American Art Elsewhere

Lunder Conservation Center: Secrets of a Sailor

March 27, 2013

Conservator Amber Kerr-Allison (left) talks to Mary Tait (right) about a painting of her ancestor. The only thing I ever knew about the portrait that hung on my great aunt's wall for most of my childhood was that it showed...

Picture This: An American in London, George Catlin and His Indian Gallery

March 8, 2013

Our George Catlin paintings on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Photo courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery. One of the highlights of our American Art collection are the over 400 artworks in 19th century painter George Catlin's...

Preparing for Our America: John Valadez’s Great American Streets

October 11, 2012

In this blog post Curatorial Assistant Florencia Bazzano-Nelson comments on John Valadez's Two Vendors, an intense and large-scale pastel that will be featured in the upcoming 2013 exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. Like other works in...

The Best of Ask Joan of Art: Jacob Lawrence

February 3, 2011

This post is part of an ongoing series on Eye Level: The Best of Ask Joan of Art. Begun in 1993, Ask Joan of Art is the longest-running arts-based electronic reference service in the country. The real Joan is Kathleen...

Pierre Huyghe wins the 2010 American Art Award

December 16, 2010

Pierre Huyghe, The Host and the Cloud, 2009-2010, live experiment. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York Pierre Huyghe is the 2010 winner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Contemporary Artist Award. He is the ninth recipient...