Washington, DC: The Art of the Nation’s Capitol

2010 June 1, 6:12 am
Filed under: Artsy-Fartsy, There and Back Again

In a world of fancy SLR cameras, my 5-year old Canon point-and-shoot is woefully misplaced. Additionally, I am absolutely not a professional or even semi-professional photographer. However, out of the hundreds of photos I took this particular weekend, there are several I am pretty pleased with. To me, they capture some of the beauty, majesty and awe of the Mall in Washington, D.C. (which, it should go without saying, everyone should take a few hours/days to explore if ever you make it to DC).

The back side of the Capitol Building, photo taken from the steps of the Library of Congress.

The Capitol Building and one of it’s four guardian lions.

War-horse memorial with the Washington Monument, taken in front of the Capitol Building.

The Washington Memorial, taken from the garden of the original, red-brick Smithsonian building.

The metro, my life-line to the city.

***** ***** *****

I spent many hours wandering around art museums, and while I don’t love all modern art, I am more drawn to contemporary painters as opposed to their Renaissancey counterparts. I connect with the abstract more than I connect with gold-plated angels and nude women. Shrug. I saw painting by many of my favorite artists, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, Rothko, and then I saw this, half-hidden in the contemporary wing of the National Gallery of Art. At first glance I was intrigued, and went in for a closer look. And I found fingerprints. Millions of fingerprints.

Fanny/Fingerpainting by Chuck Close.

Close painted his grandmother using hundreds of shades of black and gray, the painting is done entirely in fingerprints. It’s similar to Georges Seurat pointillism style, (which I have praised here) but the intimacy of the artist literally using his own hands is absolutely breathtaking. Photos just cannot do this piece justice.