In 1993, Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. In presenting the Nobel Prize, Professor Sture Allen, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, said of her work, “Toni Morrison has given the Afro-American people their history back, piece by piece. In this perspective, her work is uncommonly consonant. At the same time, it is richly variegated. The reader derives vast pleasure from her superb narrative technique, shifting from novel to novel and marked by original development, although it is related to Faulkner and to the Latin American tradition. Toni Morrison's novels invite the reader to partake at many levels, and at varying degrees of complexity. Still, the most enduring impression they leave is of empathy, compassion with one's fellow human beings.”
Toni Morrison infuses her language with poetry; this is part of what Professor Allen calls Morrison’s “superb narrative technique.” In Morrison’s work Beloved, an escaped slave woman, Sethe, is about to be returned to the south with her children. Rather than be caught and have her children grow up slaves, she decides to kill them; she is only able to kill one of her children, a baby she buries under a stone marked with the only word she can afford to have carved on it, “beloved.” Years later, the dead child returns as a grown person to haunt Sethe and her family. Sethe, however, embraces the ghost “Beloved” and allows herself to be dominated by its presence. Morrison’s words both touch and terrify.
Beloved
You are my sister/You are my daughter
You are my face; you are me
I have found you again; you have come back to me
You are my Beloved
You are mine/You are mine/You are mine
I have your milk/I have your smile
I will take care of you
You are my face; I am you. Why did you leave me who am you?
I will never leave you again/Don’t ever leave me again
You will never leave me again
You went in the water
I drank your blood/I brought your milk
You forgot to smile
I loved you/You hurt me/You came back to me/You left me
I waited for you/You are mine/You are mine/You are mine
Another component of Morrison’s technique is the manipulation of time within the narrative. Like James Joyce, William Faulkner, and many of the modern realists and post-modern magical realists, Morrison will begin in one moment, and bounce back and forth in time to establish her story-line and character development. Interestingly, Toni Morrison’s Nobel acceptance speech has hints of both ghosts and time-shifts:
I entered this hall pleasantly haunted by those who have entered it before me. That company of Laureates is both daunting and welcoming, for among its lists are names of persons whose work has made whole worlds available to me. The sweep and specificity of their art have sometimes broken my heart with the courage and clarity of its vision. The astonishing brilliance with which they practiced their craft has challenged and nurtured my own. My debt to them rivals the profound one I owe to the Swedish Academy for having selected me to join that distinguished alumnae... I will leave this hall, however, with a new and much more delightful haunting than the one I felt upon entering: that is the company of Laureates yet to come. Those who, even as I speak, are mining, sifting and polishing languages for illuminations none of us has dreamed of. But whether or not any one of them secures a place in this pantheon, the gathering of these writers is unmistakable and mounting. Their voices bespeak civilizations gone and yet to be; the precipice from which their imaginations gaze will rivet us; they do not blink nor turn away.
A leader of the postwar jazz revolution, Thelonious Monk—along with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker—sparked the "bebop" movement, a jazz style faster and more frenetic than the swing that had held sway since the thirties. Monk's piano style has been called eccentric: "his melodies were angular, his harmonies full of jarring clusters."
Monk's recording career took off in the mid-1950s, and he won an enthusiastic following, often playing with such other avant-garde musicians as John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. His compositions "Round Midnight," "Blue Monk," and "Epistrophy" are considered classics of modern jazz.
Jim Barber, historian at the National Portrait Gallery, recently discussed this portrait of Thelonious Monk by Boris Chaliapin at a Face-to-Face portrait talk. The portrait was created for Time magazine and appeared on the cover of the February 28, 1964, edition. The work is displayed on the museum’s third-floor mezzanine, in the exhibition “Bravo!”
Listen to Jim Barber's Face-to-Face talk on Thelonious Monk (16:05)
Face-to-Face occurs every Thursday evening at the National Portrait Gallery. The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, February 26, when Reuben Jackson, archivist at the National Museum of American History, speaks about Ornette Coleman. The talk runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Visitors meet the presenter in the museum’s F Street lobby and then walk to the appropriate gallery.
Thelonious Sphere Monk / Boris Chaliapin, 1964 / Oil on canvas / National Portrait Gallery, gift of Time magazine
Saki Yokoyama Tsuiki spent two years researching at the National Portrait Gallery. From March 2004 to March 2006 she explored the museum’s operations—education, curatorial, and marketing. Because NPG was in the final phases of its six- year renovation, she was a witness to the process of gallery reinstallation.
What follows is a summary of her observations, accompanied by an interview she conducted with the NPG’s Warren Perry in October 2008. Saki Yokoyama Tsuiki is the curator of education at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan.
