Washington's July 4 music, art, and folklife

Singing with the Ozarks at the Smithonian Folklife Festival is a big hit/By Patricia Leslie

Hymnals are available to sing along with the Ozarks at the Smithonian Folklife Festival/By Patricia Leslie

You may enjoy sidewalk music near the American History Museum at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival/By Patricia Leslie

More sidewalk music at the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival/By Patricia Leslie

If you get the hungries at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, prices are higher than expected, even while expecting top dollar! You're better off walking a few feet to the DC Chicken House food truck or the restaurant stand at the American History Museum to save a few bucks or bring your own!  Plenty of places to sit for a spell and eat up.  Plus, the beer is more than a $1 cheaper at the History stand in front of the museum/By Patricia Leslie

At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, this cost $29 including $10 for beer and $19 for barbecue with fat (taxes built in). Orders are not custom made, but sitting, waiting cold on the shelf which the attendant hands you after you've paid. 

Who asked for dollops of catsup? Not me!  But there you have it!/By Patricia Leslie

The nearby food truck, DC Chicken House, has much better food, and it's cooked to order! Not getting cold on the shelf. And half the price ($10) with a homemade sauce. Yummy!/By Patricia Leslie

The DC Chicken House Food Truck/By Patricia Leslie

Applause for recycling and composting at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival/By Patricia Leslie

 

If you need a rest, the cool and calm National Gallery of Art is open 10 a.m. until 5 p.m, on July 4, too!/By Patricia Leslie

Or read a favorite book and rest at the National Gallery of Art, open on July 4/By Patricia Leslie

You may take a break near the Dante exhibition at the National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

Crowds are big at the Dante exhibition at the National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

At the Dante exhibition, National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

Down the hall from Dante in the newly refurbished gallery at the National Gallery of Art is Still Life with Flowers Surrounded by Insects and a Snail, 1610 by Clara Peeters, 1594-1640, Gallery 50A /By Patricia Leslie

And see Young Boy in Profile, c. 1630 by Judith Leyster, 1609-1660 in the same gallery (50A) at the National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

But the best is saved for last! Can you spot a young dancer in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art?/By Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com

Ceilings are tops at the National Gallery of Art

 

Luigi Garzi, 1638-1721, Saint Catherine of Siena on a Cloud, 1696-1697, National Gallery of Art, purchased as the gift of Robert B. Loper and Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, a study of Saint Catherine who is awestruck by her namesake Saint Catherine of Alexandria, appearing in the ceiling fresco, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria [to the Christ Child] and the Ecstasy of Saint Catherine of Siena at Sainta Caterina a Formiello, Naples.  See the complete work below.

Detail of Garzi's Saint Catherine of Siena on a Cloud in The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and the Ecstasy of Saint Catherine of Siena, 1696-1697

Garzi's Saint Catherine of Siena on a Cloud in The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and the Ecstasy of Saint Catherine of Siena, 1696-1697

These are magnificent, enthralling, stunning creations, centuries' old masterpieces, many made for ceilings before buildings were destroyed by war and age, when beauty everywhere was welcome, and some still exist to impress those who look up and enjoy all things around them. 

Antoine Coypel, 1661-1722, Cupid Stealing Venus’s Floral Crown, 1705/1708, National Gallery of Art, Woodner Collection, gift of Andrea Woodner, a preparatory study of Venus for a ceiling fresco for a painting commissioned by Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, for the residency of his mistress Mary Louise Madeleine Victoire.  Sadly, only remnants remain of the completed work… in a Banque de France warehouse!  Naughty Cupid! See the work pictured below and enjoy

Sea-born goddess, let me be
By thy son thus graced, and thee,
That whene'er I woo, I find
Virgins coy, but not unkind.
Let me, when I kiss a maid,
Taste her lips, so overlaid
With love's sirop, that I may
In your temple, when I pray,
Kiss the altar, and confess
There's in love no bitterness. 

 Robert Herrick, 1591-1674 

Coypel, Cupid Stealing Venus’s Floral Crown, 1705-1708

Coypel, Cupid Stealing Venus’s Floral Crown, 1705-1708

And what ceilings they are! Some dating more than half a milennium ago, 30 examples of detailed, intricate, beautiful renderings of European designs from the design collections of the National Gallery of Art, the likes of which you will not find anywhere else. The Gallery is open throughout the July 4 holiday! 

