Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery News Fall/Winter 2009 from the Director
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PROFILESmithsonian National Portrait Gallery News Fall/Winter 2009 From the Director It’s been a busy time at the National Portrait with past vice presidents Gallery, as you can see from the pages of Profile. —will continue to have Not only has our second Outwin Boochever Portrait a presence on the Web. Mark Gulezian Competition opened to great acclaim—the winning Speaking of the Web, our site has been redesigned image, Laura by Dave Woody, is on the cover and expanded—look inside for further details. —but we have reaped the rewards from the first, Whether you can travel to the Portrait Gallery to 2006, competition as well. That first portrait com- see our recent acquisitions or such weekend pro- petition has resulted in winner David Lenz’s striking grams as Warholapalooza! or see us on the Web— commissioned portrait of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, or both—please also visit the pages inside to keep founder of Special Olympics, along with some of up with some of our activities. the individuals who have participated in her won- All of these programs have a price tag—not derful programs. The Shriver portrait, unveiled only in actual dollars but also in staff time. With this past May, is the Portrait Gallery’s first com- this issue, Profile goes from a three-times-a-year, missioned work that does not depict a president. sixteen-page publication to a twice-a-year, twenty- Frank Goodyear’s new exhibition “Faces of the page publication for reasons of economy and time. Frontier” is the Portrait Gallery’s new venture Originally begun in 2000 as a way to keep in into its substantial collection of portraiture focus- touch with our public while the museum building ing on the history of the West, and it gives us a was closed for renovation, Profile has changed close-up look at such varied individuals as artist with the National Portrait Gallery, now focusing Albert Bierstadt, confectioner Domingo Ghiradelli, on the exhibitions and activities in the revitalized entrepreneur Leland Stanford, and the infamous building. Hole in the Wall gang, led by Butch Cassidy and We would like to dedicate this issue of Profile the Sundance Kid. Meanwhile, our “Portraiture to former staff member Mark Planisek, who wrote Now” series continues to spotlight the work of for these pages in the past. Mark, one of our art contemporary portrait artists with the current ex- handlers, was killed while crossing a street in June. hibition, “Communities,” featuring painters Rose We miss him tremendously. Frantzen, Jim Torok, and Rebecca Westcott. At present, I am awaiting some major unantici- And contrary to popular belief, the end of an pated surgery. The prognosis for a full recovery is exhibition doesn’t signal the end of all of the time excellent. Dr. Brandon Fortune has accepted the and research that went into its development. In position of acting director. I am very grateful to fact, our “One Life—the Mask of Lincoln” show, Brandon and my other Portrait Gallery colleagues, which closed in July, has taken on a new life as part to the members of the National Portrait Gallery of the “Smithsonian in Your Classroom” program. Commission, to Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne And not only can you still see the “Presidents Clough, Under Secretary Richard Kurin, and many in Waiting” exhibition until early January, but other colleagues for their great assistance, encour- its award-winning video component—interviews agement, and generous support. Martin Sullivan, Director PROFILE Contents Vol. 9, no. 4 & vol. 10, no. 1 Martin E. Sullivan Director Fall/Winter 2009 Brandon Fortune Acting Director Carolyn Carr Deputy Director and With this issue, Profile is now published in two volumes per year. Chief Curator Sherri Weil Director of External Affairs 4 15 Nik Apostolides Associate Director of Faces of the Frontier Warholapalooza! Operations Editor 5 16 Dru Dowdy Office of Publications Associate Editor Portraiture Now: Interning at NPG Ann M. Shumard Department of Communities Photographs American Poets Editorial Committee in England Bethany Morookian Office of Development 6 Bentley and External Affairs Life beyond Lincoln 17 Rebecca Kasemeyer Office of Education Ellen G. Miles Department of 7 NPG Online Painting and Sculpture Lizanne Reger Office of Photographic Mr. Vice President 18 Services NPG Exhibitions David C. Ward Department of History 8 Editorial Support Historian’s Choice 20 Maya Foo Editorial Assistant Duke Ellington Design Portrait Puzzlers Naylor Design, Inc. 9 Commission Mallory Walker, chair Jack H. Watson Jr. Curator’s Choice John O. Boochever, William D. Wittliff vice chair Ex Officio Members Will Barnet James T. Bartlett G. Wayne Clough Anthony C. Beilenson Earl A. Powell III Sheryll D. Cashin 10 John G. Roberts Jr. Sally G. Chubb Recent Acquisitions Linda S. Ferber Honorary Ella Milbank Foshay Commissioners Steven K. Hamp Julie Harris 12 Michael Harreld David Levering Lewis Portrait