mb palaver

ArtPalaver: Richard Avedon at the Corcoran

If you've been meaning to get to the Avedon exhibit at the Corcoran, you're running out of time.  The "Richard Avedon:  Portraits of Power" exhibit closes January 25.  I went the other night and, though I wouldn't describe it as a can't miss event except for avid photography buffs, it was interesting to see, on the eve of the inauguration, which people the artist considered to be powerful at different points in the last few decades.  The fee for admission to this exhibit is $14.  If you're going with a friend, be sure to print out this two-for-one coupon before heading out:  Download Corcoran two-for-one coupon.  (I can't find the link on the website anymore, so have attached a file. I hope this works.)  If you're going anytime near the inauguration (which I don't recommend!), be sure to check for last minute changes to the hours.  Once the exhibit closes on the 25th, the museum will be closed until March 13 for roof restoration.

Here's the Corcoran's description of the exhibit:

Richard Avedon, America’s pre-eminent portraitist and fashion photographer, portrayed significant figures of the American political landscape throughout his career. This exhibition brings together Avedon’s work on the subjects of politics and power for the first time. Juxtaposing more than 200 images of government, media, business, and labor officials with photographs of artists, activists, and ordinary citizens caught up in national debates, Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power explores a five-decade photographic inquiry by one of our finest artists.

Two images of the Volpi Ball in Venice, including the one above, were my favorites (albeit not typical of the exhibit).  This description from Newsweek, however, certainly casts it in a new light -- I had no idea they were collages.

Pushing photojournalism into controversial new areas, he shot the 1991 Volpi Ball in Venice, a gathering of desiccated aristocrats he captures with a Proustian eye. What the viewer won't see is that these pictures are collages: he's guiltlessly manipulated the party to create his stifling images of alienation.

More typical was this series, as described on the museum's website:

Among [several extended photographic essays with political themes], his groundbreaking 1976 portrait series “The Family” is most significant. Commissioned by Rolling Stone magazine, Avedon made 69 portraits depicting elected officials, government bureaucrats, lawyers and lobbyists, captains of industry, and union leaders—all representatives of the American political, military, media, and corporate elite.

It's interesting to see people like the senior George Bush, described as "Director, CIA," included in this series in 1976, with no knowledge how much of an influence he (and his offspring) would have in the coming decades.

Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC  20006
(202) 824-0786
nearest metro:  Farragut West (blue/orange line)

DCPalaver: 2008 Dupont Circle House Tour

   

If you're looking for an urban hike and a chance to take a peek into how the other half lives as the economy crashes down around us, you can check out the annual Dupont Circle House tour on Sunday, October 19, from 12 to 5.  According to The Washington Post, this year's tour "focuses on the Strivers' Section neighborhood of Dupont that was once home to Washington's African American elite, including poet Langston Hughes and civil rights attorney Charles Houston."  You can read about the Strivers' Section neighborhood on Wikipedia.

The tour starts at the Belmont Mansion, at 1618 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.  You can get advance tickets for $25 at various local businesses or online through Saturday night, and for $30 at the event.  All the details can be found at the Dupont Circle Citizens Association website.

While wandering around Dupont, check out the man-on-man sculpture (above) on 20th Street in front of the Sprenger & Lang law firm.  I don't know how long this sculpture --  Stack of Men, by Thomas Mullany -- has been there, but I fear I've walked by it a hundred times without noticing it.

    

ShoppingPalaver: 2008 Smithsonian Craft Show

If the crowds at the Newseum are too overwhelming this weekend, you can head north a few blocks to the beautiful National Building Museum and browse crafts by 120 select exhibitors at the Smithsonian Craft Show.  General admission is $15, and the hours are 10 to 6 on Friday and Saturday, 11 to 5 on Sunday.   The National Building Museum is at 401 F Street, NW, just at the top of at the north (F Street) exit at Judiciary Square.

The pictured ceramic bowls are by Emily Rossheim and Thomas Marrinson, of Starksboro, Vermont.

ArtPalaver: The Awakening Giant Makes a Run For It

Years ago I took a bike ride with Contessa to Hains Point in East Potomac Park.  When we came upon The Awakening sculpture it was a revelation -- it felt like the dreams I have where, for example, I find out that the ocean rolls in right behind my building, in Woodley Park.  I have a view of East Potomac Park from my office, and though I can't see The Awakening, I've always liked knowing he was there, just out of view. Sadly, the giant man, buried underground and struggling to break free, will be dug up next Wednesday and moved to Prince George's County, where it will become part of the National Harbor project.  It's an especially sad loss for children, as described by The Washington Post's John Kelly in an article asking what should take the giant's place:

Something with hands-on appeal to kids, wrote Anne Rensberger, who for years was a licensed D.C. tour guide. One morning as she shepherded a group of school kids on their eighth-grade class trip to war memorials and Arlington National Cemetery, one boy commented to her, "This is sure a sad town, isn't it?"

