Note: this post is a month behind, but wraps up my east coast trip. The photos above are referenced in my last paragraphs on the Duncan Philips visit.
Had a marvelous visit with high school friend and her husband--and some of their friends--in Washington DC. Such gracious hospitality! After the initial challenge of circumventing the Pope in order to get to their house, all was easy and enjoyable, and the perfect September weather continued.
My first museum was the National Gallery of Art for an extensive exhibition of the work of Gustave Caillebotte.
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/exhibitions/2015/gustave-caillebotte.html
In the first couple of rooms, his worked seemed like that of a photo journalist: just the facts, m'am. Beautiful depictions of people out admiring their newly-constructed Hausmann re-do of Paris. No emotional content, or nuance of feeling or personal relationship are apparent in those works. His extreme perspectives make for interesting compositions.
But after he bought his own suburban retreat on the Seine, in Petit Gennevilliers, his work shifted to a more personal elaboration on his surroundings. The paintings of boaters are a real treat to view, capturing the light, the water, and the seasonality of each locale. While viewing these, I so very much wished that photos were allowed--but alas. One of my favorites was "Boating on the Yerres"
...(above photo from web search), which is quite large like many in the exhibit.
I should not leave as a postscript the fact that this gallery has several of Vermeer's finest paintings, including reading the letter, the red hat and the flute player (look up exact titles later).
After a stroll through the sculpture garden, and a superb lunch of people-watching in the Pavilion Café, it was on to the National Portrait Gallery for the Elaine de Kooning exhibit.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/exhdekooning.html
So very much to love here! My notes from the visit tell me my favorites portraits were of Fairfield Porter #1, Harold Rosenberg #3, Donald Barthelme, Bernice Sobel and Aladar Marbergen #3.
Pertaining to the Harold Rosenberg portrait, a critic noted that the painter's canvas is "an arena in which to act--rather than a space in which to reproduce, redesign, analyze or 'express' an object." This comment will be fully embodied in my future paintings!!!
There was a fascinating video of Elaine deKooning talking while she painted the portrait of Aristodemis Kaldis, who looked to be a huge personality--I'll have to research more about him later. I just found that the transcript is online, here:
http://www.npg.si.edu/docs/EDKpaints.pdf
Last but not least, the final museum in my odyssey was the Duncan Philips Collection. I arrived in perfect time to join the docent-led talk, which focused on the large Matisse painting, Studio, Quai St. Michel, and hear some of what people saw in the painting, based on compositon, color, etc. It's always so rewarding to look deeply into a painting to grasp its meaning. They also had--on loan from the National Gallery in DC, East Wing--the Matisse painting Open Window, Collioure (1905). Adjacent to the painting was a note that Diebenkorn spent hours admiring the Matisse painting Studio, Quai St. Michel (which the docent had focused on)--and that the window theme is visible in his Interior with view of Ocean, which was also on view there (images included, above).
Then I flew home... so that's a wrap!
DC: Sept. 23-26, 2015
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