Rolling Thunder pictures, Washington, D.C. 2013 Memorial Day weekend

Rolling Thunder bikers roar down  Constitution Avenue and other Washington streets on May 26, 2013.  It was the 26th year members have come to honor fallen American troops/Patricia Leslie

Thousands of Rolling Thunder bikers came once again from around the U.S. to Washington this Memorial Day weekend to pay tribute to fallen American troops, and the citizens are grateful for their attention and devotion to those who protect us.

Rolling Thunder began its annual trip to Washington in 1988 to recognize Vietnam War veterans who had been forgotten.

From the Rolling Thunder website: 

 

Rolling Thunder’s mission is to educate, facilitate, and never forget by means of a demonstration for service members that were abandoned after the Vietnam War. Rolling Thunder has also evolved into a display of patriotism and respect for all who defend our country. 

 

 As of May 22, 2013, American military casualties total 4,488 deaths from the Iraq War, and 2,220 American military members have died as a result of American participation in the war in Afghanistan.

 

Rolling Thunder on Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., May 26, 2013/Patricia Leslie

Rolling Thunder on Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., May 26, 2013/Patricia Leslie

 

 Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. Can you hear them roar?/Patricia Leslie

More single women were seen this year on bikes than in years past in the Rolling Thunder parade to honor fallen American troops/Patricia Leslie

 

 

Onlookers at the Rolling Thunder rally May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

 

 

Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

 Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

 Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

When the parade slowed, the girl in white stepped out in the street to high-five with bikers/Patricia Leslie

Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

Attention!  Is that a helmet-less biker in the distance?/Patricia Leslie 

 Rolling Thunder, May 26, 2013, Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

There they go, down Constitution Avenue towards the Capitol on May 26, 2013/Patricia Leslie

On the way home on Route 66/Patricia Leslie

 

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19th century French art exits Sunday

Gustave Dore, The Shades of French Soldiers from the Past Exhort the Army to Victory on the Rhine, 1870. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Helen Porter and James T. Dyke Fund, 2006

Edgar Allan Poe fans familiar with the memorable illustrations by Gustave Dore of Poe's poem, The Raven, will not want to miss four original Dores which are part of a enchanting exhibition now in its final weekend at the National Gallery of Art.

Color, Line, Light: French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastels from Delacroix to Signac presents 100 pieces from the 19th century French collection of James T. Dyke and his wife, Helen L. Porter, and from the National Gallery's collection made possible by the couple.

Alexandre Calame, An Ancient Pine Forest with a Mountain Stream, 1847. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Helen Porter and James T. Dyke, 1999

Dyke, who heads the Gallery's Trustees' Council, and Ms. Porter are avid collectors who “buy what they like” and not necessarily pieces which are in style at the moment, said Andrew Robison, one of the curators of the show.

"Jim likes to go to auctions" and says occasionally to Robison: "I don't like it, but I'll give

you the money to buy it."

Mr. Dyke and Ms. Porter have "built up this extraordinary collection...a really comprehensive view of 19th century French art" with "many (artists) you haven't heard of," Robison, an enthusiastic guide, said.

Robison and Dyke worked on the project for ten years.

Gustave Dore, A River Gorge in a Mountain Landscape. Dyke Collection

It is a "quiet" display, soothing and spiritually moving, with many invitations to novels which beg to be written. Muted tones and fairy-tale scenes evoke memories of long ago images from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, which match those mysterious, haunting places where you could wander amidst magical forests with castles and high peaks, alone and yet secure, guided by a mysterious path and hand.

Maxime Lalanne, Alpine Castle above a Wooded Lake, c. 1870. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Helen Porter and James T. Dyke Fund, 2006

The artworks flow chronologically by style in five galleries which the catalogue (edited by Mr. Robison and co-curator Margaret Morgan Grasselli) follows: Romanticism (with three Dores), Realism and Naturalism (one Dore), Impressionism, Nabis and Symbolists (which I have nicknamed the Lemmen Gallery after one of Dyke's favorite artists, Georges Lemmen, who has several on the walls here), and Neo-Impressionism (the "Signac Gallery" with eight by Paul Signac).

Hippolyte Petitjean, A Broad Valley at Sunset, c. 1897. Dyke Collection, promised gift to the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Lengthy descriptions of the different media the artists used (chalk, watercolor, graphite, pen and ink, charcoal, pastel) are an important part of this show.