Competition Jill Krementz Bette Bao Lord Roger Mudd Fred W. Smith Update! V. Thahn Nguyen Emeritus Dan Okrent Commissioners 14 James Reinsch Jeannine Smith Clark NPG Unveils Shriver W. Dean Smith Barbara Novak Portrait PROFILE National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution P.O. Box 37012, MRC 973 Washington, DC 20013-7012 Cover: Laura (detail) by Dave Woody, Phone: (202) 633-8300 2007. Collection of the artist E-mail: [email protected] Web site: npg.si.edu © Dave Woody Hours: 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Dave Woody’s photograph won Readers’ comments are welcome. To first prize in the Outwin Boochever receive Profile, please send your name, Portrait Competition 2009. home address, and e-mail address to See pages 12–13. [email protected] or the post office box listed above. Unless otherwise noted, all images are from the National Portrait Gallery collection and are taken by Mark Gulezian. © 2009 Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved. Faces of the Frontier Photographic Portraits from the American West, 1845–1924 “Faces of the Frontier” showcases more than one hun- dred vintage photographic portraits of leading men and women who contributed to the transformation of the American West. Focused on the eighty-year period be- tween the Mexican War and the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, the exhibition highlights such dramatic changes as the completion of the transconti- nental railroad, various conflicts between Native Ameri- cans and non-Natives, and the establishment of the first national parks. The exhibition features photographs of such iconic figures as Red Cloud, George A. Custer, Sam Houston, Calamity Jane, and John Muir, and the images are drawn primarily from the Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection. Red Cloud by Charles Milton Bell, 1880 Above: Calamity Jane by George W. Potter, c. 1896 Left: George A. Custer by an unidentified artist, c. 1860 John Muir by William Dassonville, c. 1910 4 Faces of the Frontier Portraiture Now: Communities Through new electronic networking capabilities, our connections with family, friends, and acquain- tances have become increasingly widespread. And yet, we are still drawn to the idea of small commu- nities and face-to-face interaction. Each of the three painters selected for “Portraiture Now: Communi- ties” has explored this idea through a series of re- lated portraits of friends, townspeople, or families. Rose Frantzen portrayed 180 people from her hometown of Maquoketa, Iowa, over a twelve- month period. Jim Torok creates meticulously ren- dered small-scale portraits. On view will be his por- traits of fellow artists from New York, as well as a series documenting three generations of a single family. Rebecca Westcott, until her untimely death in 2004, created subtle full-length images that merge expressive style with a gritty street-art aes- thetic. Seen together, their paintings suggest the en- during power of personal communities. © Estate of Rebecca Westcott Chi with Atari by Rebecca Westcott, 2004. Shelley Spector and Yvonne Latty © Rose Frantzen Rochelle Ray (from the Portrait of Maquoketa series) by Rose Frantzen, 2005–6. Collection of the artist © Rose Frantzen John Burroughs (from the © Jim Torok Portrait of Maquoketa series) Trenton Doyle Hancock by Jim Torok, 2008. Julie and by Rose Frantzen, 2005–6. John Thornton Collection of the artist Portraiture Now: Communities 5 Life beyond Lincoln: Programming and Outreach Rebecca Kasemeyer and Policies: The Lincoln Presi- Director of Education dency,” took place at both insti- Organizing a museum exhibi- tutions. The thirty-five attending tion takes a lot of effort for educators began the day with an many people, and the resulting exhibition tour by Ward. After- show usually stays up no more ward, participants worked in than six months. Although the groups to craft their own lesson success of NPG’s now-closed plans centered around Lincoln’s exhibition celebrating the bicen- legacy. After lunch in the Don- tennial of Abraham Lincoln’s ald W. Reynolds Center’s Kogod birth—“One Life: The Mask of Courtyard, the group visited Lincoln” (November 7, 2008– Lincoln’s Cottage. There, par- July 5, 2009)—comes as no sur- ticipants were given a tour by prise, another pleasant outcome curator Erin Mast and led has been the programming and through a demonstration of an outreach inspired by the exhibi- interactive “Lincoln’s Cabinet” tion, which examines how the sixteenth president program in which they played the roles of mem- used photography to convey his image to Ameri- bers of Lincoln’s cabinet and discussed events re- cans. In addition to gallery tours for school lated to the Emancipation Proclamation. groups and adults, the Portrait Gallery produced NPG staff also created a comprehensive Web site many programs and educational materials that (www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/lincoln/) that features high- are available online and have remained accessible lights from the exhibition, lesson plans for use in after the closing of the exhibition.