Pei was first thrust into national prominence as the designer of the John F. Kennedy memorial library in the 1960s. However, Pei's experience as a large-scale planner more generally appears to have been decisive for the scope of his career (Wiseman, 1992). Pei is considered a major exponent of modernist architectural style (Powers, 1992; Ratcliff, 1978). As will become evident hereafter, the modernist credentials of Pei, along with his experience in Washington and his stature in the architectural discipline more generally, appear to have uniquely suited him to the commission of the East Wing of the National Gallery.
The history of the National Gallery itself must be understood in the context of the American wish to position itself as a serious locus of artistic exhibition in the twentieth century. Its origin and development seem to be of a piece with the development of the U.S. as a principal center of artistic production. To be sure, in the U.S. (and indeed in the entire world), New York and not Washington, D.C., is the center of art-New York having taken over the position occupied by Paris until World War II. However, it appears to be the case that Washington in addition to New York was felt to be an appropriate site for a permanent and representative collection of the taste and seriousness of American artistic appreciation. As Walker (1968, p. 9) comments, Washington "lagged behind at least a half dozen other cities" in the U.S. where exhibited art collections, particularly of American artists, were concerned.
According to Smart and Gibbon, the National Gallery was adapted from the example of the National Gallery in London as experienced by American Ambassador Andrew W. Mellon from 1932 to 1933. In a letter to President Roosevelt in 1936, Mellon, a Pittsburgh banker and philanthropist, "offered to donate his own superb collection of paintings and sculpture, to construct a suitable building to house it and to make mone...