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The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Past Exhibition

July 10 – October 31, 2022
East Building, Concourse Galleries

When two forms or images are presented together, our eyes can’t help but compare them. We “see double” and identify differences and similarities. The art of the double causes us to see ourselves seeing.

The Double is the first major exhibition to consider how and why modern and contemporary artists have employed doubled formats to explore perceptual, conceptual, and psychological themes. From Matisse, Duchamp, and Gorky to Rauschenberg, Johns, Warhol, Truitt, and Hesse, this multimedia presentation features works by many of today’s leading artists, including Kerry James Marshall, Glenn Ligon, Roni Horn, and Yinka Shonibare.

Through art, The Double explores enduring questions of identity and difference, especially self-identity as defined by our own unconscious, by society, and by race, gender, and sexuality.

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Selected Works

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Rashid Johnson, The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Emmett), 2008, printed 2022, chromogenic print, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Funds from Ryan E. Lee and Lee Group Holdings (LGH), Heather and Jim Johnson Fund, Kend Family Fund, and Peter Edwards and Rose Gutfeld Fund

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Arshile Gorky, The Artist and His Mother, c. 1926–1936, oil on canvas, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of Julien Levy for Maro and Natasha Gorky in memory of their father © 2021 The Arshile Gorky Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

A young boy with pink and tan-colored skin stands next to a seated woman with an ashen white face, and both look out at us in this vertical portrait painting. The scene is created with broad areas of mottled color in rust and coral red, pale pink, lilac purple, ivory white, and shades of tawny brown. The eyes of both people are heavily outlined with large, dark pupils. To our right, the woman’s pale, oval face is surrounded by a muted, mint-green cloth that covers her hair and wraps across her neck. Her eyes are outlined with charcoal gray, and her heavy lids shaded under arched brows with smoky, plum purple. She has a straight nose, and her burgundy-red lips are closed in a straight line. Her long, rose-pink dress is lavender purple below the knee, and is scrubbed with darker pink strokes across her lap. Her sleeves are tan on the upper arms and cream white on the forearm, over two blush-pink forms that represent her hands resting on her thighs. Along the top of her shoulders, her dress is terracotta red. A rectangular, fog-gray form behind her could be a chair or a half-wall, the top edge of which is higher to our right of her head. To our left, the boy has dark brown, short hair over putty pink, protruding ears. The area between his eyelid and arched brow is filled in with chocolate brown, giving his staring eyes a hooded look. His jawline, chin, and lips are outlined with dark brown. His khaki-brown, knee-length coat has pale, rose-pink sleeves and a black collar. An area of pale, ice blue could be a kerchief or high-collared shirt, and he wears fawn-brown pants. One of his slippers is coffee brown and the other, closer to the woman, is slate gray. He holds a loosely painted, pale, turquoise-blue object in one hand at his waist. The pair are situated against a background painted in areas of coral, ruby, crimson, and wine red. Two vertical, concrete-gray strips behind the boy and woman could be columns. The floor along the bottom edge of the painting is pale pink.

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Arshile Gorky, The Artist and His Mother, c. 1926–c. 1942, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund © 1997 The Estate of Arshile Gorky / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Robert Rauschenberg, Factum I, 1957, oil, ink, pencil, crayon, paper, fabric, newspaper, printed reproductions, and printed paper on canvas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Panza Collection © 2021 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Robert Rauschenberg, Factum II, 1957, oil, ink, pencil, crayon, paper, fabric, newspaper, printed reproductions, and printed paper on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase and an anonymous gift and Louise Reinhardt Smith Bequest (both by exchange), 206.1999. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Seydou Keita, Untitled, 1953–1957, modern gelatin silver print © Seydou Keïta/SKPEAC

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Alighiero Boetti, Gemelli (Zwei), 1974–1975, photograph on paper, Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels © Alighiero Boetti by SIAE 2022

Ten black, horizontal, rectangular panels are hung evenly spaced in a vertical stack above a larger red rectangle, and those eleven pieces are flanked by two identical, round, black and white photographs that are almost as tall as the stacked panels. Each of the ten black panels bear a single word in lowercase, white letters. From top to bottom, they read, “ring,” “surround,” “lasso,” “noose,” “eye,” “areola,” “halo,” “cuffs,” “collar,” and “loop.” The red panel is inscribed, also with white, lowercase letters, “feel the ground sliding from under you.” Each of the two round photographs is framed with a narrow black band and shows the full lips, narrow chin, collarbone, and chest of a Black person. The person wears a white scooped neck top that creates a crescent moon shape at the bottom of the image.

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Lorna Simpson, Untitled (Two Necklines), 1989, gelatin silver prints and plastic plaques, National Gallery of Art, Gift of the Collectors Committee © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Janine Antoni, Mom and Dad, 1994, Cibachrome triptych, Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York. Image: © Janine Antoni, Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Glenn Ligon, Double America, 2012, neon and paint, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Agnes Gund

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

George Platt Lynes, Portrait of René Crevel, 1928, modern silver gelatin print, From the Collections of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University. All rights reserved.

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

The exhibition is curated by James Meyer, curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art

Sponsors
The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation has provided major support for the exhibition.

It is also generously supported by Dr. Mihael Polymeropoulos and Mrs. Mahy D. Polymeropoulos.

It is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Additional funding is provided by the Tower Project of the National Gallery of Art.

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required

Banner detail: Alighiero Boetti, Gemelli (Zwei), 1974–1975, photograph on paper, Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels © Alighiero Boetti by SIAE 2022