Robison said the contents are "major works by minor artists and major works by major masters" (Cezanne, Degas, Millet, Monet, Pissarro, Seurat, Bonnard, Vuillard, Signac, Delacroix), and please don't overlook the women in the show, whom Ms. Grasselli pointed out:  Berthe Morison and Suzanne Valadon.

Francois-Auguste Ravier, A Marsh at Sunset. Dyke Collection

One of the most provocative works is Lemmen’s Two Studies of Madame Lemmen (1885). Two female figures stand, almost facing each other, but that's impossible since one stands farther back. They look towards the center of the chalk drawing, but not at each other. The shadowy silhouettes are dressed alike, and the dominant figure seems to offer her hand to the other.  Touching of their hands is hinted, however, distance between them prevents that.  What is in the background, please?  An open coffin?  To which she steps?  Or emerges?  Perhaps it is a piece of luggage before she embarks on a trip?  To where?  Is the larger figure an apparition who tries to warn or rescue the other? 

Georges Lemmen, Two Studies of Madame Lemmen, 1885. Dyke Collection, promised gift to the National Gallery of Art, Washington

You see what art can do!

This exhibition is another example of what I wish its staying power to be, to remain at the National Gallery and not go away so I can visit often for inspiration and palliative effects.

Charles Angrand, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, 1894. Dyke Collection

Please, are we soon going to expand to the other side of the street, and move to the Federal Trade Commission Building? Next week would be grand, so this show could hang in Washington a while longer. (It moves to the Musee des impressionnismes in Giverny to open July 27. Sigh.)

Ms. Grasselli called the exhibition "a banquet for the eyes."

P.S. And, for the soul. Who needs medication when there's art like this to carry you away to faraway, dreamy places?

A gallery talk by Kimberly Schenck begins at 2 p.m., May 24 at the Rotunda in the West Building

What: Color, Line, Light: French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastels from Delacroix to Signac

When: Now through May 26, 2013, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: Main Floor, the West Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets, NW, at Constitution Avenue

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

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Spring cleaning at the National Gallery of Art

Spring fix-up at the West Building of the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie

 

If you’ve wondered if that’s spring cleaning on the exterior of the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, your hunch is right.

At the West Building of the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie

Deborah Ziska, the National Gallery’s chief of press and public information says “timely repairs” are underway at the building, including “re-pointing of joints,” which are typical improvements needed on a senior structure.

The Tennessee Pink marble wall and North portico at the Sixth Street entrance are receiving attention, and walls and porticoes are being refreshed “with a light mist.”

At the West Building at the National Gallery of Art.  The banner promote the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition which has just ended/Patricia Leslie

 

 

It’s never too early to get a joint lift, especially for those in their 70s and getting ready for their dodranscentennial celebration which would be the 75^th anniversary of the National Gallery's public opening in 1941.

At the West Building at the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie

At the West Building at the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie

At the West Building at the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie

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Police cars on the Mall

Police cars at the National Mall last week/Patricia Leslie

A line of classic police cars was on display at the National Mall last week, transported from around the U.S. for the annual convention of National Police Week, held every year in Washington.

From the New York Police Department/Patricia Leslie

In 1962 President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation designating May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the following week as Police Week, according to the Police Week website.

 

From Trumbull, CT/Patricia Leslie

 

Between 25,000 and 40,000 from the U.S. and around the world were expected to attend all or part of the convention which included the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service and candlelight vigil to honor officers who have given their lives in service. Last year 40 officers died while in service, according to preliminary estimates, an increase of 18 percent from 2011.  California had the most number of law enforcement deaths (7), followed by Arkansas (4).

From Peekskill, NY/Patricia Leslie

From the Wyoming Highway Patrol/Patricia Leslie

On the rear window of the Wyoming Highway Patrol car: In Memory of Trooper Peter Visser End of Watch 10-12-81 and Heroes Live Forever nearby/Patricia Leslie

Another car from the NYPD/Patricia Leslie

Inside the NYPD car/Patricia Leslie

 

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Love and lust at the National Gallery of Art

John Everett Millais (1829-96). Ophelia, 1851-52. Tate. Presented by Sir Henry Tate, 1894.

Ophelia is probably the most popular of the works in the current exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, modeled after Shakespeare's Ophelia in Hamlet, and to draw her correctly, the artist had a model lie in a bathtub which he warmed with oil lamps but worked so diligently, he forgot when the lamps went out, the model got sick, and never recovered.

And there's lots more to see at the National Gallery of Art.

