What's On January- New PORTAL Program and More! | National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery

 

National Portrait Gallery

José María Mora, Napoleon Sarony, and the Migrant Surround in American Portrait Photography

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 5:00 p.m.
Online via Zoom

What is the relationship between early portrait photography and identity? This presentation considers how photographers staged their portrait studios to facilitate the performance of diverse American identities during the late nineteenth century. José María Mora, a Cuban-born U.S. photographer, and his mentor Napoleon Sarony, a native French speaker born in Quebec, rose to prominence during the Gilded Age for staging lush portrait tableaus that deployed hand-painted backdrops and richly theatrical studio effects.

Learn more about their work with Erin Pauwels, assistant professor of art history at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. Leslie Ureña, curator of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, will moderate the Q & A. This program is sponsored as part of the Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture and is hosted by PORTAL, the Portrait Gallery’s scholarly center.
Free—Registration required.

 

Spotlight Video

National Portrait Gallery

Hit Play! Portrait Mode: Facing Our History 

How did the Portrait Gallery come about? Hit play to learn more about the evolution of the museum's mission over the decades and impress your friends with new trivia about the building's history. 

 

Upcoming Programs

National Portrait Gallery

Edmonia Lewis and Wendell Phillips: Kate Clarke Lemay in Conversation with Kristen Pai Buick and Hélène Quanquin 
Tuesday, Feb. 8, 5:00 p.m. 
Online via Zoom 
 

 

Upcoming Programs

National Portrait Gallery

Art AfterWords: A Book Discussion
Tuesday, Feb. 8, 5:30—7:00 p.m. 
Online via Zoom 
 

The National Portrait Gallery and the DC Public Library would like to invite you to a virtual conversation about love, second chances, and the power of a great torch song. Join us as we analyze a portrait of Ella Fitzgerald and discuss the related book “Seven Days in June” by Tia Williams. Participants will be encouraged to share their favorite romance novels and love songs during the event.  

 

Free—Registration required

 

Kate Clarke Lemay, interim director of PORTAL and acting senior historian at the National Portrait Gallery, will moderate a conversation between Hélène Quanquin, professor of American Studies, University of Lille (France), and Kirsten Pai Buick, professor of art history; associate dean of equity and excellence for the College of Fine Arts; and inaugural chair of Africana studies, University of New Mexico. This program is sponsored as part of the Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture and is hosted by PORTAL, the Portrait Gallery’s scholarly center.

 

National Portrait Gallery

In Dialogue: Smithsonian Objects and Social Justice
Thursday, Feb. 10, 5:00 p.m. 
Online via Zoom 

Heighten your civic awareness through conversations about art, history, and material culture. How does artwork build empathy and open the possibilities for connecting people near and far? Together with our co-hosts from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, we will explore this key question in relationship to Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s 1992 print "Untitled (for Jeff)" and Hung Liu’s 2013 painting "The Botanist"

Free—Registration required

 

National Portrait Gallery

Wind Down Wednesday:
Heart and Soul

Wednesday, Feb. 16, 5:00 p.m. 
Instagram Live @smithsonianNPG 
 

Make a special Valentine cocktail with a guest mixologist while we celebrate and reflect on the power of love. We will explore Anthony Barboza’s portrait of actor-writers Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Their lovefest embraced mutual respect, admiration, Black expression, and just plain love. Join us for a conversation about how the couple balanced their humanitarianism and activist spirit with the sweetness of having heart and finding contentment. Yes, love is in the air!

 

On View

National Portrait Gallery
Her Story: A Century of Women Writers
On view through Jan. 23, 2022
National Portrait Gallery
Recent Acquisitions
On view through Oct. 23, 2022
National Portrait Gallery
Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands
On view through May 30, 2022
National Portrait Gallery
Block by Block: Naming Washington

On view through Jan. 16, 2023

 

Visit Us at Home

National Portrait Gallery

Let's meet up remotely! The National Portrait Gallery offers virtual docent-led group tours for adults. Tours are available by registration. Reservations must be made three weeks in advance of the desired tour date. To receive a tour request form, e-mail NPGAdultTours@si.edu or click here.

 

National Portrait Gallery

Not ready to come back quite yet? Enjoy several online adaptations of National Portrait Gallery exhibitions and collection highlights, including "Afro-Latinx: Crossing Cultures, identities, and Experiences"  and "Witness to History: The Old Patent Office Building,"through our collaboration with Google Arts & Culture.

 

Alice Oats (detail)by José María Mora, c. 1880–85. Gift of Francis A. DiMauro. Portrait Mode: Facing Our History (detail)by Fresh TV. Courtesy Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Wendell Phillips (detail) by Edmonia Lewis, 1871. Ella Fitzgerald (with Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, and Milt Jackson) (detail) by William Paul Gottlieb, 1947 (printed later). Gift of Lisa Ruthel and Anup Mahurkar. The Botanist (detail) by Hung Liu, 2013. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; gift of Lorrie and Richard Greene and Accessions Committee Fund purchase. © Hung Liu. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (detail) by Anthony Barboza, 1977. © Anthony Barboza. Malcolm X (detail) by an unidentified artist, 1967. Louis Armstrong (detail) by Philippe Halsman, 1966 (printed 1998). Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Gift of Betsy Karel). © Philippe Halsman Archive. Lorraine Hansberry (detail) by David Attie, 1959. © David Attie. Cotton Picker (detail) by Hung Liu, 2015. Collection of Sig Anderman. © Hung Liu. Docent Tours at the National Portrait Gallery (detail) by an unidentified photographer. ¡Yo soy de Cuba la Voz, Guantanamera! (Celia Cruz, detail) by Alexis Rodríguez-Duarte in collaboration with Tico Torres, 1994 (printed 2016). Acquisition made possible through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. © Alexis Rodríguez-Duarte. Carlos "Patato" Valdés (detail) by Alexis Rodríguez-Duarte in collaboration with Tico Torres, 2000 (printed 2014). Acquisition made possible through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. © 1994 Alexis Rodríguez-Duarte. I'm Big Papi (detail) by Freddy Rodríguez, 2008. © 2008 Freddy Rodríguez.

All images belong to the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, unless otherwise noted.

 

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