David Levinthal's little toys mean a lot at the Smithsonian

David Levinthal, Untitled from the series Barbie, 1998, Smithsonian American Art Museum

David Levinthal with his Untitled from the series Barbie, 1998, Smithsonian American Art Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie, June 6, 2019

David Levinthal, Untitled from the series Baseball, 2004, Smithsonian American Art Museum. This is Roberto Clemente, the first Latin American and Caribbean player to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  A noted philanthropist, Mr. Clemente died in a 1972 plane crash in Nicaragua while on his way to deliver aid to earthquake victims, the label notes. Reflected in the glass are other photographs in the exhibition/Photo by Patricia Leslie, June 6, 2019

 David Levinthal, Wagon Train, 2018/Photo by Patricia Leslie, June 6, 2019

David Levinthal with his diorama, Wagon Train (in right background)/Photo by Patricia Leslie, June 6, 2019

Detail from David Levinthal's Untitled from the series Wagon Train, 2018, Donald S. Rosenfeld Collection

David Levinthal, Untitled from the series American Beauties, 1990, Smithsonian American Art Museum, from creations of what were once deemed "beautiful" by male makers. The black background contrasts with the dancer's image and creates unease, notes the Smithsonian, while the shadowy snake shape at the dancer's feet adds to the tension.

David Levinthal, Helicopter from the series History, 2014, Smithsonian American Art Museum. If this reminds you of the Vietnam war, that's because the lifelike scene stems from the movie, Apocalypse Now.

From left, Joanna Marsh, Smithsonian American Art Museum curator and head of interpretation and audience research, David Levinthal, and Stephanie Stebich, SAAM director, at the opening of American Myth & Memory: David Levinthal Photographs Smithsonian American Art Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie, June 6, 2019

David Levinthal with his Untitled from the series Barbie, 1998, Smithsonian American Art Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie, June 6, 2019

David Levinthal with his Untitled from the series Baseball, 2004, Smithsonian American Art Museum. The photograph is of Lou Gehrig, dead at 37, from what is now known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He played 2,130 consecutive games, and his number "4" was the first to be retired by a baseball team/Photo by Patricia Leslie, June 6, 2019


David Levinthal (b. 1949) is one lucky dude: He's never had to give up his childhood playtime with cowboys and Indians. He's been able to saddle up and ride with them his whole life as they became objects in his lifelong photography career, a portion which is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum through Monday.

Mr. Levinthal's photographs of figures from the old West and others cut from popular American history are from his collection of 400 which he's donated to the museum. In the exhibition, American Myth & Memory:  David Levinthal's Photographs, 74 are shown.

Images of past ideals of American post-World War II society, the beauties, the pinups, the ball players, the wild west, and war, or, at least what artists and advertisers who shape our thinking would have us believe, are included. 

At first glance, all seems relatively well in this land of mostly make believe perfection, but not all is beauty and play. Unsettling backgrounds may escape a viewer's first glance.

Look and you shall find more stories and deeper meanings embedded in the images from yesterday's world. 

Today's pictures of ideals have changed dramatically since the last century, and while we may not practice ideal acceptance and tolerance, at least most of us are aware of their concepts and the importance of trying to understand.



 What: American Myth & Memory:  David Levinthal's Photographs

When: Closing Monday, October 14, 2019. The museum is open from 11:30 a.m.- 7 p.m. every day.

Where: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F streets, N. W., Washington, D.C. 20004

How much: No charge

For more information: 202-633-1000 or visit the website.

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

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: 'Under Red Skies,' highly recommended

If I were in charge of high school curriculum, Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss, and Hope in China would be required reading in World History classes. (Do any high schools teach World History?)

This little (almost 300 short pages) book is an excellent first-person account of the life of a young girl, born in 1989, in China, and her family's familial and cultural practices, and their experiences with restrictions on personal liberties the communist government places on its citizens.

Consider abortion and the Chinese birth rate.  

