Dear America
Dear America is a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Art that brings together over 100 works on paper created across the last 250 years, all exploring what it means to be American. Through depictions of the country’s landscape, its people, and evolving concepts of freedom, the show examines how artists have grappled with this question from the 18th century to the present. The exhibition features a wide range of media—photographs, prints, drawings, and watercolors—by both historic and contemporary artists, including Carleton Watkins, Carrie Mae Weems, Thomas Hart Benton, Roy Lichtenstein, Rupert García, Thomas Moran, John Wilson, Tonita Peña, and many others. It is curated by a team of specialists from the National Gallery and is accompanied by online articles that deepen the themes of American landscapes and natural beauty.
When: April 11 through September 20, 2026
Where: West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery G23, National Gallery of Art, 6th and Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20565
Tickets: Admission is always free and no passes are required
Curated by: Angélica Becerra (Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow), Sarah Greenough (senior curator and head of photographs), Rena Hoisington (curator and head of Old Master prints), and Shelley Langdale (curator and head of modern prints and drawings), all of the National Gallery of Art
Organized by: National Gallery of Art, Washington
Leadership support: The Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Additional support: The Edwin L. Cox Exhibition Fund and Daniel W. Hamilton
Featured artists and works: Highlights include Edith Magnette’s *Chintz with Portraits of George Washington*; Carleton E. Watkins’s photograph *Piwyac, Vernal Fall, 300 feet, Yosemite*; Carrie Mae Weems’s *Echoes for Marian*; Roy Lichtenstein’s *I Love Liberty*; Jacob Lawrence’s *The 1920's...The Migrants Arrive and Cast Their Ballots*; Tonita Peña’s *Pueblo Parrot Dance*; and Ansel Adams’s *The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming*
Related reading: The exhibition is complemented by two online articles: “Iconic American Landscapes, Through Artists’ Eyes,” which takes a road trip from Maine to Alaska through art from the 19th century to today, and “Artistic Visions of Our Nation’s Nature,” exploring how artists interpret natural beauty from a Baltimore oriole to a towering redwood tree