Although the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the capital’s oldest and largest private art museum will close its doors at the beginning of next month, the words “Dedicated to Art” will remain carved above its 17th St. entrance.
George Washington University will assume ownership of the building, and the National Gallery will appropriate over 17,000 pieces of art from the Corcoran.
The gallery’s founder, William Corcoran, was the son of one of the region’s first mayors. Corcoran worked as a merchant and a financier but, most notably, he collected American art at a time when most collectors focused on purchasing European pieces. Through his patronage, he grew close to many important American artists including Frederic Church, Thomas Doughty, and George Inness. In 1869, Corcoran commissioned John Renwick Jr. to design a new building, now the Renwick Gallery, to house his collection, establishing the first iteration of the Corcoran Gallery.
The Corcoran will close for a period of extensive renovations. It is, at this point, unclear which art pieces will remain on display in the Washington area, and what will be sold to galleries elsewhere or tucked into Smithsonian storage.
The Gallery’s impending closure has been growing starkly more obvious over the past few months, ever since its impending closure was announced earlier this summer. The galleries bustle with unusually high energy as tourists and locals clamber to get a last glimpse of the collections.
The Corcoran is hosting one final exhibition before it closes its doors next month. American Metal: The Art of Albert Paley offers a remarkable look at the craft of metal smithing, from cathedral gates to naturalistic sculptures.
Albert Paley manipulates metal with incredible prowess, creating science fiction-worthy furniture and intricate sculptures of animals that dominate entire galleries. His industrial, futuristic pieces seem most fitting for his media, iron and bronze. However, he also manages to drape the same materials with the daintiness of a piece of ribbon.
Paley launched his career in metalwork by winning a design contest for the metal gates of the Renwick Gallery. It is only fitting that the final exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery honors the work of that same artist 42 years later. As the Corcoran Gallery closes its gates, the District will lose one of its longest running cultural establishments. With its closing the city must ask itself how it will, once again, dedicate itself to art.
Corcoran Gallery
500 17th St N.W.
10 a.m. – 5 p.m. all week
corcoran.org
