A steady stream of visitors takes in 21 portraits of women and art created by women at the National Portrait Gallery. It is the 2023-2024 edition of “Recent Acquisitions,” where images of women are featured through various media, from painting, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and time-based media. The exhibition will be on display through Oct. 27.
“This exhibition recognizes the diverse contributions by women represented in our collection as artists or as sitters from across disciplines and time periods, as well as the museum’s commitment to telling those wide-ranging stories,” said Rhea L. Combs, director of curatorial affairs at the National Portrait Gallery.
Visitors to the Portrait Gallery will see a 2023 mixed-media portrait of the science fiction writer Octavia Butler by contemporary artist Bisa Butler and a 2023 oil painting of the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” Opal Lee by artist Sedrick Huckaby.
Other portraits include artist Ruth Asawa, singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, actress Greta Garbo, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, artist Shigeko Kubota, actress and dancer Carmen de Lavallade, artist Nellie Mae Rowe, astronomer Vera Rubin, artist Betye Saar and photographer Ming Smith.
Also featured is a circa 1916 hand-painted pastel photograph of entrepreneur and philanthropist Madame C.J. Walker by the late D.C.-based photographer Addison N. Scurlock. Presenting positive images of Washington, D.C.’s prominent residents, as well as everyday people, was the hallmark of a Scurlock photograph.
A’Lelia Bundles, Madam’s great-great-granddaughter and official biographer, had donated some of her personal photos of Madam to the Portrait Gallery several years ago. Bundle recently got a close-up look at the recently acquired portrait in the Portrait Gallery.
“I was glad that the museum was able to have a photograph that was larger and in color because that resonates with a younger audience,” said Bundles.
For more information, go to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website (npg.si.edu).