Throughout my two-year stay as a fellow at the National Portrait Gallery, I came to think that the notion and existence of a “portrait gallery”—regardless of where it is—is embedded in Anglo culture. One finds portrait galleries in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Washington, Wellington, and Canberra. The Pantheon in Paris is a similar institution and could easily be added to the list; although, while portrait galleries contain images of representation (paintings, sculptures, prints), the Pantheon is instead a crypt.
Portraiture in Anglo culture and notion of a portrait gallery can be traced back to the British art-historical tradition of such eminent portrait painters as Anthony Van Dyke and Joshua Reynolds. But looking from a different cultural context, it is unlikely Japan would ever have such an institution.
One of my assumptions is that the need—or the lack of need—for a portrait gallery might be attributed to different styles of presenting or representing notable and powerful people in different cultures. For instance, until the nineteenth century, when Japan entered a period of modernization, the emperor did not show himself to the public very often. Some emperors left their portraits, but not all are represented visually, as are the American presidents in the Portrait Gallery’s collection. Also, Japanese nobles scarcely held the custom of commissioning their portraits at important life events, such as marriage, as did Western kings, queens and nobles. This open versus hidden way in which individuals represent themselves presents a clear contrast between Western and Japanese culture.
Listen to an interview with Saki Yokoyama Tsuiki (8:24)
Saki Yokoyama Tsuiki with interviewer Warren Perry.
In a postwar opera world that needed stars, Maria Callas was said to have “restored the ancient luster to the title of prima donna.” Born in New York and raised in Greece, Callas, by sheer force of personality and artistry, rejuvenated the public's interest in this classic music genre.
She created renewed interest in the bel canto works of Bellini and Donizetti, and influenced the next generation of singers such as Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, and Marilyn Horne. Part of Callas’s cachet was her volcanic temperament—“I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best”— which ultimately found her fired from the Metropolitan Opera and ostracized by the Chicago Lyric, among other companies. Her box-office quotient was so high, however, that most eventually welcomed her back.
The National Portrait Gallery’s Lauren Johnson recently discussed this 1956 portrait of Callas by Henry Koerner at a Face-to-Face portrait talk. The work is displayed on the museum’s third-floor mezzanine, in the exhibition “Bravo!”
Listen to Lauren Johnson's Face-to-Face talk on Maria Callas (31:05)
Face-to-Face occurs every Thursday evening at the National Portrait Gallery. The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, February 19, when Historian Jim Barber speaks about Thelonious Monk. The talk runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Visitors meet the presenter in the museum’s F Street lobby and then walk to the appropriate gallery.
Maria Callas / Henry Koerner, 1956 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine / Frame conserved with funds from the Smithsonian Women's Committee
On this day, the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, many comments will be made about President Lincoln’s greatness. Of all the deeds attributed to him, however, the most enduring is simply this: Abraham Lincoln saved the United States.
Although there are four faces on Mount Rushmore, perhaps only George Washington has such a legacy and such mythical status as Abraham Lincoln. On and around the Washington Mall, there are tributes to many presidents and heroes, but Lincoln and Washington are commemorated here in the highest order with President Washington’s monument at the pinnacle of America’s most famous public green, while President Lincoln’s memorial anchors the mall’s western-most point, providing the foreground for the dramatic sunset over the Potomac.
The word iconic has become a platitude in our language, so much so, that lesser figures of celebrity and notoriety have been called icons and the abuse of the word has deflated its meaning. However, Abraham Lincoln is truly an American icon. He is on our penny and our five-dollar bill. Cities are named after Lincoln as is the most famous bedroom in the home of American presidents. Universities are named after him and the notion of a log cabin upbringing immediately brings to mind the humble beginnings of our sixteenth president. Without Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Logs would just be sticks. Oh, and he saved the United States. Happy 200th birthday, President Lincoln.
Lincoln Symposium, Monday, February 16
To help celebrate Lincoln's birthday, the National Portrait Gallery is hosting a scholarly symposium this Monday, February 16. Produced in conjunction with NPG’s exhibition “One Life: The Mask of Lincoln,” the program will consist of four lectures that will examine various aspects of Lincoln and his times.
The speakers and topics are David C. Ward, the exhibition curator on “‘Vaulting Ambition’: Lincoln’s Self-Fashioning,” Alexander Nemerov on “The Flame of Lincoln,” Michael E. McGerr on “The Embarrassment of Lincoln’s Nationalism” and Marcia Brennan on “Tragic Dreams and Spectral Doubles: The Metaphysical Lincoln.”
The symposium is Monday, February 16, from 9am to noon, in the museum’s Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium. Information on visiting the museum is available here. The symposium is free and open to the public.
