Tag Archive "national-gallery-of-art"

Books for Holiday Gifts 2011 (part 2)

Suzanne Glover Lindsay, Daphne S. Barbour and Shelley G. Sturman, et al Edgar Degas Sculpture (Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalog) (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2010)   ISBN 978-0691148977 This sumptuous and scholarly book will be welcomed by everyone interested in Degas’ work or in nineteenth-century sculpture, as well as by artists interested in bronze casting.  It is highly unusual for collection catalogs to be of interest, other than to researchers; however, the National Gallery of Art owns 52 of the 69 original works in wax, clay and plaster that survived from Degas’ studio, as well ... More » »

News: art security, O.U.R., Bambi Gallery’s return and more

News Attack on Matisse at National Gallery highlights art security After a recent attack on a Matisse painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, art security is on the minds of writers at the Washington Post.  That publication ran two stories recently about art security issues.

Exhibitions Currently in in D.C.

I was in D.C. once again for Arts Advocacy Day and, unfortunately for those of us in the arts business, it was the least pressing issue on the hill. I saw some very good exhibitions during my time there, however. In the tower of the National Gallery of Art‘s East Building, is a small exhibition of Nam June Paik’s work – and it should be smaller still, because One Candle, Candle Projection (1988–2000) is worth the ascent all by itself, even if the climb has to be done entirely by foot (although there is an elevator; a very slow one).

Museum Musings: Lobby Art and Paula Hayes’ Fantastical Gardens at MoMA

I’ve been thinking for a while about Lobby Art – art in museum lobbies, that is. Not all museums feature Lobby Art; for some, such as the Guggenheim, the Philadelphia Museum of Art or the Art Institute of Chicago, the architecture suffices to create an ambiance for the entry areas, although certain artists, notably Jenny Holzer and Rebecca Horn, have taken on the Guggenheim’s central void to spectacular effect, and one might consider the Tate Modern’s  Turbine Hall as the apotheosis of artist project lobbies.

Mark Rothko in Washington, D.C.: studies in light

There’s an extraordinary opportunity, in Washington, D.C. at the moment, to study major paintings by Mark Rothko in three museums with varying lighting conditions. Some artists are particularly concerned with how their work is lit, and Mark Rothko was one of them. As Tom Hess told the story, Phillip Guston remembers the time when he and Rothko went to see the installation of one of Rothko’s shows at Janis. They strolled into the gallery and Mark, without a word, switched off half the lights. When Janis emerged from his office, the three of them chatted a bit and, in a ... More » »

At the National Gallery of Art: Selections from the Meyerhoff Collection and ‘Arts of Privacy’

The only thing dull about The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection at the National Gallery of Art: Selected Works (NGA) through May 2, 2010 is the exhibition title.  I’d rather call it, with apologies to Wallace Stevens, Ten Ways of Looking at a Painting, with further apologies for the handful of drawings, prints and 3-dimensional works;  it is overwhelmingly a paintings exhibition.  The works, some already donated, the remainder promised to the NGA, are superb and the curatorial decisions intelligent, provocative and subtle.  Harry Cooper, curator of modern and contemporary art, arranged ten sections, each labeled with a subject to ... More » »

Power Dressing: Treasures of the Spanish Royal Armory at the National Gallery of Art

There is no more splendid example of European dress as high political propaganda than the ceremonial armor made for the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperors Maximilian I and Charles V and for Charles’ son, Philip II of Spain.  They employed the greatest sculptural metalworkers on the continent and none was greater than the Milanese, Filippo Negroli.  His work and that of his finest German contemporaries are well-represented in The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain at the National Gallery of Art (NGA), and only in Washington, for the exhibition is not traveling,  through November 1, 2009 .

Looking In; Robert Frank’s “The Americans”

No photography has had the effect on me of Robert Frank’s The Americans, which I saw in 1969 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  It was not just that Frank showed the family of man complete with its disfunction, feuds and black sheep, but the disturbing power of his vision.

Less is More

I’ll admit it up front: I like small exhibitions. I’ve seen too many monographic shows in major museums where an artist looks less interesting after an entire career is lined up than when represented by one work at a time. Besides, I’d rather spend half an hour with 20 carefully-chosen works than an hour and a half with the 350-400 works in too many exhibitions (that being my maximum uninterrupted time-span, and rather more than most visitors, I’d suspect). So I’m happy to call attention to two small exhibitions in D.C. of fewer than a baker’s dozen pieces each, both ... More » »

Beyond the White Cube: Martin Puryear at the National Gallery of Art

Martin Puryear Self (1978) stained and painted red cedar and mahogany, 69 x 48 x 25″, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Museum purchase in memory of Elinor Ashton, © Martin Puryear When Brian O’Doherty famously described the white cube that is the setting for much contemporary art it was to critique its ideology, the illusion it fosters that the art it encloses is separate from all life outside, separate from history, society, labor, commerce. But the white cube is also an architectural space and that profoundly affects the art as well. This was dramatically brought home when I saw the Martin ... More » »