Smithsonian American Art Museum

With their eye-catching orange and black wings, monarch butterflies travel thousands of miles to winter homes. Indigenous peoples’ connections to the butterfly have existed for millennia. This artwork, "Monarch Nation," in the collection of our Smithsonian American Art Museum was created by Kevin and Valerie Pourier, Oglala Lakota husband-and-wife artists from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. They depicted monarch migration on a buffalo horn, a material with a deep ancestral and cultural connection—the name of the Lakota “Pte Oyate” translates as “buffalo people. Learn more: https://s.si.edu/41v6tJy The Purépecha people of northwestern Michoacán in Mexico called the butterfly “parákata,” or “the harvester,” because the arrival of its overwintering population coincided with the community’s annual harvest. Learn more from our National Museum of the American Indian: https://bit.ly/4gw9UUH Monarch butterflies are increasingly threatened but there are ways you can help by planting native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants in your backyard or balcony. Kevin Pourier, Valerie Pourier, "Monarch Nation," 2019, carved bison horn, inlaid orange sandstone, white mother of pearl

Currently on view in Miami at the The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, SAAM’s national touring exhibition “Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice” features an extensive collection of works by the Black Modernist painter and important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. "Johnson used vivid palettes of color, often flat in tones, and simplified shapes to extol not merely the famous but the innate human spirit radiating from within. With a personal sense of detail, he captured the essence of being known and unseen, as well as being seen and unknown." Read more about the exhibition, now on view through January 5th. 

Share the future, shape the future. As part of the Smithsonian Campaign for Our Shared Future, the Smithsonian American Art Museum invites you to experience “American Voices and Visions.” Discover the SAAM’s reimagined modern and contemporary galleries, the first phase in a comprehensive, multi-year reinstallation of SAAM’s permanent collection designed to provide a more expansive view of American art. Your support helps amplify the voices and perspectives of American artists. Let’s come together to ignite curiosity and imagine tomorrow. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/epW-Kp6S

Share the future. Shape the future. 🌎 Join us in driving curiosity and innovation as part of the Smithsonian Campaign for Our Shared Future. Learn more about how you can support our work to build a better future for all. https://s.si.edu/4e1oItM

The Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery encourages applications for its 2025-2026 research fellowships, awarded through the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP). Residencies are available at the graduate, doctoral, postdoctoral, and senior levels.   Deadline to apply is October 15! For more information: https://lnkd.in/eehUNmrc

Applications are open to apply for the Betsy James Wyeth Fellow in Native American Art, 2025–2026, a one-year residential fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) that seeks to foster new scholarship on Native art of the United States. Deadline to apply: October 15, 2024 The proposed independent project may focus on historic or contemporary Native American artists, designers, and makers, and will center and elevate Indigenous methodologies, knowledges, and communities. The recipient will be jointly advised by a SAAM and NMAI staff member and provided with access to both museums’ resources. Learn more and apply by October 15: https://lnkd.in/gg3ie8U8

When painting his “Fighters for Freedom” series in the mid-1940s, artist William H. Johnson bridged the past and the present, looking back on three centuries of history to depict freedom fighters from the American Revolution up to his contemporaries in the 20th century. By linking generations of activists, educators, politicians, and entertainers advocating for racial and social equality, Johnson invited viewers to consider both the progress society has made towards those ideals and the work still left to be done. Eighty years after he created these paintings, the struggle for justice continues. As part of our education plan for SAAM’s exhibition “Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice,” we wanted visitors of all ages to feel welcome and included in the gallery experience, and to represent a diverse range of voices. A key aspect of our interpretive approach was to offer multiple entry points for visitors in gallery—including videos, kiosks, tactile reproductions of paintings, and children’s books—as well as online resources. We also wanted to continue Johnson’s work linking history to the present. How could the exhibition invite visitors to make connections to our world today? One way we did this was through the voices of students. Visitors to the exhibition will encounter a mural and book in the last gallery, featuring the writing and drawing of young people ages 8 to 18 in response to the question: “Who inspires you by fighting for justice today?” https://lnkd.in/ehXZu9FR

Today we remember artist Frank Stella, who died at age 87. Stella first began exhibiting his work in the late 1950s and was soon in the forefront of the Post-Painterly Abstraction group of artists who were reacting to the dominance of Abstract Expressionism. He embraced different shapes, patterns and media in his work, from honeycomb steel to luminous plastic, to achieve his goal of freeing painting from the wall. His paintings, prints and sculpture in a wide variety of styles have been described as ranging from minimalist to "maximalist." Works by Stella as well as portraits and archival items related to his career are in the collections of our Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery and Smithsonian's Archives of American Art. ... 1️⃣ Frank Stella, “Darabjerd III,” 1967. Acrylic on canvas; 120 1/8 X 180 1/4 in. (305.1 X 457.8 cm.) Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1972. © 2024 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Lee Stalsworth. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 2️⃣ Frank Stella, “Arundel Castle,” 1959. Enamel on canvas; 121 3/8 x 73 1/8 in. (308.1 x 186.1 cm.) Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1972. © 2024 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Lee Stalsworth. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 3️⃣ Shopping Bag, Dayton's/Walker Gallery: Frank Stella, 1984; designed by Frank Stella; white kraft paper with electron beam coating; tinted twisted paper handle; 18 5/8 x 16 in (47.3 x 40.6 cm) Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 4️⃣ Frank Stella, "Untitled (Rabat), from the portfolio Ten Works x Ten Painters," 1964, screenprint on paper, image: 18 x 18 in. (45.7 x 45.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum 5️⃣ Hollis Frampton photograph of Frank Stella, circa 1960. Leo Castelli Gallery records, circa 1880-2000. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Explore more by and about Stella in our collections: https://lnkd.in/d3wcUHWh

The Temple of Invention Augmented Reality Experience  History comes alive in this new augmented reality experience. Before it was an art museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s historic building showcased ingenuity through the display of thousands of patent models and was known as a “temple of invention,” a place for ideas and exploration, creativity and change. Through this augmented reality game produced by Smartify and supported by AT&T, meet some of the fascinating people—including presidents, inventors, soldiers, poets, artists, and architects—who walked the halls. Discover stories behind its many uses, including a patent office where inventors showcased working models, a Civil War hospital, and site of a presidential inaugural ball. A fun, pop-up experience that creates layers of history and activates SAAM’s Luce Foundation Center, a space for community gatherings and innovative programs. You can explore on your own or together with family and friends. Play the game to collect cogs, restore the temple’s heart, and see how this building is still a place where invention and innovation are celebrated.    On July 4, 1836, President Andrew Jackson authorized the construction of a patent office building in Washington, D.C. It is the third oldest federal building in the city, and was designed to celebrate American invention, technical ingenuity, and the scientific advancements that the patent process represents. In 1840, the Patent Office moved into the south wing of what is now the Smithsonian American Art Museum's historical main building. Patent law in the United States in the 19th century required the submission and public display of a model with each patent application. These scale models in miniature illustrate not only the imaginative fervor of the era but also the amazing craftsmanship required to fabricate these often-intricate works of art. Many of the models were constructed by specialized makers in workshops located near the Patent Office. When the building was completed in 1868, about 200,000 models were displayed in cases 9 feet high in the grand galleries on the third floor. The Temple of Invention Augmented Reality Experience connects SAAM visitors to the rich history of this historic building. This free experience is recommended for families with elementary school-age children.

Join us for “Championing Black Art: A Conversation with Myrtis Bedolla” on Sunday Feb. 25 at 2 pm.