Maya Lin's 'One Life' closes Sunday

Maya Lin, age about 4, who said later that "play," despite advice from a professor, has always been an important part of her life and work. From a photograph at the National Portrait Gallery exhibition.

Maya Lin  (b. 1959) was only 21 years old and an undergraduate student when her submission for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial  was chosen as the winning design from approximately 1,420 entries.

When the winner was announced, her design met considerable opposition and resistance. Former U.S. Senator James Webb of Virginia, himself a Vietnam veteran, called it "a nihilistic slab of stone"; President Ronald Reagan's secretary of the interior delayed issuing a building permit. 

Since its dedication in 1982, the memorial has become "something of a shrine," according to the founder, Jan Scruggs. 

The U.S. Department of Defense says more than five million people visit the memorial annually, making it the most popular monument on the National Mall ...  and the first monument there to be designed by a woman.

On two pieces of black granite, the names of 58,320 persons (the number is debatable) who are missing in action or died as a result of the Vietnam War are carved in chronological order of their deaths.

Closing Sunday at the National Portrait Gallery is a short celebration of Ms. Lin's life in an excellent exhibition, One Life:  Maya Lin.  

In 2016 President Barack Obama awarded Maya Lin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S./by Chip Somodevilla (b. 1972)

In the Maya Lin gallery at the National Portrait Gallery/by Patricia Leslie

In the Maya Lin gallery at the National Portrait Gallery/by Patricia Leslie

Her life's story is shown in chronological order with family photos, personal items, three dimensional models, designs and pictures of other buildings she has accomplished since the memorial thrust her into the world's limelight which has never waned.

Dorothy Moss, the museum’s curator of painting and sculpture, curated the show.

Maya Lin's Langston Hughes Library in Clinton, Tennessee, from a photograph by Timothy Hursley (b. 1955), National Portrait Gallery

Maya Lin's Riggio-Lynch Interfaith Chapel, Clinton, Tennessee, from a photograph by Timothy Hursley (b. 1955), National Portrait Gallery

The introduction to Maya Lin at the National Portrait Gallery/by Patricia Leslie

The introduction to Maya Lin at the National Portrait Gallery/by Patricia Leslie

When Ms. Lin entered college, she wanted to be a zoologist. Part of her schooling took her to Denmark where she learned memorials could become community spaces. 

As a child she spent hours playing with her brother in the woods behind the family home in Ohio, nature's surroundings which continue to play a criticial role in her life and work as an environmentalist and climate change soldier.

This is the museum’s first One Life exhibition dedicated to an Asian American.

For photos from the memorial on Memorial Day 2014, go here. For a visit Ms. Lin made to the former Corcoran Gallery in 2009, go here.

What:  One Life:  Maya Lin

When: Closing April 16, 2023. The National Portrait Gallery is open daily from 11:30 a.m - 7 p.m. 

Where: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, 8th and F streets, N. W., Washington, D.C. 20001

Admission: No fee

For more information: 202-633-8300 or visit the website

Closest Metro station: Gallery Place-Chinatown or walk 10 minutes from Metro Center

patricialesli@gmail.com

Memorial Day weekend at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

It was startling and gratifying on May 25, 2014 to see so many parents too young to remember the Vietnam War themselves bring their children to honor the 58,286 soldiers whose names appear on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial/By Patricia Leslie

Some brought art work, flags, clothing, plastic flowers in commemorative wrap, and mementos to leave at the memorial. A ranger for the National Park Service said all items are collected nightly except for Memorial Day weekend when items were left at the wall for visitors to see. Volunteers, including members of Rolling Thunder, help the single ranger gather the keepsakes, and non-perishables are stored in a warehouse. Some of them will be displayed at the memorial's new visitors center once funding is completed, and the center is built/By Patricia Leslie

The names of the war dead and those missing in action are etched in stone and appear chronologically beginning with 1959 on the far upper left where the wall points to the Lincoln Memorial and stretching to 1975 with the wall in the foreground pointing to the Washington Monument/By Patricia Leslie

This looks towards the Washington Monument (in the distance) and more current years and names.  The design by Maya Lin, then a Yale University undergraduate student, was intended to bring the past and present together with reflections on the wall.  Her creation was chosen in a blind competition which received 1,421 submissions.  The wall was completed in 1982 and was so controversial at the time, another memorial called "The Three Servicemen" (or "The Three Soldiers") was unveiled two years later, designed by the third-place finisher in the contest, Frederick Hart.  It and the Vietnam Women's Memorial designed by Glenna Goodacre and dedicated in 1993, stand nearby.  Ms. Goodacre, who also submitted in the original competition, had to change her women's winning design because of controversy/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, May 25, 2014/By Patricia Leslie