Listen to historian David Ward discuss the upcoming Lincoln symposium (5:38)
For more on Lincoln, be sure to see to the online exhibition for “One Life: The Mask of Lincoln.” The exhibition is part of a yearlong Smithsonian-wide celebration of the bicentennial, exploring the life and times of the nation's most mythic and transformative president.
Abraham Lincoln / Alexander Gardner, 1865 / Albumen silver print / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
It’s been three months since the jury met for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 and chose just over 100 semifinalists. Now, we offer a preview of some of the artists who are advancing to the final round of judging.
Nine of the semifinalist artists from all over the country are participating in the Portrait of an Artist project, a multimedia diary that documents their artistic process. They are:
These photographers, draftsmen, and painters are posting a cornucopia of entries, pictures, and videos to Portrait of an Artist. Readers can click through their interests (everything from “hot springs” to “hot beverages”) and delve further into the minds of today’s portrait artists. Best of all, the artists will continuously update their own diaries throughout the year. Lucky us!
Models Chauncey and Merwin with artist Mary Borgman’s finished Portrait of Merwin Shaw.
View our past updates on the Portrait Competition here and here, and visit the competition's Web site for more information. The exhibition of finalist work will open at the National Portrait Gallery on October 23, 2009.
Today marks the 45th anniversary of the first appearance of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.
By 1964 the Ed Sullivan Show had been around for 16 years, and an appearance on the weekly prime-time show was often a barometer for the success of musical acts. In late 1963, Ed Sullivan had experienced a taste of Beatlemania while in London and had booked the Beatles for three consecutive weeks, starting on February 9. By February 1, 1964 “I Want to Hold Your Hand” had hit number one on the charts, and the excitement over the Beatles first U.S. performance had reached a fever pitch.
Being the consummate showman, Ed Sullivan had scheduled the Beatles to perform at the beginning of the February 9 show, where they played “"All My Loving," "Till There Was You" and "She Loves You,” and again at the end of the show, when they played "I Saw Her Standing There" and their #1 single "I Want to Hold Your Hand." Seventy-three million Americans were glued to their sets for an hour, prompting Washington Post editor B.F. Henry to say that "during the hour they were on Ed Sullivan's show, there wasn’t a hubcap stolen in America.” While this is obviously hyperbole, it does speak to the extent of America’s fascination with this new British sensation. The Beatles first two appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show still rank in the top-50 most watched TV shows of all time, and in 1964 their first appearance with 73 million viewers was the most watched show ever at the time.
Ed Sullivan often had a frosty relationships with his musical guests, and it was said he could brighten a room just by leaving it. When Bo Diddley appeared on the show and performed different songs from what Ed wanted, Ed told him he would never be on television again. When Bob Dylan was told he couldn’t perform "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" he walked off the show. And when the Doors lead singer Jim Morrison wouldn’t change the line “girl we couldn’t get much higher” from their hit song “Light My Fire,” Ed told them they would never be on the Ed Sullivan Show again, to which Morrison famously replied, “Who cares? We just did Ed Sullivan.” But Ed’s relationship with the Beatles was much better, as the group would often record special videos to premiere new songs exclusively on the show.
This photograph of Ed Sullivan and the Fab Four is part of the collections at the National Portrait Gallery. It seems to have been taken after the Beatles had finished their performance of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on the February 9th telecast. While the set of Studio 50 could only hold 728 audience members, it was predominantly packed with teenage girls in a fervor over John, Paul, George and Ringo, which made the shrieks seem like there were thousands. The photo shows the Beatles as America first saw them. Four shaggy haired, strange talking Brits who swept America by storm in the 60’s, started the musical British Invasion, and became pop culture icons, in no small part due to the landmark Ed Sullivan Show broadcast.
Ed Sullivan and the Beatles / Unidentified artist, 1964 / Gelatin silver print / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
“She’s 5’1” . . . absolutely dizzy, and rarer than a homemade honeybun” raved an awed reporter in 1972 about the singer-comedienne Bette Midler, then performing at New York City’s Continental Baths. “Her hair is “red as a Pomegranate. . . . Her bosom is formidable. . . . She moves fiercely on tiny feet strapped into the highest platform wedgies since Carmen Miranda.”
Richard Amsel, an emerging talent who had recently won a nationwide contest to design the poster for Hello, Dolly!, caught Midler's energy and flair in his 1973 poster. Midler’s accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first and second albums, admired Amsel’s work, and Midler agreed he should design the cover and advertising art. Amsel's stylized strutting figure graced Midler’s second album, promoted a national tour, and here announced her appearance to sold-out audiences at New York’s Palace Theater in December 1973. A similar image was reused for later albums and tours.
