Art

Panorama of the Army of the Cumberland

The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.

Date: 1980s

Artists call against U.S. intervention in Central America

A poster calling for artists to protest the US intervention in Central America.Currently not on view
Description
A poster calling for artists to protest the US intervention in Central America.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1984
ID Number
1986.0231.120
accession number
1986.0231

October Fields

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1986
ID Number
1986.0925.10
catalog number
1986.0925.10
accession number
1986.0925

Rock Creek from the Taft Bridge

Printed in 1988, the etching was included in the Washington Area Printmaker's 1992 Original Print Calendar.Currently not on view
Description
Printed in 1988, the etching was included in the Washington Area Printmaker's 1992 Original Print Calendar.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1988
1992
ID Number
1991.0783.15
catalog number
1991.0783.15
accession number
1991.0783
catalog number
1991.783.15

Teapot and Cover

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1903
c. 1972-1988
1987
maker
Hall
ID Number
1989.0033.002Aa-b
accession number
1989.0033
catalog number
1989.0033.002Aab

pitcher

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1987
maker
Hall
ID Number
1989.0033.001
accession number
1989.0033
catalog number
1989.0033.001

Hot Water Jug

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1987
maker
Hall
ID Number
1989.0033.002Ba-b
accession number
1989.0033
catalog number
1989.0033.002Bab

Tray

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1987
maker
Hall
ID Number
1989.0033.002C
accession number
1989.0033
catalog number
1989.0033.002C

Installation of "Alexander the Great"

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1980
ID Number
2013.0327.1313
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1313

Woman looking at a sculpture in an art museum

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1984
maker
Zalesky, Roy Joseph
ID Number
2017.0306.0094
catalog number
2017.0306.0094
accession number
2017.0306

Skateboard deck designed by Garry S. Davis

This is a laminated wood skateboard deck with a Garry S. Davis Design in green, purple and black on the bottom surface. In 1985, Garry S.
Description (Brief)
This is a laminated wood skateboard deck with a Garry S. Davis Design in green, purple and black on the bottom surface. In 1985, Garry S. Davis, most commonly known as G.S.D., was the first street skater to have a sponsor (Tracker) and to have his own pro model which at that time was only done for vert riders. He is known for creating the street move, the Boneless, in 1979 and remained skating pro for another ten years. He was the first skater to publish a zine known as Skate Fate from 1981 to 1991 and in 1983 he became a writer at Transworld Skateboarding Magazine where he worked until 1993. He has always been creating art for skateboards and is often overlooked as a driving influence of skate culture.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1980s
ID Number
2013.0185.07
accession number
2013.0185
catalog number
2013.0185.07

Chinese Lute Players, Shanghai

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1981
maker
Babson, Jane McCall
ID Number
2014.0143.05
accession number
2014.0143
catalog number
2014.0143.05

Woman in an art museum

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1984
maker
Zalesky, Roy Joseph
ID Number
2017.0306.0095
catalog number
2017.0306.0095
accession number
2017.0306

Miles Davis, Avery Fisher Hall

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1981-07
Associated Name
Davis, Miles
ID Number
2019.0144.08
accession number
2019.0144
catalog number
2019.0144.08

Chinese Lute Players, Shanghai

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1981
maker
Babson, Jane McCall
ID Number
2014.0143.06
accession number
2014.0143
catalog number
2014.0143.06

"La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán"

The evolving civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s revolutionized the consciousness of young people across the United States. As in African American communities, a new sense of mobilization spread among Mexican Americans.
Description
The evolving civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s revolutionized the consciousness of young people across the United States. As in African American communities, a new sense of mobilization spread among Mexican Americans. Many adopted a more political identity—chicano and chicana—and explored their history, which was omitted from school textbooks. The Chicano movement sought to remedy the injustices experienced by many Mexican Americans, from substandard education and housing to working conditions. Many symbols and ideas of the Chicano movement were taken from the pre-Hispanic past, especially Aztec history. Aztlán, the original homeland in the Aztec migration stories, has an important place in Chicano mythology. As a symbolic reclamation of their place in American history, Chicanos locate Aztlán in the Southwest United States, in the area conquered during the Mexican-American War. The image shown here, by Manuel Moya, is an ink drawing done on a handkerchief known as a paño. Paños are graphic art works drawn on handkerchiefs by Chicano prisoners in California, Texas, and the Southwest. Titled, La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán, or The New Land in Aztlán, combines the images of the Aztec past with a Pancho Villa-like figure from the Mexican Revolution.
Description (Spanish)
El movimiento por los derechos civiles que se desarrolló entre las décadas de 1950, 1960 y 1970, revolucionó las conciencias de los jóvenes a los largo de los Estados Unidos. Al igual que en las comunidades afroamericanas, también se difundió entre los mexicoamericanos un nuevo sentido de movilización. Muchos adoptaron una identidad de carácter más político—chicano y chicana—y empezaron a explorar su historia, la cual había quedado omitida de los libros de texto escolares. El movimiento chicano buscó remediar las injusticias experimentadas por muchos mexicoamericanos, tales como condiciones educativas, de vivienda y de trabajo inferiores al estándar. Muchos símbolos e ideas del movimiento chicano se extrajeron del pasado prehispánico, especialmente de la historia azteca. Aztlán, la patria original aludida en las historias migratorias de los aztecas, ocupa un lugar de relieve en la mitología chicana. Como reclamo simbólico de su lugar en la historia americana, los chicanos ubican a Aztlán en el sudoeste de los Estados Unidos, en el área conquistada durante la guerra mexicoamericana. La imagen que se observa aquí, del artista Manuel Moya, es un dibujo en tinta hecho sobre un pañuelo o paño. Los paños son obras de arte gráfico diseñadas sobre pañuelos por los prisioneros chicanos en California, Texas y la región sudoeste. Titulado La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán, combina las imágenes del pasado azteca con una figura estilo Pancho Villa de la Revolución Mexicana.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1986
artist
Moya, Manuel
ID Number
1991.0431.01
catalog number
1991.0431.01
accession number
1991.0431

