Galleries for Modern and Contemporary Art

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s reopened and reimagined modern and contemporary galleries feature a new installation, American Voices and Visions: Modern and Contemporary Art, that freshly examines the explosion of possibility in American art between the 1940s and today. Nearly 100 works by artists using new materials and techniques — and inspired by the social, cultural, and technological changes around them — are on view.

The installation integrates a range of media and practices—including photography, video, craft, and work by self-taught artists—which together reflect a more nuanced and representative survey of American art since 1945. The reinstalled galleries feature 42 artworks recently added to the museum’s collection, including works by Firelei Báez, Tiffany Chung, Audrey Flack, Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee), Tseng Kwong Chi, Miguel Luciano, Martha Rosler, Alison Saar, Hank Willis Thomas, Carlos Villa, Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee Nation), and Carrie Mae Weems among others—many of which are being shown for the first time—alongside iconic works from the collection by Alexander Calder, Jenny Holzer, Morris Louis, Kerry James Marshall, Nam June Paik, Martin Puryear, Sean Scully, Alma Thomas, and Mickalene Thomas.