N A TIO NAL G ALL E R Y O F A R T 2017 ANNUAL REPORT ART & EDUCATION W. Russell G. Byers Jr. Board of Trustees COMMITTEE Buffy Cafritz (as of September 30, 2017) Frederick W. Beinecke Calvin Cafritz Chairman Leo A. Daly III Earl A. Powell III Louisa Duemling Mitchell P. Rales Aaron Fleischman Sharon P. Rockefeller Juliet C. Folger David M. Rubenstein Marina Kellen French Andrew M. Saul Whitney Ganz Sarah M. Gewirz FINANCE COMMITTEE Lenore Greenberg Mitchell P. Rales Rose Ellen Greene Chairman Andrew S. Gundlach Steven T. Mnuchin Secretary of the Treasury Jane M. Hamilton Richard C. Hedreen Frederick W. Beinecke Sharon P. Rockefeller Frederick W. Beinecke Sharon P. Rockefeller Helen Lee Henderson Chairman President David M. Rubenstein Kasper Andrew M. Saul Mark J. Kington Kyle J. Krause David W. Laughlin AUDIT COMMITTEE Reid V. MacDonald Andrew M. Saul Chairman Jacqueline B. Mars Frederick W. Beinecke Robert B. Menschel Mitchell P. Rales Constance J. Milstein Sharon P. Rockefeller John G. Pappajohn Sally Engelhard Pingree David M. Rubenstein Mitchell P. Rales David M. Rubenstein Tony Podesta William A. Prezant TRUSTEES EMERITI Diana C. Prince Julian Ganz, Jr. Robert M. Rosenthal Alexander M. Laughlin Hilary Geary Ross David O. Maxwell Roger W. Sant Victoria P. Sant B. Francis Saul II John Wilmerding Thomas A. Saunders III Fern M. Schad EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Leonard L. Silverstein Frederick W. Beinecke Albert H. Small President Andrew M. Saul John G. Roberts Jr. Michelle Smith Chief Justice of the Earl A. Powell III United States Director Benjamin F. Stapleton III Franklin Kelly Luther M. Stovall Deputy Director and Alexa Davidson Suskin Chief Curator Christopher V. Walker Darrell R. Willson William L Walton Administrator Walter L. Weisman William W. McClure Treasurer John R. West Nancy Robinson Breuer Dian Woodner Secretary and General Counsel Elizabeth Cropper Dean, Center for Advanced Study HONORARY TRUSTEES’ Rex W. Tillerson Steven T. Mnuchin in the Visual Arts COUNCIL (as of September 30, 2017) Secretary of State Secretary of the Treasury Edwin L. Cox TRUSTEES’ COUNCIL (as of September 30, 2017) Doris Fisher Benjamin R. Jacobs Julian Ganz, Jr. Jo Carole Lauder Alexander M. Laughlin Cochairs David O. Maxwell Adrienne Arsht Victoria P. Sant Max N. Berry John Wilmerding Louise Bryson Vincent J. Buonanno David J. Skorton Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART Washington, DC Fiscal Year 2017 President’s Foreword The sustained operation of the National Gallery of Art and Jo Carole Lauder as its new cochairs. We are fortunate to have the display and presentation of its collection are the result of Ben’s and Jo Carole’s guidance and commitment in this lead- significant teamwork by the public and private sectors. Since ership position. It is a pleasure to welcome back to the Trustees’ its founding, the museum has flourished through a strong part- Council Calvin Cafritz, Vincent J. Buonanno, Marina Kellen French, nership between the federal government and private donors. and Roger Sant. We also are delighted to have three new members: The Gallery relies on federal funds to be open and free of charge Sarah M. Gewirz, Jacqueline B. Mars, and Hilary Geary Ross. My 363 days a year. The trustees and staff are deeply appreciative fellow trustees and I extend our sincere gratitude to all the mem- of the President and the Congress of the United States for their bers of the Trustees’ Council for their service, support, and counsel. continuing commitment to this institution and its visitors. In 2017, we were deeply saddened by the loss of Anna-Maria In this past fiscal year we have welcomed visitors back to the Kellen. She and her husband, former Trustees’ Council member East Building, to galleries extensively renovated and expanded. Stephen Kellen, contributed to art acquisition at the Gallery More galleries have been open in our two buildings than ever through the Patrons’ Permanent Fund, and the Anna-Maria and before, and more than five million people visited the Gallery Stephen Kellen Foundation sponsored several of the Gallery’s during the past twelve months. Every member of the Gallery most popular exhibitions of the past fifteen years. This year, we staff deserves appreciation for this resounding success and also mourned the loss of David Rockefeller. Another close friend public engagement we have experienced. of the Gallery, David was a founding member of the Collectors The significant support of the federal government is comple- Committee and a major art donor to the Gallery. He bequeathed mented by private patronage of citizens whose gifts support and Camille Pissarro’s beautiful Landscape at Les Pâtis, Pontoise to enhance essential programs that advance the Gallery’s purpose the Gallery. to collect, preserve, and exhibit art, and foster appreciation and The philanthropy of private donors is essential to the growth engagement with works of art. Following its 75th-anniversary of the nation’s art collection. We are immensely grateful to year, the Gallery continued its efforts to meet the goal set by The individuals, such as Juliet and Lee Folger, who continue to enrich Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2016: to match the foundation’s the Gallery’s collection through their generous contributions for $30 million endowment grant with $45 million additional private the acquisition of works of art. In fiscal year 2017, the Gallery endowment funds. Many friends and patrons of the Gallery have acquired three masterworks with the support of The Lee and made commitments, both large and small, to help the museum Juliet Folger Fund: A Woman Feeding a Parrot, with a Page raise three-quarters of the matching funds. These contributions by Caspar Netscher, Imaginary River Landscape by Herman will support digital initiatives and collaborations, education Saftleven, and Dunes by the Sea by Jacob van Ruisdael. The and outreach programs, scholarly research, art conservation, trustees join me in extending our grateful thanks to the Folgers and other priorities of the Gallery. We are exceedingly grateful to for their continuing commitment to the museum’s outstanding all who have generously given or committed endowment funds to collection of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings. these key areas, among them were major leadership gifts in this The trustees are also deeply grateful to Mallory and Diana fiscal year from David M. Rubenstein, Christiane and James Valone, Walker for establishing the largest charitable gift annuity ever the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation, the Samuel H. Kress to the Gallery. Since the Gallery began to collect photographs Foundation, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, Louisa C. Duemling, actively in 1990, the Walkers have been champions of our pho- Sharon Percy Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller IV, the Edmond tography program. Their planned gift reinforces and expands J. Safra Foundation, Victoria and Roger Sant, and the estate of their commitment to the acquisition of photographs and to Jeanne R. Zeydel. The early success of this initiative is a glowing special exhibitions of photography. example of the power and generosity of private philanthropy. The Gallery must rely on private donors in order to provide The Trustees’ Council has played an important role in this effective educational programs that serve the metropolitan com- initiative. The Council has welcomed Benjamin R. Jacobs and munity. We thank The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation 4 NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART and its president and CEO, Calvin Cafritz, for their pledge to sup- The Circle, the Tower Project, the Exhibition Circle, and the port future educational series—Sketching is Seeing, Community Collectors Committee form the collective of annual giving pro- Celebration, and Evenings at the Edge—reflecting the Cafritz grams at the Gallery. These philanthropic groups are essential Foundation’s enduring commitment to funding outreach activities to the success of many of the Gallery’s priorities. In addition to that benefit the Washington community. We are also extremely the exhibition sponsors already mentioned, we thank all the grateful to The Walton Family Foundation for its generosity in estab- members of the Exhibition Circle for their annual gifts that lishing the John Wilmerding Fund for Education in American Art. help support the special exhibitions program at the Gallery. The The Gallery’s special exhibitions program, generously sup- Collectors Committee continues to expand the Gallery’s holdings ported by foundations, individuals, corporations, and members of contemporary art. The generosity of this group enabled the of the Exhibition Circle, continued to engage the public. The Gallery to acquire two outstanding works this fiscal year: Felix trustees join me in expressing our appreciation to all special Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (Ross in L.A.), also in part a gift of exhibition sponsors, including Sally Engelhard Pingree and The Emily and Mitchell Rales; and Jack Whitten’s Sphinx Alley II, a gift Charles Engelhard Foundation, and the Buffy and William Cafritz of Kyle J. and Sharon Krause, and Chris and Lois Madison as well. Family Foundation for their support of Della Robbia: Sculpting The Tower Project continued its support of contemporary art with Color in Renaissance Florence. We are grateful to Betsy exhibitions in 2017 with the exhibition In the Tower: Theaster Karel and the Trellis Fund for their sponsorship of the exhibition Gates: The Minor Arts. We extend our sincere gratitude to the East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape more than one thousand Circle members who provide important Photography. In the spring, Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of unrestricted funds each year for the Gallery’s core programs and Impressionism introduced many visitors to a relatively unknown to all who contribute to the museum’s annual giving programs. figure in French impressionism. This exhibition was made pos- We also appreciate the generosity and foresight of members of sible by the leadership support of The Leonard and Elaine the Legacy Circle who have provided for the Gallery with various Silverstein Family Foundation; major support was also provided planned giving vehicles in our recent fiscal year.