Love, lust, triangles, passion, prostitutes, virtue, mysterious deaths, and a monster snake to name just a few subjects, are to be found in the stunning Pre-Raphaelites exhibition at the West Building, but only for a few precious days more.

The show ends Sunday.

It's another of those fantastic Gallery displays which you want to stay forever. Rather like a glorious sunset or a perfect day in April, you want to capture and relive the experience of enjoyment over and over.  It's a fantasy ride, one I've taken six times and may get in another one before Monday.

And it's not only art, but lots of literature, drama and religious subjects that enrich each of the eight galleries, filled with productions created by the "Pre-Raphaelites," a gang of seven Brits who broke with tradition in 1848 and rebelled against the rigid classicism of Raphael (1483-1520) and Michelangelo (1475-1564) whose art they were supposed to use as models for their own.

This brotherhood drew nature with painstaking detail, spent hours outdoors, drawing on riverbanks to ensnare every last fold in each blade of grass, who returned to the classics and romanticism for themes they admired and wanted to explore. They embellished historical scenes, many with a Victorian flavor, and who’s not to enjoy anything Victorian? 

For inspiration they often relied upon Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Wordsworth whose works they combined with a fascination with medieval themes that would divide them later. 

Their productions unleashed Britain's first avant-garde art movement, pieces from it on display in the U.S., only at the National Gallery of Art.

According to just about everybody, the mid-19th century was "an era of vast political and social change.” (Prithee, name an era which is free of “vast political and social change.")

This group of poets, critics, and artists included the three founders, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and later, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens, and Thomas Woolner.

Some of them attended classes at the Royal Academy of the Arts, founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds, whom they called "Sir Sloshua."

Greeting visitors in the first gallery is the astonishing and revolutionary work by John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents (1849-1850) for which you should allow several minutes to study its complexities.  (Stand your ground when the next viewer tries with body language to push you aside.)

When it was first exhibited, the painting drew widespread criticism and some considered it blasphemous. Charles Dickens (yes, that Charles Dickens), said Millais made the Holy Family look like alcoholics and slum-dwellers, who posed in strange and ridiculous ways. The catalogue quotes Dickens:

Mary was "so horrible in her ugliness...a Monster, in the vilest cabaret in France...."

The charming and red-headed, blue-eyed Christ Child stands in the center of his father’s carpentry shop with his mother on knees offering him her cheek and comfort for his hand has been cut by a nail.  Blood drips upon his large foot. Joseph and John the Baptist, shyly carrying water, stand with others in a Trinity design around the table.  Millais's portrait of John's expression of sorrow and trepidation is distinctive in its composition and  magnificence, one to admire for the ages.

Debate about the painting created so much turbulence, Queen Victoria requested to view it privately at Buckingham Palace.

John Everett Millais. Christ in the House of His Parents (The Carpenter's Shop), 1849-50. Tate. Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund and various subscribers, 1921.

Then there was the love triangle between Millais, the art critic John Ruskin, and Ruskin's wife, Effie, who all took off on a trip to Scotland together in 1853, so Millais could paint Ruskin, who was much an avant-garde himself, for unlike many of his contemporaries, Ruskin offered praise instead of attacks on the Brotherhood's presentations.

Effie had served as the female subject for Millais in his The Order of Release 1746, about the Battle of Culloden, which Millais completed the year of the trip to Scotland. Three males and a dog, likely a male, too, surround a woman whose face is the only one to appear in its entirety.  She exudes confidence and strength, welcoming her husband home, and hands the guard a note.  Has she traded her virtue for her husband's release? The painting created an uproar and drew huge crowds which increased interest in the Brotherhood, for like any communicator can tell you:  Nothing builds traffic like controversy.

John Everett Millais, The Order of Release 1746 (1852-53). Tate. Presented by Sir Henry Tate, 1898.

Speaking of...

Without any satisfaction to find in the marital bedroom over the years, Effie turned to a nearby resource and grew increasingly attached to Millais. A year after the trip to Scotland she cited as her reason for annulment of her six-year marriage, lack of consummation, while Ruskin told his attorney that her female body disgusted him. (!) (He did try to forge another marriage later, only to be rebuffed when the bride-to-be consulted Effie.)

Well!  You can imagine the public’s response (and interest), and talk about scandal. Hell hath no fury like a man scorned.

 In 1855 Effie and Millais got married and had eight children in the first 13 years of their marriage, however, her ex and his venom on paper continually spewed harsh criticism of Millais's work. (What a surprise.)

