Book review: 'The Gatsby Affair' was not

I suppose the insertion of the word "affair" in the title of any book would help it sell better. Surely, a Ph.D. student has researched this matter.

The Gatsby Affair: Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal that Shaped an American Classic by Kendall Taylor is a misnomer since there is no proof that Zelda Fitzgerald had an affair with a French pilot which was "consummated." Is a summer fling of a few weeks an "affair"? Then I suppose most of us had had hundreds.  The author contends that Zelda's "affair" served as a springboard for much of her husband's book, The Great Gatsby.


Zelda's fling with Edouard Jozan consumes a small portion of Taylor's book, a few pages front and aft.

At the beginning of Affair, it was great fun to live vicariously with Zelda, being wined and dined by all her boyfriends, going to the parties, the dancing, the attention, the prom queen! Ahhhh...such is youth! 

It ends too soon.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
   Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
   Tomorrow 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.

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.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
   And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
   You may forever tarry.*

After she marries Scott, the book takes a turn from fun to depressing. (That's what marriage can do!)

He promises her a luxurious lifestyle which they lived for a while on his writing income in New York, on the edge, partying constantly late into the next day, doing crazy things and spending too much money which Scott did not have. He was constantly borrowing on his future earnings.

They take off for Europe which was a cheaper place to live, and their marriage continues its downward spiral.

He was mean; he was an alcoholic who stifled Zelda's creativity and forbade the publication of some of her works he wanted to use himself.  He was rude to friends. Here, he's the antagonist, a control freak when it comes to Zelda.

He stifled her creativity and kept her in hospitals. Some of the medical treatments she received are painful to read. He said he was due part of the money she earned from her few publications to pay for her medical bills. Fair enough.

They return to the U.S. In California Scott worked to earn more money as a script writer and...

The book is not so much fun any more.

After Scott failed again on writing assignments in Hollywood, he returned to Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda's family's home, where she was furiously working on a story of their lives in Europe; he forbade her from writing her story because he wanted to use the material for his own.

About 20 years ago two friends and I took the day off from our jobs in Nashville to drive to Huntsville, Alabama to see a small exhibition of Zelda's works.  The Fitzgeralds' only child, Scottie, had loaned the pieces to, I think it was, the Huntsville Museum of Art. 

As I recall, the art on the walls was mainly line drawings of ballerinas in small frames, no larger than 8 x 10". In Europe Zelda prided herself on her constant feverish training to become a ballerina which Scott did not take seriously. That she was invited to participate in a professional production in Europe gives credence to her talent. (She did not join the company.)

The hospital fire in Asheville, N.C. which claimed her life in March, 1948 was likely caused by an arsonist. The hospital had no fire codes.

Rather than an "affair," this book is really about Zelda's personal crash and is very sad. May I suggest instead, Matthew Bruccoli's Some Sort of Epic Grandeur which is much better written, throughly documented (not denying Taylor's research), and about twice as long, well worth a serious reader's look at the Fitzgeralds' lives and careers.  (But if you're serious, you'll be reading Taylor's, too. Bruccoli died in 2008 and was considered "the preeminent expert" on F. Scott Fitzgerald [Wikipedia].)

In Affair, modifiers sometimes go AWOL and I found myself having to review previous sentences to find out what or whom the author was writing about.

Disjointed words are found scattered throughout, and often, pronouns and subjects don't match, which may be another example of a publisher's reduction in staff. Sigh. (This publisher is Rowman & Littlefield.) 

Until I read a little about the author, I thought she was British, and it was a British way of writing.  Seriously.

But, it's a great dream book to carry a reader away for a while, to the shore, the man, the fun, and the scenery. If it only had a happy ending, but it was not to be.

* To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

The graves of F. Scott, Zelda, and Scottie Fitzgerald, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Rockville, MD, Feb. 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The graves of F. Scott, Zelda, and Scottie Fitzgerald, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Rockville, MD, Feb. 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The graves of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Rockville, MD, Feb. 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com

Earth v. humans in photos at the National Gallery of Art

Robert Adams,  Kerstin next to an Old-Growth Stump, Coos County, Oregon, 1999 gelatin silver print, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser 

Thousands of persons can now see the haunting photographs of the American West taken by Robert Adams from 1965 to 2015 which are now on display in eight galleries at the National Gallery of Art.

Mr. Adams, now 85 and of no relation to Ansel Adams, is an American photographer whose reputation has risen over decades, now in sync with the impacts of climate change, its destruction and effects of humans on the Earth. 

