SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

This museum reopened in 2006 after years of renovation work. Built between 1836 and 1868 (Greek Revival style), the Old Patent Office Building, one of the oldest public buildings in the city, now houses the American Art Museum, The Smithsonian American Art Museum. The aim of this museum is to highlight the history of the country from birth to present, through paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs (American impressionism with works by Mary Cassatt, nineteenth century landscapes, realism and abstraction of the twentieth century, Afro-American art…).

This museum has the first art collection of the nation, since the colonial period. You will see many impressionism, folk art and contemporary art (permanent gallery at 3rd level) and video installations. The major performers are Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Rauschenberg, Bierstadt…

Even if it's a bit complicated to get into this American art temple, you can't leave the city without visiting it. Get a plan at the entrance.

On the first floor: American Experience presents American daily life in the th and th centuries through landscapes, Edward Hopper paintings and the American Monuments, Lee Friedlander photos Series. A section devoted to folk art displays works by self-taught artists such as Bill Traylor, a former slave whose drawings exhibit his origins in the plantations, and then characters of his new free life in Montgomery, Alabama. Temporary exhibitions are also to be discovered.

On the 2nd floor: it was the American art temple until the 1940 s. There are paintings of Impressionist, modernist, Guilded Age, etc. A small section is devoted to graphic arts. Meubles style furniture is also displayed. The Lid café, outside, is good to take the air, but coffee and sandwiches are expensive.

On the 3rd floor: The section dedicated to art since 1945 includes abstract paintings and sculptures as well as some pop works. The beautiful Lincoln Gallery, spacious and marble, highlights the collection of contemporary art.

Mezzanine on the 3rd floor and 4 ^th floor: don't miss visiting the Luce Conservation Center. You can admire works that are waiting for renovation (paintings and sculptures), placed behind the windows, and look at thumbnails in drawers opening and closing with a button. The museum's conservators can also be seen on certain pieces and documented on their work by consulting computers available everywhere.

Apart from these permanent exhibitions, temporary exhibitions are organised regularly.