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I see you so out of context
Jul. 27th, 2009 23:25So I went down to DC this weekend to visit my friend M, who like me spent her first year out of college on a research fellowship abroad (in her case, Belgium) and whom I hadn't seen since graduation. It was, in brief, an excellent time.
We went to the Library of Congress, which is simply phenomenal as a building and as an institution. I very much hope some day to secure a reader's pass to the Asian (or even the main) reading room. The Library currently has exhibits about the pre-contact Americas and the founding of the United States, both of which were quite good--though I thought the early America one was better.
We also went to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which is the world's only museum devoted exclusively to artwork by women. It's a great little museum, but I don't think the galleries are well served by the fact that the building is a converted Masonic temple--they could use a redesign. The museum doesn't seem to have any pieces by Artemisia Gentileschi or Mary Cassat, who are two of the most famous women artists I could think of, but it does have pieces by Kathe Köllwitz and by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Marie Antoinette's court painter, about whom I've recently read books, which made me happy. Later in the evening one of M's friends expressed dislike of "balkanizing" women out of general museums, but I found the NMWA's female-centered perspective on art history--and on conditions for women artists in the time periods it described--to be a refreshing, perhaps not corrective, but supplement, to art HIStory as it's taught.
We then went to the National Portrait Gallery, which used to be the Patent Building and which during the Civil War served as the Union hospital in which Walt Whitman volunteered. The courtyard has recently been roofed in an amazing piece of architecture, and I wish we'd had a bit more time to spend there, but I spent most of my time checking out the portraits as well as the special exhibit on Marcel Duchamp, who is one of my favorite artists and who apparently became an American citizen towards the end of his life--the exhibit focuses, fittingly enough, mostly on portraiture by and of Duchamp, with particular attention to his alter ego Rrose Celavy. Transvestism! I feel like since I read Vested Interests it's everywhere, but really it's just that the book opened my eyes. At any rate, the NPG is fantastic--we saw the original Obama portrait print, it's great--particularly the collection of portraits of Civil War figures, and the American art in general. I'm sort of obsessed with the Civil War at the moment, and it was great to see portraits of so many of the major players, particularly Stanton.
After a stop at the Red Velvet Cupcakery (one word: YUM) we saw approximately 1.5 innings of the Nationals vs. the Padres before the game was postponed on account of rain, but there was much beer and burgers to consoles us while we waited and then eventually gave up. On Sunday we went to Eastern Market and had lunch at Market Lunch--the crabcakes are amazing, let me tell you. After that we hiked up to AU for an alumni event from our college featuring one of our professors. It was great to see said professor and to hang out with some fellow alums during and after the event--we had pizza afterward, which always goes down well.
Seeing M was inspiring in that, well, I need a different and better job. Not that I don't have other things on my plate, but really, I need to get in gear on that front in the next few weeks. Le sigh. Ah well. Wish me luck.
We went to the Library of Congress, which is simply phenomenal as a building and as an institution. I very much hope some day to secure a reader's pass to the Asian (or even the main) reading room. The Library currently has exhibits about the pre-contact Americas and the founding of the United States, both of which were quite good--though I thought the early America one was better.
We also went to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which is the world's only museum devoted exclusively to artwork by women. It's a great little museum, but I don't think the galleries are well served by the fact that the building is a converted Masonic temple--they could use a redesign. The museum doesn't seem to have any pieces by Artemisia Gentileschi or Mary Cassat, who are two of the most famous women artists I could think of, but it does have pieces by Kathe Köllwitz and by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Marie Antoinette's court painter, about whom I've recently read books, which made me happy. Later in the evening one of M's friends expressed dislike of "balkanizing" women out of general museums, but I found the NMWA's female-centered perspective on art history--and on conditions for women artists in the time periods it described--to be a refreshing, perhaps not corrective, but supplement, to art HIStory as it's taught.
We then went to the National Portrait Gallery, which used to be the Patent Building and which during the Civil War served as the Union hospital in which Walt Whitman volunteered. The courtyard has recently been roofed in an amazing piece of architecture, and I wish we'd had a bit more time to spend there, but I spent most of my time checking out the portraits as well as the special exhibit on Marcel Duchamp, who is one of my favorite artists and who apparently became an American citizen towards the end of his life--the exhibit focuses, fittingly enough, mostly on portraiture by and of Duchamp, with particular attention to his alter ego Rrose Celavy. Transvestism! I feel like since I read Vested Interests it's everywhere, but really it's just that the book opened my eyes. At any rate, the NPG is fantastic--we saw the original Obama portrait print, it's great--particularly the collection of portraits of Civil War figures, and the American art in general. I'm sort of obsessed with the Civil War at the moment, and it was great to see portraits of so many of the major players, particularly Stanton.
After a stop at the Red Velvet Cupcakery (one word: YUM) we saw approximately 1.5 innings of the Nationals vs. the Padres before the game was postponed on account of rain, but there was much beer and burgers to consoles us while we waited and then eventually gave up. On Sunday we went to Eastern Market and had lunch at Market Lunch--the crabcakes are amazing, let me tell you. After that we hiked up to AU for an alumni event from our college featuring one of our professors. It was great to see said professor and to hang out with some fellow alums during and after the event--we had pizza afterward, which always goes down well.
Seeing M was inspiring in that, well, I need a different and better job. Not that I don't have other things on my plate, but really, I need to get in gear on that front in the next few weeks. Le sigh. Ah well. Wish me luck.