Robert Adams, Clearcut, Clatsop County, Oregon, c. 2000 gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert and Kerstin Adams 

Robert Adams, Newly Occupied Tract Houses, Colorado Springs, 1968 gelatin silver, private collection, San Francisco

Robert Adams, Pikes Peak Park, Colorado Springs (detail), 1969 gelatin silver print, Yale University Art Gallery, purchased with a gift from Saundra B. Lane, a grant from the Trellis Fund, and the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund

With his wife, Kerstin, the photographer has chosen the National Gallery of Art for his current exhibition of 175 of his photos to afford opportunities to as many people as possible to see the pictures for free.

This according to National Gallery's curator, Sarah Greenough, who began working with the Adamses ten years ago on the show.

Robert Adams, North Denver Suburb, 1973, printed 1981 gelatin silver print, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the Alice Newton Osborn Fund, 1982 

Robert Adams, Nebraska State Highway 2, Box Butte County, Nebraska, 1978, printed 1991 gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Ahmanson Foundation and Gift of Robert and Kerstin Adams 

In the exhibition, the pictures are segregated by themes: "the gift," "our response," and "tenancy."

In bleak settings of black and white horizontal landscapes void of most humans, Mr. Adams's pictures show the Earth's lands in all their stark nakedness, the blemishes uncovered, but herein lies truth and beauty which often evoke moonscapes and document a lack of gratitude for Earth's gifts, abandonment of the planet by its guests.

Robert Adams, Store, Elizabeth, Colorado, 1965, printed 1988 gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund and Gift of Robert and Kerstin Adams.  Compare to Edward Hopper's Lonely House , 1922, below.

The catalog shows the print above by Edward Hopper, The Lonely House, 1922, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest

Robert Adams, Schoolyard, Ramah, Colorado, 1968 gelatin silver print, private collection, San Francisco

Robert Adams, Colorado Springs, 1968, printed 1983, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon and Patrons' Permanent Fund.  Does this remind you of Edward Hopper?

Robert Adams, The River’s Edge, 2015, gelatin silver print,  National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Stephen G. Stein.  Seven years ago this dry riverbed forecast today's drought-striken lands of the West.  The tree stub is similar to a human skeleton like  those found at Lake Mead near Las Vegas this year, after the water level dropped significantly, an effect of climate change.

Robert Adams, North Edge of Denver, 1973-1974, printed 2008, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert and Kerstin Adams. A sad and lonely industrial side of town on first glance, but then a viewer starts to think more about it, and...

For the large, 300+ paged catalogue, American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams ($65) which includes a complete timeline of Mr. Adams's life, Ms. Greenough has written a marvelous biographical essay about him

He was born in 1937 in New Jersey to liberal Methodist parents who moved to the West where the boy often went hiking with his dad, exploring the outdoors, rafting rivers, working in camps.

The son was a Boy Scout who attained the lofty Eagle Scout award. The outdoors became his paradise and later, the subject of his pictures.  

He loved reading and visiting the Denver Art Museum with his sister.  An architectural drawing course he took in high school influenced his life.

In college Mr. Adams met his wife who was a book worm like he and another lover of nature.

A fellowship enabled him to become Dr. Adams and earn a Ph.D. in English literature while he was teaching at Colorado College.

While there, he began taking pictures part time, giving up teaching in 1970 to devote himself full time to his passion: taking pictures of the outdoors.

The author of many books, one, The New West published in 1974 (and on display at the Gallery) helped launch his career. Later came a prayer book set in the forest, Prayers in an American Church. (Earlier in his life, Ms. Greenough said Adams considered becoming a Methodist pastor but decided organized religion was too confining.) 

Another of his memorable titles is Our Lives and Our Children (1984, with a new 2018 edition) which describes in pictures the people who lived at risk downwind from the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant near Denver where the Adamses lived. 

Ms. Greenbough in her essay and Arthur Lubow who interviewed Mr. Adams for the New York Times (July 13, 2022) cite the influences on the photographer of Paul Cézanne and Edward Hopper and their emphases on melancholy and loneliness, easy to spot in many of Mr. Adams's pictures . 

Ms. Greenbough notes that Mr. Adams is also well versed in Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau.

Some find hope in his pictures, but for others, hope is buried in the stark portrayals of the detritus left by humans.

But look, there on the horizon, hope comes with the passage of President Biden's climate justice bill and what can be. 

This is a large display of stimulating pictures to spark a conversation, as great art does, about what was, what is, and what we can do about it.

Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Adams, the National Gallery of Art, Jeffrey Frankel, Terry Tempest, and many others. 

The show travels to the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno for exhibition Oct. 29, 2022 - Jan. 29, 2023. 

What: American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams

When: Now through Oct. 2, 2022, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: West Building, Ground Floor, Galleries 23-29, 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

Assassinate Putin? Discuss

 

Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, accepted the Dissident Human Rights Award at the Victims of Communism Annual Captive Nations Summit held at the Victims of Communism Museum, July 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The question was posed to a panel at the Victims of Communism Annual Captive Nations Summit last month at its new museum in Washington.

Peter Humphrey who identified himself as a former diplomat asked the question.

For a few seconds, stunned silence filled the room. The 50 or so in attendance wondered if they had heard correctly.

They had.

Finally, panel member Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, blurted out the obvious: Do you mean, kill Putin?

Yes was the reply.

Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, second from right, with officials from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation including, from left, Ambassador Andrew Bremberg, Edwin J. Fuelner, and Ambassador Aldona Wos at the Victims of Communism Captive Nations Summit held at the Victims of Communism Museum, July 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

After a few seconds of silence, Mr. Chodakiewicz said an assassination really wouldn't achieve anything since the Russian government would just pick up the pieces and continue.

Eliminating Putin means someone else would step in and take over, and not necessarily for the better.

Brian Whitmore, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and another panel member, agreed. At least, Putin is a known quantity, more or less.

Panel members from left, Brian Whitmore, Michael Sawkiw Jr., Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, and Milda Boyce, moderator, at the Victims of Communism Captive Nations Summit, July 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the event, the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, was present to receive the Dissident Human Rights Award, and she spoke briefly before leaving for the White House and a meeting with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden.

In a somber mood, Ms. Zelenska, in her remarks, renewed focus on those fighting communism, denouncing Joseph Stalin's legacy which must not be permitted to continue.

On the panel, Mr. Chodakiewicz noted that Ukraine is not drawing as much attention in Europe as expected.

"Spain is more concerned about the invasion from Africa" than Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Chodakiewicz is a Polish-American historian who specializes in Central European history of the 19th and 20th centuries and teaches at Patrick Henry College and the Institute of World Politics.

He said Kazakstan, Poland, Belarus and more are on Putin's "menu."The "land bridge" to Crimea allows Putin's "incrementalism" and although Putin knows he's not immortal, he has no incentive to stop his aggression, but perhaps he may move "more slowly."

No one is calling for the destruction of Russia.

Also on the panel was Michael Sawkiw, Jr., a member of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Executive Board, who said Russia denies the facts, makes war and claims victory.

"Putin will never negotiate until he has to negotiate." Putin has noted how he wants to emulate Peter the Great. (Watch out, Baltics!)

Whitmore said this coming December will be the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Union. In 1922, the West was "not engaged." It's a very different world now. 

Putin is "very cognizant of the anniversary and he would like nothing more than to put Russia back" the way it was. Georgia is on his radar, too.

"We're kind of in 1947 and everybody's got to watch their backs."

The Victims of Communism Memorial Statue at the Victims of Communism Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the Victims of Communism Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Victims of Communism Museum has several small galleries with artifacts and photographs devoted to the message of fighting communism/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the Victims of Communism Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the Victims of Communism Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the Victims of Communism Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the Victims of Communism Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On the second panel Hyun-seung Lee, Ambassador Martin Palous, and John Suarez addressed "The Lessons of Ukraine for Captive Nations Around the World" with Carlos Ponce, moderating.

They talked about North Korea, Cuba, and other nations where freedom is unknown.

"Freedom is not free," Lee said. If you don't fight for freedom, it will not survive.

Ambassador Paula Dobriansky is a VOC trustee and the daughter of former Ambassador Lev Dobriansky, chairman emeritus of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation which hosted the event.

She sent a video message that the VOC Foundation "stands in solidarity with the nations around the world held captive by communism."

Those nations were identified as China, Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea and possibly, Ethiopia.

Ambassador Dobriansky said that victims of communism will not be forgotten, but "let us recommit ourselves to the defense and promotion of individual liberty."

At the Victims of Communism Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the close of the gathering and before lunch, five members of the Carpathia Folk Dance Ensemble dressed in native Eastern European costumes and waving colorful floral wreaths, entertained attendees with graceful dancing.

The Victims of Communism Museum opened June 13, 2022 and is a $40 million project supported by the nations of Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, among others.

On its website, the museum says it is dedicated to the estimated 100 million people killed by the murderous ideology in the past century, as well as to the 1.5 billion others still living under its jackboot.

The Victims of Communism Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What: Victims of Communism Museum

Where: 900 15th St., NW, Washington, D.C., across the street from McPherson Square.

When: Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Cost: No charge

Metro station: McPherson Square

For more information: info@victimsofcommunism.org(202) 629-9500

patricialesli@gmail.com

Alexandria has greatness thrust upon it

Noah Mutterperl is Shakespeare in Little Theatre of Alexandria's ''Something Rotten''/Photo by Matthew Randall

There's nothing "rotten" in Alexandria recently named by Travel and Leisure to the nation's Top 15 Best Cities to visit,* but Something Rotten at Little Theatre of Alexandria has got the whole crew and townspeople eggstraeggcited (?) and happy.

Theatregoers, this show is LTA's best musical comedy ever!  

Chuck Dluhy (left) is Nostradamus and Matt Liptak is Nick Bottom in Little Theatre of Alexandria's 'Something Rotten'/Photo by Matthew Randall

Immense will power to bring this off was required of director Frank D. Shutts II and choreographer Stefan Sittig who met the challenges with wondrous excellence.

The centerpiece is one William Shakespeare and the competition to beat him, can it be?

Evan Zimmerman, left, is Robin with ensemble members, Daniel Boos, center, and Josh Mutterperl in Little Theatre of Alexandria's 'Something Rotten'/Photo by Matthew Randall

Never fear, Shakespeare sufferers:  Knowledge of the bard's works is not required.  But, surely, you've seen at least one of 30-odd shows mentioned in the production?**

The title, Something Rotten comes from one of the bard's plays***, but this Rotten of 1595 finds two brothers in England with a sad last name (Bottom) competing to top the best and write the world's first musical.

As soon as laugh-a-minute Nostredamus (Chuck Dluhy) makes his appearance, it's non-stop hilarity, amplified by the increasingly wild gyrations of eggomaniac Elvis Shakyspeare (Noah Mutterperl) who rattles and roils the stage.  

He bears a charmed life.

Evan Zimmerman is Robin, another favorite actor, who never abandons long frocks to dance with delight and glide across the stage as if hopscotching the clouds,  floating across the sky in new apparel each time.  

Speaking of frocks, costumers Jean Schlichting and Kit Sibley, aided by wardrobe coordinator, Robin Worthington, skilfully outfit the cast of 23, most in multiple scenes and most in different dress.

Hair and makeup artist Robin Maline has her hands full, perfecting the looks of Elizabethan characters in exceptional manner.

Lighting designer Ken and Patti Crowley are busy, giving the audience an "aaahhhh" moment when brother Nigel Bottom (Jack Dalrymple) and Portia (Katie Conn) realize in a starstruck milli-second, that the other is their one and only. Lights flicker, hearts flutter and pounding pulses could be heard, or maybe that was just the effect created by sound designer David Correia.

Christopher A. Tomasino leads an orchestra of nine  unseen-but-well-heard-and-received musicians who add tremendous depth and enjoyment to the show.  

These performers are Gwyn Jones, Terry Bradley, John Fargo, Emilie Taylor, Tom Fuller, Francine Krasowska, Mila Weiss, and on alternate nights, Randy Dahlberg, Ruben Vellecoop, Bill Wright and Scott Fridy. 

In real life, brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick spent years talking about this play before they finally got down with John O'Farrell to put it all together and write the book, music and lyrics. 

(Read about their odyssey here.)

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."

In 2015 Rotten received nominations for nine Tonys, eight Drama Desks, and 11 Outer Critics Circle Awards and I wondered why it only lasted for 708 performances on Broadway, but it's here now, and that's what counts.

Other cast members are Brian Ash, Marcus Barbret, Brittany Bolick, Daniel Boos, Paul Caffrey, Peter Fannon, Odette Gutierrez del Arroyo, Julia Hornok (dance captain), Matt Liptak, J.P. McElyea, Luke Martin, Amanda Mason, Josh Mutterperl, Eddie Perez, Anna Phillips-Brown, Mary Rodrigues, Andrew Sanchez, and Lourdes Turnblom.

The production and technical crew:  Russell M. Wyland, technical director, rigging and co-producer with Rachel Alberts and Robbie Herbst ; Helen Bard-Sobola and Margaret Chapman, properties; Robert S. Barr Jr., sets; Myke, set dressing;  Luana Bossolo, Jim Hutzler, Mary Hutzler, Jeff Nesmeyer, set painting and construction; 

Also, Jennifer Rhorer and Sherry Clarke, stage managers, and Jacquanna David, assistant to the director.

The Kennedy Center might just want to cross the Potomac, take a look and import this cast and crew!

*Alexandria was #8 in readers' choices. 

** At the theatre, ushers give theatregoers a list of 31 musicals referenced in Something Rotten, but there's more.  Which four did it omit?  

***Hamlet has the reference to "something rotten."

What: Something Rotten

When: Now through August 13, 2022, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m.

Where: The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

Tickets: $29, weekdays; $34, weekends. 

Duration: About two hours plus one 15-minute intermission.

Fowl language: Many "s" words

Masks and vaccine cards or proof of a negative covid test within 48 hours of show time are required. No exceptions.

Public transportation: Check the Metro and Dash bus websites. Dash is free to ride and has routes which are close to LTA.

Parking: On the streets and in many garages nearby with free parking during performances at Capital One Bank at Wilkes and Washington streets.

For more information: Box Office: 703-683-0496; Business: 703-683-5778. boxoffice@thelittletheatre.com or Asklta@thelittletheatre.com

patricialesli@gmail.com

Rush to see 'Afro-Atlantic Histories' before they close Sunday!

Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art, welcomes visitors to Afro-Atlantic Histories, April 5, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

You may thank me later for steering you to this outstanding show, if you have not been or, if like me, you go again.

Honestly, my second visit to the National Gallery of Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories made more of an impression with the size, scope, and contents covering the 17th to 21st centuries and spanning four continents, than my first time there.

More than 130 works are represented in graphic stories of Blacks and their histories from all sides of the Atlantic.  It is  astonishing and one of those exhibitions I wish would never end, but it's soon moving to Los Angeles.

The show has something for all and will open eyes wide, no matter how much education you have or think you have.

George Morland, European Ship Wrecked on the Coast of Africa, known as African Hospitality, 1789, oil on canvas, The Menil Collection, Houston 

Emanoel Araujo, O navio [The Ship], 2007, polychromed wood and carbon steel, Collection Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, gift of the artist

James Phillips, Description of a slave ship, 1789, woodcut, Rare Books, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library. 

Description of a slave ship is really too small to see here so you must visit the exhibition and see it firsthand. Each of the 600 prisoners aboard the ship, the Brooks, had a 16-inch space for two months, the time it took to sail the Atlantic, bound for the West Indies from Britain, according to the label copy.  Mr. Phillips, a fervent abolitionist, printed more than 8,000 copies of this plan. Britain outlawed slavery in 1807 but it wasn't until 1833 that slavery was abolished in the British colonies.  Read more about it here and figure the size of 16 inches. 

Johann Moritz Rugendas, Slaves in the Cargo Hold of a Slave Ship (detail), c. 1835, lithograph with watercolor, Instituto Ricardo Brennand, Recife, Pernambuci, Brazil

Kerry James Marshall, Voyager (detail), 1992, acrylic and collage on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art) © Kerry James Marshall

The National Gallery of Art hosted an exhibition of Mr. Marshall's works in 2013 which you may read about here and see him there. 

Nona Faustine, From her body sprang their greatest wealth, 2013, photographic print, artist's collection

The photographer, shown above, wants to make a statement, according to label copy, that it wasn't just in the South where slavery was practiced but on this Wall Street spot, the first place in New York City where slaves were bought and sold for more than 50 years in the 18th century. Like many others who were trafficked, purchased and handed down to heirs, Ms. Faustine pictures herself nude as a reminder of life for the enslaved.

John Philip Simpson, The Captive Slave, 1827, oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago, purchased with funds provided by Mary Winton Green, Dan and Sara Green Cohan, Howard and Lisa Green and Jonathan and Brenda Green, in memory of David Green

Samuel Raven, Celebrating the Emancipation of Slaves in British Dominions, August, 1834, oil on canvas, The Menil Collection, Houston

Ernest Crichlow, Harriet Tubman, 1953, oil on masonite, courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York

Wikipedia says Ms. Tubman (1822–1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist who was born into slavery. After she escaped slavery twice in 1849, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the "Underground Railroad." 

During the Civil War, she was a cook, a nurse, an armed scout and spy for the Union Army and was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war. 

In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage. She met John Brown in 1858 and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry. 

