SAAM Stories

On Tuesday, January 13 American Art will present a gallery talk about the overlap between art and nature as part of our exhibition The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art. Former public programs assistant, Laurel Fehrenbach, had a chance to speak with participants Joanna Marsh, American Art's James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art and the curator of our show and Pete Marra, head of the Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoological Park.

San Antonio-based artist Mel Casas died on November 30, 2014 after a two-year battle with cancer. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is proud to own paintings by artist, including Humanscape 62, which was featured in our exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. In this blog post, Curator for Latino Art E. Carmen Ramos reflects on the importance of Casas' art.

It's Throwback Thursday! And we at Eye Level have decided it's a great opportunity to bring back some of our interesting posts from the past. Since the holidays signal the start of winter we thought you'd enjoy Howard's post from 2008 on Harry Cimino's The Marchbanks Calendar—December. We here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum wish all of our readers the best for 2015.

Sara Snyder helped organize the #ArtBirds Social Media Scavenger hunt to encourage awareness of how artists use bird imagery as part of our exhibition "The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art." She fills us in on the bird watching activities, both outdoors and in, as part of our show. "The Singing and the Silence" is on view now through February 22, 2015.

Allison Rabent is a pre-program volunteer at the Lunder Conservation Center. She is working with conservators on a variety of activities. Allison, along with the project's lead, Conservation Technician Susan Edwards, recently investigated an ongoing treatment of Hiram Powers' Greek Slave and shares their findings with us below. American Art's sculpture curator, Karen Lemmey, contributed to this post.

In October, Alexander Calder's sculpture Gwenfritz, part of American Art's collection, was reinstalled outside the National Museum of American History. Karen Lemmey, American Art's sculpture curator speaks about another Calder sculpture, Nenuphar, which he gave to the museum at the same time.

Eye Level had a chance to catch up with Joanna Marsh, the James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art at American Art, for a conversation about our current exhibition, The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, which is currently on view through February 22, 2015.

Nora Atkinson, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, joined American Art's Renwick Gallery staff earlier this year. She talked with Eye Level about the museum's recent acquisition The Birth of Eve by Judith Schaechter, which joins her 1990 work A Little Torcher also in the museum's permanent collection.

Kaylin Lapan, public programs coordinator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a game enthusiast, asks Chris Totten, Chair of the DC chapter of the Independent Game Developers Association (IGDA) and professor at American University's GameLab, about the changing environment of indie gaming, in anticipation of American Art's Indie Arcade on December 7th at 1-7 p.m.

Handi-hour returns on Wednesday, December 3rd, just in time to craft some goodies for the gift giving season. This time our inspiration comes from our newest exhibition The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art. Program coordinator Katie Crooks has whipped up another Handi-hour how to video for our featured craft; check it out above for a preview of what we'll be making at the event.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is screening James Castle: Portrait of an Artist in conjunction with our installation of James Castles' work, on view at the museum through February 1, 2015.

This post is part of an ongoing series on Eye Level: Q and Art, where American Art's Research department brings you interesting questions and answers about art and artists from our archive.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is delighted to announce that Njideka Akunyili Crosby is the 2014 winner of our biennial James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize. Akunyili Crosby was selected by an independent panel of jurors who wrote in their decision, "Her bold yet intimate paintings are among the most visually, conceptually, and technically exciting work being made today."

Local artists discuss their work and process in the context of artworks on view in the Luce Foundation Center as part of American Art's Luce Local Art Series. This series is presented in collaboration with CulturalDC. All talks begin at 1:30 p.m. Our next artist talk is by Martine Workman this Saturday, November 22.

Kathleen A. Foster spoke the other evening at the McEvoy Auditorium, the third and final speaker in this year's Clarice Smith Distinguished Lecture in American Art series. Her focused talk concerned Winslow Homer's iconic painting from 1884, The Life Line.

Eric Fischl's Tumbling Woman II is a poignant and provocative sculpture that is on view in American Art's Lincoln Gallery. In addition to the artwork's historical underpinning and evocative pose, it maintains a distinctive materiality that causes a visitor to pause and engage with its subject.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is screening a sneak preview of the film Curious Worlds: The Art and Imagination of David Beck, an artist featured in the exhibition, The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, now on view.

It's Throwback Thursday! And we at Eye Level have decided it's a great opportunity to bring back some of our interesting posts from the past. Today, we're focusing on our Luce Foundation Center where we have over 3000 objects from our collection in open storage. But one sculpture stands out and its name is Jack. Howard fills us in about Paul Feeley's sculpture.