The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

May 3 – September 13, 2015
West Building, Ground Floor, Inner Tier Galleries

Idris Khan, *Houses of Parliament, London,* 2012, digital silver bromide print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2012.30.1, © Idris Khan

Chuck Close, American, born 1940, Kara, 2007, daguerreotype, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund © Chuck Close, courtesy Pace Gallery

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Adam Fuss, British, born 1961, For Allegra, from the series "My Ghost," 2012, daguerreotype, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Carrie Mae Weems, American, born 1953, May Flowers, 2002, chromogenic print, 2013, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund © Carrie Mae Weems, courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Japanese, born 1948, Tri City Drive-In, San Bernardino, 1993, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund © Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy Pace Gallery

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Vera Lutter, German, born 1960, Ca' del Duca Sforza, Venice II: January 13–14, 2008, 2008, three gelatin silver paper negatives, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund © Vera Lutter, courtesy Gagosian Gallery, New York

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Uta Barth, American, born Germany, 1958, …and to draw a bright white line with light (Untitled 11.5), 2011, three inkjet prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, Courtesy of the artist and Tonya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Binh Danh, American, born Vietnam, 1977, Ghost of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum #1, 2008, daguerreotype, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Mark Ruwedel, American, born 1954, Canadian Pacific #3 from Westward the Course of Empire, 2000, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Idris Khan, British, born 1978, Houses of Parliament, London, 2012, digital silver bromide print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund © Idris Khan

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Moyra Davey, Canadian, born 1958, Copperhead #95, 1990, chromogenic print, 2010-2011, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Christian Marclay, American, born 1955, Allover (A Gospel Reunion), 2009, cyanotype, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund © Christian Marclay, courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery

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

Overview: The Memory of Time presents work by contemporary artists who investigate the richness and complexity of photography’s relationship to time, memory, and history. In the last two decades, as the world has undergone an unprecedented technological revolution, photography itself has changed profoundly. With the advent of the digital age, people around the world are recording every aspect of their lives through photography, sharing their pictures with friends and strangers online and through the burgeoning social media. Yet digital photography has not only changed the way people make and circulate photographs, it has also shattered enduring notions of the medium as a faithful witness and recorder of unbiased truths, for now everything in a photograph can be fabricated; nothing need be real. Photography — once understood as verifying specific facts, capturing singular moments of time, and preserving explicit memories — is now recognized to have a multifaceted and slippery relationship to the truth and to the past. By embracing this complexity, contemporary artists have placed photography at the center of a renewed discussion around the construction of history and memory and the perception of time.

The exhibition is divided into five sections: “Traces of History,” “Time Exposed,” “Memory and the Archive,” “Framing Time and Place,” and “Contemporary Ruins.” It features recently acquired works made from the early 1990s to the present by artists who explore these concepts.

Attendance: 120,667

Catalog: The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund. By Sarah Greenough et al. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2015.

Exhibition Feature

Press Release

Exhibition Checklist

Gallery Shops: Exhibition Catalog