Maya Foo, a researcher at the National Portrait Gallery, recently discussed this poster at a Face-to-Face portrait talk. It is on display on the museum’s second floor, in the exhibition “Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture.” The exhibition’s last day is Sunday, February 8, so see it while you can.
Listen to Maya Foo’s Face-to-Face talk on Bette Midler (8:35)
Face to Face occurs every Thursday evening at the National Portrait Gallery. The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, February 12, when the NPG’s Lauren Johnson speaks about the portrait of Maria Callas by Henry Koerner. The talk runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Visitors meet the presenter in the museum’s F Street lobby and then walk to the appropriate gallery.
The National Portrait Gallery's exhibition “Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture” is closing soon, so see it while you can—its final day is this Sunday, February 8. The exhibition features sixty posters ranging in date from the late nineteenth century to the present, including subjects as diverse as General John J. Pershing, “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Joe Louis, Judy Garland, Dorothy Dandridge (below right), aviator Jimmy Doolittle, and labor leader Lane Kirkland.
In this blog post, the NPG’s Warren Perry talks with Wendy Wick Reaves, who reflects on the exhibition. Reaves is the curator of prints and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery.
WWR: Technically for a curator, when the exhibition is up on the walls, our job is done, and we’re really supposed to be putting our attention to the next show. But in fact, you end up doing VIP tours and special-interest tours—you talk to the press, you talk to your docents, you do a couple of public gallery talks—and during all of this you’re getting feedback. And that’s kind of interesting to reflect on towards the end of a run for a show.
For this exhibition, for instance, I found that every visitor brought his or her own experiences and ideas to a poster show. Everyone understands posters—as advertising, as propaganda sometimes, as promotion. And they often know elements of that historical moment that you don’t know. I learned a lot from my visitors’ comments, memories, and perspectives. They corrected my labels, as a matter of fact, and changed my thinking.
And it’s been fun. I remember at the press preview, when I was talking about Admiral Bull Halsey (left), who is quoted on the poster with the phrases, “Hit hard, hit fast, hit often,” and one of the reporters snorted out, “Yeah, but he would have said it in much more colorful language.” And in one of my tours, when I was talking about the Pete Sampras milk-moustache poster (below) as the anti-glamour campaign that reflected the familiarity and intimacy we felt about celebrity figures by the 1990s—I made the mistake of saying, “He could be anyone in your family on the way to the shower.” Three slightly older ladies immediately and simultaneously responded, “Not in my family!”
Posters are often considered popular culture artifacts. And although that can be hard to define precisely, it basically means to me objects that have a broad appeal, are accessible to a mainstream audience, grow out of a shared vernacular culture, are frequently reinforced by mass media, and are sometimes mass produced and widely available.
And I found that they differ from the fine art objects that we also collect and exhibit. The response and reception is sometimes different, both internally and externally. Some people question whether this material really is art, or history, or culture, or portraiture. So sometimes there are prejudices. Will your show be covered by the press? And if it is, will they treat it like just mass entertainment? Or will they really cover the broader perspective that you’ve tried to outline?
But there are also a lot of compensations about a show that is basically popular culture artifacts. New audiences, certainly, are another great benefit. In my case, I got design students of all kinds—illustrators, advertisers, a world of people laboring in graphic communication. Also, the general audience appeal was multigenerational. The World War II generation reminisced about Halsey. So did their kids, who once owned the iconic Dylan poster. Even their children felt a connection to rock, film, and sports advertising—like the poster of Lance Armstrong—and even appreciated those elements from previous eras.
Everyone I spoke to enjoyed seeing what could be extracted about history, art, design, and cultural trends, from the modest poster. I guess what I found most rewarding, in retrospect, was understanding how popular cultural artifacts give telling glimpses of historical moments—shared generational presumptions; prejudices; ideals of beauty; standards of manliness; attitudes about race, gender, and sexual difference—it’s really like having a little window into a moment in history.
WP: You are the curator who began assembling this collection. How long have you been assembling this collection for NPG?
WWR: I guess I’ve been collecting posters for about twenty-five years now. We’ve gotten some wonderful gifts along the line. I’ve worked with a number of dealers who were passionate about posters—and really wanted to help build the collection here at the Portrait Gallery—and were very generous with trying to train me and my eye and find the kinds of things we would use here. We are looking for something with a fair amount of wall power. And we’re looking for, of course, the portrait subject as well.
WP: I know it’s a little like asking a mom if she has a favorite child, but you have to tell us—do you have a favorite in the lot of posters?