Just a couple of years later found Millais painting Effie’s younger (by 15 years) sister, Sophie, and you cannot look at her portrait (in the show) and escape the infatuation and adoration of the artist for his subject. She is about ready to pucker up and blow him a kiss or plant one on his lips. A pretty good effect, no? Yes, Sophie may have felt a mutual warmth for her brother-in-law. "Take me," she seems to say. Later, she developed anorexia nervosa which preceded mental illness, all experienced before a marriage in 1873 to a man not liked by her family.  Her only child, a daughter, was 8 years old when her mother died at age 38 in 1882.

John Everett Millais, Sophie Gray (1857). Private collection c/o Christie's.  

What else?  The exhibition is much more than Millais. I just seem to be hung up on him.

In Jesus Washing Peter's Feet, 1852-56 by Ford Madox Brown (1821-93), Jesus was initially drawn shirtless, but the people demanded his chest be covered, and they got it. 

All this and much more in the exhibition and 250+ page catalogue which describes and reproduces many of the 130 paintings on full pages of color, along with the sculptures, books, photographs, and decorative objects in the show. (Would you believe there's a gift shop at the end?)

Alexander Munro, 1825-71. Josephine Butler, 1855. Marble. The Mistress and Fellows of Girton College Cambridge. The label says "Josephine Butler was a social reformer and advocate for women's rights.  Her deep religious convictions, charismatic persona, and rhetorical skill made her a compelling public speaker."

Alexander Munro.  Young Romilly. c. 1863. Marble. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.  Purchased 1993.  The label says this work is "among the most successful treatments of nature in Pre-Raphaelite sculpture....The subject comes from William Wordsworth's poem 'The Force of Prayer' (1807):

Young Romilly through Barden woods

Is ranging high and low;

And holds a greyhound in a leash,

To let slip upon buck or doe."

I dare say, some Washington, D.C. residents might want to rent the eager greyhound.

While at the exhibition, do not, do not overlook the frames which hold the paintings. Stand back and admire their design, and the complements to the pictures they make.

A docent, who has visited the exhibition four times, and I celebrated our Pre-Raph joy at an information counter Wednesday. If you think my descriptions about this show are exaggerated, do let me know, and I'll refund your admission charge.

Oh!  And there is British fare on the menu at the Gallery's Garden Café, including an English cheese board, "bubble and squeak," Cornish pastry, and Sherry Trifle.

The curator, Diane Waggoner, the Gallery's associate curator of photographs, said the exhibition, organized by Tate Britain with the National Gallery, was five years in the making, but its breadth and collection from around the world suggest a production of far more years.

Said Dr. Waggoner:  It was appropriate for the art of the past to shape the art of the future. Amen, brothers.  And, amen, sisters.

Hour-long Gallery talks about the exhibition begin at 1 p.m. at the Rotunda in the West Building on May 16 and 17.  About 50 attended the talk on Wednesday.


What: Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, and the books

When: Now through May 19, 2013, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: Main floor, the West Building, National Gallery of Art, 4th at Constitution, NW, Washington, D.C.

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

The people wait for entry to the Pre-Raphaelites at the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.  That's a banner of Millais's (again!) Mariana, 1850-51/Patricia Leslie

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Book review: 'The Girls of Atomic City'

What could have been is not in this book which is about as dull and lifeless as the September 11 Memorial at the Pentagon.

For a layperson, a good chunk of The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan is about as compelling as a manual on neutrons splitting, "liquid thermal diffusion" or "concentric vertical pipes" which actually fill up every other chapter with descriptions about the development of the atom bomb. Yawn. Once I figured out the pattern I skipped about a third of those confounded interruptions (they got more interesting) and moved on since a nuclear scientist I ain't.

Even with a character list in the front, the women who are the subjects are too many and varied to keep straight. Who did what and with whom? And what was her background?

An improvement would have been a biographical sketch of each woman separately, rather than assembling all the players together in one jumbled heap, chapter after chapter.

Another flaw are the tenses: present tense, past tense, and past progressive tense, as in far too many "was's." "Was" this, "was" that. (I "was tense." Just kidding.) I couldn't help but think that in the hands of a more skillful writer or editor, the story would have been vastly more absorbing. But you must catch my drift by now.

 The focus is a handful of female employees who worked at the Oak Ridge plant in the 1940s, workers who unknowingly assisted in the production of the atom bomb.

