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east building: national gallery of art

location

national gallery of art, washington, d.c.

date

march 11, 2023

my first time visiting the national gallery of art in washington, d.c.! the modern art collection, established in 1962, is housed in the east building, designed by architect I. M. Pei and opened to the public in 1978. a recent renovation and expansion of the east wing has increased the works on view from 350 works to over 500. the early acquisitions of works by living artists at the time, such as Pablo Picasso and George Braque.

Cy Twombly - Untitled (Bolsena), 1969

Cy Twombly perfectly combines the practices of abstract expressionist painting and Neo-Dada art to form his stunning assortment of forms. After spending his early career in New York, Twombly moved to Italy in 1957, where he lived until his death in 2011. This work, Untitled (Bolsena), is one of 14 works created between August and September of 1969.

Robert Delaunay - Political Drama, 1914

A man and a woman emerge from an ethereal ring of color in Robert Delaunay's orphist drawing. Only two years before this work, the art critic Guillaume Apollinaire coined the term "Orphic cubism," referencing the mythical Greek figure of music, Orpheus, to emphasize the lyricism and musicality of this style of work. This newspaper illustration is for a story for the with the headline: 'The Wife of the French Finance Minister Joseph Cailloux Shoots Dead Gaston Calmette the Editor of Le Figaro.'

Andy Warhol - Green Marilyn, 1962

Months after Marilyn Monroe passed away suddenly in 1962, Warhol created his first Marilyn Diptych to memorialize the nation's mourning for its lost young star. Using Monroe's image from a promotional still from the 1953 film Niagara, Warhol marked the start of his success in silkscreen printing with "Green Marilyn." Warhol immortalizes Monroe's image by making her a tangible object of beauty.

Jasper Johns - The Critic Smiles, 1969

Helen Frankenthaler - Mountains and Sea, 1952

Eva Hesse - Test Piece for 'Contingent,' 1969

Roy Lichtenstein - Look Mickey, 1961

This is Roy Lichtenstein's first exact replication of an existing scene, from the 1960 children's book 'Donald Duck: Lost and Found.' By appropriating a children's book with Disney characters, Lichtenstein's lack of originality emphasizes the power of recycling familiar images.

Claes Oldenburg - Glass Case with Pies (Assorted Pies in a Case), 1962

René Magritte - The Blank Signature, 1965

René Magritte is by far my favorite Surrealist artist. He has a timeless look about his work, raising no suspicion that Magritte was working side by side monumentally revolutionary Pop artists. Magritte uses the optical theory of Schuster's Fork, shifting vertical lines so that the human eye has trouble deciphering which subject matter to line up with which elongated space. A fantastical rider and their horse is dissected by the forest trees, obscuring a clear view of the subject.

Jackson Pollock - Number 1, Lavender Mist, 1950

Andy Warhol - Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Rauschenberg Family), 1962

Warhol uses a play on words based on the book of the same title by James Agee and Walker Evans to label this work. Warhol replicates a photograph of Robert Rauschenberg's family in Port Arthur, Texas, in the late 1920s. Rauschenberg was not widely known in 1962 when this work was made, which reflects even more Warhol's early admiration for the emerging artist.

Hans Haacke - Condensation Wall (conceived 1966, executed 2016)

The first time I saw this I legitimately couldn't tell if it was a work of art or not. If only I hadn't learned a week too late in my art history class about Hans Haacke and his environment-based art.

Ellsworth Kelly - Color Panels for a Large Wall, 1978

Faith Ringgold - The American People Series #18: The Flag is Bleeding, 1967

Ellsworth Kelly - White Curve VIII, 1976

Philip Guston - Painter's Table, 1973

Philip Guston - Drawing for Conspirators, 1930

Guston drew this visual commentary at the age of 17.

Philip Guston - Female Nude With Easel, 1935

Philip Guston - Native's Return, 1957

Philip Guston - Flatlands, 1970

Philip Guston - Caught, 1970

Philip Guston - The Line, 1978

Philip Guston - The Ladder, 1978

Arrangement of Untitled paintings by Philip Guston

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