Cherry Blossoms!

Washington, DC, 2023... 

Final approach to National

Vicki had the window seat

At the MLK monument

Us, there, on a very bright day

Quiet moment between acts

Today's inflencess

Prime bloom; before the storms came

In the FDR monument...so many great thoughts now forgotten...
temporarily, hopefully...

Jefferson, too

Pagoda that came with the 1854 gift of cherry trees;
eternal friendship, except for that 1941-1945 hiatus

Among some of the really old trees

Even the oldest burls blossom

Great day, great visit

The Phillips Collection: Alma Thomas and David Driskell Exhibitions

In addition to the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collections, I was struck by two special exhibitions on 20th century DC artists, both African-American, Alma Thomas and David Driskell. Both the exhibitions were extensive, with considerable biographical and interpretive material. Columbus, Georgia, would not provide high school education for women of color, so Miss [sic]* Thomas' parents moved the family to Washington, where she completed her secondary education and was Howard University's first fine arts graduate. She taught junior high school for 35 years in DC, earning a masters degree from Columbia along the way...and producing paintings. It was only after her retirement that she found her "voice" as an Expressionist. Her art continued and evolved, and during her lifetime she exhibited in major museums and galleries that would have denied her entry in previous years. She was one of two women to speak at the 1963 March on Washington; the other was Josephine Baker. David Driskell's life was similar in overcoming barriers of every sort. He is known primarily as an art historian, an academic and curator, among the founders of African-American art as a field of study; but he also was a painter of note. Most of his academic and artistic careers occurred in the DC area and nearby. 

A "colorist" Expressionist

Thomas' Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll, 1976 

Several rooms on her later work

A much earlier landscape, untitled, c. 1952, thought to be Rock
Creek Park in DC

After attaining a degree of notoriety and success,
she had special attire designed for her appearances
at major galleries; theatrical design was one of her
early interests

Thomas' "womb" easy chair

Driskell's Midnight in the Garden of Eden, 2005

City Quartet, 1953

Ghetto Wall #2, 1970

Self-portrait, 1953

*"I am Miss Thomas, and I am not amiss at missing so many fools" (my paraphrase)

Phillips Collection: Old Masters

I say, I say, that's a joke, son. The prestigious Phillips Collection is and has always been devoted to "modern" art. There are no Old Masters there, of course. But time marches on, and the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists that were and probably still are the core of the collection are beginning to feel a bit old. I was there to see what is probably the Phillips' most famous work, Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, but found much else to enjoy, especially the temporary exhibitions on Alma Thomas and David Driskell, about which I'll do a separate post.

Gotta' like a museum trying to grow a monkey puzzle tree...

Renoir's 1881 Luncheon of the Boating Party, one of the greatest
of Impressionist works; a year ago I had read Susan Vreeland's
excellent historical novel of the same title and had ample background
information...

Interesting provenance: sold by the artist to his dealer/patron;
bought from the dealer's son by the Phillips in 1923, for $125,000;
now priceless and perhaps the greatest Renoir not in Europe; perhaps
the greatest Renoir

Braque's The Round Table, 1929

Another reason to like the Phillips Collection

And another, Courbet's The Mediterranean, 1857

Cezanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire (#1,139)

Matisse, Interior with Egyptian Curtain, 1948

Van Gogh, The Road Menders, 1889

Braque, Bird, 1956

Kandinsky, Sketch 1 for Painting with White Border

Van Gogh, Entrance to the Public Gardens at Arles, 1888

Cezanne, The Garden at Les Lauves, 1906

 

Degas, Dancers at the Barre, 1880s

And even a Roualt, Afterglow, Galilee, 1931

Washington, DC, 2021

We spent our customary couple of weeks+ with daughter Rachel and her husband Will in DC, mostly recovering from five months of travel, seeing a few old friends, conducting some business, getting our steps on walks about town, and seeing just one cultural institution [next post]. Much time was spent, too, migrating everything to my new Pixel phone (the camera on the old one died), and even more time migrating our "old" website to the "new Site," as mandated by Google. It is in fact much improved and updated, and features a carousel of "ussies" I really enjoyed compiling. The site currently is at https://sites.google.com/site/theroadgoeseveron/.

First photo taken with my new Pixel

Walking around downtown,

always looking for interesting

old buildings

Not the old world, but there still are plenty of buildings of interest

Outside the New York Avenue Presbyterian
Church, hitching post reserved for President
Lincoln, back in the day

Excellent signage in the nation's capital

Thus

The church in question

I've always been more of a Grant than Lincoln fan

Among the longer food truck lines I've seen; on the Mall

Pretty much any any open space in DC is now a campground:
homeless people; I counted about forty tents on this site on New
Jersey Ave, NW; porta-potties provided

Only in America

Rachel and Will took the Sehestedts and Sherouses to a Georgian
restaurant, Supra; despite the lack of Southern fried chicken, grits,
and sweet tea, we had a great sampling of the cuisine, which 
reminded me a bit of Ottoman cooking...

Rows of pointy houses in Rachel's neighborhood

At an underpass on M street, NE; never mind the hanging sculpture;

the tank obstacle barriers are there to clear out the dozens of tenters

that have been living there for several years...

No camping zone