Tall Tales and Short Stories: Depictions of the American Experience
ART OF THE UNITED STATES GALLERY
The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the document that established the United States as an independent country free from British colonial rule. It also offers an opportunity to reflect on some of the ways in which we understand American history and American life. What did you learn about the “discovery” of North America? How did artists picture the poverty and devastation of the Great Depression and World War II? How were urban and rural life imagined in the 1950s and 60s? The artists included in Tall Tales and Short Stories present scenes of everyday life, commemorate significant moments in history, and depict figures real and fictional who have shaped the nation’s imaginary. In doing so, they tell some of the overarching grand narratives as well as less familiar stories about our country, encouraging us to think about our history in expanded and critical ways.
Tall Tales and Short Stories: Depictions of the American Experience is organized by Marshall N. Price, Chief Curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Support
Tall Tales and Short Stories: Depictions of the American Experience is made possible by The Nancy A. Nasher & David J. Haemisegger Family Fund for Exhibitions and the J. Horst & Ruth Mary Meyer Fund for the Nasher Museum.
-
Roy Lichtenstein, Weatherford Surrenders to Jackson, 1953. Oil on canvas, 42 × 50 inches (106.68 × 127 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in Celebration of the Centennial of Roy Lichtenstein, 2023.4.9. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Image courtesy of the Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.
-
Fritz Scholder, Indian and Storefront, 1974. Acrylic on canvas, 30 × 40 inches (76.2 × 101.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Gift of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust to the Ackland Art Museum and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2020.4.1. © Estate of Fritz Scholder. Image courtesy of LewAllen Galleries, Sante Fe, New Mexico.
-
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Hot Rhythm, 1961. Oil on canvas, 39 7/8 × 48 1/4 × 7/8 inches (101.3 × 122.6 × 2.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Gift of Mara Motley, M.D., and Valerie Gerrard Browne in honor of Professor Richard J. Powell and C.T. Woods-Powell and in memory of Archie Motley, 2016.24.1. © Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Photo by Peter Paul Goeffrion.
-
Ellen Lanyon, Pugilists, 1965. Oil on linen, 24 1/2 × 24 1/2 inches (62.2 × 62.2 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Gift of Roland Ginzel, 2014.15.1. © Estate of Ellen Lanyon. Photo by Peter Paul Goeffrion.
