Exhibition

Artist to Artist

Assembled from the museum’s extensive twentieth-century holdings, Artist to Artist features eight pairings: Yayoi Kusama and Joseph Cornell, George Tooker and Paul Cadmus, Loïs Mailou Jones and Elizabeth Catlett, Frank O'Hara and Grace Hartigan, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Bumpei Usui, Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock, Joan Brown and Elmer Bischoff, and Ray Yoshida and Christina Ramberg. Each pairing represents two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, or ardently close friends. Based in common goals or shared life experience, the personal interactions represented by these works helped shape and sustain American art.

Within this exhibition is "New on View," an ongoing series of installations that place recently acquired artworks—both gifts and museum purchases—in dialogue with works already in SAAM's collection.

On View At

Interior gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum with columns, paintings on the walls, and a large neon map installation
The nation’s first collection of American art offers an unparalleled record of the American experience, capturing the aspirations, character and imagination of the American people throughout three centuries.
Location
Washington, DC
11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily