30 Americans @ The Corcoran

Art from the collection of the Rubell Family is currently on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art here in Washington, D.C. The collection features art in various mediums by prominent and emergent Artists of African heritage. It's a powerful show full of social, cultural, sexual, and political ideas that express the wide diversity of Afro-centric ideology at the beginning of the 3rd millennium CE.

Here are five of my favorites:



John Banks was one of many new discoveries. I love the playful simple colors and color book quality of his canvases juxtaposed against their deeper cultural ideas.




Carrie Mae Weems was another new find. The plainspoken social commentary against the iconic civil war era photos is another powerful reinterpretation of history's legacy.



Hank Willis Thomas' photographs were also on display at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when I visited there back in June. The over-sized photos are stark and thoughtful images.




I followed the career of Wangechi Mutu for years. First encountered his work at the Berkeley Museum of Art at the University of California, Berkeley back in 2003. In 2004, I again came into contact with her whimsical and seductive images at the Cranbrook Art Gallery @ the Cranbrook Institute in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Watercolor and collage create organic forms that open the viewer to a range of interpretations ultimately requiring self-reflection and a deeper sense of self-awareness. And they're also just really beautiful.



The final example I'll share here is a detail of a work by Kehinde Wiley, another contemporary artist who I have adored since first encountering. His deeply iconic images of African American, Afro-Brazilian, and other men of color in classic poses against ornate backdrops which speak of fabrics and harken to the Kente clothes of west Africa are nearly often stunning explorations of the connection between beauty and masculinity. I believe he is a McArthur Genius recipient and if he's not, he should be.

These and so many more wonderful works of art await you at the Corcoran Gallery of Art here in Washington, D.C. through February 12, 2012. I highly recommend you take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

The Corcoran Gallery

After my semi-annual doctor's appointment, I went over to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Just another among the many amazing art galleries in Washington, D.C. and it's also only 3 blocks away from my doctor's office building.

They have recently moved the works of their permanent collection to a series of galleries on the ground floor, reserving the space above for special exhibitions. My interest in visiting today was all about an amazing special exhibition titled "30 Americans" (hence the huge flags on the front facade of the museum.) What ended up happening was that I got a chance to revisit the permanent collection, too. And found it so worth the time.

Art of any sort challenges our understanding of our world in all of its iterations. We use it as a barometer against all the we know, believe and are. And if we use it humbly, we are transformed by it. Hopefully it affirms us more than it accuses, but either way we come away more whole.

The House of Representatives, 1822-1823 ~ Samuel F. B. Morse, 1791-1872

The first major image that I encountered was "The House of Representatives, 1822-1823" by Samuel F. B. Morse. Conceived as a masterwork on the new Democracy called the United States of America, Morse spent over 4 months sketching individual members of the new congress, clerks, pages, even a member of the supreme court, to give this work an historical authenticity unparalleled in the day. Even the event was calculated and details added to make it seem like a snapshot of an actual moment. It was his desire to take the finished work on a tour of various cities and cash in on public interest. Unfortunately for him, there wasn't much and the painting's fiscal failure contributed to the budding artist's transformation into an inventor and scientist.

Still, it's an amazing work of art.


The lighting of the chandelier creates an atmosphere of mystery and drama, while the figures appear in poses of non-chalance and leisure, one is given to expect from them something momentous.


The focus of the moment is a debate on Native American policy. To emphasize this, the Pawnee Chief Petalesharo is seating in the balcony on the far right.

All paintings capture moments in time by subject, chronology, and psychology. Visits to most museums happen too quickly and engage the visitor too superficially to even begin to appreciate the depth of what is there that they understand about a work let alone what remains to be parsed out.

It is even possible to imagine things that the artist themselves weren't consciously aware of in exploring a painting.

A Pastoral Visit, Virginia ~ Richard Norris Brooke, 1847-1920

I had a particularly strong "Sister Wendy" moment with this painting by Richard Norris Brooke.

Another history painting, "A Pastoral Visit, Virginia" painted in 1881 depicts a rather pedestrian moment in the life of a rural black family--the visit by their pastor. And yet it screams with ideas and innuendo to the point that I spent way too long reflecting on it.


We see the pastor in this detail. He's come in from the rain (umbrella). He's present, but also other worldly, the very representative of Christ--both human (needing food) and spirit (eyes fixed above). His saintliness is accentuated by the "halo" of grey hair that crowns him.


The family is humble and blessed. Many children, yet not all is paradise. We see the kids in various states of the human condition. The parents mirror the Biblical sisters Mary and Martha. One works to meet the practical needs, while one sets aside the cares and pleasures of the world to listen.

Other illusions to Biblical parables linger, the portion of bread spilled on the floor, the bundle of harvested fruit, it's a composition rife with metaphor.

Here are some more images from my visit to the permanent collection that stood out to me.

Girl Fishing at San Vigilio ~ John Singer Sargent, 1856-1925

Two Heads ~ Alfred Henry Maurer, 1868-1932

Ground Swell ~ Edward Hopper, 1882-1967

Rooftops and Trees ~ Charles Demuth 1883-1935

Head of a Moor ~ Henri Regnault, 1843-1871

Art I'm Seeing #43

After admiring the snow covered trees and full of anticipation over the cancellation of school today, I drove into D.C. and paid a visit to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. They are currently featuring an exhibition of paintings from the National Museum Wales in the U.K. The show is called "Turner to Cezanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection". The Davies were a pair of wealthy sisters who never married and instead gave into their love of art by collecting it: a Welsh Cone Sister thing if you will (The Cone collection was amassed by two sisters similarly possessed and his house at the Baltimore Museum of Art).

Among the works on display are several by Turner, Daumier, and Millet. There are a couple by Manet, Monet, Renoir and Cezanne. Altogether works by 30 different artists are included in the space of 3 ample galleries. My first impressions include a couple of stand out works and a couple of gentle, lovely works. I'll start with the gentle, lovely works. The small collection of Turner watercolors are luminous and perfectly understated in just that way that demonstrates what a master of that medium he was, even as it foreshadows the impressionist works to follow. There is a Bonnard of a little villa with a garden. Not an in your face painting by any means, but a just right example of his palette and the way he organizes a composition to feature the architecture and flora while loosing a person or two within the mix as if they were but a ghost, a spirit both present and somehow without the moment.

The two standouts were by Millet and Van Gogh. The Millet was entitled "The Gust Of Wind" and featured a tree being ripped apart and nearly from the ground by the "gust". Seemingly beneath it stands a man whose back if bowed against the wind and still appears to nearly be stretched out of his own skin by the force. Beyond him the far horizon forms a tent of light like a bubble over him: almost a forcefield of divine protection. Talk about your romance with the sublime! The work was so electric it was like Viagra for my inner artist.

And then there was this amazing Van Gogh.
It was painted very near to the artist's suicide. It's title is simply "Rain Auvers." It is not his last painting, but it references that work with both it's inclusion of the wheat fields and more specifically the black birds. The moment I saw them, I knew it was from that final early summer when Vincent was newly freed from the asylum, painting manically, and moving inextricably toward his self-inflicted demise. Had I not even held my knowledge of the artist so that these associations were evoked like the very air around me, I do believe I would have still understood the growing melancholy that was rising in Van Gogh's heart like the crow crossing the hedgerow in the rain.

This work has never before been exhibited in the United States. To see it is worth the price of admission alone. Having seen it, I will return to see it again. The exhibition is open to the public through April 25th; however, the Corocoran is closed on both Monday's and Tuesday's as you plan your visit.

And as a sort of "p.s." there were also a few honorable mentions worth mentioning! "Castle Gandolfo, Dancing Tyrolean Shepherds by Lake Albano," by Corot, "Winter: The Faggot Gatherers" by Millet, and "Innocents and Card Sharpers" by Meissonier. Three more reasons to return!

Art I'm Seeing #28

jeremyblake
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

Went down to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in DC this morning specifically to see the three piece retrospective of video portraits by Jeremy Blake. Blake was actually a native of my adopted town of residence, Takoma Park.

His works run about 15 minutes a piece and consist of a continually morphing montage of images (both collage and drawn) with audio accompaniment both musical and narrative. The narration is provided by the videos' subjects. The works are lush and mesmerizing.

knowning that Blake committed suicide this past June, also lent an air of hallowed mystery to the venue--a large blackened gallery illuminated only by the reflected psychodelic splashes of color from the three huge screenings. Headphones were provided to allow viewers to listen to each work in turn.

At the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. through March 2nd.