Thursday, July 1, 2010

the most fabulous art vacation ....

my family went to washington d.c. for a four day vacation to see the sites and immerse ourselves in some american history, legend and lore ... but really, for me, it was all about the art ..... luckily, i have a very indulgent family ..... i was an art history major in college, so as long as i've known mr.e.beck.artist, i've been dragging him to art shows, galleries, museums, and out of the way sculptures ..... and washington d.c. felt like one extraordinary art event set up just for me ...

we arrived on saturday .... and toured the biggest sites on the national mall by BIKE ... washington monument, ww2 memorial, eistein sculpture at the academy of arts and science, signers island, vietnam memorial, nurses memorial, korean war memorial (OH! my favorite for the art and deep, layered symbolism), the lincoln memorial, the fdr memorial (OH! such a story it tells, a WALK through the art symbolizing a man who couldn't walk), the jefferson memorial .... all fabulous art, legend, lore, story, symbolism ......and that was JUST saturday .....and i only took about 200 photos at each stop ....

sunday, we went to the spy museum (no art), the smithsonian art and portrait gallery (yes! a christo exhibit on his californian fence was enthralling to all five of us ... i ADORED christo when i was in college), the hirshhorn museum (OH! my favorite... well ... favorite of the day... modern art at its finest), then met up with the prescotts ...and on to the air and space museum (including an IMAX and simulator rides...eek!), the north east side of the national gallery sculpture garden (where the claes oldenburg eraser picture above was taken), and the hard rock cafe ..... all on sunday!

... wait ...i'm going to take a breath here .... and tell you that it was so intriguing to take cynical mr.e.beck.artist, nonchalant-about-everything.boy.beck.artist, excited-about-everything.girl.beck.artist, and she-wants-to-hold-the-map-and-be-in-charge.little.e.beck.artist to so many modern art museums .... we got everything from "i could paint that" to "the artist found one hook and does it over and over" to "why does anyone think that's art?" to "how many jillions of dollars were spent on the art in this building?" to "how does an artist make a living if the art isn't worth anything til they are dead?" and the meanings of things and our own different interpretations and who loved what and who hated what ..... SO much to talk about ....

on monday, we visited the capitol (a movie and a tour) .... under the rotunda is more art to discuss than can fill a book ...starting at the tip top with the statue of freedom ...and on the inside, the apotheosis of george washington, and the frieze around it .... and the sculptures in it .... oh my .... there are 100 statues, 2 per state .... and those are just the full body donated by the states statues, there are countless others as well .... we walked around the capitol, saw the library of congress and the supreme court (complete with a demonstration out front), back around to the mall ..... and on to the national gallery of art .... oh my goodness .... the national gallery of art .... the east wing to be specific ...oh my ... heaven .... we started with an exhibit called small french paintings (monet, renoir, degas, lautrec, seurat, morisot, pisarro, sisley ... later we found LARGE paintings by all of these artists too ..... the tower gallery was a rothko installation ... oh my ...none of us loved it, but it was certainly something to talk about .... i guess i won't be doing a black on black series in my art any time soon .... there was a matisse room that was so grand i couldn't believe it (favorite ten minutes of the trip, probably) ... then we did lunch below the national gallery and then the west wing of the national gallery ... and then the museum of natural history (have you ever heard of, i've seen, a pink fairy armadillo????) .... then ... walked home in a sudden down pour ....swam at the hotel pool .... dressed up ... had dinner ...and went to the kennedy center for a play (shear madness .... very funny) .....

and tuesday .... we did a walking tour of the area north of the national mall and the white house and the white house visitor center and the smithsonian museum of american history (michelle obama's inauguration gown, dorothy's red sparkle shoes, c3p0) ... and then .... toy story 3 (i cried ... so did little.e.beck.artist ... but at different parts)

and wednesday ... we went home

and thursday .... i did laundry

so ... have you been to dc? what's your favorite museum there? what's the most glorious thing you've seen there? ....or .... if not dc .... what's the most awed you've been by a piece of art in a gallery or museum?

sorry .... i'm not going back and editing this ... too tired ... imagine that ....

4 comments:

Darla said...

Whew! I'm tired too just thinking about all that. What a wonderful treat it must have been.

My favorite? The Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe. Well, all of Santa Fe is one of my favorite places.

And I like Rothko.

Darla

e.beck.artist said...

i would love to go to the georgia o'keefe museum .....i've never been to santa fe ....
i actually have always liked rothko too .... but this was just a step too far for me to like it .... i think i get it, but i don't really appreciate it ... there were about a dozen ENORMOUS canvases, bigger than his usual ... and they were all black ...if you studied them, you could tell they were his usual color field paintings of black on black .... but the nuance of color where the fields meet wasn't there at all .... it was actually an installation for a church .... a meditation room .... and they had it set up as such ....and my giggly family was far from contemplative there!!

artmom said...

I like Rothko too....your trip must have been amazing. Wasn't it hard to get your mind around all that art all at once?

Lavinia said...

Wow, I'm exhausted just listening to you (and this from the girl who's been hiking around Budapest and Prague for the past six days - with 2 more to go here, then 5 in Paris - I'll have no skin left on my feet by the end). But it sounds awesome! I'm mostly amazed the kids held up. I think Christopher would stage a sit-in somewhere during day 2 in whatever place was convenient.

Have you been to the Holocaust museum? Not art, but so, so interesting (and depressing, but in a fascinating and important way). Little.e might still be too young, but not for long. 'Tis intense, though.

Can't wait until C is old enough to really enjoy DC - one of my very favorite cities.

(Oooh, hilarious ... Blogger just asked me IN CZECH to do the word verification...)