2011 Annual Report - National Gallery of Art

26
� In the Tower:
Nam June Paik
� Gabriel Metsu,
1629–1667
Exhibiting
different in scale and appearance from the
Prototypes, Ronde de Nuit reveals Baltz’s continuing
preoccupation with manufactured
environments and how they are used to
control contemporary society. A fully illustrated
catalogue accompanied the exhibition.
The Gallery examined the work of one of the
most important Dutch genre painters of the
mid-seventeenth century in Gabriel Metsu,
1629–1667. Although his career was relatively
short, Gabriel Metsu enjoyed great success as a
genre painter and with his religious scenes, still
lifes, and portraits. Metsu’s ability to capture
ordinary moments of life with freshness and
spontaneity was matched only by his ability to
depict materials with an unerring truth to
nature. Featuring some thirty-five paintings,
this exhibition was the first monographic
show of Metsu’s work ever mounted in the
United States. A fully illustrated catalogue and
a brochure accompanied the exhibition.
Italian Master Drawings from the Wolfgang
Ratjen Collection, 1525–1835 celebrated a selection
of sixty-five superb drawings assembled
by the European private collector Wolfgang
Ratjen (1943–1997). The splendors of Italian
draftsmanship from the late Renaissance to
the height of the neoclassical movement were
showcased in this exhibition, which featured
works by many of the most important artists of