National Portrait Gallery
Weekend Events: It's an Inauguration Celebration!
Plan for this landmark weekend at goSmithsonian.com and Find a complete listing of the Smithsonian's Inaugural Events.Friday, January 16: Inaugural Activities: Yoko Ono's Wish TreeCelebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as well as your hopes and dreams for the future of our country. Come by the ...
January 16, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
The Artist Behind the Obama Portrait: Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey:"My hope was that if I made an iconic image of Obama that yielded both a recognizable portrait of him and something that seemed to transcend the limitations of a photograph—something that felt like a passionate art piece and had an idealism to it that would reflect the idealism of th...
January 15, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
UPDATED: Iconic Obama Portrait at National Portrait Gallery
There’s no doubt that graphic designer Shepard Fairey’s red, white and blue collage of President-elect Barack Obama called "Hope" has gone viral. The artist, known for his guerilla street artist style, printed posters and stickers of the portrait, and they crept up on the sides of city buildings an...
January 08, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
George W. Bush's Portrait at National Portrait Gallery
The 43rd president of the United States has officially been added to the National Portrait Gallery’s hall of "America’s Presidents." President Bush and the first lady, who also sat for a portrait that now hangs on the gallery’s first floor, were in attendance at the December 20th unveiling—the pres...
January 07, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Around the Web: New Yorker Photographers on National Portrait Gallery Subjects
When actor Jack Nicholson showed up to his photo shoot wearing a red clown nose, Martin Schoeller did what any photographer would do and snapped the picture. When the entertainment value wore off, the portrait artist asked Nicholson to remove the nose. The moment Schoeller then captured now hangs ...
January 06, 2009 |
By Joseph Caputo
Smithsonian Events Week of 1/5-1/11: Bette Davis and George W. Bush
Monday, January 5: Portrait of George W. BushAfter eight years in office, President Bush is now a museum piece. Come see the newest addition to the National Portrait Gallery's Hall of Presidents, which marks the first time the gallery has exhibited the official portrait of a sitting president. Free...
January 04, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Barack Obama is the Man of the Moment at the Portrait Gallery
The campaign may be over, but Barack Obama and John McCain continue to face off at the National Portrait Gallery.In a gallery on the first floor, curators have hung portraits of the two men side by side. Both were taken by photographer Martin Schoeller, and are part of the new "Portraiture Now" exh...
December 16, 2008 |
By Anika Gupta
Smithsonian Events Week of 12/15-21
Monday, December 15: Voila Julia!I don’t think anyone can ever really top Dan Aykroyd’s Julia Child impersonation. This is not to say that actress Nancy Robinette won’t come pretty darn close with her portrayal of the gourmand with the golden palette and a wonderfully infectious joie de vivre. This...
December 15, 2008 |
By Jesse Rhodes
At the Portrait Gallery, Alec Soth Likes Looking at Women
When I read that Alec Soth, one of the young art photographers who has a new show at the Portrait Gallery, specialized in portraits of women, I thought that meant willowy actresses in varying degrees of makeup. Or American Apparel-esque exposes of "everyday women."We live in a culture full of pict...
December 10, 2008 |
By Anika Gupta
Smithsonian Events Week of December 8-14
Monday, December 8 Tour Arts of JapanIf you only know Japanese art by way of manga, broaden your horizons by coming on out to the Freer Gallery for a guided tour of its extensive collection of screens, paintings, lacquerware, prints, ceramics and sculpture. Free. Meet at Info Desk. Freer Gallery of...
December 08, 2008 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Says Goodbye to Odetta
Folk and blues singer Odetta passed away yesterday. Her unique combination of a guitar held high and a voice kept low made her famous, and for good reason. People talk about unforgettable performers, but Odetta's voice could squeeze tears from a stone. See her wring out "House of the Rising Sun,...
December 03, 2008 |
By Anika Gupta
What's Up at the Smithsonian This Week 11/10-16
Monday, November 10Just Opened "One Life: The Mask of Lincoln" at the National Portrait Gallery is an examination of Lincoln's use of the era's new art of photography to convey his image to Americans. Drawing on the museum's extensive collection of Lincoln portraits—an archive that charts Lincoln's...
November 10, 2008 |
By Beth Py-Lieberman
Our Presidential Exit Poll
On the eve of Election Day, visitors trickled into the hall of America’s Presidents in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Had they intentionally come on this day to gaze into the eyes of past presidents? Were they contemplating their achievements and demeanors? And desiring the newly elec...
November 05, 2008 |
By Megan Gambino
Pondering Presidential Portraits on Election Day
After casting our votes on this historic election day, the ATM bloggers dashed over to the National Portrait Gallery to ponder the powerful question, what puts the pizzazz in a presidential portrait?Senior historian Sid Hart met us at the entrance and led us on three-minute tour from George W to Ge...
November 04, 2008 |
By Beth Py-Lieberman
Fake Radio War Stirs Terror Through US: Orson Welles' War of the Worlds turns 70
Seventy years ago in a Halloween episode of the Mercury Theatre on the Air, Orson Welles whipped millions of Americans into a martian-crazed panic with his radio play adaptation of H.G. Welles' War of the Worlds. You know the story. Those who tuned in late missed the disclaimer that the program was...
October 31, 2008 |
By Jesse Rhodes
'Women of Our Time' at the Portrait Gallery
Cameras love women. There’s something in the curve of a woman’s lip, or the way a strand of hair falls across her brow. Whether a woman intends to portray herself as beautiful or not, the female image is a compelling work of art. At the National Portrait Gallery, a new exhibition, Women of Our Ti...
October 17, 2008 |
By Beth Py-Lieberman
Recent History: Michael Phelps at the Portrait Gallery
It’s 11:18 on a damp Thursday morning. A few women with umbrellas sip cups of coffee outside the doors of the National Portrait Gallery. It won’t open for another 12 minutes, but a crowd is gathering in the foyer.They’re gawking at a portrait of one of the heroes of the 2008 Olympic Games, the eigh...
August 28, 2008 |
By Anika Gupta
Public Punk'd by Panda: Mei Xiang is NOT Pregnant!
In spite of months of maternal showboating, Mei Xiang will not be bearing a panda cub this year. Experts at the National Zoo speculate that she either experienced another pseudopregnancy or lost an early-stage fetus that failed to develop. Having kept close tabs on Mei since her artificial insemina...
August 14, 2008 |
By Jesse Rhodes
All in a Word
Museum goers might be stumped for a minute by an old-fashioned word in the title of a new show, "Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture," opening Friday at the National Portrait Gallery.Ballyhoo?I couldn’t remember the last time I’d used it in a sentence and wasn’t entirely sure what it meant. Here, fo...
May 08, 2008 |
By Beth Py-Lieberman
Poking Fun at the Presidents
Herblock was not fond of Ronald Reagan.
In fact, the three-time Pulitzer prize-winning political cartoonist judged the "great communicator" rather harshly. In a 1984 portrayal, the 40th President of the United States is transformed into a television pitchman selling America an alternate r...
April 30, 2008 |
By Kenneth R. Fletcher