Implemented in 1979 to slow population growth, the single-child policy was abandoned in 2015 after 40 million female babies were aborted or murdered. Now China is a society with an inadequate supply of workers to fill jobs, stemming from an insufficient number of females (killed off) to marry and produce children in a nation with a rapidly aging population.


(A 2015 article in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimated that next year, China will have 24 million more men than women of marriageable age which translates into kidnapping, human trafficking, other crimes, and relocations to other countries by males searching for mates. Come to the U.S. capital, mates!)


The practice of terminating pregnancies up to eight months of gestation during the one-child rule is wrenching. Women had to submit to monthly door-to-door checks to make sure they were menstruating and were not pregnant (!).  

Ms. Kan writes of neighbors forced to undergo abortions. 

If mothers were able to hide their pregnancies beyond the seventh month, the government allowed the baby to be born. Thus, Ms. Kan's parents, who already had a son, had a daughter, the author.

For readers who know little about China, this fascinating contemporary history provides enlightenment and makes me sympathize with the Falun Gongers I see around town and in parades. 

After Falun Gong membership increased substantially, the Chinese government declared it to be a cult in 1999 and forbid anyone from following the group and/or keeping its literature which a member of Ms. Kan's family did.

Authorities went house-to-house to seek and destroy anything connected to Falun Gong.  Fortunately, Ms. Kan's uncle (I think he was) was not killed for his spiritual practices, but thousands were, including persons used for organ transplants.  (See the website.)

The author experiences all the ups, downs, and heartbreaks of a young person when she doesn't make minimum test scores to enter prestigious schools or when boys she likes do not return the romantic favor, much like what happens in the U.S. and around the world!  ("Love" must be the same everywhere.)

I am certain that one of the reasons I picked the book up from the new non-fiction titles at the library (in addition to its smart cover), was having recently listened to the CD of the autobiography of the Chinese pianist, Lang Lang, Journey of a Thousand Miles (no longer available for $164, newer copy, or $64, library copy, at Amazon).

Under Red Skies is equally as impressive, if not more so, since Ms. Kan did not have a parent as driven and possessed as Lang Lang's father who worked feverishly to ensure his son would become the ultimate pianist. (He has.)

Ms. Kan's mother also wanted the best for her children (Ms. Kan's father has a minor role in the book), and she ignored traditional dogmas to mind in-laws. Rather, she moved her family from the country to the city so her children could attend better schools (with their dad along for the ride), a wild scene played out in the front of eavesdropping neighbors who had a wonderful time listening to the screaming and bitter fight.

Another memorable scene was Ms. Kan's outing with a friend to an English bar when they ordered cocktails. You will smile and maybe, laugh out loud.

For the next edition, may I suggest the addition of a simple map of China showing Ms. Kan's route from the country to the city and Beijing, and a character list with their roles (Chunting, Laolao, Laoye, friend, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.).  

Also, a glossary of the italicized Chinese words (e.g. zao lian, laobaixing, etc.) in case other readers, like me, forget their meanings which I belatedly discovered in the index while writing this review.


You don't have to be young to adopt Ms. Kan's persuasive outlook to keep on trying and never give up. 

It helps an American better understand the Hong Kong unrest and the freedoms we have and take for granted, freedoms unknown to Chinese citizens.

Movie, anyone?

patricialesli@gmail.com

Judy Chicago's death debut at the Women's Museum

Judy Chicago, Stages of Dying 5/6: Depression, 2015, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery

This show is not for everyone. (What show is for everyone?) I doubt everyone will be pleased. (Really?) I doubt parents will want to bring children, or, heaven forbid...grandparents! Or anyone close to death or thinking about it or, or ...

I have no doubts it will be controversial. (Yes.)  It will build traffic. The people will come to see it and discuss.  

Bravo for the National Museum of Women in the Arts! The home for the next four months of Judy Chicago's exhibition on death, The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction.

