5 Fast Facts

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.
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5 Fast Facts: Beverly Buchanan

Posted: October 6, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Happy birthday to artist Beverly Buchanan, who was born on October 8, 1940! Impress your friends with five fast facts about Buchanan (1940–2015), whose work is part of NMWA’s collection.
A colorful oil pastel work rendered in a basic, child-like style, depicting two square, red shacks with gray roofs and short, gray stilt bottoms sit atop a yellow ground and against a sky blue background.

5 Fast Facts: Ana Mendieta

Posted: September 8, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Impress your friends with five fast facts about multidisciplinary artist Ana Mendieta (1948–1985), whose work Volcán (1979) is part of NMWA’s collection.
A mound of dirt in a grassy area by water. In the center of the mound is a human-shaped recess full of gunpowder that has been set aflame, exploding up in fire and white smoke, making the dirt mound resemble an erupting volcano.

5 Fast Facts: Mary Cassatt

Posted: August 25, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Impress your friends with five fast facts about American painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), whose works are part of NMWA’s collection.
A print shows a dark-haired, light-skinned woman sitting in a chair before a simple bed and closely embracing a naked infant. The baby’s arm encircles her neck, and their cheeks touch. The lack of shading and the pattern repeated on the back wall and chair flatten the space.

5 Fast Facts: Mary Vaux Walcott

Posted: July 31, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Happy birthday to Mary Vaux Walcott, who was born on this day in 1860! Impress your friends with five fast facts about the mountaineer, glacial geologist, photographer, and botanist.
The end of a cut Southern Magnolia stem rendered in delicate, detailed print. The white magnolia is slightly closed up, not quite in bloom yet, and is surrounded by several full, large, green leaves.

5 Fast Facts: Pipilotti Rist

Posted: June 21, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Happy Birthday to Pipilotti Rist, who was born on this day in 1962! Impress your friends with five fast facts about the Swiss video and installation artist, whose work is...
A light-skinned woman with a blonde and brown pixie cut sits atop a cement wall that overlooks Barcelona. She wears a dark and light pink cardigan and pants with checkered white lines over an orange turtleneck. She sits casually on the wall with one left folded under her and the other long, touching the ground. She smiles mischievously at the camera.

5 Fast Facts: Sonya Clark’s Materials

Posted: June 14, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Impress your friends with five fast facts about the materials that matter to Sonya Clark. For Clark, found objects hold history and convey context, thereby enriching the meaning of her...
A detail photograph of black pocket combs arranged into a gride of squares. In some squares, the teeth have been snipped so the background is white, in others select teeth are left creating fine black lines. Still in others squares, the majority of teeth have been left creating a predominately black background.

5 Fast Facts: Sarah Bernhardt

Posted: May 26, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Impress your friends with five fast facts about actor and artist Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923), whose sculpture Après la tempête (After the Storm) (ca. 1876) is in NMWA's collection.
A sepia-toned photograph of a light-skinned woman dressed opulently in a beaded and patterned gown and wearing a beaded, luxurious headpiece.

5 Fast Facts: Nikki S. Lee

Posted: May 17, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Impress your friends with five fast facts about contemporary multimedia artist Nikki S. Lee (b. 1970), whose work is part of NMWA’s collection.
A light-skinned woman of Asian descent is dressed up in a fancy black dress, sitting at a table in a room with ornate yellow walls. Her hair is in an updo. She stares unsmiling at the camera, to her left is a male companion in a suit, thought he has been cut from the frame and all that shows his is arm and half is body.

5 Fast Facts: Sonya Clark

Posted: May 10, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Impress your friends with five fast facts about textile artist Sonya Clark, whose midcareer survey is on view at NMWA through June 27.
U.S. five-dollar bill has an embroidered afro and sideburns stitched onto the portrait of Lincoln’s head. One-third of the afro protrudes beyond the top of the bill.

5 Fast Facts: Betsabeé Romero

Posted: May 4, 2021
Category: 5 Fast Facts
Impress your friends with five fast facts about Mexican artist Betsabeé Romero (b. 1963), who created four site-specific sculptures for NMWA’s New York Avenue Sculpture Project.