National Portrait Gallery: Current Exhibitions

Current Exhibitions / Traveling Exhibitions

While the National Portrait Gallery's home in Washington, D.C. undergoes renovation, several major exhibitions will tour locally, nationally and internationally during the next four years. Some of these exhibitions will be available to our local audience as well at the Smithsonian's International Gallery on the Mall.

Traveling Exhibitions / National and Local

Janis Joplin
(1943-1970)

Women of Our Time
Twentieth–Century Photographs from the National Portrait Gallery

Upcoming Venue:
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum
College Station, Texas
October 8, 2004—January 2, 2005

The exhibition highlights a variety of American women of the twentieth century. These iconic images include studio portraits, glamorous publicity shots, press photographs, fashion photographs, advertising images, and amateur snapshots.

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Exhibition itinerary
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

George Washington
The "Lansdowne" portrait

George Washington : A National Treasure
Final Venue:
Arkansas Art Center
Little Rock, Arkansas
April 23, 2004 through August 22, 2004
The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, celebrates our nation's first president--the man, the icon, the hero. As Gilbert Stuart's original portrait of George Washington travels across the country for the first time, Americans of all ages will be able to experience the most important visual document of our nation's founding. This interactive web site allows you to explore the enduring legacy of George Washington. Washington changed the world. Find out how.

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Learn more about the painting's acquisition
Visit the Arkansas Arts Center

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
(1929-1994)
American Women
A Selection from the National Portrait Gallery
Upcoming Venue:
Naples Museum of Art Naples, FL
Naples, Florida
January 7, 2005—April 3, 2005
The likenesses included in this installation have been culled from the Gallery’s more than five thousand images of women portrayed in a variety of media-from oils and sculpture to photographs and prints. The pieces date from colonial times to the modern day. But most noteworthy is the range of individual accomplishment that these portraits embody.

View images from this exhibition
Exhibition itinerary

Traveling Exhibitions / Tours Completed

Carl Sandberg
(1878-1967)
A Brush with History
Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery
This exhibition has completed its national tour but it may be viewed online.
"A Brush with History: Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery" features heroes, writers, statesmen, inventors, educators, musicians, artists, and scientists of America's past. These paintings comprise a who's who of American history and culture while delving into the biographies of these great American lives.

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Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)

Eye Contact: Modern American Portrait Drawings
Selections from the National Portrait Gallery
This exhibition has completed its national tour but it may be viewed online.

This exhibit celebrates fifty masterpieces on paper highlighting famed Americans of the past century by legendary artists. Recognizable subjects are coupled with the appeal of popular mediums such as watercolors, pen and ink, crayon, charcoal, and pastel.

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Jackson Pollock
(1912-1956)

Portrait of the Art World
A Century of ARTnews Photographs
This exhibition has completed its national tour but it may be viewed online.
A virtual who's who of the twentieth–century art world will be on view beginning in September 2002. The exhibition, a collaboration between the National Portrait Gallery and ARTnews, celebrates the one–hundredth anniversary of the the country's oldest art magazine. The national tour of the exhibition is made possible through support from AXA Art Insurance Corporation.

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Ronald Reagan (born 1911)

Portraits of the Presidents
from the National Portrait Gallery
This exhibition has completed its national tour but it may be viewed online.
The sixty-one paintings, sculptures, photographs, medals, and other likenesses in "Portraits of the Presidents" are a testament to the public's enduring fascination with the office of the presidency and the men who have held it.

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