| Have an artful end to summer with August programs and exhibitions at SAAM. |
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Featured Program
Take 5: Jazz at SAAM with Alex Hamburger
Thursday, August 15, 5–7 p.m. Smithsonian American Art Museum
Kogod Courtyard
Free | Registration encouraged Celebrate a uniquely American art form with Take 5: Jazz at SAAM, a series of free, live performances in the Kogod Courtyard. Alex Hamburger is a flutist, vocalist, and composer from the Washington, DC, area. Last year, her sophomore album What If? debuted, exploring the ideas of perception, transition, and the boundaries of human experience.
Borrow a board game to play during the concert and stop by the Courtyard Café to purchase refreshments. |
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Art Bites Gallery Talk
Friday, August 23, 12:15 p.m.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Free | Meet in the G Street Lobby Join SAAM’s research fellows for this lunchtime series of gallery talks as they share new discoveries about artworks on view. Learn the stories behind these objects and how each one tells us about an ever-changing culture in the United States. Phillipa Pitts, Wyeth Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, explores Albert Bierstadt’s Among the Sierra Nevada, California. |
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| | | | Exhibitions You Don’t Want to Miss |
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| | Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas
Closes August 4 Alma Thomas is a singular figure in the story of twentieth-century American art. Her vibrant, rhythmic art transcended established genres, incorporating elements of gestural abstraction and color field painting. The 20 featured paintings provide an intimate view of Alma Thomas’ evolving artistic practices during her most prolific period from 1959 to her death in 1978. |
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| | Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women
Closes August 26 Discover the intersection of tradition and innovation through stunning quilts. In the late nineteenth century, Amish women adopted an art form already established within the larger American culture and made it distinctly their own. Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women explores the creative practice of these quilters in the United States who looked beyond quilting as a utilitarian practice, twinning the plain with the spectacular. |
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| | Fighters for Freedom: William H Johnson Picturing Justice
Closes September 10 Explore William H. Johnson's Fighters for Freedom series. Painted in the mid-1940s, the works are a tribute to African American activists, scientists, teachers, and performers as well as international leaders working to bring peace to the world. Johnson celebrated their accomplishments even as he acknowledged the realities of racism, violence, and oppression they faced and overcame. Fighters for Freedom reminds us that individual achievement and commitment to social justice are at the heart of the American story. |
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The Smithsonian American Art Museum is able to create and share experiences like these thanks to funding from generous supporters like you. Thank you for ensuring that American art is available to all. Donate to support SAAM. |
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Image credits: Alex Hamburger; Photo by Nick Moreland
Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Helen Huntington Hull, granddaughter of William Brown Dinsmore, who acquired the painting in 1873 for "The Locusts," the family estate in Dutchess County, New York, 1977.107.1
Alma Thomas, The Eclipse, 1970, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1978.40.3
Unidentified Maker, Crazy Star (detail); ca. 1920, Arthur, Illinois, cotton and wool, Collection of Faith and Stephen Brown, Promised gift to the Smithsonian American Art Museum
William H. Johnson, Harriet Tubman, ca. 1945, oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.1146 |
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