Last year President Joe Biden resumed the effort to have Ms. Tubman’s likeness placed on the $20 bill to replace that of President Andrew Jackson, action the Trump administration had blocked.

John Adam Houston, The Fugitive Slave (detail), 1853, oil on canvas, The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC. One of my favorites in the exhibition. 

This is only a portion of the painting and does not show the star directly above the escaped slave, similar to the Star of Bethlehem on the night the Three Wise Men visited the Baby Jesus.  Mr. Houston lived from 1812-1884 primarily in Edinburgh and London and likely never visited the U.S. but the Johnson Collection says he may have been inspired "by the poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1842, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp, and by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin."  You can see the star at the John Adam Houston link above or at the exhibition.  Look at these colors!

Lois Mailou Jones, The Green Door (detail), 1981, watercolor over graphite, National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund

William Walker, Noon Day Pause in the Cotton Field, c.1885 oil on canvas, The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC

Archibald John Motley Jr., Nightlife (detail), 1943, oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago, purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field, Jack and Sandra Guthman, Ben W. Heineman, Ruth Horwich, Lewis and Susan Manilow, Beatrice C. Mayer, Charles A. Meyer, John D. Nichols,  and Mr. and Mrs. E.B. Smith Jr.; James W. Alsdorf Memorial Fund; Goodman Endowment.

I see this and want to get up and dance!  They are having so much fun!  It makes me happy.  A large painting, full of life and vigor which tell me that life's moments  pass too quickly, and we must seize opportunities to get up and dance and carpe diem!

Eugène Delacroix, Portrait of a Woman in a Blue Turban, c. 1827, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., in honor of Patricia McBride

Osmond Watson, Johnny Cool, 1967, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Jamaica

He's a cool cat, isn't he?  You don't need to look at the title of this work to know he's one cool dude, or almost that with that slouched position and arm swung over the chair, but, wait!  After a closer look, his eyes seem to lose their confidence and his posture undermines his original cockiness. Even on canvas, the painting changes.  Now, how does this artist do this?  That's one cool artist!

Daniel Lind-Ramos, Figura de Poder (Power Figure), 2016-2018, mirrors, concrete blocks, cement bag, sledgehammer, construction stones bag, paint bucket, wood panels, palm tree trunk, burlap, leather, ropes, sequin, awning, plastic ropes, fabric, trumpet, pins, duct tape, maracas, sneaker, tambourine, working gloves, basketballs, boxing gloves, acrylic overall, National Gallery of Art, New Century Fund

What's there to say except it's big and full of meaning which is...?

Alma Thomas, March on Washington (detail), 1964, acrylic on canvas, courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York.

The painting above was recently on view at Washington's Phillips Collection which hosted an exhibition of Ms. Thomas's works, Everything is Beautiful. The artist (1892-1978) became a lifelong resident of Washington after moving here with her family from Columbus, Georgia where her father thought the environment was not the best for his family. 

This painting was an outlier in Ms. Thomas's portfolio since she usually drew abstracts of non-political suasion, but for the March on Washington, Ms. Thomas put brush to canvas to capture a moment when Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, galvanizing his supporters and the artist, too.

A morning in spring at the National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie, April 5, 2022

Afro-Atlantic Histories is adopted from a much larger show from 2018 (on which the catalog is based) presented at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo. The latter was the 2014 site of the origin of the 2018 show in a presentation called Histories of Slavery.


A Brazilian team curated Afro-Atlantic Histories, which is fitting, the essayists note in the catalog, given that Brazil, for more than 300 years, received about 40 percent of Africans forcibly removed from their homes, and today has the second-highest population of Blacks in the world, after Nigeria.


Included above are the portraits, paintings, photographs, sculptures which I found most intriguing, but there are many, many more to whet appetites for learning and see Black history and culture come to life.


The label copy is in Engish and Spanish.


And the catalog! Oh, my! Published by Museu de Arte de São Paulo, it has 400 pages in color of 400 works by 200 artists ($69.95). Not to miss and see and read time and time again.


And don't forget Artle! It's lots of fun!

In conjunction with the exhibition, movies by international filmmakers will be presented at no charge through July 17 in the West Building Lecture Hall. Registration is required at nga.gov/film. Go here for more information.


From Washington, the exhibition moves to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 11, 2022–April 30, 2023, and next to the Dallas Museum of Art with dates to be announced.


Afro-Atlantic Histories was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museu de Arte de Sāo Paulo in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art.

What: Afro-Atlantic Histories

When: Now through July 17, 2022, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Main floor of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, 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