Judy Chicago at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Sept. 16, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

J

Judy Chicago, A Desperate Weariness, 2015,  courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery

Judy Chicago, Stages of Dying: How Will I Die? #1,  2015, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery

There are people who like to talk about death. A lot of them. I've worked with most of them, I think. They are blue and gray with personalities to match. I hope they find out about this show for they will love the subject of almost 40 paintings on porcelain and black glass and two bronze reliefs.

In the galleries at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Judy Chicago's The End:  A Meditation on Death and Extinction/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Judy Chicago, Stages of Dying: How Will I Die? #6 2015, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery

Judy Chicago, Stages of Dying: How Will I Die?#5,  2015, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery


Ms. Chicago (b. 1939) is often associated with her celebrated Dinner Party, called by ArtNet News, "the most famous feminine artwork of all time." Once rejected by multiple museums, it now occupies a prominent place at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum where, it was announced last week at the Women's Museum, it's Brooklyn's biggest draw.

Wikipedia carries pages of description and discussion about the Dinner Party.

Judy Chicago, Extinction Relief, 2018, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Judy Chicago, Smuggled, 2016, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery

Judy Chicago, Bleached, 2017, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery

Judy Chicago, Harvested, 2016, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery

That's what art is, right?  To stimulate, interpret, apply, enjoy?  Well, maybe not so much "enjoy," but the bigger the controversy, the bigger the crowds. Make it and they will come.

Ms. Chicago's newest exhibition is not only about her upcoming demise, but, more importantly, that of the Earth and its occupants. 

Three shadowy galleries of a makeshift funeral parlor contain the death works which mostly hang on walls, each under a single spotlight stream which augments the impression of being inside a cave (with no way out. Dream on, those of you who were expecting a brightly colored Wizard of Oz-like path to Heaven! It ain't here! This route to death is paved with doom).

Judy Chicago, Stages of Dying: How Will I Die? #9 2015

Judy Chicago at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Sept. 16, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Judy Chicago at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Sept. 16, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Judy Chicago at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Sept. 16, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Judy Chicago, center, in the galleries at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Sept. 16, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Judy Chicago, left, in the galleries at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Sept. 16, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In the galleries at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Judy Chicago's The End:  A Meditation on Death and Extinction/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Judy Chicago, Mortality Relief, 2018, courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, and Jessica Silverman Gallery/Photo by Patricia Leslie


In the first gallery, "Stages of Dying," Ms. Chicago takes a nude older woman (to contrast with the blithe, young female most male artists draw) through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's five stages of death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. 
  
The second gallery contains the death mask, a bronze relief, of Ms. Chicago lying in the tomb. The third gallery has the second bronze and art of creatures threatened by humans who have acted in destructive ways to harm life. 

The Extinction exhibition runs adjacent to Live Dangerously, pictures by 12 photographers of women, mainly their bodies, mixing with nature.  Sometimes humorous, all stimulating and provocative, the pictures are a nice contrast to the somber environment presented next door.

On October 23, November 13, and December 4, the museum will host free noontime, 30-minute gallery talks about The End.  Reservations are not required. 

That the National Museum of Women in the Arts was chosen for Ms. Chicago's Extinction premiere is significant and helps focus attention on female artists whose works and presence have been ignored for centuries. 


The National Museum of Women in the Arts will join Penn State and Harvard universities to become online repositories for the Judy Chicago Portal which opens Oct. 17, 2019.

A catalog, New Views with 240 pages, is available ($49.95). 


What: The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction and Live Dangerously

 
When: Both shows close Sunday, January 20, 2020. The museum is open Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and on Sundays, 12 - 5 p.m.

Where: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005

Admission:  $10, adults; $8, students and seniors over the age of 64.  Free for members and those age 18 and under, and free for everyone on the first Sunday of every month (October 6, Nov. 3, Dec. 1, and Jan. 5, 2020 for these shows).

For more information: 202-783-5000 or visit nmwa.org.

Metro stations: Metro Center (exit at 13th Street and walk two blocks north) or (better) walk a short distance from McPherson Square.

patricialesli@gmail.com