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Constance Mallinson
Landscape (Where’s Einstein?)
oil on canvas
16’4” x 5’
2002

Keck Center of the National Academies
500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC
First Floor
Open to the Public: Selected Third Thursdays, from 5 – 8 p.m.
For more info, contact arts@nas.edu, 202.334.2436

Constance Mallinson’s untitled painting makes use of the traditional field landscape painting to suggest a new way of looking at our world. Mallinson’s global village shows an information-driven society, discovering and re-discovering its past wile moving towards the future.

The painting resembles the Internet in structure and content. It has multiple entry points, various perspectives, and there are numerous paths through the work. Many of the traditional barriers of time and location no longer exists in an Internet-based society, and the world is coming together in ways never seen before. Similarly, imaging techniques, from the electron microscope to the Hubble telescope, allow us to view previously unknown aspects of our universe. We are able to see both microcosm and macrocosm simultaneously, and use the knowledge gained from one to compliment the other.

Constance Mallinson’s work was commissioned by the National Academies to celebrate the dedication of our new building at 500 Fifth Street. This is reflected through the inclusion of references to each of the major activities of the Academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.