EVENT CATEGORIES

ART

Through Aug. 12
Stefan Zweig – An Austrian from Europe
In 1992, the city of Salzburg honored well-known writer and political observer Stefan Zweig with an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death — a retrospective that now comes to Washington with more than 120 photographs and numerous reproductions and other documents on his life. Admission is free but registration is required and can be made at www.acfdc.org/events-registration.
Embassy of Austria

Through Aug. 13
The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photos from the Liljenquist Family Collection
Portrait photographs of the young men who fought and died in the American Civil War serve as a memorial to those who gave their lives during the devastating conflict, displaying the faces of 360 Union soldiers — one for every 1,000 who died — and 52 Confederate soldiers, one for every 5,000.
Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson Building

Through Aug. 14
Charles Sandison: Rage, love, hope, and despair
This mesmerizing digital projection by Scottish-born artist Charles Sandison uses computer technology and color-coded words to represent different emotions, states of being, and patterns of human behavior.
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Through Aug. 14
Mads Gamdrup: Renunciation
In a series of 16 spectacular, large-scale color photographs, Danish artist Mads Gamdrup explores the desert as a place of unexpected promise, highlighting empty landscapes in the United States, Iceland, Egypt and Morocco.
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Through Aug. 14
E • CO
River degradation. Torrential rains in Brazil. The consequences of nuclear power in Eastern Europe. Environmental issues are captured by professional photographers from across Latin America and Europe in a body of work first shown in Spain to highlight professional photographers’ challenges in the rapidly evolving digital media landscape.
American University Katzen Arts Center

Through Aug. 14
Registro 02
Is a work of art defined by the artist’s intent and methods, or do the people viewing it help define the work through their perceptions of it? Encompassing the works of four individual artists and one collective, this exhibit sets out to show that both the artistic process and the audience’s perception help inform art’s meaning.
American University Katzen Arts Center

Through Aug. 14
Washington Color and Light
Artists associated with the Washington Color School and their contemporaries were united by an exploration of the language of abstraction, a desire to experiment with materials, and a love of color. This exhibition reveals the artistic innovations and individual approaches that shaped new directions in abstract painting and sculpture from the 1950s to the late 1970s.
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Through Aug. 20
Women by Women
This group exhibition of work by five women artists portraying women explores conceptions of femininity.
Heiner Contemporary Gallery

Through Aug. 21
Race to the End of the Earth
A century ago, two teams led by Britain’s Robert F. Scott and Norway’s Roald Amundsen braved starvation and Antarctica’s frozen environment in a race to be first to the South Pole. An array of breathtaking photographs, historic artifacts and interactive exhibits recount this true-life adventure tale while examining classic and modern methods of polar travel, science and technology — as well as the human instinct to explore our world.
National Geographic Society

Through Aug. 28
Fragments in Time and Space
Fragments in Time and Space draws primarily on the Hirshhorn’s collection to present works by artists such as Tacita Dean, Thomas Eakins, Douglas Gordon, Ed Ruscha and Hiroshi Sugimoto, encouraging viewers to reconsider the way they perceive and experience the world — from a single moment in time to an idea of the infinite.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Through Aug. 28
Possible Worlds: Mexican Photography and Fiction in Contemporary Art
The artists of “Possible Worlds” are part of a new generation of photographers who break away from traditional photojournalism and offer imaginative, alternative ways of documenting the natural world, influenced by film, literature, fantasy, science fiction and electronic music.
Organization of American States
Art Museum of the Americas

Through Sept. 2
gute aussichten: young German photography 2010/2011
Works by eight winners of gute aussichten, the seventh annual German competition for graduate photography students, come to Washington on the exhibition’s worldwide tour.
The Goethe-Institut

Through Sept. 3
Fame, Fortune, and Theft: The Shakespeare First Folio
This exhibition traces the global history of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the first published collection of the Bard’s plays, depicting the ways in which this single book influenced the industries of conservation and book-collecting from the 1620s through the 21st century, eventually becoming a cause for idolatry in itself.
Folger Shakespeare Library

