A great holiday weekend to spend time in museums.
The show is a John Alexander retrospective at the recently renovated Smithsonian American Art Museum. I had never heard of this artist before visiting this exhibit. And it really was enjoyable. His works run a wide range of subjects and he has both great competence in oil and watercolor.
His oils tend to lean toward garish, colorful subjects full of spontaneity and wit. This top image is an excellent example: "Go Jesus Go". In it we see the flaming skeleton of a crucified individual. All around are the illuminated suggestions of a garden with a trinity of flaming bunnies.
In direct opposition to his oils are his watercolor/drawings. They are often images of flora and fauna with an almost scientific exactitude. It was this area of his work that convinced me to purchase the catalogue.
I love finding new artists and it's to the credit of the SAAM that they choose to expose the public to retrospectives of living American masters.
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