WASHINGTON, DC.- As part of its yearlong commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026, the National Gallery of Art presents Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience, an exhibition examining how artists have portrayed and interpreted key aspects of American culture over the last 250 years. Comprising more than 100 works from the late 18th century to the present—including many recent acquisitions and works that have never been on view at the National Gallery before—the exhibition highlights artists’ wide-ranging depictions of American experience across time and place and is framed by the themes of land, community, and freedom. Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience is on view in the West Building from April 11 to September 20, 2026.

Drawn primarily from the National Gallery’s leading collection of American art, Dear America brings together works on paper by 95 artists. Among the objects on view are photographs by Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, Margaret Bourke-White, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk Nation), Sally Mann, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Gordon Parks, Alfred Stieglitz, James Van Der Zee, Carleton E. Watkins, and Carrie Mae Weems; drawings by Thomas Moran, Tonita Peña, Eunice Pinney, and John Wilson; artists’ books by Dindga McCannon and Kara Walker; and prints by Emma Amos, Ruth Asawa, Charles Gaines, Jane Hammond, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Fritz Scholder, and Juan Sánchez.

“Artists have long helped us see America not just as a place, but as a living idea shaped by many voices,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art. “Through these remarkable works from the National Gallery’s collection, visitors to the nation’s art museum can witness the power of art to illuminate our shared past, illustrate the experiences of our lives, and inspire our collective future.”

“Showcasing exemplary prints, drawings, and photographs made in the last 250 years, this exhibition is a testament to collaboration across curatorial disciplines as well as the strength of our permanent collection,” said E. Carmen Ramos, the National Gallery’s chief curatorial and conservation officer. “Dear America reveals the wide range of subjects, approaches, and techniques through which America’s artists have sought to interpret their own and others’ experiences.”
About the Exhibition

Comprising works that span the breadth of US history and geography, from the nation’s founding through the present, Dear America seeks to explore how artists have considered the question of what is, has been, and could be the nature of the American experience. The exhibition is organized in three thematic sections: Land, Community, and Freedom, each highlighting artists’ expansive interpretations of American culture and iconography.

The first section, Land, explores our collective understanding of America as a place and as a site of wonder and belonging, survival and memory. Works from the 19th century by Thomas Moran, Frances Flora Bond Palmer, William H. Rau, and Carleton E. Watkins capture the variety of natural geographies across the North American continent and the early stages of the expansion of railways and settlements from east to west. Examples by 20th- and 21st-century artists, such as Bernarda Bryson, Leo Limón, Richard Misrach, and Margaret Bourke-White, address the impact of the growing populace, human-built environments, and major cities that comprise America today. This section shows how artists have drawn inspiration from the grandeur of the country’s mountain ranges and canyons, as well as from roadside gas stations, hydroelectric dams, and skyscrapers.

The second section, Community, begins with four large multipart works that fill an entire gallery. Dear America (2002), composed of 16 photographs by contemporary artist Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk Nation), was the inspiration for the title of the exhibition. In this suite, Jones combined scans of historical postcards with lyrics from the song “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” to incorporate Native American experiences into narratives of American history. Also featured is a set of life-size figure drawings for John Wilson’s unrealized mural Young Americans (1973–1975). These drawings depict the artist’s teenage children and their friends, who hung out at the Wilson home in the 1970s. Their youthful potential represented a hopeful vision of the future to the artist. Nearby is a group of some 30 portraits from a suite of 101 offset lithographs by Sedrick E. Huckaby that are based on sketches he created while he interviewed people living and working in his community. The largest multipart work in this section is Richard Avedon’s The Family (1976), a series of 69 photographs. Made during the Bicentennial, they depict America’s power elite—politicians, media moguls, financiers, and activists. These works and others by artists such as Charles Milton Bell, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Michael Jang, César A. Martínez, and Cara Romero highlight artists’ portrayals of the many types of communities that have shaped the American experience, from politicians and prominent public servants, to friends and family members, neighborhoods, and religious and cultural gatherings.

The exhibition concludes with the section Freedom, weaving histories of revolution and liberation with deeply personal snapshots of American life. The works included here serve as both witnesses to the moments they portray and catalysts to connect us to our own sense of freedom. This section explores artists’ considerations of the freedoms envisioned by the founders of the United States as well as by later generations who have continually sought to protect fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and promote greater freedom for all people. Featured are scenes from the American Revolution and Civil War, including Paul Revere’s famous print depicting the Boston Massacre of 1770, an event that was prompted by escalating tensions between the American colonists and Great Britain. Also on view are historical portraits of figures like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and George Washington, all of whom advocated for freedom, while portraits of soldiers by artists such as Maya Freelon and James Van Der Zee remind us of the cost of defending that freedom. Other photographs by Lewis Wickes Hine and Alfred Stieglitz capture the early 20th-century mass movement of people who were fleeing oppression and seeking new opportunities. And Faith Ringgold’s screenprints of events from the civil rights movement that accompany Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” and Robert Indiana’s boldly colored screenprint Liberty ’76 (1974–1975), made for the occasion of the country’s 200th anniversary, document and celebrate the continual pursuit of freedom that is fundamental to our democracy.