Last week in Washington DC we visited three of the many wonderful national museums there, all available to citizens and visitors from other countries (and there were MANY such visitors last week) FREE of charge. We were in DC at the Smithsonian Archive of American Art (more about that soon) researching Portland painter Louis Bunce. But in our free moments we visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, and the Hirshhorn Museum.
I was struck anew how, with each visit, one’s “reading” of a collection produces different reactions…different attractions to the mind and eye. I offer you here works that I looked at and enjoyed without respect to location, chronology, influence or intention. Just…here’s what I liked last week.
Aaron Douglas, 1936 “Into Bondage”
lots of things crammed into a space…(and R told me that once, when he was teaching, he read every single thing that he could read in Charles Bird King’s “The Poor Artist’s Cupboard” and wrote them down in order as a departure for class discussion…)
…comments by “outsider artists”…
Winslow Homer’s beautiful beautiful painting “left and Right” in which two ducks have just been shot and are falling through space…with the hunter and the red firing of his gun just barely visible…and the beautiful blue wave reaching up…
Geraniums…Rubens Peale with his geranium, painted by his brother Rembrandt Peale…
Matisse’s geranium…
Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis from 1952…un-primed canvas and poured paint…
a painted David Smith sculpture “Aricola I” also of 1952…before Greenberg got to it… (era critic Clement Greenberg was the executor of Smith’s estate and since Greenberg himself liked the minimalist approach, he had all of the paint stripped from Smith’s painted sculpture, alas.)
George Bellows!!!
Edward Hopper…
Christo’s first wrapped windows in New York…
PINK!
Dots and stripes…
…and another great thing about the National Gallery…comfy seats…
…copyists in the historic tradition…
…clothes…
Calder…
Degas’ “Madame Camus”…
Eric Fischl…
the joys of looking at Marden, Diebenkorn, Guston…
Betye Saar (the only fabric piece I saw, BTW) “Dat Ol’ Black Magic”
Ernesto Neto, “The Dangerous Logic of Wooing”…fabric, foam pellets, rice…
Louise Bourgeois, “The Tapestry of my Childhood, Mountains in Aubusson”
Katherine Hepburn’s Oscars…
Hartley…
William Merritt Chase, painted in 1895, just a year after Salem Photographer Myra Wiggins was in NYC studying painting with him…
A fantastic Shadow piece that I can’t find the artist for…
…and I could go on…but I won’t. Think about visiting “your” museums one of these days, yes?
On The Way 
oh bonnie, bless your heart! thank you.
I really loved this. Thanks for taking me on a virtual visit to DC museums.
Lovely post Bonnie, I have not been to the museums in DC in a while. I suspect a DC inspired quilt coming soon.
Fantastic tour,thank you! I have been to the Smithsonian in DC several times ,have always in enjoyed it.
Wonderful collection of pictures and thoughts, I think it is time for a little local road trip for me.
Have been to all of them and enjoy seeing them again through your eyes. One can never see all that our national museums have to offer. I have been to Washington three times and have only scratched the surface – and one is always torn between going back to favorite places or exploring something new.
Oh, but I want you to go on and on. Fabulous post. Thank you.
all that free art made DC such a wonderful place to go to art school and start off as an artist. I tried to never take it for granted when we lived there. Thanks for posting these pictures Bonnie!
Oh DO go on Bonnie….,please. This was such a treat. Thank you!
Bonnie: Wow! Thanks for the tour. George
What a great selection! Wonderful. That vertical George Bellows –– wow! Many thanks.