Were they happy with the end product when they learned what it was after it was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945?  Not really.  No one ran around slapping high-fives or drinking champagne.

Rather than the main characters, the true horror story threaded throughout the book is the history of the development of the town with no name which the governor of Tennessee didn't even know existed until a year after the place got started in 1942.   (It was called “Clinton Engineer Works” for short before it was christened Oak Ridge in 1949.)

Practically none of the thousands of new employees knew what anyone else was doing, or what they were working towards or building, and, as a matter of fact, they didn't even know what they were working on since everything was "hush, hush."  Asking questions would certainly raise suspicions.  After all, it was the "Secret City" where  everyone was sworn to secrecy, except for enlisted "snitches."

About all that was “publicly” known was they had accepted jobs in an undeveloped new town in Tennessee, which drew employees from various parts of the U.S., to work at who knows what in a mud mess of a place filled with quickly constructed "hutments" (defined by Wikipedia as  "one room shacks") which passed for living accommodations for those less fortunate.

The employees socialized whenever possible, despite efforts by the government to keep them quiet and harnessed.  That way, communication between employees was kept at a minimum.  As for blacks, married black couples were not permitted to live together nor could they swim in the pool. Or attend the schools. (They were sent to nearby Knoxville.)

Have there been any studies on comparative cancer rates among Oak Ridge employees who lived and worked on the bomb?  Just asking.

You think Hitler only practiced in Europe? Seems like the U.S. military got hold of his playbook early, to wit:

Any "creep" could report anyone anonymously for "sedition," and based on one person's account, the reported employee and his or her family could be thrown out of Oak Ridge within 24 hours. Pay your own way back to wherever you came from, please. (Okay, so they weren't murdered a la Hitler. Please read on.)

Why not test the effects of deadly plutonium on humans by injecting it into an unsuspecting black man without his consent, an automobile accident victim with broken bones?  Why bother to get consent?  And why not wait 20 days to set his broken bones to check on plutonium's effects upon broken bones?  Great idea!   And while you're at it, why not extract some of his teeth without his permission, like about 15 of them, and ship them to New Mexico to find out what plutonium does to teeth.? Oh, and then have the subject, labeled HP-12 (real name:  Ebb Cade) "conveniently" disappear and die at age 61?

Yes and why not administer electroshock to an employee who talks too much? And place him in solitary confinement, too, for good measure? That'll show the rest of 'em to keep their mouths shut!

A World War II billboard in Oak Ridge, Tennessee/James E. Westcott and Wikimedia Commons

There once was an couple in Oak Ridge who went parking (click here for a definition), and a stranger poked his head in the car window while said couple was parked on a lonely road and called out the woman's name. At work the next day, the man's boss approached the woman and ordered her not to see the man any more. Don't worry! I want to keep my teeth!

During the 1940s my ex-father-in-law, whom I never met, was an engineer at Oak Ridge who died mysteriously one night while at work. He was 37. His superiors said he died of a "heart attack" which the coroner confirmed. Do you think a coroner back then (and what about now?) would reject the military's pronounced cause of death?

Over the years I've urged my children to exhume their grandfather's body and find out if a "heart attack" was the cause of his death. Early heart attacks then and now are not part of his family's history. Except for his.

Correction on page 277:  It was not Kingston which was/is the site of Tennessee Eastman's main operations, but Kingsport, where I graduated high school.

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New moderns at the National Gallery of Art spark passions

Richard Artschwager, Piano/Piano, 1963-65/2011. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Collectors Committee/Patricia Leslie

Please, National Gallery of Art, throw a party with these artists and invite me. 

 
Four of the five are still living, and one's a woman.

Even for die-hard anti-moderns (I know a few), these new pieces, made possible at the National Gallery by its Collectors Committee, are worth a look, especially when you know a little something about the creators, like Hans Haacke (b. 1936 in Cologne) a leading political artist, whose specialities involve kinetic art, who helped birth institutional critique, or Ed Ruscha (b. 1937, Omaha) whose Stains (1969) include gun powder, cherry pie, and daffodils among 75 ingredients spread on different paper sheets.

The Collectors Committee has also acquired for the Gallery Piano/Piano,  1963-65/2011, by Washington's own Richard Ernest Artschwager (1923-2013) whose furniture business background helped steer him to artistic success.

The newest Artschwager consists of two laminated wooden pianos which intermingle in passionate embrace, an example of "synthetic cubism," according to the National Gallery, and on view in the East Building inside the interior "sculpture garden" near the Small Auditorium. Atschwager completed the piece for an exhibition last year in Rome.

