PublicationsThe Outwin 2019

This gemlike publication includes an insightful essay by Dorothy Moss, the director of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and the National Portrait Gallery’s curator of painting and sculpture, and several short texts by the other six jurors (Taína Caragol, Brandon Brame Fortune, Harry Gamboa Jr., Lauren Haynes, Byron Kim, and Jefferson Pinder). With 65 color illustrations, The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today celebrates excellence in the art of portraiture. The featured works were selected through an open call that garnered more than 2,600 entries from artists working across the United States and Puerto Rico. For the first time in the triennial’s history, the museum specifically asked that submissions respond “to the current political and social context,” and this resulting presentation offers perspectives on some of today’s most pressing issues. As the realization of a gift made by Virginia Outwin Boochever (1920–2005) to the Smithhsonian, the competition, the exhibition—and this special book—stand as a testament to the transformative power of one individual to make an impact.

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