The Museum Project: The Portrait Gallery Revisited

Background

The Museum Project represents my most ambitious New Year's resolution of 2010. I moved to Northern Virginia two years ago and, after the initial post-move binge of sightseeing, found that there was still so much of DC that I hadn't taken in. So this is it...I plan to visit all of the museums, monuments, and historical sites in the city over the coming year with a few select spots oustide the district added in for good measure.

Twyla Tharp said "Art is the only way of running away without leaving home"...with the exceptions of tequila and my current obsession with LOST, I think that she was right on the money. My hope is that running away with the Smithsonian will have fewer repercussions than a bottle of Patron.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Portrait Gallery Revisited

It was a rainy Monday (who has The Carpenters stuck in their heads now?) and the plan was to go to the Spy Museum with Mom and Warren. Unfortunately, the Spy Museum seemed to be the plan for everyone else in the city as well. We beat a hasty retreat and headed to the Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum.

Mom, Ren and "The Curtain"
George Segal - 1974

Vaquero - Luis Jimenez - 1980

I got to revisit some of my favorite pieces and see a preview of the homage to Christo and Jean-Claude that was about to open

http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2010/christo/

I have to reiterate my love of the Lincoln Gallery. It is such a well laid out space. The large scale pieces have room to breathe in a way that they don't in smaller cramped galleries. If you ever need a place for a little meditation, Snail Space, a light installation by David Hockney, is it. At one end of the Lincoln Gallery, you enter a small dark room with what appears to be an abstract theatre backdrop. Colored lights rotate on a nine minute cycle creating an evolving pastoral scene as you sit and watch...art as a cure for hypertension.