25 for 25

This exhibition brings together twenty-five works of art—one for each decade since the outbreak of the American Revolution—to mark the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. 25 for 25 invites visitors to consider how artists have pictured the United States across its history and into present day.

Beginning in the 1770s amid the tensions that preceded independence, the exhibition traces shifting visions of America through portraiture, landscape, still life, and scenes of everyday life. Early works capture a young nation striving to define itself—its leaders, its cultural aspirations, and its expanding horizons. As the decades unfold, the paintings reveal how art responded to war and reunion, industrialization and innovation, displacement and migration, and the expansion of citizenship and civil rights.

Some artists looked backward, seeking inspiration in Revolutionary heroism or in nostalgic visions of a vanishing past. Others confronted change head-on, exploring modern life, celebrating regional identities, or challenging exclusions embedded within the American story. The selection foregrounds diverse voices—from celebrated academic painters to self-taught visionaries to masters of modernism.

Seen together, these paintings offer more than a chronological survey; they reflect evolving ideas about who and what constitutes “America.” They remind us that the nation has never been a fixed image, but an ongoing project shaped by debate, creativity, conflict, and hope. As we commemorate 250 years since revolution, 25 for 25 invites reflection on the past while imagining the future yet to be painted.