Felice Giani, 1758-1823, A Coffered Dome with Apollo and Phaeton, 1787,  Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund.

Phaeton was Apollo’s son.  This is a late example of the confluence of the intricacies of baroque illusionism with neoclassicism, the last major development in European ceiling design, according to the label copy.   Alas!  Destroyed in World War II in Florence at the Palazzo Conti.

 Detail of Giani's A Coffered Dome with Apollo and Phaeton, 1787

Giacomo Quarenghi, 1744-1817, An Ornate Ceiling with an Allegory of Spring, 1790-1815, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. Quarenghi, an Italian architect, was the most important neoclassical contributor to Russian architecture, especially in St. Petersburg where he died. The Gallery purchased this from Sotheby's in 1993.

I heard a thousand blended notes,

While in a grove I sate reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,

The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;

And ’tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,

Their thoughts I cannot measure:—

But the least motion which they made

It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,

To catch the breezy air;

And I must think, do all I can,

That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature’s holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What man has made of man?

William Wordsworth, 1770-1850

Johann Georg Dieffenbrunner, 1718-1785, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1754. The National Gallery of Art purchased this in 2007 from the princes of Liechtenstein. Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund. 

Dieffenbrunner, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1754. The Trinity, seen above, upper left, is absent in the completed work below. Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund

Dieffenbrunner, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1754. The fresco is at Saint Stephen’s Church, Geltendorf, near Munich. 

Friedrich Sustris, 1540-1599, Euterpe (Personification of Music),1569-1573, National Gallery of Art, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Memorial Acquisition Fund, part of a fresco in a music room in the Fuggers’ palace at Augsburg, badly damaged during World War II. The drawing provide a glimpse of the majesty and style of the original, which is, sadly, now barely visible. That’s what war can do!

At the National Gallery, viewers may trace design evolution from the baroque to the neoclassicism movements.

Look up!  Look up!

What do you see?

I see a ceiling staring at me!

 

What: Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings,1550-1800

When: Through July 9, 2023. The National Gallery hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily.  Open July 4th!

Where: West Building, Ground Floor: G22A, National Gallery of Art, 6th and Constitution, Washington

How much: Admission is always free at the National Gallery of Art.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: (202) 737-4215

Accessibility information: (202) 842-6905

patricialesli@gmail.com

British photos show underclass stories of 1970s and 1980s

Martin Parr (b. 1952), Peter Frazier, New Brighton, Merseyside, 1984, chromogenic print, National Gallery of Art. This makes me particularly sad.  There's a crying baby begging for attention while his mother/caregiver sunbathes, needing a break, no doubt.  The clash of humans with different needs.  The baby won't stay a baby for long. Pick her up, Mother!

Karen Knorr, (b. 1954, Germany), Newspapers are no longer ironed, Coins no longer boiled So far have Standards Fallen., 1981–1983, printed 2015, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art. Knorr gained access to exclusive men's clubs to make photographs like this one which may be linked to a former lover of hers.

If you want to see what the rest of Britain looked like in the 1970s and 1980s, don't miss the photo exhibition at the National Gallery of Art before it closes June 11. 

By "rest of," I mean those who are not usually pictured or the "non-subjects," the working classes, those members of society living on the edge, some "hand to mouth," struggling just to get by.  

The exhibition is an eclectic mix, part bleak, part gloomy and dismal, but part inspirational. Life does have its moments of joy, even for these subjects, but those events are not worth the camera, are they?  

Colin Jones, 1936-2021, The Black House, London, 1973–1976, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art. Before he devoted himself to photography, Jones was a ballet dancer who died of Covid-19.

Chris Killip, (1946-2020),  Crabs and People, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, UK, 1981, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art. For Killip's Seacoal series, he lived for more than a year in a trailer on the beach to gain the trust of his neighbors.  Do you think they minded being his subjects?

Kara Felt, the curator from the Denver Botanic Gardens but formerly at NGA, noted that the wall copy claims the photographers weren't trying to change the world, but simply "bearing witnesses." Their portraits made them aloof but willing participants.   

In mostly black and white, the pictures tell a story of Britain when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, when the Beatles were singing "All We Need is Love!" (Of interest, many celebrated the prime minister's death last month on the tenth anniversary of her passing, April 8, 2013.) 

