Artist Spotlight

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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Finding Meaning in Form: Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Process
Posted: June 19, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
Ursula von Rydingsvard's sculptural practice is a way to give tangible form to her feelings and ideas. It must not only be understood in technical terms, but also as an...

Maria Sibylla Merian and Rachel Ruysch: Opportunity and Mobility
Posted: June 17, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
Dutch flower painter Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750) and German naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) navigated limitations on mobility and opportunity in very distinct ways, nurturing long and successful careers despite all...
A still life painting featuring an asymmetrical arrangement of flowers; the central section features pink, orange, yellow, and blue flowers and is dramatically highlighted compared to the background and outer edge of arrangement.

Industrial Aesthetic: The Tire Sculptures of Betsabée Romero and Chakaia Booker
Posted: June 10, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
The rubber tire, a globally omnipresent object that is mass-produced more than a billion times each year, is used as a medium by two artists, Betsabée Romero and Chakaia Booker,...
Close-up photograph of a sculpture made of a truck tire carved with circular designs and painted gold and silver

5 Fast Facts: Marisol (María Sol Escobar)
Posted: May 22, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
Impress your friends with five fast facts about artist Marisol (1930–2016), whose work is on view in NMWA’s collection galleries.
Side view of wooden relief sculpture on wall at left. Relief depicts five figures of various sizes whose arms and hands extend out from sculpture. At right is a blurred figure moving left, heading toward a dark doorway. Behind figure on wall are an artwork and text, out of focus.

5 Fast Facts: Mildred Thompson
Posted: May 15, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
Impress your friends with five fast facts about artist Mildred Thompson (1936–2003), whose work is on view in NMWA’s collection galleries.
Abstract painting features a vivid yellow background covered by circles, daubs, and straight and wavy lines in red, orange, cobalt, sky blue, and violet. Arcing red strokes evoke concentric circles. Straight lines in other hues radiate out from the center circle like a starburst.

Images of Conflict: Ambreen Butt and Margaret Bourke-White
Posted: May 8, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
Conflict zones have historically been male-dominated spaces, for those participating in war and struggle as well as those documenting the events. Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White and multimedia artist Ambreen Butt offer...
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman standing next to a vintage camera mounted on legs.

The Contour of an Artist: Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Beginnings
Posted: May 1, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
For Ursula von Rydingsvard, sculpture is personal—a way to heal and process her innermost feelings. But it is also a way to connect to the outside world, to engage people...

Opening Friday: Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling
Posted: March 20, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
The Contour of Feeling marks the most ambitious von Rydingsvard exhibition to date in the United States and her first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C. Featuring 26 sculptures, a wall...
A massive sculpture made of bare cedar slats and painted cedar hunks arranged vertically, flat against a gallery wall.

5 Fast Facts: Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses
Posted: March 13, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
Impress your friends with five fast facts about painter Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses (1860–1961), whose work is part of NMWA’s collection.
Bucolic landscape rendered in a naive, folk-style of painting. The horizontal composition features a patchwork of yellow and green fields on rolling hills set against a blue-gray sky. In the foreground study farm buildings surround small figures tending to the land.

5 Fast Facts: Magdalena Abakanowicz
Posted: March 6, 2019
Category: Artist Spotlight
As part of NMWA’s #5WomenArtists campaign, impress your friends with five fast facts about artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, whose work is part of NMWA’s collection.
Ten larger-than-life bronze sculptures of human bodies are installed in the middle of a city street. The bodies have no heads or arms, and are striding forward in five rows of two. While they are not naked, their wrinkled body-tight clothing makes no distinction between shirt and pants.