‘An open letter to the nation’: National Gallery of Art reckons with America at 250
National Gallery of Art, Washington DCAn exhibition of almost 100 artists, from Gordon Parks to Roy Lichtenstein, positions the US as ‘a living idea that’s shaped by many voices’Set foot...
By David Smith in Washington · The Guardian Culture
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC An exhibition of almost 100 artists, from Gordon Parks to Roy Lichtenstein, positions the US as ‘a living idea that’s shaped by many voices’ Set foot in the National Gallery of Art’s exhibition marking America’s 250th birthday and it is immediately clear this is not the kind of jingoistic, flag-waving orgy that Donald Trump is plotting for 4 July. There, to be sure, is the Statue of Liberty, but not as millions of tourists know it. Instead the statue is evoked by an image of a Black woman from the South African photographer Zanele Muholi and by a colour screenprint – geometric planes and shapes against a backdrop of diagonal purple stripes – from Roy Lichtenstein. Continue reading...