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Celebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art: Recent Gifts

November 1, 2015 – March 13, 2016
West Building, Ground Floor, Inner Tier Galleries

Rineke Dijkstra, Self-portrait, Marnixbad, Amsterdam, June 19, 1991, 1991, chromogenic print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of The Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art, © 2015 Rineke Dijkstra, Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: This exhibition will highlight a selection of photographs donated in honor of the 25th anniversary of the National Gallery’s photography's collection. Marking the culmination of a year-long celebration of photography at the museum, this installation brings together an exquisite group of gifts, ranging from innovative photographs made in the earliest years of the medium’s history to key works by important 20th-century artists and contemporary pieces that examine the ways in which photography continues to shape our experience of the modern world. The exhibition will be accompanied by a major publication celebrating 25 years of photography at the National Gallery of Art.

The curators of this exhibition are Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, and Sarah Kennel, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art.

Sponsors: The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Trellis Fund.
 
It is also made possible by the Ryna and Melvin Cohen Family Foundation.
 
Additional funding is kindly provided by Kate and Wes Mitchell.

Attendance: 88,057

One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, 1998–2002
In the aftermath of her mother’s unsolved murder, Deborah Luster became obsessed with the effects of violence and crime on families and society. In 1998, she began a multiyear project making portraits of inmates at several prisons in Louisiana, including the maximum-security penitentiary at Angola, where many serve life sentences. 

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