The American Evolution
A History through Art
Through July 27, 2008

A display of nearly 200 objects from the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s world-renowned collection of American art, The American Evolution: A History through Art focuses on five overarching themes that have shaped American culture: Money, Land, Politics, Cultural Exchange, and The Modern World. These themes are fundamental to the way that the United States has developed, and to the stories we tell about ourselves. From Gilbert Stuart’s stately 18th-century portrait of George Washington to Andy Warhol’s irreverent 1973 likeness of the Chinese leader Mao Zedong, and from Frederic Edwin Church’s dramatic 1857 view from the brink of Niagara Falls to Richard Diebenkorn’s 1975 abstract rendering of the suburban expanses of Ocean Park, California, The American Evolution explores many of the ways that American life and art have evolved over 250 years.

Chance Encounters
Photographs from the Collection of Norman Carr and Carolyn Kinder Carr
Through June 22, 2008

Presenting 60 images selected from an exceptional private collection of street photography, Chance Encounters includes work by such pre-eminent American and European photographers as Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Lisette Model, Paul Strand, Weegee (Arthur Fellig), and Garry Winogrand.

Standard Operating Procedure
Photographs by Nubar Alexanian
Through June 2, 2008

Representing Alexanian’s ongoing collaboration with director Errol Morris, these photographs were taken on the set of Standard Operating Procedure, examining the events at Abu Ghraib prison through the eyes of the American soldiers involved in the scandal.

From the Permanent Collection:

Sight/Insight
People and Places, Recent Acquisitions of Photography and Media Arts
Through July 13, 2008

As part of an ongoing series of photography collection exhibitions, Sight/Insight: People and Places, Recent Acquisitions of Photography and Media Arts celebrates the collectors and donors who continue to enrich the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Presenting contemporary and traditional works along with experimental and conventional subjects, this exhibition reveals the diversity that has come to typify the photographic portrait and landscape. With an often-humanist perspective, many of these pictures call attention to political and cultural life, collective histories and personalities, and race, gender, and class issues, as well as the experimental nature of the photographic medium. Featuring artists like Shimon Attie, Brassaï (Gyula Halasz), William Christenberry, Kenneth Josephson, Mary Ellen Mark, Richard Misrach, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Adi Nes, Torborn Rodland, Shomei Tomatsu, and Minor White, among others, this exhibition explores the breadth of the Corcoran’s expanding collection.

Treasures of European
Decorative Art and Sculpture
On View Now

This exhibition features major works of European decorative arts from the Corcoran’s permanent collection.

The European Landscape
On View Now

This exhibition features landscape paintings from the 17th to 19th centuries by major artists from the permanent collection of the Corcoran and will explore themes of idealism, romanticism, and realism.

College Exhibitions:

2008 BFA Senior Thesis Exhibitions
Through May 26, 2008

The 2008 BFA Senior Thesis Exhibitions consist of a series of week-long, rotating exhibitions in Gallery 31, featuring photojournalism, photography, graphic design, digital media design and fine art produced by members of the graduating class, grouped by major. Seniors in the College’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program are responsible for all aspects of their thesis exhibitions, from exhibition design to installation—an experience vital to the students’ professional and artistic development.

2008 All-Senior Exhibition
Through May 26, 2008

In May, the Corcoran showcases work by the next generation of America’s artists. The individual Senior Thesis Exhibitions culminate in the annual All-Senior Exhibition. Presented in the Rotunda and several upstairs galleries of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, this exhibition provides a unique opportunity for seniors at the Corcoran College of Art + Design to show their work in a major museum setting. It also provides a fitting partner to the Corcoran’s current exhibition, The American Evolution: A History through Art, by showing a glimpse of the future of American art.

The exhibition represents all disciplines and features work by every student graduating from the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program. It is a celebration of the accomplishments of our graduating seniors, as well as an indication of the high quality of the Corcoran’s undergraduate program.