National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog

Portrait Competition Update

The jury for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 met at the National Portrait Gallery offices on October 24 to choose the semifinalist works. Portraits in nearly all visual arts media were carefully reviewed, and the jury members were struck by how much extraordinary work they were able to see, and how many artists they were discovering for the first time. 

At the end of a long day, a group of approximately 100 portraits were selected to be brought to Washington for final review next spring.  The jurors were Wanda Corn, professor emerita at Stanford University; Kerry James Marshall, artist, Chicago; Brian O’Doherty, artist, New York City; Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for the New Yorker; and three members of the NPG staff:  Director Martin Sullivan, Deputy Director and Chief Curator Carolyn Kinder Carr, and Curator of Painting and Sculpture Brandon Fortune.

See our last update, and visit the competition's Web site for more information. The exhibition of finalist work will open at the Portrait Gallery on October 23, 2009. 

The National Portrait Gallery Turns 40!

Forty years ago today, the National Portrait Gallery opened its doors to the public.

A national portrait gallery was an idea long in search of a building. At last in 1958 came the promise of a home in the majestic Old Patent Office (saved from being replaced by a parking facility) once it was vacated by the Civil Service Commission. Legislation formally brought the National Portrait Gallery into being in 1962 and after frustrating delays, it opened its doors to the public on October 7, 1968. “The Gallery will tell for centuries to come the story of American history,” the welcoming proclamation from the District of Columbia affirmed, “by displaying the likenesses of these men and women of all stations of life and of diverse origins.” You can learn more about the history of the Old Patent Office Building in NPG's online exhibition "Temple of Invention: History of a National Landmark." 

 “After a long, hazardous pilgrimage,“ wrote Charles Nagel, the Gallery’s first director, in the initial  catalog, “we have finally come to our premier exhibition.”  Entitled "This New Man A Discourse in Portraits," the exhibition's theme was intended to be an inquiry into the nature of the American national character. The one hundred and sixty eight paintings, sculptures, and photographs were arranged, not chronologically, but in “thought-provoking juxtapositions” which sometimes  “made for strange bedfellows.”

Only thirty-five of the portraits were from the Gallery’s own small collection—the remainder were on loan from individuals and institutions throughout the country and abroad. Explained Nagel, “We’re trying to give an idea of what we’re aiming at, not of what we have.” (A fair number of the borrowed  portraits would find their way,  by gift or purchase, into the Gallery’s permanent collection. )   

In addition to “This New Man” the Gallery assembled an impressive array portraits of all past presidents of the United States—no easy task since the collection included likenesses of only 23 of the 39 men who had held the office. The prize, hung to greet guests as they ascended the stairway to the second floor, was the Gilbert Stuart Lansdowne portrait of George Washington lent by Lord Primrose. The loan request had initially been turned down, but the portrait was secured after Smithsonian Secretary Dillon Ripley asked Lord Mountbatten (with whom he had worked in South East Asia during the World War II) to intervene. (The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation made it possible for the Gallery to purchase the Lansdowne in 2001.)

Not on view was the Peter Hurd portrait of the current president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who had denounced it as “the ugliest thing he had ever seen.” Johnson, miffed because the portrait rejected by the White House, had been accepted by the Portrait Gallery as a gift from the artist, had declined an invitation to speak at the opening ceremonies and declared that he wished no likeness of himself to be on view during his term in office.  The special alcove intended for the portrait of the incumbent president was filled instead by his immediate predecessor, John F. Kennedy.

“'This New Man' brings together some truly superb examples of the art of portraiture,” wrote the New York Times art critic, Hilton Kramer, “along with some of the most deplorable pictorial junk ever put on public display.”  The “truly appalling thing,” noted another scribe, was the diorama based on John Trumbull’s “The Signing of the Declaration of Independence” which looked like “handmade Barbie dolls.” (As one of his first acts, the Gallery’s second director, Marvin Sadik, took the Gallery’s one and only diorama off view.)  

That the Portrait Gallery received mixed reviews at its opening, is attributable in part to a misunderstanding of what this new breed of museum was about–it was not a gallery of art as such–although the role of the artist is part of the Gallery’s mission—but rather a place of history where the significance of the sitter—for good or for evil–takes precedence over artistic merit. That the Portrait Gallery, which Charles Nagel and many others thought had been founded one hundred years too late, has been able, over the past forty years, to acquire a collection of images worthy in both history and art, is downright amazing. 

National Portrait Gallery, 1968 aerial view.