WWR: Oh, that is really a difficult question to answer. I guess the answer is that I have a lot of favorites. I’ve always liked the Rita Hayworth poster (above). I think the John Wilkes Booth Civil War broadside (right), advertising for the capture of Booth after Lincoln’s assassination, is one of my favorites. It worked as such a perfect introduction of what poster art is about. It can also be called a Civil War broadside; some people wouldn’t even consider is a poster. But for me, it worked perfectly—that combination of words and typography, with visual images, and that quality of sensationalism that you often get in a poster.
Listen to the entire discussion with curator Wendy Wick Reaves (8:38)
For more on posters visit the online exhibition for “Ballyhoo! Posters As Portraiture” and view the audio slideshow below, narrated by Wendy Wick Reaves, who curated the exhibition.
Victory Begins at Home / Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. / Unidentified artist for Industrial Incentive Division, Navy Department, c. 1940 / National Portrait Gallery; gift of Leslie, Judith, and Gabri Schreyer and Alice Schreyer Batko
Trinidad / Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford / Anselmo Ballester, 1953 / Color photolithographic halftone poster/ National Portrait Gallery
$100,000 Reward / John H. Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, David E. Herold / Unidentified artist, 1865 / Printed broadside with albumen silver prints / National Portrait Gallery
This portrait of Cormac McCarthy, by artist Andrew Tift, is now on view at the National Portrait Gallery, in the “New Acquisitions” gallery, on the museum’s first floor. McCarthy is not only in demand in Hollywood at the moment, but also he has attained, over the last decade or so, that rare status among living writers—that of the living legend.
Recently, the National Portrait Gallery's Warren Perry spoke with Marty Priola, the Cormac McCarthy Society’s assistant secretary. Priola wrote the Dictionary of Literary Biography (2002) entry for McCarthy, and he also maintains the website for the society, a group of scholars and nonprofessionals dedicated to the study of McCarthy’s work.
WP: McCarthy seems to be hitting his stride at the moment with a Pulitzer for The Road and an Oscar for No Country for Old Men. What is on the event horizon for him?
MP: Despite a few recent appearances and interviews—Oprah Winfrey, the Oscars—Cormac McCarthy remains a private, if not reclusive (as is often assumed), person. McCarthy continues his association with the Sante Fe Institute, and rumors claim as many as four completed novels awaiting publication. One is assumed to be his long-awaited “New Orleans Novel,” although this cannot be verified. Several tantalizing projects related to his work are, or appear to be, on the horizon, from the film adaptation of The Road to another often-discussed project, the movie of Blood Meridian.
WP: Where does he stand in our canon—that is, who can we compare him to stylistically, thematically—or, to extend, will McCarthy be spoken of in one hundred years like we speak of Melville today?
MP: Harold Bloom has said that Cormac McCarthy is the best living American writer. As that’s a category that includes Philip Roth and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, among many others of renown and considerable skill, it seems fair to say that McCarthy is one of the most important and influential Americans writing today. Charles Frazier and others have frankly acknowledged the influence, and given McCarthy's early reputation as a “writer’s writer,” it's likely that he'll be considered crucial to an understanding of American literature into the present century.
McCarthy has been compared to any number of writers, among them Melville, Faulkner, Hemingway, and even Shakespeare. Some considerable portion of this repute concerns style; McCarthy's rhetoric is often similar in tone to those earlier writers, or adopts classical or even Biblical cadences. Through his first four novels, ending with Suttree, McCarthy cursorily appeared to be working as a regionalist, a kind of student of Faulkner’s, even where he diverged from him in terms of theme and sometimes style.
Blood Meridian leaves the South in dramatic (some might say epic) fashion, and is a harbinger of McCarthy’s wider concerns. With it and his more recent works, McCarthy more obviously writes in the mode of various genres—the western, the thriller, and even a kind of science fiction or post-apocalyptic thriller with The Road. McCarthy adopts some of the conventions of these genre pieces, both to comment on and subvert them. These more recent works reveal a writer who has always been concerned not with just “the South” or “the West,” but with larger epistemological and metaphysical questions. Engagement with these issues of universal concern suggests McCarthy’s continued relevance in—and importance to—the ongoing discussion that is literature in the United States.
Cormac McCarthy / Andrew Tift, 2004 / Acrylic on canvas / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Face-to-Face Portrait Talks
Each Thursday a curator or historian from NPG brings visitors face-to-face with a portrait by offering their insight into one individual. Thursdays, 6 to 6:30 p.m. at the museum
NPG on Facebook 
NPG on iTunes 
NPG on YouTube 
NPG on Twitter 
NPG on Flickr 
Recent Comments