3 Best Sights in Washington, D.C., USA

The East Building opened in 1978 in response to the changing needs of the National Gallery, mainly to house a growing collection of modern and contemporary art. The building itself is a modern masterpiece. The site's trapezoidal shape prompted architect I.M. Pei's dramatic approach: two interlocking spaces shaped like triangles provide room for a library, galleries, auditoriums, and administrative offices. Inside the ax-blade-like southwest corner, a colorful, 76-foot-long Alexander Calder mobile dominates the sunlight atrium. Visitors can view a dynamic 500-piece collection of photography, paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and media arts in thought-provoking chronological, thematic, and stylistic arrangements.

Highlights include galleries devoted to Mark Rothko's giant, glowing canvases; Barnett Newman's 14 stark black, gray, and white canvas paintings from The Stations of the Cross, 1958–1966; and several colorful and whimsical Alexander Calder mobiles and sculptures. You can't miss Katharina Fritsch's Hahn/Cock, 2013, a tall blue rooster that appears to stand guard over the street and federal buildings from the roof terrace, which also offers views of the Capitol. The upper-level gallery showcases modern art from 1910 to 1980, including masterpieces by Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, Sam Gilliam, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol. Ground-level galleries are devoted to American art from 1900 to 1950, including pieces by George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, and Alfred Stieglitz. The concourse level is reserved for rotating special exhibitions.

The East Building Shop is on the concourse level, and the Terrace Café looks out over the atrium from the upper level. You can access an audio tour on your mobile device, and docent-led tours are available most days. Check the website for times and themes.

The intersection of art, biography, and history is illustrated here through images of people who have shaped U.S. history. There are prints, paintings, photos, and sculptures of subjects from George Washington to Madonna.

This museum shares the National Historic Landmark building Old Patent Office with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Built between 1836 and 1863 and praised by Walt Whitman as the "noblest of Washington buildings," it is deemed one of the country's best examples of Greek Revival architecture.

America's Presidents gallery, offering insights into the leaders---from George Washington until the present---is one of the most popular exhibitions. In this gallery, you'll see the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House. Highlights include Gilbert Stuart's 1796 "Landsdowne" portrait of George Washington, Alexander Gardner's "cracked-plate" image of Abraham Lincoln from Lincoln's last formal portrait session before his assassination in 1865, a sculpture of Andrew Jackson on a horse, and political cartoonist Pat Oliphant's sculpture of George H.W. Bush playing horseshoes.

From portraits of World War II generals Eisenhower and Patton to Andy Warhol's Time magazine cover of Michael Jackson, the third-floor gallery, Twentieth-Century Americans, offers a vibrant tour of the people who shaped the country and culture of today. If seeing former first lady Michelle Obama is on your list, get to the gallery early, as this is a sought-after portrait. 

There are free docent-led tours Saturdays and Sundays at noon and 2:30 pm. Check the website to confirm the times. At the Lunder Conservation Center on the third and fourth floors, you can watch conservators at work.

With its setting on a quiet residential street and its low-key elegance, the Phillips Collection offers unhurried access to its first-rate collection of masterpieces from the 19th century and later. At the heart of the collection are works by distinguished impressionist and modern artists, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse. A stunning quartet of Mark Rothko works merits its own room. The museum opened in 1921 in the Georgian Revival mansion of collector Duncan Phillips, who wanted to showcase his art in a museum that would stand as a memorial to his father and brother. In the intervening years, the museum expanded, and now includes much more gallery space, a café, a gift shop, and an auditorium.