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center, along with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. (2007 photo by Ken Rahaim, Smithsonian Institution)

Portrait Competition Update

Hello! We are Maggie and Meredith, the two Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 interns, and your personal correspondents to everything portrait competition.  We are officially halfway through the call for entries, and we have answered over 400 emails and phone calls, making us all portrait competition, all of the time!

So far we have received more than 1,700 entries, and the breadth of submitted media has been absolutely amazing. Artists from all over the country have submitted not just works  in traditional media such as painting and sculpture, but also new and intriguing forms of artwork, proving that portraiture as a subject is constantly changing and evolving.

Works submitted thus far include a sculpture of a family created through drops of acrylic paint on acrylic plastic rods and a photograph of a man with tribal tattoos covering his face. Other equally inventive works include a woodblock print on canvas of a homeless man and a trompe l’oeil self-portrait painted onto a functioning chair. We have received entries from every artistic medium and school imaginable, from hyperrealistic paintings to anthropomorphic drawings.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 continues to be an incredibly exciting project to work on, and we have loved communicating with all of you.  With less than a month to go in the call for entries period, we have learned one important lesson—we do not envy the panel that has to judge this competition!

The deadline for submitting your portrait to the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is Thursday, July 31, 2008.  Visit the Web site to learn more and submit your work. 

Second Portrait Competition Launches

The online entry form for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 sprang to life on Monday, June 2. Hundreds of American artists have been e-mailing us this spring, asking questions about acceptable subjects, sizes, media—you name it! One of the many fascinating aspects of this competition—the second in the series—is for viewers to be exposed to the tremendous variety of portraiture created today. We hope to receive works of all kinds: art crafted with traditional media and using traditional formats; works made using traditional media in unusual ways; and also those made with time-based media and mind-stretching combinations of materials and images. Our goal is to find works of art that answer the question “What is today’s portrait?”

 

Check back soon. We will keep you posted on the numbers of entries received and the approaches that today’s artists are using to explore the dynamic art of twenty-first-century portraiture, reinvented now, just as it has been by artists from Goya to Chuck Close.

 

     Don’t forget, the entry form shuts down on July 31, 2008.

 

 

Stephen on the Move

After almost three months on view at the National Portrait Gallery, Stephen Colbert’s portrait was taken down last week. The stately triple-likeness, located in between the 2nd floor bathrooms and within view of the “America’s Presidents” exhibition, brought in thousands of visitors, including—dare we say—many folks who otherwise would not have visited the Portrait Gallery. 

But don’t despair—he didn’t go very far. Colbert’s portrait is now on view in the “Treasures of American History”  exhibition, at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. It will be on display until April 13. 

If you missed out on the joke, here’s a recap: on episodes of The Colbert Report aired in mid-January, host Stephen Colbert attempts to donate his portrait to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, but the museum’s director suggests that Colbert should speak to the National Portrait Gallery. After much "discussion," the director of the National Portrait Gallery finds an appropriate place to hang Colbert’s portrait, in between the bathrooms and above the water fountain.

• See photos of Stephen Colbert’s portrait on the National Portrait Gallery’s Flickr group
• View the episodes on the Comedy Central Web site

Digital image on canvas, 2005 / On loan from The Colbert Report

Martin Sullivan Named Director of the National Portrait Gallery

Martin E. Sullivan has been named director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, effective April 28.

Sullivan is the chief executive officer of the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission in Maryland, a position he has held since 1999. He oversees museum research, interpretation and site preservation of Maryland’s first capital (1634-1695), a National Historic Landmark. Sullivan also coordinates master planning, facility development and academic programs in public history and museum studies with St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Kogod Courtyard Designed by Norman Foster

     

The Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, a signature element of the renovated Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, opened to the public Sunday, Nov. 18. The building houses the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  For more views of the Kogod Courtyard, see this slideshow.

The enclosed courtyard with its elegant glass canopy designed by world-renowned architects Foster + Partners provides a distinctive, contemporary accent to the museums’ Greek Revival building

Foster + Partners was assisted by internationally acclaimed landscape designer Kathryn Gustafson of Seattle-based Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd. in the creation of the courtyard’s interior design, with a variety of trees and plantings, as well as a unique water feature. The courtyard is named for major donors Robert and Arlene Kogod, Washington philanthropists and art collectors.

Foster + Partners worked with the Smithsonian to create an innovative enclosure for the 28,000-square-foot space at the center of the building that was sensitive to the historic structure and yet added a modern element to the building. The light-filled Kogod Courtyard will become a major gathering place in the nation’s capital. It will be a welcoming space downtown, as well as a public venue for the museums’ performances, lectures and special events. Free public wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) will be available in the courtyard. The Courtyard Café will offer casual dining during public museum hours (11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.).