Wrote Anne: "I knew then it was time to take that class for a 'recess' at 'The Awakening,' where they could escape the gravity of the morning. There I turned the kids loose and let them crawl up and slide down the giant's knee and sit in its hand for memorable pictures."

If you're looking for an outdoor activity this weekend, you can head down to East Potomac Park for your last chance to see The Awakening in its DC location.  Click here for a map of Hains Point.  For more photos, check out Flickr and dcmemorials.com.  Here are more details about the sculpture and the move from The Washington Post:

J. Seward Johnson's creation, which has been at the site at East Potomac Park since June 1980, will be moved to to Prince George's County. During the excavation, the area will be closed for safety reasons, Park Service spokesman Bill Line said.

The five-piece, cast aluminum sculpture stands 17 feet tall at its highest point and is 70 feet across. It has been a popular attraction for tourists and locals, Line said.

"The Awakening" had been on loan to the Park Service, which manages East Potomac Park. The owner, California-based Sculpture Foundation, sold the work last spring to the developer of the National Harbor project in Prince George's, and it is to be placed there.

HistoryPalaver: Celebrating Martin Luther King Day at the Folger

If you're still looking for a way to celebrate Martin Luther King's legacy today, head to the Folger for a poetry/speech reading and open mike event hosted by Donnajean Ward, the Folger Consort Manager, and Teri Cross Davis, Folger's poetry coordinator.  The event is free, and runs from 2 to 5 tomorrow, Monday, January 21.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 28, 1963

Folger Shakespeare Library
201 East Capital Street, NE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 544-4600

ArtPalaver: Annie and Ansel at the Corcoran

If you want to see "Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005" at the Corcoran, you'd better act fast:  the exhibit closes this Sunday, January 13.  You would be wise to order tickets ahead; friends told me they were shut out last Sunday, and the Corcoran website now says that it's likely that tickets will sell out for Saturday and Sunday, January 12 and 13, and that you should call Ticketmaster at (202) 824-0786 "to confirm ticket availability prior to your arrival."  I recommend using this link to order online (the link is somewhat buried on the website). You've got a bit more time to see the Ansel Adams exhibit.  It closes January 27.

As Dubliner learned the hard way a few weeks ago, the Corcoran is closed on Tuesdays.  Check out hours and directions on their website.  Tickets for these exhibits are $14 (plus service charge if you order ahead).  The Corcoran offers brunch in the atrium on Sundays.  It used to be a gospel brunch; the website doesn't say whether it still is.  Regardless, but particularly if they do still feature live music, I wouldn't recommend it for this Sunday. With the crowds tonight it was so loud in the atrium I thought my head would explode.

If you are interested in a bite to eat before or after your visit to the Corcoran, tapas at Taberna del Alabardero, Peruvian food at El Chalan, and Italian at the revamped Spezie are all within a few blocks.

Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC  20006
(202) 824-0786
nearest metro:  Farragut West (blue/orange line)

WinePalaver: Tour de Vin at the Phillips

Tour de Vin Wine Tasting Experience
Thursday, October 25, 6:00 and 7:15

Tomorrow night, you can check out the "Impressionists by the Sea" exhibit at The Phillips Collection and sample wine from the six major wine regions of France.  The Tour de Vin Wine Tasting Experience, with Lisa Airey, director of education for the Society of Wine Educators, takes place at 6 and 7:15.  Admission to the exhibit and one of the wine tasting sessions is $25 for Phillips Collection members and $35 for nonmembers.  Alliance Francaise members can attend the 6:00 session at the member price.  (Admission to the exhibit alone costs $14, as far as I can tell from some conflicting sources.)

The Phillips Collection
1600 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 387-2151

ArtPalaver: Hopper at the National Gallery

 

From now through January 21, 2008, you can see Chop Suey, above, as well as more than 90 other works by Edward Hopper, at the National Gallery of Art's East Building:  "Focusing on the period of the artist's great achievements—from about 1925 to midcentury—the exhibition will feature such iconic paintings as Automat (1927), Drug Store (1927), Early Sunday Morning (1930), New York Movie (1939), and Nighthawks (1942)."  Passes are not required.  I went last Sunday afternoon and, though it was crowded, there was no line to get in.  More information is available on the NGA's website.

