When The Nation’s Capital offers so much more than Politics,

You have to Explore

I am spending this Sunday in Washington D.C at The National Gallery of Art – just the East Building for today.  It would take me days to go through the whole gallery. 

The National Gallery of Art is named one the top 10 Art Museums in the United States, 

Entrance and tours are free!  I love art museums – spending the day exploring the work and letting it speak to me is everything. The East wing houses the most contemporary works (1960 and on) – painting, sculptures, installations and  I’ve found some great pieces that speak for themselves: 

 

afro. died, T 2011

Inspired by the 90s Japanese pop style of Ganguro (blackface), DC Artist, Iona Rozeal Brown combines hip hop imagery with the traditional Japanese art form Shunga.  Japanese women used Ganguro as a means to challenge the standards of beauty by darkening their skin and dying their hair blond, accompanied by some very unique dress styles.

To me, this artwork speaks volumes about our current state of pop culture and social influence. It reads like a stripping/removing of one identity to another ; a physical manifestation of the standards of beauty placed on women of color, especially black women.  I remember the days, I used to wear wear all sorts of weave as a means to feel accepted and appreciated. Now, I don’t care, long, short, black red – still beautiful.

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Lick and Lather, 1994

Janine, all I have to say is ” GIRL, YOU HAD THE TIME!”

These are 14 self portrait busts of Janine Antoni, Bahamian contemporary artist,  – 7 made out of Chocolate (Brown Busts) and 7 made out of soap (white Busts). She had to either lick the chocolate or lather  bath with the soap to form each bust in her image.

“Number seven is significant for it represents the average number of heads measuring a full female figure, a metric used in drawing classes. Antoni’s self-effacing erasure differentiates her self-portrait from her self, thus Lick and Lather reflects on the inherent nature of cast sculpture as a reproductive medium.” Erasure, how sometimes the undoing, gets you closer to who you are.”

It’s is truly unbecoming to be who you are.  Deep.

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Fanny, 1985

Chuck Close draws a portrait of his grandmother. But can you tell this is this is a series of fingerprints?  Seen from a distance, the painting looks like a giant, silver-toned photograph.

but

“Closer up, the paint surface “dissolves into a sea of fingerprints that have an abstract beauty,”

even as they metaphorically suggest the withering of the sitter’s skin with age.” (said someone rich and important). It’s all really a sweet, expression in such a nostalgic childlike view:  Grandson making a picture of grandma.

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Condensation Wall

I am starting to understand why some of the most unorthodox pieces point out such existential learning moments and the art in this case does it for me. Hans Hacke’s Condensation wall represents a boundary (wall, world,) in which change and movement exists, power exists, despite the limit. Movement is driven by kinetic energy ; Overall, there is so much ability to to move and manuever even within confined spaces. It just all takes different phases.

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A Boy for Meg

Now, Warhol’s “A boy for Meg” is just so funny to me. Why is Warhol is so trifling – why is he putting meg out like that. Guess dating was worse pre-tinder era.

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My day ends with stops in the Pollack exhibit, A little bit of Dali and a cafecito (that’s just coffee, not an artist). Overall, the visit is a little refresher from the tense political atmosphere around, cause you know, trump (sic).  So, if you find yourself in the D.C area, be sure to make a stop, just do each wing at a time. Explore more here!

Happy Sunday!