For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA 

July 4 to October 3, 2021)

Oklahoma City Museum of Art 

November 6, 2021 to January 30, 2022

For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design is the first exhibition to highlight a pivotal aspect of the collection of the National Academy of Design—the joint presentation of an artist’s portrait with his or her diploma work.

 For America is the first exhibition to highlight the fundamental characteristic of the National Academy’s collection: the joint presentation of an artist’s portrait with her or his representative work. The exhibition’s one hundred extraordinary paintings present not only a visual document of the Academy’s membership but a unique history of American painting from 1809 to the present.

The exhibition will tour to eight venues across the United States, bringing important paintings to audiences across the country while also enriching the dialogue of scholars, students, and artists of all ages with the firsthand experience of American masterpieces.

From its founding in 1825 to the present, the NAD has required all Academicians to donate a representative work to the Academy’s collection, and, from 1839 to 1994, the Academy also required Associates to present a portrait of themselves, whether painted by their own hand or that of a fellow artist.

For nearly two centuries, the National Academy of Design has been a leading artistic voice in America. Founded in 1825 (and known simply as the National Academy), this honorary artists’ society, school, and museum has helped shape America’s art and continues to be an active and influential institution to this day. Selected by their peers, members have always been among the most distinguished artists of our nation. 

This exhibition of 100 paintings by 78 artists tells the story of the National Academy, from the early 19th century into the 21st. 

 Included are works by some of the most recognizable names in American art: Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Maxfield Parrish, William Merritt Chase, N.C. and Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Eakins, Robert Henri, Ernest Blumenschein, Isabel Bishop, Richard Estes, Charles White, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Wayne Thiebaud, Peter Saul, and many more.

Catalogue



April 30, 2019
304 pages, 8 1/4 x 11
200 color illus.
ISBN: 9780300244281
HC - Paper over Board  

A sweeping look at the ways American artists have viewed themselves, their peers, and their painted worlds over two centuries

This stunning book provides an unprecedented glimpse into the past two centuries of American art, tracing artistic tradition and innovation at the National Academy of Design from its 19th-century founding to the present. The nation’s oldest artist honorary society has maintained a unique collecting principle: each member gives a self-portrait (or, until 1994, a portrait by a contemporary Academician) as well as an example of their work. By presenting artists’ portraits in tandem with their self-selected representative works, this book offers a unique opportunity to explore how American artists have viewed both themselves and the worlds they depicted.

The diverse selection of artists whose work is showcased here includes Frederic Edwin Church, Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Cecilia Beaux, Isabel Bishop, Andrew Wyeth, Charles White, Wayne Thiebaud, Louisa Matthíasdóttir, David Diao, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Peter Saul. Essays by a stellar roster of distinguished historians and art historians, curators, artists, and architects delve into single artworks or pairs of paintings, while others explore themes such the representation of landscapes and the figurative tradition in American art. Additionally, 17 current Academicians—visual artists and architects including Walter Chatham, Catherine Opie and Fred Wilson—contribute personal responses to individual artworks.

Jeremiah William McCarthy is associate curator at the American Federation of Arts. Diana Thompson is director of collections and curatorial affairs at the National Academy of Design.

Will Barnet, Self - Portrait, 1981. Oil on canvas, 31 ⅛ × 45 ½ in. National Academy of Design, New York © 2018 Will Barnet Trust / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY Courtesy American Federation of Arts.

Samuel F. B. Morse, Self-Portrait, c. 1809, watercolor on ivory.National Academy of Design, New York. Gift of Samuel P. Avery, John G. Brown, Thomas B. Clarke, Lockwood de Forest, Daniel Huntington, James C. Nicoll, and Harry W. Watrous, 1900. Courtesy American Federation of Arts

William J. Whittemore, Charles Courtney Curran, 1888-89. Oil on canvas, 17 × 21 in. National Academy of Design, New York Courtesy American Federation of Arts.   

Asher B. Durand

Self-Portrait, ca. 1835
Oil on canvas
30 1/8 x 25 1/4 in.
National Academy of Design,
New York, Gift of the Artist



 Cecilia Beaux. Self-Portrait, 1894. Oil on canvas 25 x 20 in. National Academy of Design,

Artists in the exhibition: Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Frederic Edwin Church, John Frederick Kensett, Albert Bierstadt, Emanuel Leutze, Ferdinand Thomas Lee Boyle, Edward Harrison May, George Henry Hall, Daniel Huntington, Eastman Johnson, Oliver Ingraham Lay, Winslow Homer, Elihu Vedder, George Inness, Wyatt Eaton, William J. Whittemore, William Merritt Chase, Robert Frederick Blum, John Singer Sargent, Cecilia Beaux, Kenyon Cox, Maxfield Parrish, Thomas Eakins, Robert Reid, Childe Hassam, Frederick Carl Frieseke, J. Alden Weir, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Richard E. Miller, Henry Ossawa Tanner, George Bellows, Robert Henri, Daniel Garber, Gertrude Fiske, Mary Shepard Greene Blumenschein, Ernest L. Blumenschein, Walter Ufer, Ellen Emmet Rand, Guy C. Wiggins, Paul Sample, Isabel Bishop, Peter Hurd, John Steuart Curry, N. C. Wyeth, Reginald Marsh, Aaron Bohrod, Andrew Wyeth, Ivan Albright, Jules Kirschenbaum, Philip Pearlstein, Jane Freilicher, Hughie Lee-Smith, George Tooker, Richard Estes, Lois Dodd, May Stevens, Charles White, Will Barnet, Wayne Thiebaud, Reuben Tam, Rosemarie Beck, Paul Resika, Gretna Campbell, William Clutz, Louisa Matthíasdóttir, Altoon Sultan, W. Lee Savage, James McGarrell, Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, David Kapp, Jacqueline Gourevitch, David Diao, Walter Hatke, Albert Kresch, Ann Gale, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Peter Saul.