National Gallery of Art II

Now I'm really getting behind.  Today I went to the Museum of American History, and tomorrow housemate and I are going to the Museum of Natural History.

So, Flighty, one more artsy-fartsy post for you to endure but there are some photos from today's excursion that you may like, and three I took especially for you - and that was before I came home to find your comment about the NGA ;-)

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So on we go:

National Gallery of Art II

The main entrance to the original West Building

A restful Fountain Courtyard inside the gallery

The fountain in one of two courtyards

The sculpture gallery is the spine of the museum, connecting the rotunda and two courtyards.  All specialty galleries branch off from it.

L:  Justice

R: Calliope

(19th C French Neoclassical sculptures)

Bacchus and a putto

(19th C bronze sculpture)

L: Neapolitan girl

R: Painting and Sculpture

(19th C French Neoclassical sculpture)

Approaching the Rotunda
Americans love their rotundae.

An Apollo fountain with fresh flowers under the rotunda dome

The oculus (eye) and embossed dome.  Reminiscent of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome (and by that token, probably the one in Paris too though that memory has faded)

My pick of the post:  a bust of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who in nearly every depiction frowns more than anyone else.

Continuing the Greco-Roman foundation of the building, there were lots of olive trees in the museum's open spaces.

I didn't know photography was allowed in the rest of the museum because not many people had cameras out, so I felt self-conscious then found out later photography is allowed everywhere except where noted and in special exhibitions.  So....you missed a load of exquisite Dutch masters and American 19th century landscapes and still lifes.

But each gallery was equipped with those easels used by art students and copyists for anyone to use, I guess.  Each section also had really good free mini-guides.  I have three:  one from the Pompeii exhibition, one from the Dutch and Flemish Cabinet Galleries, and one from Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age (special exhibition).  

Here's one from Dutch Cityscapes which I recognized with a shock of recognition because I bought the postcard of it at the National Gallery in London!  (View in Delft by Karel Fabritius, likely painted with the help of a lens casting the image onto a canvas in a dark room, hence the uncorrected convex effect which today we can duplicate with our fisheye cams.)

I really really like the Delft domestic scenes.  Amsterdam artists tended to paint buildings and civic architecture, but the Delft artists like Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch focused on the quiet domestic chores in great detail, though Jan Steen managed to combine both elements.  The Delft works give me a feeling of satisfaction, de Hooch in particular (many of his postcards I also bought at the NG London) because of the equal attention to architecture and people, who lend humanity to the potential sterility of a solely architectural focus (I know I am guilty of this, however).

The Courtyard of a House in Delft, de Hooch, 

But check this out, a Bird's Eye View of Amsterdam by Jan Micker (1652):

The artist thought of cloud shadow!

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Stay tuned for today's adventure, it was such a wonderful day!

National Gallery of Art I

Winter is going out like a lion this week, which I hear is highly unusual for the area. Tonight I hear we will be breaking some 100 year old record lows, and places deeper in Maryland or Virginia with more snow cover are still not opening schools tomorrow.

This is some pretty snow though.  It's so white and really complements the Colonial-houses-with-picket-fences-ness of the neighborhood.


I'm not kidding, on my way to the Metro I was thinking about how white picket fence this section of town really is.  I think it's a bit like St John's Wood (NW London), or a combination of the Museum District and the Heights (Houston) or The Woodlands (north of Houston).  Chris thinks it's like Austin.

Icicles outside my window, though this morning the sun was so bright there was considerable melting going on, with sheets of ice sliding off roofs and icicles crashing to the ground.



By the weekend we will have definite spring temperatures approaching 65F/17C!!!
The Park Service predicted today that the cherry blossoms will peak around the first week of April.


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On Saturday I was to join a cultural group at the NGA to see the exhibition, Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples.

On my way there, I was crossing Pennsylvania Avenue and happened to look to my left and THERE was the Capitol dome. I looked down and laughed to myself thinking, "Wow, I'm in Washington."

I couldn't find the group, and neither could a few others, but the organizer promised to hold a sign next time so I hope to join them again for more cultural activities.

So back to the museum. It's FREEEEE (like the UK), and so are the special exhibitions (unlike the UK), and even coat check (it's £1 in London). And the restrooms are so nice (definitely unlike the UK). I don't know how they do it. So much for the years of threatened budget cuts to the arts...?

Speaking of toilets, Chris had high praise for the Metro, which he said made him feel like he was in a real transport hub going somewhere, rather than the NYC subway system which he said is like traveling "in a toilet".


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Anyway, back to the museum (again).



This is the modern East Building of the NGA

The Pompeii exhibition, held in the East Building, was small and intimate. It showcased a comprehensive array of artifacts, objets d'art, frescoes, mosaics, including duplicates on the floor, and sculptures. I've been to Pompeii so it was like a taste of something familiar.



Large, light common areas showcase large modern sculptures

Afterwards, I decided to make a day of it and flitted through a few more of the modern galleries.



Remember similar ones at the MoMA in NYC?  Giaccometti, he is everywhere...


And so is Picasso, and Mondrian...

I am calling this the ABC sculpture.  One view from the side, one view straight on.

The walkway between the East and West buildings is enshrouded in a randomly programmed LED light display called Multiverse (2008) by Leo Villareal.

Sometimes they are all alight, sometimes they shoot, crawl, flash, wave.  It had me gaping, slack-jawed, to see what would happen next.

The walkway takes you through the HUGE Cascade Cafe, filled with a variety of food stations.  I was tempted to eat there.  But I passed through, then realized I'd left my coat in the East Building, so went back to get it and then exited out the side and crossed to the West Building's side entrance.


The East Building.  QUESTION:  Do these glass pyramids remind you of something somewhere?

The West Building

Stay tuned for the second NGA post.  (I thought I could do it all in one installment but you know brevity is not my forte when it comes to this blog!)

The Other NASM III

This is the last installment in our series covering the National Air & Space Museum - Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Keep up, people, we have so much more to see after this!

For instance, today I went to the National Gallery of Art and need to blog about that soon. (Before I forget all the interesting things I thought while I was there.)

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So after the SR-71 Blackbird, and the Shuttle Enterprise, what else is there to see?

Well, the Concorde...and some other shiny birds.



The camera can barely capture it and certainly doesn't do it justice. My attempts from ground level were even worse.




How do they fit them all in? Do they have a Gulliver to remove the roof and shuffle the little planes around like a child arranging a jigsaw puzzle? No, unfortunately they probably have to open the hangar doors and move everything out one by one in an interminably tedious and risky process. The poor guys who had to plan the layout, eh?




This is very cute and looks almost like a desktop model with perhaps a remote control!




The Shuttle Enterprise mockup from a second story viewing platform.



This battered old thing has seen a lot of action, a North American P-61C Black Widow with radar turret. It began combat operations after D-Day 1944, at night and in bad weather, in German airspace and over the Pacific. After the war it was used extensively in weather research, altitude testing, and in the National Thunderstorm Project.




The back end fell off this one. Or, it's a frog with wings. No, it's a Waterman Aerobile.




My favorite in today's post, the Pan American Airlines Boeing 307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying Cloud. They covered everything in that name!




I love this shot from above...gorgeous machine. I love unpainted planes.




Dulles International Airport as seen from the Observation Tower


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No rest for the wicked. Chris, N and I went back to Washington, met up with her cousin A, and had dinner at Rosa Mexicana where the best guacamole I've ever had is made at the table. It being the last day of Restaurant Week the others had their $35 menus but I settled for a single item which was fine because Chris practically begged me to eat half his starter, some delicious and spicy chicken chimichangas (I think).

They ended up taking their dessert home because we were running late - Chris had to drive back to NYC and wanted to leave before 8pm, and we girls wanted to be at our event by 7.30. He made his deadline, but we were half an hour late to ours.

Frustratingly, our restaurant was across the street from the Verizon Center Arena, but we had to go back to my place so Chris could pack his car and N could pick up hers to drive us back into town for the game.

"The game?" you ask. Yes, the game...



Still haven't guessed?
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Well, those of you on Facebook would know.
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BASKETBALL! Yes, Olivia went to a GAME.

The Washington Wizards were playing the San Antonio Spurs. Go Texas! They won by a long shot, 98 to 67. Washingtonians were leaving half an hour before the end it was such a lost cause.
San Antonio has won 14 of the last 17 meetings with Washington. Hehe! You don't mess with Texas. (Even as I type, the Houston Rockets lost a close 102 to 105 against the Chicago Bulls after long maintaining a 17 point lead.)




Half of the fun was the game, and the other half was the audience participation. At half time there was a contortionist who arrived in a small box, wrapped himself in knots and passed through a toilet seat and a tennis racket, making us all squirm in our seats. There were the Wizards cheerleaders who came out a couple of times in all their out of sync glory. (Nobody beats the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, again don't mess with....) There were the team mascots who came out and danced, and others who shot free T-shirts and golden balls into the stands.

Best part, though, was the Kissing Cam during halftime, which had the fans in stitches. The cameras (which I never spotted) would zoom in on a couple who would have to kiss, though a couple hid their faces giggling. We all wondered "What if they choose a pair on a first date?"

There was a live DJ during timeouts, and the cameras mostly focused on the cute dancing children, and some adults. Then they spotted a really old white guy who was really getting his groove on! He was so good, they stayed on him, and we all cheered him on, he had so much energy and some proper moves! He was down with the kids ;) Yes he was...

...Stop now Olivia.

Neither of the girls are avid fans - it was A's first and N's second time. Alright, I may never have the opportunity to go to another game and it was an expense I could have bypassed, BUT it was fun and I am glad I had the experience.

The Other NASM II

But first off:

1) Who are these people who are able to answer their phones and do text messaging and emailing on the Metro?  Every time I check, I have no reception.  Must just be my crappy phone. 

2) It was so warm today (62F/17C) that I took off my jacket.  After the winter-long heating has removed all the moisture out of the fabric of the house, suddenly on the first mild and humid day you smell the carpets and the curtains until you get acclimatized to it. But not for long, a front is blowing in tonight and there will be a wintry mix by Sunday.

3) I gave a homeless man a quarter today.

4) Landlady's younger brother (who is an actor or something and was in last week's episode of Law & Order) is staying here this weekend.  You know who he looks like?  Billy Bob Thornton.  Maybe tomorrow I should ask him how many people have said that...

5) I bought turkey bacon yesterday and fried it up this morning.  It is AWESOME!  I may never go back to pork bacon, ever again!

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Now, where was I with this second NASM series?

Oh yes, Enterprise.

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Tadaaaaaaa...

Original development mock-up of the Space Shuttle.  In deference to eager Trekkies who demanded it, NASA named the model the Enterprise.  It was tested in wind tunnels for aerodynamic integrity and even dropped from a piggyback to glide back to earth with a test pilot aboard.  But it is made of some composite material.

This looks like it just floated out of the payload bay.

See those little men beside it?  That is how big this is.






Rocket booster ring...?

ANDROID.  It was developed in the 1960s to perform functions that would be repetitive and harmful to a human subject, such as testing space suits.



(Let me know if you can't read the label.)  

Remember when laptops looked like this?

Note the Velcro tabs for sticking pens and useful objects onto the computer.  There are Velcro patches all over the place, on every surface, all over NASA equipment.  

I quipped that after astronauts retire they probably don't ever want to see another piece of Velcro.  Either that, or they use it for everything and drive their spouses round the bend.

(Again, let me know if you can't read the label.)  

Although this looks like a relic from the 1970s, the plate (which in this view is obscured by the label) states it was manufactured in 1989.



Space diapers - these ones have Sally Ride's name tag on the back.  Developed for female crewmembers to wear during launch or EVAs.  Men used to wear urine collection hoses and bags.  Now both male and female astronauts prefer the commercially available disposable diapers.  (Which is why the former astronaut driving from Texas to Florida in diapers without stopping was not unusual in the space flight community, although her reason for doing so was wrong.)

Apparently (according to Chris, who used to be a tour guide at Space Center Houston) Apollo astronauts liked peeing and releasing it into space because they enjoyed seeing their "tinkle twinkle".  The yellow briefs probably belonged to Alan Bean.

Important part of the Apollo survival rucksack.  I suppose in case the capsule on reentry seriously overshot the rescue crews or if prevailing conditions delayed rescue.  Every eventuality has to be prepared for when it comes to space exploration.

Contains: Flashlight, compass, mirror, four fishing hooks, needles, knife blade.  Made of grey-painted steel with brass fittings.

A Mobile Quarantine Facility.  Probably from back when NASA thought alien microbes (as in, unknown, not little green man germs) would return with the astronauts.  It is a modified Airstream and there are six lovely plush olive green velour seats inside.

There will be a third installment of this series.  Teaser word:  Concorde.