Women Artists at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a Guided Tour

This will be a guided tour looking at a number of artworks created by women that are part of the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. I have chosen a number of artists from different time periods, styles and works in different media that we’ll look at over the course of two hours. Because there are many women artists represented in the two museums, and I want to cover a wide range of time periods and styles, this tour will be an introduction to this topic. I'll include some of the basic outlines of art history as we look at works from different periods.

We’ll start with the earliest work on view by a woman artist in either collection, a portrait from the 18th century and work our way through the museums, looking at works created from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

Some of the highlights will include portraits and self-portraits by women artists, the two women artists whose presidential portraits are a part of the “America’s Presidents” exhibit and we'll spend some time in the large temporary exhibit, "Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Mine Okubo". All three were women artists of Japanese descent who lived in California and worked in the mid-20th century.

On the tour there will be a few names that you might recognize like Georgia O'Keeffe and Mary Cassatt and others that may not be so familiar.

This is an in-person tour and will not be broadcast online.

This program is led by Harry Phillips, who has been leading tours various locations in the Washington DC area since 2015.
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Meeting Point: I'll be near the center of the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (the building also houses the National Portrait Galllery). I'll be wearing a red baseball cap with a white curly "W" and carrying a tan shoulder bag.

If you are running late, look for us at the meeting place where I will be doing the introduction. Then we'll start on the ground floor and go to the main hallway on the East side of the building, then into gallery E135, and then up to the second floor to gallery E222.

There may be lots of cherry blossom watchers in DC on Sunday, so you may want to take that into account when planning your transportation to the museum.

Disclaimer: Participants are fully responsible for their own safety and not the event organizer: Washington, DC History & Culture.

There is no upfront cost to the tour, but I will accept gratuities at the conclusion.
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I look forward to seeing you!