(I can't look at Nighthawks without picturing it clipped to card bearing a randomly-assigned monetary value.  Much of what I learned about art I learned through the Parker Brothers game Masterpiece.  Interested in buying Masterpiece for its nostalgia value?  It's selling for $190 to $275.99 at amazon.com.  Note to self:  Turn parents' basement upside down.)

ArtPalaver: Washington's National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery in Washington reopened last year after being closed for extensive renovations.  It's a wonderful place to visit anytime.  In addition to the exhibits in both the Portrait Gallery and the connected American Art Museum, the building itself is magnificent and has a storied history.  But now there are two additional reasons to check it out.

On April 27 the museum launched "Great Britons: Treasures from the National Portrait Gallery, London," an exhibition of portraits borrowed from the better-known museum of the same name.  It will feature some 60 portraits of "the most significant British figures of the past 500 years," ranging from Oliver Cromwell to David Beckham.  I wonder whether the exhibit includes the portrait that made the biggest impression on me when I visited London with my sister a few years ago.  I don't recall the name of the subject of the painting, only that she died of a "surfeit of cherries."  I determined to work that phrase into conversation.  (Evidently I didn't dream this:  here she is, the Duchess of Queensberry.)  The exhibit runs through September 3.

But don't wait until September 3 to go, because you'd miss out on enjoying the Portico Cafe during this lovely weather.  The cafe is on a terrace on the second floor -- the portico visible in the photo above, if I'm not mistaken.  So it is open air, but protected from the elements.  They serve light food (tidbits, as they say on their website), pastries, coffee, soft drinks, wine, and beer.   One unseasonably beautiful day in March when jury duty let out early I walked through a couple of exhibits, then sat in the cafe  and had a cup of tea and a pear tart and read Annie Dunne.  (I love jury duty.)  It would be a perfect spot for having a glass of wine or a beer after work.  The only catch is that it closes at 6:30 or 7:00 (the website says 7, but a man working there told me 6:30).

(Speaking of jury duty and love, that same beautiful March day we had a long lunch break due to an emergency evacuation drill.  (An announcement was made:  "If we have an emergency evacuation drill, your service will not be over -- you will have to come back by 1:15.  Oh, and if we have one, it will be in about 15 minutes.")  I took advantage of it by having a delicious lunch of ceviche and plaintain fritters at the bar at Oyamel, just a couple of blocks from the courthouse; it sure beat the courthouse cafeteria. With jury duty like this I'm almost disappointed it'll be two years before I'm called again.)

The National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum are part of the Smithsonian Institution, so entrance is free.  The building is just a block from the arena exit at the Gallery Place Metro stop.  If you go, let me know how you like it!

National Portrait Gallery
8th and F Streets, NW
Washington, DC
(202) 633-8300

Portico Café
Seasonal, 11:30-7:00 p.m. Enjoy the outdoor Portico Café in seasonal weather for espresso, wine, and tidbits.

ArtPalaver: Sackler Exhibit on Early Biblical Texts Closes January 7

This Sunday one of the most popular exhibits ever shown at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC closes.  "In the Beginning:  Bibles Before the Year 1000" has drawn record crowds since it opened in October.  In fact, I haven't been because when I stopped by mid-afternoon on a weekday there was an hour wait.  An hour wait at the Sackler!

Pasted below is an excerpt of the museum's description of the exhibit.  As for the lines, a woman at the information desk said the time to get there is right when it opens (at 10), because, she said, people don't like to get an early start in the morning.  She could read me like a book.

The exhibition will present over 70 of the earliest biblical artifacts in existence, including pages and fragments written in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian and Coptic—many on display for the first time in the United States. The Sackler Gallery will be the only venue for the exhibition.

Highlights of the exhibition include:

• Leaves from three of the six oldest surviving Hebrew codices.
• The oldest known manuscripts of the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy.
• One of the earliest known manuscripts of the Gospels written in Latin.
• The oldest dated parchment biblical codex in the world.
• A page from the earliest Bible with full-page illustration.

The Sackler gallery, which (along with the Freer Gallery of Art next door) specializes in Asian art, is part of the Smithsonian Institution and is located on the National Mall, at 1050 Independence Ave., behind the castle.  Tomorrow promises to be a beautiful day for a trip to the Mall (with a predicted high of 69 degrees -- on January 6!?)