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Exhibitions

upcoming

Come be inspired by the Corcoran Gallery of Art's expansive collections, dynamic exhibitions, and innovative programs and events.

NOW at the Corcoran
Opens September 11

NOW at the Corcoran is a series of exhibitions that presents new and site-specific work by emerging and mid-career artists. It highlights work that addresses issues central to the local, national, and global communities of Washington, D.C., and that responds to the collections, history, and architecture of the museum. Click here to learn more about NOW’s upcoming exhibitions.

Spencer Finch: My Business, with the Cloud
September 11, 2010–January 23, 2011

Chris Martin
June 18–October 23, 2011

From the Permanent Collection

Modern and Contemporary Art Since 1945
Opens September 11

The new permanent collection installation highlights the strengths of the modern and contemporary art holdings. These galleries provide a sense of the breadth of practice and the range of ideas that animate postwar and contemporary art. Major works by Lee Bontecou, Robert Colescott, Ellsworth Kelly, Bruce Nauman, Ernesto Neto, Jessica Stockholder, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol are presented, some of which have never been shown before.

A portion of the display is devoted to work by artists living in Washington, D.C. and the surrounding region. It addresses some of the core developments in art from the past few decades, as well as concerns that arise directly from the life and culture of Washington, D.C. Drawn primarily from the collection, it includes works by Jefferson Pinder, Robin Rose, Jim Sanborn, and Yuriko Yamaguchi, among others.

Photography and Media Arts
Opens September 11

The Corcoran Gallery of Art was among the first museums in the United States to acquire photographs, beginning with Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion and the Wheeler Survey album in the late-19th century. The museum began collecting photographs in earnest in the 1970s, and has since acquired works in a variety of media made between the late-19th century and the present day. The collection now includes more than 6,500 photographic, video, and digital works, which together reflect diverse ideas and styles important to the evolution of various media.

Two galleries in the museum are dedicated to showcasing works from the Photography and Media Arts collection in a series of rotating exhibitions. On display in Fall 2010 are recently acquired photographs of Afghanistan and Pakistan by Edward Grazda. The pictures, made between 1980 and 1984, document this region in the Middle East shortly after the outbreak of the Soviet-Afghan War. Also on view is a group of photographs exploring how genres such as photojournalism, documentary, and fine art photography often intersect, as well as how photography converges with other art forms such as literature and cinema. Significant works by such photographers as Walker Evans, Jim Goldberg, Danny Lyon, Mary Ellen Mark, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Gilles Peress, Alec Soth, and others will be featured.

30 Americans
Fall 2011

30 Americans is a wide-ranging survey of work by many of the most important African-American artists of the last three decades. Selected from the Rubell Family Collection, the exhibition brings together seminal figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Hammons with younger and emerging artists such as Kehinde Wiley and Shinique Smith. Often provocative and challenging, 30 Americans focuses on issues of racial, sexual, and historical identity in contemporary culture. It explores how each artist reckons with the notion of black identity in America, navigating such concerns as the struggle for civil rights, popular culture, and media imagery. At the same time, it highlights artistic community and influence, tracing subject matter and formal strategies across generations.

Learn more