This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery. Please follow the links below for related online resources or visit our current exhibitions schedule.

For more than thirty years, the American photographer Richard Misrach (b. 1949) has made provocative work that addresses contemporary society's relationship to nature, especially the American West. Since 2001, he has made a series of large scale (six by ten feet), lushly colored photographs of swimmers and sunbathers in Hawaii. Looking down from a hotel room directly adjacent to the beach, he has eliminated all references to the horizon and sky to record people immersed in the idyllic environment. Yet, despite the beauty of the scene, a strange sense of disquietude pervades these photographs. Made in the days immediately after September 11, 2001, these photographs speak of the unease and sense of foreboding that pervaded the country after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The title of the series, On the Beach, is drawn from Nevil Shute's cold war novel about nuclear holocaust. This exhibition will present 19 of these photographs.

Organization: This exhibition was initiated by The Art Institute of Chicago.

Schedule: The Art Institute of Chicago, September 15–November 25, 2007; The Contemporary Art Museum, Honolulu, December 15, 2007–March 9, 2008; National Gallery of Art, May 25–September 1, 2008; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, October 11, 2008–January 18, 2009; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, May 23–August 16, 2009

Sponsor: The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Trellis Fund.