SAAM Stories

With the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art on the road, I found myself missing an old favorite from the exhibit and permanent collection, Radiante, by Olga Albizu.

This post is part of an ongoing series on Eye Level: Q and Art, where American Art's Research department brings you interesting questions and answers about art and artists from our archive.

American Art's sculpture curator, Karen Lemmey, talks about the museum's recent acquisition by Donald Judd.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery are excited to welcome acclaimed pianist Andrew E. Simpson to the museums this Sunday to premiere his original score for the 1925 version of Ben Hur, a film that nearly disappeared from history. Dr. Simpson has performed at the museums before, wowing audiences with his original compositions for Wings (1927) and The Wind (1928). Ben Hur with Andrew E. Simpson will screen Sunday, May 18, 2014 at 1 p.m., McEvoy Auditorium, Lower Level. Free tickets in the G street Lobby at 12:30 p.m. Limit 2 tickets per person. In anticipation of the program, Programs Coordinator Alli Jessing chatted with Dr. Simpson about the film, his music and "lost cinema."

Mark your calendars, another Luce Unplugged Community Showcase is upon us! Next Friday, May 16th, the Luce Foundation Center will once again host a night of art and live music from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Ralph Fasanella was born in the Bronx in 1914 and grew up in various working class neighborhoods of New York City. He was the son of Italian immigrants, who had come to the United States just a few years before his birth in search of a better life for their family. The booming industrial society was fueled by the cheap labor of immigrants. Assembly-line manufacturing allowed for mass production and unprecedented growth, but the costs were often high for laborers. As the twentieth-century advanced, unregulated and unsafe working conditions led increasingly to structured protest and worker unification.

As part of the museum's new after work series of curator talks focusing on the permanent collection, "Tour the Floor—What to See on Three," Michael Mansfield, curator of film and media arts, spoke to an assembled group on the current iteration of Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image.

The American Art Museum is celebrating Ella Fitzgerald's birthday, April 25, with a special tribute concert in the museum's Kogod Courtyard. Laurel Fehrenbach, public programs coordinator, spoke with Fran Morris Rosman, the executive director of The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation in Los Angeles about the upcoming event and Ella Fitzgerald's legacy.

Melanie Pyle and Joel Lemp are horticulturists with Smithsonian Gardens, and they lead tours through the garden growing in American Art's Kogod Courtyard. The natural beauty of the plants complements the art in our museum so well. This spring they will lead tours through the courtyard on Thursday, April 24 at 10:30 a.m. and Thursday, May 22 at 2:30 p.m.. Katie Crooks, public program coordinator, spoke with Pyle and Lemp about the gardening at the Smithsonian.

Last week American Art's exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art opened at The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University in Miami, the first stop on a multi-city journey across the country.

The weather in American Art's Lincoln Gallery has gotten a bit cloudier, thanks to the addition of April Gornik's 1992 painting, Virga. Its dramatic swirls of cumulus that dip like a crow's wing over troubled water depict a storm brewing on the horizon. The painting is a recent gift to the museum from James F. Dicke II, the sponsor of the museum's annual lecture in contemporary art that bears his name.

Pop Art Prints has just opened in American Art's graphic arts galleries. The installation showcases thirty-seven works from the museum's extensive holdings of works on paper from the 1960s and 1970s. The featured prints are bold, bright, and filled with references to popular culture. Four lively prints by James Rosenquist are showcased in the installation.

Most people, if they're going to fall anywhere in the vicinity of paradise, are likely to fall from it. Bill Viola's installation from 2005, The Fall into Paradise shows a couple who seem to have reversed the process and entered their own private Eden.

Today, for our second Visitor's Choice, we spoke with local artist Cory Oberndorfer.

A challenging theme has developed in Jessica Ford's projects at the Lunder Conservation Center: tape! In painting conservation, adhesive tape is not usually encountered during examination or treatment. However, in contemporary art the use of unconventional materials is rarely surprising. At times, tape was applied by painters to frame the edges of paintings or to guide a straight line. Michael Goldberg's Sardines uses a different approach and prominently features adhesive tape as part of the painting's composition.

Spring arrives today! And most people can't wait to shed their layers and bask in the sweet sunlight.

Leigh Pilzer is one of the best and busiest saxophonists in the DC area. She will be part of the Washington Women in Jazz Festival Quintet performing on the Take 5! stage this Thursday, March 20th from 5-8 p.m. in the Kogod Courtyard. This month's concert celebrates Women's History Month with a tribute to Melba Liston.

As a Smithsonian Institution Fellow in Paper Conservation, Im Chan is spending the year in The Lunder Conservation Center's paper conservation lab studying and treating works on paper by William H. Johnson. American Art's collection, which has approximately 800 works on paper by this prolific artist, is an ideal place to study these works.