Bust of Duke Ellington

This bust of American composer and musician Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899 - 1974) was made by Ed Dwight in Denver, Colorado in 1988.
Description (Brief)

This bust of American composer and musician Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899 - 1974) was made by Ed Dwight in Denver, Colorado in 1988. Made of cast bronze, the sculpture depicts Ellington in a suit and bowtie, arms in a conducting pose, atop a stylized keyboard.

Ed Dwight began his career as a graduate engineer, was a former United States Air Force test pilot who became the first African American to be trained as an astronaut in 1962. Following a career in real estate, computer systems engineering, and consulting, Dwight pursued art and received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Denver in 1977. Dwight’s works include fine art sculpture, large-scale memorials and public art projects.

Location
Currently not on view
date made
1988
depicted
Ellington, Duke
maker
Dwight, Ed
ID Number
1993.0032.01
catalog number
1993.0032.01
accession number
1993.0032

Ricky Skaggs

Henry Horenstein photographed Ricky Skaggs (b. 1954) several times as a member of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band and as a memeber of J. D. Crowe & the New South.
Description
Henry Horenstein photographed Ricky Skaggs (b. 1954) several times as a member of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band and as a memeber of J. D. Crowe & the New South. A multi-talented singer and instrumentalist, Ricky Skaggs's success helped inspire the new traditionalist movement, and was largely responsible for a back-to-basics movement in country music.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1980
print
2003
depicted (sitter)
Skaggs, Ricky
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.020
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.020

1979 - 1980 Francoise Barnes' "Inhibitions II" Quilt

“Inhibitions II,” as named by the artist, Francoise Barnes, is a quilted piece utilizing the “Log Cabin” pattern. Francoise was among the artists in the 1970s who established the Art Quilt movement in which artists use traditional and modern quilting techniques to create art.
Description
“Inhibitions II,” as named by the artist, Francoise Barnes, is a quilted piece utilizing the “Log Cabin” pattern. Francoise was among the artists in the 1970s who established the Art Quilt movement in which artists use traditional and modern quilting techniques to create art. She, along with others, helped found the Quilt National, a venue for the exhibition of non-traditional quilts.
Nine 14-inch Log Cabin blocks of contrasting solid colors were assembled to create the center of this quilted piece. It is framed by a 5½-inch diagonally-pieced border. It is machine stitched and hand quilted. Vivid colors and the use of shading contribute to the overall dynamism of this 1970s example of an Art Quilt.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1979-1980
maker
Barnes, Francoise
ID Number
1995.0011.07
accession number
1995.0011
catalog number
1995.0011.07

Painting of Duke Ellington

Acrylic on canvas painting of Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, done by his granddaughter, Gaye Ellington in 1985. Ms.
Description (Brief)
Acrylic on canvas painting of Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, done by his granddaughter, Gaye Ellington in 1985. Ms. Ellington painted this posthumous portrait in order to create a memorial that preserved her sense of the creative and loving legacy her grandfather had left her.
In a past interview, Gaye Ellington explained the reasons that led her to create this portrait, even though portraiture is not her usual subject matter: “Ever since my grandfather had died, a lot of people had done art work representing him. They were what other people saw in my grandfather. When I looked at them, they weren’t what I thought about him, and it disturbed me. … A lot of the photographs of him where very serious. I’m not saying he was always happy. But he would turn around in a minute and smile.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1985
depicted
Ellington, Duke
maker
Ellington, Gaye
ID Number
1989.0369.444
accession number
1989.0369
catalog number
1989.0369.444

Miles Davis, Avery Fisher Hall

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1981-07-05
depicted (sitter)
Davis, Miles
ID Number
2019.0144.07
accession number
2019.0144
catalog number
2019.0144.07

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