Not all the photographers were born in Britain, Ms. Felt said. She called the era "a period of rebellion" with labor unrest, high inflation and unemployment (not unlike today's world). Good night! It was another social revolution which the National Gallery of Art labeled a "revolution in British photography," too. 

Chris Steele-Perkins. (b. 1947, Myanmar), Hypnosis Demonstration, Cambridge University Ball, 1980–1989, silver dye bleach print, National Gallery of Art. The photographer moved to color after he recorded Ireland's "Troubles" in the 1980s. Upon seeing this when he was younger, my now-grown son would have said: "Mom!  This is ridicqulus!" 

Decades before self-publishing became more of the norm, some of the photographers in this show were self-publishers, like Paul Graham, whose A1: The Great North Road helped introduce color photography.

Some pictures satirize the upper classes, naturally, like one of a room of young partygoers experiencing hypnosis at a cocktail party and another one by of a disconcerted woman off to the side, ignored by others at an event.

Photos line the walls in two galleries plus an extension of the show screens in a small adjacent theatre, a 59-minute film, Handsworth Songs, 1986, produced by the Black Audio Film Collective whose Reece Auguiste was guest curator for the exhibition. The film is harsh and violent at times, illustrating true Afro-Asian experiences, past and present, with archival footage and a mix of reggae and post-punk music.(Handsworth is a section of Birmingham.)  

I've always found photo exhibitions rather depressing, perhaps because they are mostly black and white made by contemporary photographers, like artists, who focus on realism, the dystopian world, rather than anything remotely optimistic, with color and enthusiasm. 

Hidden here, however, under all the fortifications, I found a glimmer of hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

The Gallery's Diane Waggoner, curator of photography, helped organize the exhibition.

What: This is Britain:  Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s

When: Through June 11, 2023. The National Gallery hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily.  Open Memorial Day.

Where: West Building, Ground Floor: G27, 28, 29, National Gallery of Art, 6th and Constitution, Washington

How much: Admission is always free at the National Gallery of Art.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: (202) 737-4215

Accessibility information: (202) 842-6905

patricialesli@gmail.com

Last weekend to steak out a Renaissance artist at the National Galley of Art

     

"Come in to my abode, my pretty, and see what jewels I have to show you." One of Vittore Carpaccio's dragons, considered to be the devil.

Vittore Carpaccio, Saint George and the Dragon and Four Scenes from the Martyrdom of Saint George (detail), 1516, oil on canvas, Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore, Benedicti Claustra Onlus, Venice

The first retrospective exhibition ever held outside Italy of a Renaissance artist's paintings and drawings will close Sunday at the National Gallery of Art.

Because few museums in the U.S. can boast of having any of his works, the name of Vittore Carpaccio (c.1460/1466–1525/1526) is unfamiliar to most Americans who more likely recognize his surname, chosen by a Venetian restauranter in 1963 for a special dish he cooked up for an ill countess.

Based on the artist's unique reds, the cook anointed  his special dish of raw meats, "steak carpaccio."

Vittore Carpaccio, Portrait of a Woman Holding a Book, c. 1500-1505, Denver Art Museum Collection, gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

The National Gallery show has mounted a glorious show of 45 paintings and 30 drawings by Carpaccio, a native Venetian, who made them for societies, churches, and wealthy families.

He painted large, colorful religious scenes from Bible chapters, and for individual patrons, his works were mostly secular, all in the era's style of flat faces, mostly lacking expressions (except when it comes to bored women).

For the wealthy, Carpaccio's figures are, naturally, dressed in the finest fashions of the day.

Carpaccio made several portraits which included women with books, which is commendable that patrons wanted him to paint subjects in intellectual pursuits, however, most women then didn't read to gain knowledge per se but to learn how to teach their children how to read. 

Wealthy families hired tutors to educate their daughters.  

Carpaccio's characters occasionally hint at a smile as in Portrait of a Woman Holding a Book, above, compared to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, whose mouth is more flirtacious than Carpaccio's Portrait. I suppose one must strain to catch a glimmer of a smile in Carpaccio's Woman, but my imagination permits me to see one because I want to see one. Rather like hearing what you want to hear other than what is really said. 

