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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2022>The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 

# The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900

Past Exhibition

## July 10 – October 31, 2022East Building, Concourse Galleries

When two forms or images are presented together, our eyes can’t help but compare them. We “see double” and identify differences and similarities. The art of the double causes us to see ourselves seeing.

*The Double* is the first major exhibition to consider how and why modern and contemporary artists have employed doubled formats to explore perceptual, conceptual, and psychological themes. From Matisse, Duchamp, and Gorky to Rauschenberg, Johns, Warhol, Truitt, and Hesse, this multimedia presentation features works by many of today’s leading artists, including Kerry James Marshall, Glenn Ligon, Roni Horn, and Yinka Shonibare.

Through art, *The Double* explores enduring questions of identity and difference, especially self-identity as defined by our own unconscious, by society, and by race, gender, and sexuality.

## Explore & Share

Video
Double, Double, Foil and Trouble
**On Doubling and Painting**

Watch Jacqueline Humphries speak about her artistic practice and the theme of doubling as it has appeared throughout her career.
Watch now
Video
Artists at Work
**Mario García Torres's “Today (News from Kabul)”**

See how this artist transformed Alighiero Boetti's poetic mirror-writing into a concrete presentation of the news of daily violence in Afghanistan.
Watch now

Video
Howardena Pindell
**Elson Lecture 2022**

Howardena Pindell discusses how social issues and the prospect of societal change impact her art and life.
Watch now
Video
Jorge Macchi
Jorge Macchi talks about his work, *Vidas Paralelas (Parallel Lives),* and his multidimensional art practice that challenges the seemingly predictable parts of everyday life.
Watch now

Blog
Doubling Across Time
**Three Artists on Racism, Revolution, and Feminism**

What inspired three artists to reach through time to create art? Does this art mirror today’s news events? And what insight might this art offer us?
Read now
Blog
Arshile Gorky
**Double Life, Double Portrait**

Pain and longing lurk beneath the surface of the artist’s emotionally charged double portrait, *The Artist and His Mother*.
Read now
Story
Twoness
**Rashid Johnson’s Doubled Portrait of Emmett Till**

Discover how the doubling in this work of art recalls the paired images of Emmett Till, but imagines him alive and thriving.
Read now

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900Available now

## Selected Works

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Rashid Johnson, *The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Emmett)*, 2008, printed 2022, chromogenic print, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Funds from Ryan E. Lee and Lee Group Holdings (LGH), Heather and Jim Johnson Fund, Kend Family Fund, and Peter Edwards and Rose Gutfeld Fund

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Arshile Gorky, *The Artist and His Mother*,**c. 1926–1936, oil on canvas, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of Julien Levy for Maro and Natasha Gorky in memory of their father © 2021 The Arshile Gorky Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Arshile Gorky, *The Artist and His Mother*, c. 1926–c. 1942, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund © 1997 The Estate of Arshile Gorky / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Robert Rauschenberg, *Factum I*, 1957, oil, ink, pencil, crayon, paper, fabric, newspaper, printed reproductions, and printed paper on canvas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Panza Collection © 2021 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Robert Rauschenberg, *Factum II*, 1957, oil, ink, pencil, crayon, paper, fabric, newspaper, printed reproductions, and printed paper on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase and an anonymous gift and Louise Reinhardt Smith Bequest (both by exchange), 206.1999. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Seydou Keita, *Untitled*, 1953–1957, modern gelatin silver print © Seydou Keïta/SKPEAC

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Alighiero Boetti, *Gemelli (Zwei)*, 1974–1975, photograph on paper, Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels © Alighiero Boetti by SIAE 2022****

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Lorna Simpson, *Untitled (Two Necklines)*, 1989, gelatin silver prints and plastic plaques, National Gallery of Art, Gift of the Collectors Committee © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Janine Antoni, *Mom and Dad,*1994, Cibachrome triptych, Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York. Image: © Janine Antoni, Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
Glenn Ligon, *Double America*, 2012, neon and paint, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Agnes Gund

The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 
George Platt Lynes, *Portrait of René Crevel*, 1928, modern silver gelatin print, From the Collections of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University. All rights reserved.

**Organization**                        Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

The exhibition is curated by James Meyer, curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art

**Sponsors** The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation has provided major support for the exhibition. 

It is also generously supported by Dr. Mihael Polymeropoulos and Mrs. Mahy D. Polymeropoulos.

It is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Additional funding is provided by the Tower Project of the National Gallery of Art.

**Passes** Admission is always free and passes are not required

**Banner detail**: Alighiero Boetti, *Gemelli (Zwei)*, 1974–1975, photograph on paper, Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels © Alighiero Boetti by SIAE 2022****

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