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The Touch of Color: Pastels at the National Gallery of Art

September 29, 2019 – January 26, 2020
West Building, Ground Floor, East Outer Tier Galleries

William Merritt Chase, Study of Flesh Color and Gold, 1888, pastel on paper coated with mauve-gray grit (on strainer), overall: 45.7 x 33 cm (18 x 13 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Raymond J. and Margaret Horowitz

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

Known for its brilliant colors and its delicate, velvety texture, pastel is one of the most versatile and beautiful materials in the history of art. Artists have found innumerable ways to use it, from glowing portraits in the eighteenth century to the shimmering landscapes of the impressionists, to the abstract compositions of the twentieth century. Fabricated from a paste of pigment, white opaque filler, and binder, shaped into sticks and dried, pastel is an almost endlessly adaptable medium: it can be used wet or dry, by drawing directly with the intact stick, or by grinding it to a powder and applying it with a brush.

Featuring 64 exquisite examples drawn entirely from the permanent collection, The Touch of Color: Pastels at the National Gallery of Art traces the history of pastel from the Renaissance to the 21st century and examines the many techniques that artists have developed to work with this colorful medium. Included are drawings by eighteenth-century virtuosos such as Rosalba Carriera and Jean-Étienne Liotard; innovative works by Edgar Degas, James McNeill Whistler, and others whose experiments and technical skills revived interest in the medium in the nineteenth century; and rare examples by artists who only took up pastels on occasion, among them Henri Matisse and Roy Lichtenstein. Because pastel is such a fragile medium, these works have seldom, if ever, been exhibited. The Touch of Color will be on view at the National Gallery of Art from September 29, 2019, through January 26, 2020.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Sponsors: The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.

Passes: Admission is always free and passes are not required

Attendance: 96,625

Brochure: The Touch of Color: Pastels at the National Gallery of Art by Stacey Sell. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2019. 

Bassano, Jacopo
Italian, 1510 - 1592
Carriera, Rosalba
Italian, 1675 - 1757
Chase, William Merritt
American, 1849 - 1916
Degas, Edgar
French, 1834 - 1917
Hamilton, Hugh Douglas
Irish, 1739 - 1808
Hassam, Childe
American, 1859 - 1935
Huet, Paul
French, 1803 - 1869
Johns, Jasper
American, 1930 -
Kollwitz, Käthe
German, 1867 - 1945
La Tour, Maurice-Quentin de
French, 1704 - 1788
Labille-Guiard, Adélaïde
French, 1749 - 1803
Lichtenstein, Roy
American, 1923 - 1997
Liotard, Jean-Étienne
Swiss, 1702 - 1789
Luks, George
American, 1866 - 1933
Massad, G. Daniel
American, 1946 -
Matisse, Henri
French, 1869 - 1954
Millet, Jean-François
French, 1814 - 1875
Monet, Claude
French, 1840 - 1926
Perronneau, Jean-Baptiste
French, 1715 - 1783
Pissarro, Camille
French, 1830 - 1903
Shinn, Everett
American, 1873 - 1953
Whistler, James McNeill
American, 1834 - 1903

Lectures
Introduction to the Exhibition—The Touch of Color: Pastels at the National Gallery of Art
September 29 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Gallery Talks
Conversations with Artists: G. Daniel Massad with Eric Denker
November 22 at 11:00 and 2:00
(60 minutes)
West Building Lecture Hall

Watch the program here.