Since the two Italian artists lived about the same time [da Vinci, 1452-1519], might they have been trained in the same school?

Vittore Carpaccio, Two Women on a Balcony, c. 1492/1494, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Museo Correr,  Venice.This work has been reunited with its partner, Fishing and Fowling on the Lagoon, c. 1492/1494, from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Both were painted on the same wooden panel and believed to have been part of a folding door at a Venetian palace.  In the 1700s, the works were split in two but reunited to introduce the exhibition. The forlorn, sculpted women wait patiently on their husbands who are out fishing. (More than 500 years later, things remain the same.) 

Vittore Carpaccio, A Young Knight, 1510, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. This is a large painting, filled with symbols. Pick them out before you check the link

Another large painting is Carpaccio's The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Christians on Mount Ararat, 1515, loaned by the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. It is based on the lives of the saints and 10,000 Christian converts killed by Romans and Muslims with whose empires Venice was engaged in conflict. Vasari mentions The Martyrdom in his 16th century Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.

Vittore Carpaccio,The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Christians on Mount Ararat, (detail) 1515, loaned by the Gallerie dell'Academia, Venice

Vittore Carpaccio, Allegorical Figure, (detail) c. 1498, private collection. She's probably "Virtue"; read below.

Vittore Carpaccio, Youth in a Landscape, (detail) c. 1498, Accademia Carrara, Bergamo. He is probably Hercules who weighs whether to follow "Virtue" (the woman above) or "Vice," pictured on another panel which is missing, and, of course, a woman. For all good Venetian fellows, Hercules chose "Virtue," laying the groundwork for them to follow.  A flowing landscape also connects these works, probably part of a chest. Giorgione was thought, originally, to have been the artist, according to the catalog. Until the 1930s, they were in a private Venetian collection, but the two female panels entered the New York art market in 1939 where "Vice" was swallowed up by...? And since absent from the public.  

Wherefore are thou, "Vice"?  To show up on "Antiques Roadshow"? Check your attic.  "Vice" looks like a twin of "Virtue" (disguised, per usual), looking in the opposite direction towards Hercules, according to an illustration found in the catalog.  "Virtue" and "Vice" originally appeared on either side of our hero, much like you see the morning "tee-hee" talk show hosts positioned on CNN and Fox.  Without a doubt, those producers studied Carpaccio to design their sets.

At the exhibition's exit,  one of Carpaccio's dragons bids "arrivederci" to departing guests. 

On the exhibition website, NGA’s John Strand writes Carpaccio drew his dragons smaller than imagination, likely because they could be more easily "defeated." Dragons were a symbol of the devil and Carpaccio makes them into scary creatures with the  teeth of daggers. 

Carpaccio is a favorite son of Venice which, at the turn of the 16th century, was a thriving marketplace, equivalent to New York City today and what was Hong Kong. The city looks forward to the artist's return March 18 to the Pacazzo Ducale, where his works will be on view through June 18, 2023.

A large catalog with 300 illustrations, many in color, has over 340 pages and is available in the shops, or it was. Since I now cannot find it, perhaps it's sold out and once seen, readers will understand why!

I nominate Susan Marsh and her team of book designers for the Academy Award in Book Covers for their magnificent choices of Carpaccio's, Two Women on a Balcony, c. 1492/1494, who grace the cover and look longingly towards the book's spine where, on the back cover, Carpaccio's men enjoy a sporting good time fishing and boating in Fishing and Fowling on the Lagoon, c. 1492/1494.

If you can't find the catalog, the National Gallery has plenty of other Carpaccio items for you to consider, ranging from prints, magnets, china, cards, and (the symbol of Venice) the Lion of St. Mark Corset Cuff Bracelet, made especially for NGA ($370, choice of red or blue with gold).

Valentines, anyone?

Peter Humfrey of the University of St. Andrews was the curator, in collaboration with Andrea Bellieni from the Museo Civici di Venezia and NGA's Gretchen Hirschauer.

What: Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice

When: Through February 12, 2023. The National Gallery hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily.

Where: West Building, Main Floor National Gallery of Art, 6th and Constitution, Washington

How much: Admission is always free at the National Gallery of Art.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: (202) 737-4215

Accessibility information: (202) 842-6905

patricialesli@gmail.com