Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Announces Summer–Fall 2021 Exhibitions and Tours

One Life: Will Rogers

June 25, 2021–Ongoing

Online

“One Life: Will Rogers” is the National Portrait Gallery’s first exhibition to be presented exclusively on its website. Will Rogers (1879–1935) was a prolific political commentator whose comedic wit crossed social and political divides. With a career spanning vaudeville, silent films, “talkies,” radio and newspaper, he lifted the nation’s spirits during some of the most trying times—World War I, the recession that followed and the Great Depression. Born to a prominent Cherokee family on a ranch in Indian Territory near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma, Rogers could lasso anything. Defying stereotypes of the rugged cowboy, he was a great intellect, who authored six books, appeared in seventy-one films, wrote 4,000 syndicated newspaper columns and hosted a popular Sunday evening radio program. The precursor to Mickey Rooney, or today’s Stephen Colbert, Rogers voiced a perspective with broad appeal to the masses in the first half of the twentieth century. This exhibition is co-curated by retired Portrait Gallery Historian James Barber and Historian Kate Clarke Lemay. Since 2006, the museum has held seventeen exhibitions in the series “One Life,” which is dedicated to the biography of a single figure. This exhibition has been funded in part by the Guenther and Siewchin Yong Sommer Endowment Fund. Additional support was received from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee.

 

“Warranted to Give Satisfaction”: Daguerreotypes by Jeremiah Gurney

June 25, 2021–February 6, 2022

In 1840, Jeremiah Gurney (1812–1895) abandoned his career as a jeweler to establish one of New York City’s first daguerreotype studios. Despite vigorous competition from rivals, such as Mathew Brady, Gurney soon developed his reputation as a leading camera artist, whose works were “nearer to absolute perfection” than those of other daguerreotypists. Widely admired for the beautiful, hand-tinted images produced in his studio, Gurney continued to make daguerreotypes until the close of the 1850s, when he fully transitioned his practice to paper print photography. “Warranted to Give Satisfaction” will feature a selection of daguerreotype portraits by Gurney from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection alongside works from several private collections. This exhibition is curated by Senior Curator of Photographs Ann Shumard.

 

Block by Block: Naming Washington

July 30, 2021–Jan. 16, 2023

Wherever we may be, whenever we provide an address, and find our place on Washington, D.C.’s streets, we spell out and utter street numbers, state names, and in many cases, the names of individuals who dot the city’s landscape, including Farragut, Howard and Barton, among others. How often do we stop to consider who these people were? The naming of streets, places and spaces grants a degree of importance to those whose names have been chosen. It creates a living history, connecting past to present, and at times, evoking a reckoning with some of those namesakes and the legacies they leave behind. “Block by Block: Naming Washington” introduces us to a selection of the people whom city planners have deemed important enough to have streets and spaces named after them, bringing attention to their stories and the city’s complex and changing urban fabric. This exhibition is curated by Curator of Photographs Leslie Ureña.

 

Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands

Aug. 27, 2021–May 30, 2022

 

The National Portrait Gallery will present the first retrospective of portraiture by the internationally acclaimed artist Hung Liu (b. 1948 in Changchun, China). Featuring more than 50 paintings, photographs and drawings, “Portraits of Promised Lands” is the first major presentation of Liu’s work the East Coast. It is also the first time the Portrait Gallery will honor an Asian American woman with a solo show. The exhibition will examine Liu’s powerful art, from her earliest photographs and drawings made in the early 1970s to her recent large-scale paintings. Having lived through wars, political revolutions, exile and displacement, Liu presents a complex, multifaceted picture of an Asian Pacific American experience. The exhibition is curated by Dorothy Moss, curator of painting and sculpture and coordinating curator for the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative. It will be accompanied by a catalogue, published by the National Portrait Gallery in association with Yale University Press. “Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands” has been made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor; Fred M. Levin, the Shenson Foundation, in memory of Nancy Livingston Levin and Ben and A. Jess Shenson; and the contributions of many other supporters. In addition, the project received federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.

A virtual press preview with the artist and the curator will be held over Zoom on Aug. 26 from 10 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET. RSVP to kellyb@si.edu.   

 

Upcoming Traveling Exhibitions

 

The Obama Portraits Tour

June 2021–May 2022

For a detailed schedule, visit npg.si.edu/obamaportraitstour

From June 2021 through May 2022, “The Obama Portraits Tour” will travel to five cities, sharing commissioned portraits of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama, by artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively, with millions of people who might not otherwise be able to experience them in person. The five tour locations are the Art Institute of Chicago; the Brooklyn Museum; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga., and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The tour is also accompanied by a richly illustrated companion book, The Obama Portraits, co-published by the National Portrait Gallery and Princeton University Press. “The Obama Portraits Tour” is organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Support for the national tour has been generously provided by Bank of America. A complete list of the museum’s traveling exhibitions and locations can be found on the Portrait Gallery’s website.

Note to editors: The National Portrait Gallery is open Wednesdays through Sundays, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m. at Eighth and G streets N.W. Refer to npg.si.edu/visit for the latest visitor safety guidelines pertaining to COVID-19 and free timed-entry passes for all ages. For film crews, contact the Portrait Gallery’s press office to arrange access and escorts for all crews wishing to film in the galleries. 

 

Select galleries remain closed to the public for renovations until further notice. Visit npg.si.edu before your visit for details. Additional exhibition information is available via the museum’s online press room: http://npg.si.edu/about-us/press-room.