Frances Flora Bond Palmer
A Midnight Race on the Mississippi, 1860
color lithograph with hand-coloring on wove paper
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Donald and Nancy de Laski Fund
Three Centuries of American Prints at the NGA On view in Washington from April 3 through July 24, 2016, ‘Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art’ is the first major museum survey of American prints in more than 30 years.]]>
Source: National Gallery of Art
Organized chronologically and thematically through nine galleries, “Three Centuries of American Prints” reveals the breadth and excellence of the Gallery’s collection while showcasing some of the standouts: exquisite, rare impressions of James McNeill Whistler’s “Nocturne” (1879/1880), captivating prints by Mary Cassatt, a singularly stunning impression of John Marin’s “Woolworth Building, No. 1” (1913), and Robert Rauschenberg’s pioneering “Booster” (1967).
The exhibition is bracketed by John Simon’s “Four Indian Kings” (1710)—stately portraits of four Native American leaders who traveled to London to meet Queen Anne— and Kara Walker’s “no world” (2010), which recalls the disastrous impact of European settlement in the New World. Both prints address the subject of transnational contact, a theme that runs through the history of American art.
“Three Centuries of American Prints” features works intended to provoke action, such as Paul Revere’s call for moral outrage in “The Bloody Massacre” (1770) and Jenny Holzer’s appeal to “Raise Boys and Girls the Same Way” in her “Truisms” (1977). Others lean more strongly toward visual concerns, such as Stuart Davis’s striking black-and-white lithograph, “Barber Shop Chord” (1931), and Richard Diebenkorn’s resplendent “Green” (1986). This duality between prints designed to exhort or teach and ones more weighted to artistic matters is an undercurrent of both the exhibition and the history of American prints.
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