Through Sept. 4
Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting with White Border
After a visit to his native Moscow, Vasily Kandinsky recorded his “extremely powerful impressions” in his 1913 masterpiece, “Painting with White Border,” which, for this exhibition, is reunited with more than 12 preparatory studies from international collections, including the Phillips’s oil sketch, and compared with other closely related works.
The Phillips Collection

Through Sept. 4
Stella Sounds: The Scarlatti K Series
For the first time in a museum exhibition, the Phillips Collection presents recent works from Frank Stella’s “K “series inspired by the 18th-century composer Domenico Scarlatti’s harpsichord sonatas.
The Phillips Collection

Through Sept. 5
The Capitoline Venus
The “Capitoline Venus” — on loan to the United States for the first time — is one of the best-preserved and most famous masterpieces from Roman antiquity.
National Gallery of Art

Through Sept. 30
Democratic Principles
This exhibit of 22 portraits by Elizabeth McClancy represent contemporary progressive political leaders in ways that reveal the magnitude of the challenges they face and the leadership they must assume. A special panel discussion on June 8 at 7 p.m. features Howard Dean and will discuss the next of the arts in democratic development. For information, visit www.democraticwoman.org.
The Woman’s National Democratic Club

Through Oct. 2
The Guerrilla Girls Talk Back
The Guerrilla Girls, a group of anonymous artist-activists, critique the sexism and racism pervading contemporary culture through their populist art production, which includes posters, books and live performances in which they wear gorilla masks.
National Museum of Women in the Arts

Through Oct. 2
Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind
Featuring 75 works by 42 artists including Elaine de Kooning, Louise Nevelson, Margo Humphrey, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith and Kiki Smith, “Pressing Ideas” explores the breadth of experimentation in lithography and women’s contributions to a workshop that stretches creative boundaries.
National Museum of Women in the Arts

Through Oct. 2
Left Behind: Selected Gifts from the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection
Featuring photographs of unpopulated spaces in which a human presence is not evident but implied, this exhibition celebrates recent gifts from the Podestas to the Phillips.
The Phillips Collection

Through Oct. 2
In the Tower: Nam June Paik
A new exhibition featuring 20 works by groundbreaking contemporary artist Nam June Paik (1923–2006) is the third in a series of shows installed in the Tower Gallery that centers on developments in art since the midcentury.
National Gallery of Art

Through Oct. 9
NASA / ART: 50 Years of Exploration
More than 70 pieces of art — from the illustrative to the abstract — offer a look at the works commissioned by the NASA Art Program, which was established soon after the inception of the U.S. space program in 1958 as a way to communicate the accomplishments, setbacks and sheer excitement of space exploration over the past five decades to the public.
National Air and Space Museum

Through Oct. 22
Mexico Through the Lens of National Geographic
With more than 150 articles, no country has seen more coverage in National Geographic magazine than Mexico, generating a stunning archive of visual imagery documenting the country’s culture, history and physical beauty — a slice of which can be seen in this selection of 132 photographs drawn from the National Geographic’s archives.
Mexican Cultural Institute

Through Oct. 23
Chris Martin: Painting Big
Chris Martin’s large-scale abstract paintings are tactile and stitched-together, incorporating found objects and collage into their abstract geometries and rhythmic patterns and relating as much to the physical world as to his own memories and experiences.
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Through Oct. 28
Publishing Modernism: The Bauhaus in Print
How is it that an art school that was open for a mere 14 years — during which time it suffered chronic financial shortfalls, survived a turbulent political situation, claimed just 33 faculty members, and graduated only about 1,250 students — came to have such a lasting impression on modern design and art education? Despite these difficulties, the Bauhaus did precisely that.
National Gallery of Art

Through Nov. 6
Perspectives: Hale Tiger
Multimedia artist Hale Tenger, born in Izmir, Turkey, creates videos and installations that examine the tangible and intangible traces of events, filming the façade of the St. George Hotel in Beirut — the site of the assassination of Rafik Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon — while it was being renovated from 2005 to 2007.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through Nov. 27
The Gothic Spirit of John Taylor Arms
John Taylor Arms (1887–1953), an American printmaker, believed in the uplifting quality of Gothic art and the power of close observation, skillfully transcribed. This exhibition presents selected examples from the artist’s entire career, from his early New York works to his finest images of European cathedrals.
National Gallery of Art