Nearby directories make it relatively easy to locate names of soldiers which may be copied identically with available paper/By Patricia Leslie 

 

Boots, medals, photos and biographies of the deceased and missing lined the wall on Memorial Day weekend/By Patricia Leslie

The park ranger said he thought more people than usual came to see the memorial last weekend.  Its stature grows with its increasing image as an American shrine, to match the respect and honor due all soldiers who protect and serve the United States. In a list compiled by the American Institute of Architects in 2007, Americans ranked the Vietnam Veterans Memorial tenth most favorite architecture/By Patricia Leslie

Honoring POW/MIA soldier, Ronald E. Smith/By Patricia Leslie

 

Poems by children were found at the wall.  This is the cover of a book which says "MILITARY We Will Fight For You.  A Collection of Poems by Jonathan Post, Troy, Ohio.  Navy!  Air Force!  Marines!  Army!"/By Patricia Leslie

Jonathan devoted a page to his mother which says "I dedicate this poetry anthology to my mom because she has helped me with some of the poems in this book and had the paitience it took to sit there and help."/By Patricia Leslie

 

A statement and artwork by a student says "The Vietnam War was the most hated war that the U.S. faught (sic) and, when the soliders  came home they were treated very badly."  On the right of the page is a drawing of a female in a short skirt who calls out "Boo!!!" and "You stink!!!" That these young children are educated about the war and its futility was welcoming.  A local Vietnam vet told me this week he has only visited the memorial once, and no more because of the pain.  Another one said he was never able to go and see it.  "Why?  Why?" John cried. "What was the purpose? All a waste!  All for egos!"/By Patricia Leslie

A floral tribute at the memorial which says "Rolling Thunder Never Forget Our Brothers and Sisters"/By Patricia Leslie

A wooden wreath with soldiers' dog tags at the memorial/By Patricia Leslie

 

Some of the wreaths at dusk at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, May 25, 2014/By Patricia Leslie

When it got too dark to see, the people took out their telephones and used the lights to illuminate names of those not forgotten. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is open all day and night/By Patricia Leslie

 

Maya Lin at The Corcoran

Run, go fast, and see the Maya Lin show at the Corcoran.

But, wait, didn't it just start?

Yes, run, go fast and see the Maya Lin show at the Corcoran.

Garcon! My skates, s'il vous plait.

The size, the materials, the scope, the construction, the curves, the wood, the designs, all of which have a strange, calming effect which I need. Surely, the muted color of the materials contributes. Except the big straight pins. They have a story to tell.

About 200 members attended the members' opening on Tuesday night and heard Ms. Lin speak a few moments about the exhibit, "Systematic Landscapes," her interest in the Earth and introduce her children (and her husband, too? I could not see or hear).

A guard told me the Corcoran staff spent six weeks putting the show all together.

You mean, all the wood pieces in the mound and the hanging wire?

Yes. They are numbered. Everything is neatly diagrammed so the staff knew where to hang/put it/them.

On the floor of one gallery are black rectangular squares which act like floor fences surrounding three individual lake pieces. The guards keep visitors "out" of the blocks. But in the "mound" gallery, feet come perilously close to wood pieces which form the base of the "mound" and there are no guards to "keep out."

'Splain!

I said to the guard: "I guess it would have been too tacky to put up signs telling people to keep off and away from the sculptures." The guard smiled: Yes.

But "Tonight's our first test to see how it works. If someone knocks over a few pieces, that won't upset the mound too much since the wood is 'stabilized,' but if someone falls flat on it, that will be an upset." The "lakes" are unusually precarious and need protection, the guard said.

Everyone was having a good time with old and new friends, beer, wine, cheese, bread, scallops (the best!), beef sticks, cous cous, lemon creme puffs, and the new show.

Overheard: "It's all the media's fault. The media has driven this. The market was up 400 points today." And: "Frank is catatonic. The market was up 300 points today."

Run, go fast, and see the Maya Lin exhibit at the Corcoran. It closes July 12.

Pictures to come.

The roof is still under repair on the other side, but you don't even notice. Now, about those floral designs...