Latino art closes today at the Smithsonian

Luis Jimenez (1940-2006) born El Paso, TX , Man on Fire, 1969, made of fiberglass and acrylic urethane, and standing about 6.5 feet tall, opens the exhibition, "Our America:  The Latino Presence in American Art."  Gift of Philip Morris, Inc., Smithsonian American Art Museum/photo by Patricia Leslie

 

Hurry! 

Only one day left to see a marvelous array of color, images and explosive art selected by E. Carmen Ramos, the curator of Latino art for the Smithsonian American Art Museum whose collection supplies the exhibition for "Our America:  The Latino Presence in American Art" up through March 2 at the museum.

Amalia Mesa-Bains, born Santa Clara, CA 1943, An Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio, 1984, rev. 1991. Museum purchase, Smithsonian American Art Museum. The label said Ms. Mesa-Bains made this memorial in honor of the famous Mexican actress (1905-1983)/photo by Patricia Leslie.

 

Amalia Mesa-Bains, born Santa Clara, CA 1943,  close-up of An Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio, 1984, rev. 1991. Museum purchase, Smithsonian American Art Museum/photo by Patricia Leslie

The variety and subjects of past and present by 72 artists whose 92 pieces are included will astonish and amaze. Modern, abstract, stories, sound, film, photography, and sculpture are here for all to see.

Melesio Casas, b. El Paso, TX 1929, Humanscape 62, 1970. Museum purchase, Smithsonian American Art Museum.  The centerpiece of Casas' oil is the former mascot for Frito-Lay corn chips which Chicano activists successfully lobbied the company to remove, according to the label. Casas surrounds the mascot with "brown" objects meant to critique "rich cultures" which stereotype Chicanos.

The presentation advances the Smithsonian's goal "to build a significant collection of Latino art," said Elizabeth Broun, the museum's director, in a statement.  The effort took three years to put together, and the outcome "truly represents the Latino experience in this country," she said.

Pepon Osorio, born Santurce, Puerto Rico, 1955, El Chandelier, 1988. Museum purchase, Smithsonian American Art Museum. According to the label, the inspiration behind this work came from "elaborate chandeliers hanging in humble apartment homes" which the artist saw while working as a social worker in New York City/photo by Patricia Leslie

If you miss the show in Washington, you may still see it in other U.S. cities since it travels to Florida International University in Miami for exhibition from March 28 - June 22, 2014; the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA, Sept. 21, 2014 - Jan. 11, 2015;  the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Feb. 6, - May 17, 2015;  the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, Oct. 16, 2015 - Jan. 17, 2016; and the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, March 5 - May 29, 2016.

Arturo Rodriguez, born Ranchuelo, Cuba, 1956, Sin Titulo, from the series, "The Tempest." Gift of Liza and Pedro J. Martinez-Fraga, Smithsonian American Art Museum.  The label copy said Giorgione's The Tempest (c. 1505).was the inspiration for this painting.

 

Ester Hernandez, born Dinuba, CA 1944, Sun Mad, 1982. Gift of Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, Smithsonian American Art Museum

 

What: Our America:  The Latino Presence in American Art

When: Closes Sunday, March 2, 2014.  The museum is open from 11:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F streets, N. W., Washington, D.C.

How much: No charge

For more information: 202-633-1000 or visit the web site

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


patricialesli@gmail.com



 

Smithsonian photos to exit Jan. 5

James VanDerZee, GGG Photo Studio at Christmas, 1933, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Julia D. Strong Endowment and the Smithsonian, Institution Collections Acquisition Program

It's a great show for a family event over the holidays, and it's free.

What little or big child among us is not interested in pictures?

Tina Barney, Marina's Room, 1987, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, copyright 1987, Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.

 

At the American Art Museum the Smithsonian presents a fascinating popular history of the U.S. in photographs, sure to fascinate even the least history-minded person in the bunch and as diverse as one could expect, with land, sky, city, and plenty of peoplescapes to intrigue.

Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1942, printed later, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, copyright 1981,  Helen Levitt

Joe Deal, Backyard, Diamond Bar, CA, from the Los Angeles Documentary Project, 1980, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts through the Photography Museum of Los Angeles, copyright 1980, Joe Deal

 

To celebrate the 30th birthday of the Smithsonian's photo collection, guest curator, Merry Foresta, the museum's former curator of photography, studied 7,000 images in the collection, selecting 113 pieces for the show which are displayed in four sections: "American Characters," "Spiritual Frontier," "American Inhabited," and "Imagination at Work."

Robert Frank, Butte, Montana, 1956, printed 1973, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase

 

The name of the exhibition, A Democracy of Images, comes from Walt Whitman who believed the new picture-taking art form, which arrived in the U.S. in 1840, created possibilities for all Americans, Ms. Foresta said. He was right. More than the poet likely could have ever imagined, millions now take pictures using almost as many different kinds of equipment.

O. Winston Link, Living Room on the Tracks, Lithia, Virginia, Dec. 16. 1958, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Vladimir and Eileen Toumanoff, copyright O. Winston Link

 
At the exhibition's opening, Ms. Foresta briefly described the history of photography in the U.S. which early critics believed "was positioned to do miraculous things," and it did.  Ten years later people lined up to get their pictures made, so thrilled and amazed were they by the medium.

Jeremiah Gurney, Woman and Child, c. 1850, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment

The creators designed many of the works for framing, to be hung as pieces of art in the home.

Guests to the show will recognize familiar photographs and see some new ones.  Some of the photographers are familiar (Sally Mann, Annie Liebovitz, Diane Arbus, Walker Evans, Ansel Adams) while others are not.  Some of the picture takers are anonymous like these from the San Francisco Police Department:

Unidentified photographers, San Francisco Police Department, c. 1942, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Richard A. Brodie and James F. Dicke II

A museum statement says the images "explore how photographs have been used to record and catalogue, to impart knowledge, to project social commentary, and as instruments of self-expression." 

 

It all ends Sunday, so rush is in order.

Robert Disraeli, Cold Day on Cherry Street, 1932, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Mr. and Mrs. G. Howland Chase, Mrs. James S. Harlan, Lucie Louise Fery, Berthe Girardet, and Mrs. George M. McClellan, copyright 1932, Robert Disraeli

 

For helping make the exhibition possible, the people of the United States are grateful to Saundra B. Lane, Lisa and John Pritzker, the Crown Equipment Exhibitions Endowment, the Margery and Edgar Masinter Exhibitions Fund, and the Bernie Stadium Endowment Fund. 

What: A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

When: Now through Sunday, January 5, 2014, from 11:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day

Where: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F streets, N. W. , First Floor, West

How much: No charge

For more information: 202-633-1000

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

 patricialesli@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Civil War art leaves Washington Sunday

George N. Barnard, Ruins In Charleston, South Carolina, 1865, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.  Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc./Michael Lamy

If you know little about the Civil War conflict in the U.S. (1861-1865), a trip to the Smithsonian American Art Museum this weekend will supply a quick education. And if you know a lot about the Civil War, this is a big show commemorating the war’s 150th anniversary you do not want to miss.

It is the presentation of the war’s pain and toll upon art and artists, said Eleanor Jones Harvey, SAAM's senior curator, who directed the show and wrote the catalogue. "What do these artists tell us?" about the way citizens felt after the war, she asked.

Generally excluded among the 57 paintings and 18 photographs are classic battlefield scenes which often come to mind when the War Between the States is mentioned. This exhibition, instead, provides rich detail about the common people and the war's effects upon them, told in mostly chronological order in arresting land and peoplescapes.

Some well-known artists represented are Winslow Homer (13 works in the show), Frederic Church (7), Sanford Gifford (8), Eastman Johnson (6) and Alfred Bierstadt (2).
Lesser known is Martin Johnson Heade whose Approaching Thunder Storm, 1859,  not only foretells the war but the style of Edwin Hopper (1882-1967) whose artistic fame came 75 years later.  

Martin Johnson Heade, Approaching Thunder Storm, 1859, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Erving Wolf Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. Erving Wolf, in memory of Diane R. Wolf, 1975

When speaking about slavery, President Abraham Lincoln used the words "coming storm," a term adopted by many abolitionist preachers for their sermons, one of whom bought this work.

Viewers will also find Uncle Tom and Little Eva, 1853, by Robert S. Duncanson, known as the first African-American artist to enjoy international acclaim and whose Still Live with Fruit and Nuts, 1848, was added last year at the National Gallery of Art.

While at the SAAM exhibition, leave several minutes to study Eastman Johnson's Negro Life at the South, 1859, which depicts blacks with various skin tones, alluding to mixed races.  See the white cat entering slave quarters.

Consider the significance of Julian Scott's Surrender of a Confederate Soldier, 1873.  The war had ended when Mr. Scott, a member of the Union army, painted a sympathetic portrait of his opponent to perhaps signify the unification of the country. 

 

Photographs by George Barnard show the "Hell Hole," at New Hope Church, Georgia in 1866, destruction in Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina at war's end, and the scene of General James B. McPherson's death July 22, 1864 near Bald Hill outside Atlanta.

Six photographs made of the aftermath of the Battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam  by Alexander Gardner are included.  The bloodiest single-day battle in American history only 70 miles from Washington, Sharpsburg claimed the lives of 22,717 men on September 17, 1862.  The pictures show bodies of Confederates upon the ground. Two weeks later President Lincoln visited the battlefield.

Alexander Gardner, President Abraham Lincoln with General George B. McClellan and officers, Antietam, October 3, 1862/Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons

 

The exhibition ends with giant land and icescapes which, at first glance, a viewer may think belong to another collection, another time, but they show the turmoil experienced by Frederic Church, among others, during and after the war, in works which capture "defiance, fear, despair, and hope."

Frederic Edwin Church, Cotopaxi, 1862, Detroit Institute of the Arts, Founders Society Purchase.  The Bridgeman Art Library

The collection moves to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where it will open Memorial Day, May 27, 2013.

Elizabeth Broun, SAAM's director, called the Civil War exhibition "one of the most important shows we've offered in a long time," and the "brainchild" of Ms. Harvey.

To obtain the art for the show took "elaborate negotiations" and persuading lenders to loan their works for the research-based presentation, said Ms. Harvey.

What:  "The Civil War and American Art"

When:  11:30 a.m.  - 7 p.m., through Sunday, April 28, 2013

Where:  The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Eighth and F streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.

How much:  Free admission

Metro station:  Gallery Place-Chinatown or walk from Metro Center

For more information:  202-633-7970 or 202-633-1000

patricialesli@gmail.com

Take 5! Free jazz at the Smithsonian with Corey Wallace

 

Corey Wallace on his trombone in the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum last week/Patricia Leslie

 

On the third Thursday of every month between 5 and 8 p.m. through May, free jazz emanates from the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum where beer, wine, and hors d'oeuvres may be purchased to add to merriment while listening, dancing, or painting. The Smithsonian sets up a temporary studio for artists who register for Take 5!

 

 

Members of Corey Wallace's DUBtet are Allyn Johnson, piano; Max Murray, bass; C.V. Dashiell III, drums; and Brent Birckhead, reeds/Patricia Leslie

 

"Please, dance with me, Henry"/Patricia Leslie

 Plenty of tables, chairs and dance space jazz up the courtyard on free jazz nights.

One of the best works the DUBtet played was Wallace's Rush Hour Traffic which brilliantly captured the stop-and-go sounds of vehicles on the road. Said Wallace: "We all hate it so I had to write a song about it."/Patricia Leslie

 

The center of this design promoting the monthly jazz fest at the Smithsonian is a reproduction of Robert Indiana's The Figure Five (1963), hanging on the gallery's third floor. It is based on Charles Demuth's I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928), one of 12 featured stamps in a modern art series issued this month by the U.S. Postal Service/Patricia Leslie

 

 

What's this? A spider crawling on the keyboards? Nope, the hand of Allyn Johnson spinning the tunes with the Corey Wallace DUBtet at the Smithsonian/Patricia Leslie

 

 

Coming up in the Take 5! free jazz concerts:

What: The Music of Pepper Adams

When: April 18, 5 - 8 p.m.

What: The Dave Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet

When: April 22. Discussion at 5 p.m. and concert at 6:30 p.m.

What: Night & Day Quintet

When: May 16, 5 - 8 p.m.

Where: All at the Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F Streets, NW

How much: No charge!

Metro stations: Gallery Place/Chinatown or walk 10 minutes from Metro Center

For more information: 202-633-1000

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian Settles and Dewey Redman jazz at the Smithsonian

The Brian Settles Quartet at the Smithsonian American Art Museum/Patricia Leslie

It's free terrific jazz on tap at the "Take Five!" series at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the performance by the Brian Settles Quartet last week fit the bill. 

Settles, a tenor saxophonist, is a native Washingtonian who graduated from the Duke Ellington School of Fine Arts, has degrees from The New School University and Howard University, and has played with Curtis Fuller, Shirley Horn, Mickey Roker, and Butch Warren, among others.

The program was totally Dewey Redman, a composer who played clarinet, alto sax, and tenor sax over six decades before he died in 2006, six days after his performance at the Charlie Parker Festival in New York City, his last show.

Redman's son, Joshua Redman, also a tenor saxophonist, may be better known than his dad after Joshua won the Thelonious Monk sax competition 21 years ago. 

Some of Dewey Redman's compositions on the Smithsonian program were "Boody,"  "Dewey's Tune,"  "For Eldon," '"Imani," "Joie de Vivre," "Look for the Black Star," and "Sunlanding."

While mulling the problems of the world, it was rather nice to sit and listen to sexy sax sounds which took one listener away to a South Pacific island where peaceful thoughts were rudely interrupted by ominous drums, forewarning of potential conflict between the contemporary and the dark ages.  Or that’s the way a mind traveled. 

Next up was a hint of Days of Wine and Roses and rumblings of all things past.  Here came a bird to light upon a leaf and nearby lurked a lusty predator which inched closer and closer.  The tension built, and SWOOP, the bird was gone.  Just like that.  It was not all a sad ending, according to the music, since one of the parties smiled broadly, or at least, those were the effects.  

The group then played a “bluesy” number (“Boody”) which carried a listener to other places while sitting in the open (but enclosed) courtyard.  Have you seen the photos of what Kogod used to be?

Musicians who joined Settles at the Smithsonian were Thad Wilson, trumpet; Tarus Mateen, bass; and Terence Arnett, drums. 

The Brian Settles Quartet at the Smithsonian American Art Museum/Patricia Leslie

Plenty of room, tables, chairs, refreshments, and good times accompanied the performance in the Kogod Courtyard.

Coming up:

What:  Holiday Jazz at Take 5!

When:  5 - 7 p.m., December 20, 2012

Where:  Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F Streets, NW, Washington, D.C.

How much:  No charge

For more information:  202-633-1000

Metro stations:  Gallery Place/Chinatown or walk from Metro Center

 

 

 

patricialesli@gmail.com

1934 at SAAM

"The Farmer's Kitchen" Ivan Albright 1934


"Chicago Interior" J. Theodore Johnson 1933-1934



"Skating in Central Park" by Agnes Tait 1934




"Radio Broadcast" by Julia Eckel 1933-1934


"Black Panther" by Alice Dinneen 1934

By The Queen of Free

Help!

Women, grab your hat, your dancing shoes, your party dress and hit the streets to party hearty for if anything says “carpe diem” it is the sad woman’s painting at the top, one of many intriguing art pieces in the new magnificent show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum: "1934: A New Deal for Artists."

Her mournful eyes depicted in almost 3-D fashion convey her sorrowful and empty life (or so I suppose) just before she enters the grave. I imagine her husband standing outside the kitchen window screaming something negative at his wife.

The pallor of her skin: It is grey up to her scalp, suggesting her lifelong’s work inside a cave for she is seems to be covered in soot.

Small amounts of red dominate the painting: The red circles in her dress match the red radishes in her lap which match her red knuckles which match the small circles in the wallpaper. Has her life been an endless repetition of meaningless tasks?

Her hands! The label says even the cat withdraws from this poor woman who is a horror movie in one frame.

What did she ever do that she liked to do? My former husband criticized me once for “doing what you like to do.” End of that!

So many things to think about.

The painting’s label says the artist, Ivan Albright, always drew his subjects aged, distressed, and tormented. His neighbor in Illinois was his model for the painting which is entitled, “The Farmer’s Kitchen.”

Contrast it with the vibrant, warm “Chicago Interior,” which J. Theodore Johnson lovingly (it shows) painted in 1933-1934 of his wife which faces “The Farmer’s Kitchen” from across the gallery. What were Robert Herrick's words?

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting

.

The paintings originated under Franklin Roosevelt's Public Works of Art Program in 1933. Withing six months of the program's announcement almost 3,800 artists created about 15,500 works of art which were displayed in public buildings, says the Smithsonian at the entrances to the exhibit. The Roosevelts selected 32 of them for the White House and Congressional members chose others from a show of 500 at the Corcoran Gallery.

"1934: A New Deal for Artists" is up through January 3, 2010. I've only been twice in a week.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former