Roots and Links: Gifts from the Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art

For nearly sixty years, the Women’s Committee has been one of the key drivers in building the Corcoran’s collection of contemporary art. Roots and Links brings together a selection of photographs and works on paper in a thematic exploration of identity, portraiture, and self-expression. The exhibition’s title, Roots and Links, refers to the Committee’s foundational role in growing the contemporary collection, and is a nod to one of their most daring and prescient gifts. Kara Walker's Roots, Links, Inc. (1997), is a cut paper work that addresses racial stereotypes, andprompts self-examination through an awareness of history and our roles in it. Related issues of perception and representation are echoed in this grouping of diverse work that includes Elizabeth Murray’s cartoonish near-abstraction, Lorna Simpson's consideration of ritual transformation, and Cindy Sherman's identity study, alongside revealing self-portraits by Manon Cleary, Chuck Close, Susan Hauptman, and Glenn Ligon.