What's New?

Where: National Portrait Gallery

When: closing November 4, 2018

In the same hallway as the Henrietta Lacks portrait is a selection of recent acquisitions.  This display changes every six months or so, so you can pretty much always see what's new.

I feel confident that I've described the criteria for inclusion in the collection before.  My plan for this post was to skip any discussion of that, but I overheard a tour guide describing it while I was there, and I found out some new information.

Obviously, there are some portraits that will "stand the test of time," as the guide put it.  Presidents of the United States, Founding Fathers, other famous people from America's past, all of them will be important for the foreseeable future.  But what about people who are famous or important now, but might not be in 10 or 20 or 50 years?

The "currently famous" (my term) people are designated as "contemporary."  All items in the Portrait Gallery's collection have a letter-number sequence that identifies them.  The contemporary works have a "C" in their identifier.  In theory, if the person is later deemed not important enough to warrant a place in the permanent collection, their portrait could be withdrawn.  In fact, the guide said she'd never seen anything be withdrawn, and if someone was considered not worthy of inclusion in the permanent collection, they'd just stay in the contemporary collection.  To a museum geek like myself, this was fascinating.

I took a snapshot of the Madeleine Albright portrait because I thought it was very well done, and I really liked her dove pin.  I saw a show on her pins once at the Smithsonian Castle, and she chooses them with great care.  They are designed to send a message to anyone with whom she is meeting, so the fact that she chose this symbol of peace for this portrait sends the right message, I think.  Plus, as a great fan of Leslie Knope, how could I not include one of her heroes?

Another terrific piece was a book illustration of Henry Box Brown.  Brown was an enslaved person who literally shipped himself in a crate to an abolitionist society in Philadelphia.  Imagine their surprise when they opened this box and a person emerged.  It's a great story of human courage, endurance and ingenuity.

Verdict: With a wide variety of subjects and styles, there's something for everyone.