National Gallery of Art Adds Hundreds of Works, From Civil War Photography to Teresita Fernández and Salman Toor
The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., has announced a major expansion of its permanent collection, bringing in hundreds of works that span from the 17th century to today. The breadth is striking, but the through line is clear: the museum is reinforcing key areas where it sees both historical urgency and contemporary momentum, notably early photography and ambitious, large-scale recent work.
Among the most significant additions is a group of 35 Civil War photographs by Alexander Gardner, George N. Barnard, and Andrew Joseph Russell, a trove that deepens the NGA’s holdings in early American photography and the visual record of the conflict. The museum also acquired works by major contemporary figures including Dan Flavin, Barbara Kruger, Claire Fontaine, and Pepón Osorio.
“As stewards of the nation’s collection, we are honored to continue expanding our holdings with significant works that tell new stories and deepen our collection across mediums, highlighting artistic developments throughout history and uplifting ongoing innovation by contemporary artists,” said E. Carmen Ramos, the NGA’s chief curatorial and conservation officer, in a statement. Ramos added that the acquisitions bring together works of “profound historical relevance” with art by living makers “continuing to shape artistic dialogues,” with particular attention to photography and sculpture.
The museum also emphasized that this round brings several artists into the collection for the first time, a marker of how the NGA is recalibrating its narrative of art history across centuries. New-to-the-collection names include contemporary artists Teresita Fernández and Salman Toor, as well as Osorio. The additions also extend to earlier periods: 17th-century Italian engraver Teresa del Pò and 18th-century Swiss painter Anna Waser are also represented at the NGA for the first time.
“Our latest acquisitions highlight the National Gallery’s commitment to showcasing artistic excellence by deepening our collection holdings, with the aim of providing nuanced explorations of art history over many centuries,” NGA director Kaywin Feldman said in a statement.
A closer look at select works underscores the range of the new holdings and the curatorial logic behind them.
A late de Chirico drawing joins the NGA
The NGA has acquired “Elettra Consolatrice (Electra Consoler)” (1968) by Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978), a work that becomes the first drawing by the artist to enter the museum’s collection. Until now, the NGA owned only two de Chirico paintings: “Conservation among the Ruins” (1927) and “Via Appia Antica” (ca. 1945/1950), both reflecting the artist’s enduring preoccupation with antiquity.
“Elettra Consolatrice” folds together hallmarks of de Chirico’s earlier Metaphysical Painting — including his mannequin-like heads — with a classicizing sensibility suggested by Greco-Roman drapery. The museum noted that the drawing was likely a study for a related painting owned by the de Chirico foundation, currently on view in “Giorgio de Chirico. L’ultima metafisica” at Palazzo dei Musei di Modena in Italy.
Teresita Fernández’s shell-and-sound installation
On the contemporary end, the NGA has acquired “Chorus” (2019/2024), a mixed-media installation by Cuban American artist Teresita Fernández (b. 1968). The work comprises dozens of conch shells coated in graphite, bringing together Fernández’s long-running interest in the boundary between drawing and sculpture. The installation also incorporates sound, produced through the shells.
“Chorus” is the first work by Fernández to enter the NGA’s collection. In announcing the acquisition, the museum said the installation opens “new opportunities to draw connections between landscape drawing, abstraction, minimalism, and land art,” positioning Fernández’s practice within multiple 20th- and 21st-century lineages.
A Salman Toor painting enters the collection
The NGA also added one of the few contemporary paintings included in this acquisition round: “Wandering Beggars” (2022) by Pakistani American artist Salman Toor (b. 1983). The museum connected the work to Vincent van Gogh and to the circular format of the tondo, while also drawing a line to Pablo Picasso’s “Family of Saltimbanques” (1905), a cornerstone of the NGA’s permanent collection.
“Wandering Beggars” is the first work by Toor to enter the museum’s holdings, signaling the NGA’s interest in how contemporary figurative painting can converse with canonical European precedents while remaining rooted in the present.
Taken together, the acquisitions suggest an institution thinking simultaneously about the archive and the living studio: strengthening photography and sculpture, widening the roster of artists represented for the first time, and using new works to reframe what a national collection can say about the past — and what it can make possible for the future.
