SAAM Stories
08/05/2006
The prince and president, surrounded by various dignitaries, may be the focus of this group portrait, but it's the image of George Washington that makes this painting especially interesting. His profile is outlined in the clouds (hint: look in the middle of painting, between the two groups of trees), as if implying the first president's presence at the joint British/American visit to his tomb.
Cassie
08/02/2006
For a behind-the-scenes look at museum blogging in general and Eye Level in particular, take a look at Now on exhibit, the blogger's view in Sunday's Los Angeles Times.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
07/31/2006
Gene Davis's Two Part Blue was given to American Art in the ‘90s as part of the late artist’s estate. The painting came with a surprise: it seemed to have some white accretions on its surface.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
07/24/2006
SAAM lighting designer, Scott Rosenfeld, gives us an inside look at the challenge of lighting artwork. Lighting the Color Field Gallery (3rd floor, West Wing), according to Scott, was an exciting endeavor:
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
07/18/2006
With our opening festivities complete we're turning our attentions upward —to the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard being designed by renowned British architect Norman Foster and scheduled for completion by the fall of next year.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
07/05/2006
Peer closely at Albert Bierstadt's Among the Sierra Nevada, California—you need to be standing up close and personal, because you won't find it even in a large image—and you will see, in the lower left-hand corner of the painting, hovering in a stream under the shadow of a rock outcrop, a trout.
Kriston
07/03/2006
Rachel Allen, our Deputy Director, reminded us today of another milestone: "999 days ago, the museum started counting the days until reopening.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
07/01/2006
A crowd of hundreds waited outside, everyone hoping to be the first to enter. Waving fans and folded papers, people were surely eager to escape the heat from today's bright sunshine. There was goofy entertainment aplenty; actors dressed as George and Martha Washington and Uncle Sam chatted up the crowd, and two people dressed as the iconic father and daughter from Grant Wood's American Gothic waved down from a portico.
Kriston
07/01/2006
Venerable American Art Icons Await the Opening of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor