art

Tacita Dean, “Fernsehturm,” 2001. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Holenia Purchase Fund, in memory of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 2003. On view this Thursday at the Hirshhorn.

Mementos: Painted and Photographic Miniatures, 1750-1920
I’ll admit I may be on a miniatures kick after catching the quirky new diorama exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. The latest installation at the National Portrait Gallery offers its own small-scale visions of another world, if perhaps in a more conventional way. Mementos delves into the museum’s collection to illustrate the history of portrait miniatures, from John Singleton Copley’s pendants depicting the Hancocks to an Abraham Lincoln campaign pin from 1860.
Where: National Portrait Gallery (Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown and Metro Center)
When: Now until Aug. 20.
How Much: Free

Conversation: The North – Mexican Art on the Edge
The contemporary Latin American art boom may be most visible in auction houses and galleries in New York, L.A. and Miami, but it’s causing tremors in D.C. as well. Just check the exhibition schedules for the Art Museum of the Americas and the World Bank for proof. Recent Mexican art is particularly well represented — the AMA is slated to open a show of contemporary Mexican photography in two weeks, and American University is now showing new works from the country. In conjunction with that show, Registro 02, tonight curator Taiyana Pimentel and artists Rubén Gutiérrez and Julio Castro will shed light on current artistic trends in north Mexico. Refreshments will be served.
Where: American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center (Metro: Tenleytown-AU or Metrobus: N2/3/4/6/8)
When: June 21 from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
How Much: Free

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Chris Martin, Ganges Sunrise Asi Ghat Varanasi… 2002. Oil on canvas, 129 x 143 in. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York. On view this weekend at the Corcoran.

The Guerrilla Girls Talk Back
One of the most notorious groups to be aligned with the feminist art movement, the Guerrilla Girls have been challenging art world discrimination “with facts, humor and fake fur” for over 25 years. Their posters and performances (always executed in gorilla costumes) question the dominance of male artists within the art historical canon. This weekend the National Museum for Women in the Arts presents a new exhibition of Guerrilla Girls posters and related works drawn from its collection.
Where: National Museum for Women in the Arts (Metro: McPherson Square or Metro Center)
When: June 17 to Oct. 2.
How Much: $10 for adults; $8 for seniors and students.

Pressing Idea: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind
Another noteworthy new show at the NMWA, Pressing Idea will showcase 75 prints by 42 female modern and contemporary artists, including Elaine de Kooning, Louise Nevelson and Kiki Smith. The works were executed at the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, a print workshop that was established in Los Angeles in 1960 and aimed to revive interest in the complex process of lithography as a fine art medium.
Where: National Museum for Women in the Arts (Metro: McPherson Square or Metro Center)
When: June 17 to Oct. 2.
How Much: $10 for adults; $8 for seniors and students.

Chris Martin: Painting Big
Despite having grown up in Washington in the 1950s and ’60s, abstract painter Chris Martin (no relation) has never exhibited his work here until now. It seems only appropriate that his first D.C. show — and first museum survey in the country — is taking place at the Corcoran, a museum he frequented in his youth. Part of the Corcoran’s NOW contemporary art series, Painting Big is divided into three sections: a set of large-scale paintings from the last nine years, over 150 small paintings, and three new, even larger-scale works designed for the museum’s atrium. In his art, Martin deals with themes that include popular music, art history and the natural world. Some of his works form mesmerizing patterns out of vibrant colors, while others combine paint with found objects, blurring the distinction between our reality and the flat world of the canvas.
Where: Corcoran Gallery (Metro: Farragut West)
When: June 18 to Oct. 23.
How Much: $10 for adults; $8 for seniors and students.

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“Dear PoP,

In honor of International Yarnbombing Day on June 11th (it’s a thing, really!), a pole in the park at the corner of 16th and Columbia NW has been taken over by crochet cherry blossoms. Check it out!”

Awesome!

Photos by Malik

Light Bulb
A light bulb can represent a new idea. DCPS needs all the light bulbs they can get.

Graffiti Locker
It is a shame that every time you open your locker, you see curse words and names of imaginary people. Our lockers are something we see everyday. If students cared for their school, such atrocities would not have been created. I think if school became more interesting, people would not develop enough boredom to deface school property. If DCPS had enough extracurricular programs that interested the majority of the student population, most people wouldn’t have the energy or come up with the idea to destroy their own school.

Malik, 10th Grade
Cardozo Senior High School

ABOUT MALIK
“I believe the dropout crisis may be challenged if DCPS put a little more effort and individuality into public schools. This story is about me, Malik Thompson, and my experiences in the DCPS system. I believe I am smart, courageous and observant. I believe lack of caring and the school system budget are the main problems. I’ve been to lots of different schools in DCPS and none of them stand out. In a dream world, every school would have programs which offer different things such as special sports or arts.”

Frank Stella, K. 43 (lattice variation), 2008. Photo by Beth Shook.

As a supplement to the Weekly Art Lens, this summer I’ll be contributing occasional long-form reviews of noteworthy exhibitions. Hopefully Fixed Focus will offer an opportunity for dialogue about D.C.’s vibrant and often underrated visual arts scene. The Phillips Collection, which is now celebrating its 90th anniversary as the first modern art museum in the country, seemed like the natural place to start.

The larger of two exhibitions opening Saturday at the Phillips, Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting with White Border, is the product of both curatorial ingenuity and luck. From its early stages, the exhibition was centered on one of the museum’s own works by Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, Sketch I for Painting with White Border. The preparatory oil sketch was made for an important 1913 painting now owned by the Guggenheim in New York. When Phillips Curator Elsa Smithgall contacted the Guggenheim about borrowing their painting, her timing could not have been better. The Guggenheim had just received funding for a full conservation study and treatment of that very work. Collaboration between the two museums was the logical next step.

The resulting exhibition offers both a fascinating glimpse into the modernist’s working process and something of an art historical mystery. The first gallery on the museum’s third floor prominently features the newly restored painting from the Guggenheim, as well as the Phillips’ work, known as Sketch I for Painting with White Border, and some early preparatory sketches. Inspired by a recent return to his native Moscow, Painting with White Border marked an important moment in Kandinsky’s artistic trajectory. The painterly composition blooms from the canvas with color and dynamism, framed on two sides by a white border. (The exhibition title comes from the artist’s characterization of the color white as “harmony of silence … one pregnant with possibilities.”) Within the waves of color and the wispy lines that wind through them, the focal point of the painting is a blue mass connected by a thick white line to what appears to be a set of black appendages. It suggests some kind of action, but what?

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Wassily Kandinsky, Red Oval, 1920, 28 1/8 x 28 in. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 51.1311. © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

PM @ the TM: Urban Picnic
The Textile Museum is staying open late this Thursday to co-host an “Urban Picnic” garden party with The Pink Line Project. The evening will include lawn games, music, drinks and a pop-up farmers’ market. Galleries will remain open for attendees to tour the ongoing exhibition Green: the Color and the Cause, which features an impressive array of green textiles, fabric sculptures and installations that explore natural resources and their repurposing (examples here). Just hope the 97-degree high for Thursday is an overstatement.
Where: The Textile Museum (map)
When: June 9 from 6 to 9 p.m.
How Much: $10

Wavelengths
Curated by microWave project, a local duo focused on promoting emerging installation artists, the latest exhibition at Honfleur appears pretty innocuous on paper — its theme is literally the word “wavelength.” But the four participating artists, Gretchen Schermerhorn, Jessica Braiterman, Alexandra Zealand, and Yasmin Spiro, employ their own artistic vocabulary to depart just enough from the subject to create a set of work that is both fresh and recognizable.
Where: Honfleur Gallery (map)
When: June 10 to July 22. Opening reception on June 10 from 7 to 9 p.m.
How Much: Free.

Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting with White Border
If there is one summer exhibition I’ve been looking forward to, it’s this one. Executed during his Blaue Reiter period, Painting with White Border of 1913 marked an important step in Wassily Kandinsky’s progression toward total abstract painting. This new exhibition at the Phillips Collection examines the artist’s painstaking creative process as illustrated by 12 preparatory works, other paintings from that period and an extensive conservation study of the final product. The study is the result of a recent collaboration between the Guggenheim Museum, which owns White Border and the Phillips, which owns a related oil sketch. The project promises to raise interesting questions about both Kandinsky’s artistic evolution and the ethics of conservation.
Where: The Phillips Collection (map)
When: June 11 to Sept. 4. Symposium on June 11 featuring scholars, conservators and artists Frank Stella and Leo Villareal (of National Gallery concourse light-installation fame).
How Much: $12 for adults; $10 for students and seniors.

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Luther Place Memorial Church is located at 1226 Vermont Ave. NW, on Thomas Circle and has been featured for door of the day numerous times.

Chip and Batty Explore Space, William Wegman, 2001, photograph. On view in NASA | ART. Courtesy NASA Art Program.

28th Annual Museum Walk Weekend
The theme of this year’s Dupont-Kalorama Museum Walk is “live green, live local.” Participating art venues include the Textile Museum, Dumbarton House, the Phillips Collection, which will be free for the weekend and hosting Jazz ‘N Families Fun Days, and one of the quirkiest museums in the city, Fondo del Sol, which focuses on Ibero-American cultures and immigrant art. City Paper is organizing an eco-themed photo contest for museumgoers — the prize pack includes museum memberships and a FreshFarm markets gift certificate. Bike parking and free shuttles will be available. Food trucks will be present. (Umm and can we just agree on no cutting in line?)
Where: Dupont-Kalorama (see the event schedule for a list of museums)
When: June 4 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and June 5 (1 to 5 p.m.)
How Much: Free.

NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration
The appeal of space exploration to modern and contemporary artists is no surprise, particularly for those interested in mapping, networks and the mysterious patterns found in the natural world. While the visual arts may not be NASA’s top priority, over the last 50 years, the institution’s art program has amassed an impressive collection of space-related paintings, sculptures, works on paper and photography by artists as diverse as Nam June Paik and Normal Rockwell. Now on view at the Air and Space Museum is a selection of 70 of these works, which reinterpret both the historic moments and daily life of NASA operations.
Where: National Air and Space Museum (map)
When: On view until Oct. 9.
How Much: Free.

Registro 02, Mirar por segunda vez and E • CO
Two exhibitions of contemporary Latin American art arrive at the Katzen this weekend. Registro 02 was organized by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey and presents 50 works in different mediums by four Mexican contemporary artists and the collective Tercerunquinto. E • CO features environment-themed “visual essays” by 20 Latin American and European photography collectives.
Where: American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center (map)
When: June 4 to Aug. 14. E • CO artist talk with Iata Cannabrava and Sergi Camara on June 4 from 5 to 6 p.m.
How Much: Free.

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