Picturing America Exhibit Opens at National Museum
Deputy Minister of Culture and Information for International Cultural Relations Abubakr Bagader officially opened the Picturing America exhibit at the National Museum in Riyadh on May 23. The exhibit is sponsored by the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of State in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture & Information and the Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities. The exhibit will run until June 3 and is open to the public.
Picturing America is an exhibit of iconic American artworks that span several centuries and feature artists ranging from early American Indian artisans to painters Mary Cassatt and Thomas Hart Benton; photographers Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, architects Frank Lloyd Wright and William Van Alen. The artists and subjects reflect the rich diversity of American culture – people of Native American, European, and African origin; heroes and ordinary men and women; breathtaking landscapes and architecture, and simple dwellings.
America’s artistic heritage—paintings, sculpture, architecture, fine crafts, and photography—offers unique insights into the character, ideals, and aspirations of the United States. The images in Picturing America record history for current and future generations, and become themselves a part of history. They form the common memory of all Americans. They tell Americans about what they have been and done in the past, and how they should strive to act in the present and future.