Other new works come from Rineke Dijkstra (b. 1959, Sittard, Netherlands), the first of her achievements for the National Gallery, and Allan McCollum (b. 1944, Los Angeles) whose Plaster Surrogates, 1982/1989  (not on display yet), has toured the world.

McCollum is a self-taught artist who created his early works in a California storefront and then a parking garage after he tried acting, restaurant management, truck driving, and building crates for a West Hollywood art company where he mingled with art dealers, collectors and artists.  They influenced his artistic development and his direction into "quantity production." McCollum resonates with the history and development of local communities and their relationship to their particular geographies, as well.

Meanwhile, Haacke’s Condensation Wall, 1963-66/2013, stands in prominent position at the foot of the East Building’s main floor staircase. This example of minimal sculpture  and kinetic art becomes "a micro-environment contingent with its surrounding." Water collects and drops inside the sculpture, depending upon the temperature of the building, with the entire natural process and nearby art works visible through Condensation's transparent walls.

Hans Haacke, Condensation Wall, 1963-1966/2013. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Gift of the Collectors Committee/Patricia Leslie.  Behind Condensation Wall is Richard Serra's Five Plates, Two Poles, 1971, and Robert Motherwell's Reconciliation Elegy, 1978, another gift from the Collectors Committee.

 

 

One of Haacke's most famous works and an early example of institutional critique, Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971, was his attack upon a slum landlord in New York which caused  the cancellation of his solo show at the Guggenheim and the firing of its curator. (Ten years later it went up at the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.)

 
Powerful stuff, huh?

But back to D.C.'s Artschwager.  His mother studied at the Corcoran School of Art and helped develop her son's artistic interests, now associated with minimalism, pop and conceptual art.

He graduated from Cornell, married, and worked as a furniture salesman, then later a furniture designer.  Artschwager's future took a right turn after he received a commission from the Catholic Church in 1960 to "build portable altars for ships."  This production led to his use of wood and Formica to make small wall pieces and to larger objects.

Dijkstra is a photographer whose video, I See a Woman Crying (Weeping Woman), 2009, is based on Picasso's The Weeping Woman, 1937, which is not seen or labled in this piece.  Rather, Dijkstra's subject is Catholic school children who respond to Picasso's Woman on three screens. And it's on display in the West Building through Labor Day, September 2, 2013.   

Ed Ruscha, another artist associated with the Pop movement, says he was inspired by Jasper Johns, Arthur Dove, Marcel Duchamps, and John Everett Millais's Ophelia which, coincidentally, hangs in the Gallery's West Building through May 19, part of the enthralling Pre-Raphaelites exhibition.  (Don't miss it!)

The people wait for entry outside the West Building. The enlarged reproduction is John Everett Millais's Marianna, 1850-1851, one of the artists who inspired Ed Ruscha.  Many Millais paintings may be found in the West Building, part of the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition/Patricia Leslie 

Influenced by Hollywood films, Ruscha's art direction stems also from his training in commercial art, words and typography. His Words in Their Best Order, 2002, is a "site-specific" work of three panels, each 13 x 23 feet, found at the Gannett Building in Tysons Corner.

It's not easy to make out Ed Ruscha's Words in Their Best Order, 2002, at the Gannett Building at Tysons Corner, Virginia, but look closely (very closely) and the words may appear through the windows/Patricia Leslie

Ruscha has experimented with the use of gunpowder, vinyl, blood, red wine, fruit and vegetable juice, axle grease, chocolate syrup, tomato paste, bologna, cherry pie, coffee, caviar, daffodils, tulips, raw eggs and grass stains.

Would you not leap at an opportunity to meet these artists? I think I fell in love with Haacke, and I don't even know what he looks like, but what do looks matter when his art revolution can shut down an exhibition? He is the people's power Putin of the art world today. I wonder if he rides horses topless. 

Wikipedia quotes Ruscha: "Art has to be something that makes you scratch your head." After viewing these stimulations, you may not have any head hair left, but art is not a passive fancy, and aims to stimulate or please somebody, maybe, whether it's you or the artist. (Call me, maybe.)

What: Modern Art

When:  10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday - Saturday and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: The East (Haacke, Ruscha) and West (Dijkstra), National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.

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

Metro stations:  Archives-Navy Memorial, Judiciary Square, the Smithsonian, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information:  202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com