October 10, 2009-January 10, 2010

While the influence of African art on modern painting and sculpture has been explored, Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens examines a parallel history, the role of photography in shaping international understanding of African objects as art, in the 1920s and 1930s. The exhibition reveals photography’s complex engagement with African art by exploring African art in the context of American modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, surrealism, and the worlds of high fashion and popular culture, at the same time as it investigates issues of race, gender, and colonialism during the modernist era.

The exhibition includes approximately 45 proofs for lithographs, etchings, and screenprints that the artist expanded in a range of media, including pastel, ink, and paint. The works of art are installed in two galleries. The first features works from the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting motifs associated with Johns’ art throughout his career, such as the alphabet, targets, and body parts. The second gallery introduces complex compositions from the 1980s and 1990s, among them autobiographical references such as family photographs and art objects owned by the artist. The works are selected from a collection of approximately 1,700 proofs for Johns’ prints that he has maintained and carefully annotated over four decades. This extraordinary body of work is being acquired by the National Gallery of Art for its permanent collection.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art.

Schedule: National Gallery of Art, October 11, 2009–April 4, 2010

Passes: Passes are not required for this exhibition.

The exhibition is on view in the National Gallery’s East Building, Ground Floor.