Through Nov. 27
Italian Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection: 1525-1835
The splendors of Italian draftsmanship from the late Renaissance to the height of the neoclassical movement are showcased in an exhibition of 65 superb drawings assembled by the European private collector Wolfgang Ratjen (1943–97).
National Gallery of Art

MUSIC

Fri., Aug. 5, 8:30 p.m.
NSO at Wolf Trap: Tan Dun – Martial Arts Trilogy
Composer Tan Dun leads the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in the “Martial Arts Trilogy,” featuring three concertos based on his film scores for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “The Banquet” and “Hero.” Tickets are $20 to $52.
Wolf Trap

Thu., Aug. 11, 7:30 p.m.
Oktet9
Eight young men touring the world as part of the Slovenian a capella choir group Oktet9 come to Washington for a special pre-season event on behalf of the Embassy Series. Tickets are $30, including a wine and cheese reception, and can be purchased at www.embassyseries.org.
Embassy of Slovenia

THEATER

Aug. 4 to 27
Uncle Vanya
The Sydney Theatre Company returns with an exclusive U.S. engagement of Andrew Upton’s new adaptation of “Uncle Vanya,” starring Cate Blanchett in the classic tragicomedy by Anton Chekhov that lays bare the fruitlessness of human endeavor with warmth, humor and insight. Tickets are $59 to $120.
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

Through Aug. 7
POP!
Who shot Andy Warhol? This musical murder-mystery extravaganza recreates the freewheeling, adrenaline-driven atmosphere of Warhol’s infamous Factory, complete with a cast of colorful characters — and suspects. Tickets are $38 to $43.
The Studio Theatre

Sat., Aug. 13, 7 p.m.
La Familia Lobato & Young and Corrupted
Participants of GALA Theatre’s Paso Nuevo and Summer Youth Program are proud to present two new and original productions: “La Familia Lobato,” a bilingual play exploring the intricacies of family relations and cultural identity, and “Young and Corrupted,” a series of new monologues, scenes, songs and other pieces. Admission is free.
GALA Hispanic Theatre

Through Aug. 14
Clybourne Park
In the 1950s, a white community in Chicago splinters over the black family about to move into their neighborhood. Fast forward to present day and that same house now represents very different demographics, as neighbors pitch a horrifying yet hilarious battle over territory and legacy that reveals how far our ideas about race and gentrification have evolved — or have they? Tickets start at $45.
Woolly Mammoth Theater Company

Through Aug. 14
The Importance of Being Ernest
SCENA Theatre offers a gender-bending take on Oscar Wilde’s timeless tale of class and marriage that both revels in and mocks the “double life” created by protagonist Jack as “his” alter ego indulges in pleasure outside of British society’s mores. Tickets are $27 to $40.
H Street Playhouse

Aug. 18 to Sept. 4
Julius Caesar
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual “Free For All,” a much-loved Washington tradition that has offered free performances to the public for the past 20 years, kicks off the company’s 25th anniversary season with a revival of its acclaimed production of “Julius Caesar” and his famed life-and-death struggle for power in Rome.
Sidney Harman Hall

Through Aug. 21
Wicked
Long before that girl from Kansas arrives in Munchkinland, two girls meet in the land of Oz — one is smart, fiery and green, literally, while the other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good makes for what the New York Times calls “the defining musical of the decade.” Tickets are $37 to $250.
Kennedy Center Opera House

Aug. 25 to Oct. 16
The Boy Detective Fails
In the twilight of a childhood full of wonder, a Billy the “boy detective” faces a mystery he can’t comprehend: the shocking death of his young sister and crime-solving partner Caroline. Ten years later, a 30-year-old Billy returns to his quiet New Jersey town after an extended stay at St. Vitus’ Hospital for the mentally ill determined to right old wrongs. Call for ticket information.
Signature Theatre

Through Oct. 2
Oklahoma!
The best-selling show in Arena Stage’s 60-year history is back for 12 weeks. Inspired by the toughness of the prairie, Artistic Director Molly Smith sets her production in the robust world of territory life filled with a cast as rich and complex as the great tapestry of America itself, set against the backdrop of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless music. Please call for ticket details.
Arena Stage