⁄₈ x 20 ³⁄₄ in. (38.3 x 52.7 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Thomas Hart Benton, 1973.149.1

Artwork Details

Title: Going West
Artist: Jackson Pollock
Date: ca. 1934-1935
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
1st Floor
/
North Wing
Dimensions: 15 ¹⁄₈ x 20 ³⁄₄ in. (38.3 x 52.7 cm.)
Credit Line: Gift of Thomas Hart Benton
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on fiberboard
Classifications: Painting
Keywords: History — United States — westward expansion
Animal — mule
Landscape — time — night
Figure
Landscape — celestial — moon
Landscape — mountain
Western
Object Number: 1973.149.1
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1973.149.1

Exhibitions

Media - 1967.129 - SAAM-1967.129_1 - 65164

Artist to Artist

October 1, 2021–September 3, 2023

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Artist to Artist features paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, or friends.