weirdest artist you never heard of ....on a red white and blue day ....

last weekend, my family went to the hirshhorn gallery on the national mall in washington dc ... it is one of the smithsonnian museums ... but it is not a staid, button downed federalist building like so much else in washington ... instead, my family called it the doughnut museum ... no doughnuts inside, but the building itself was a cylinder, a little squashed, and an empty center (where the munchkin came from ... actually, the inside of the cylinder was outdoors, contained a grand fountain, and was 20 degrees cooler than the rest of the stifling hot city .... i was thrilled with everything about the gallery ... including that its name had a double h in it ... where do you get to see a double h? hirshhorn .... love that ....

so, what lovely double h serendipity to pick up a time magazine (that actually travelled with me to dc, but went unread because i didn't finish the book that i had brought) and find an article about a show in the double h hirshhorn .... (yes, i realize it has three h's in it, but it is the side by side h's that astound) .....

have you ever heard of yves klein? i think i read about him in an art of the 60s class i took in college .... in a tiny reference to performance art ... but maybe not ... he certainly wasn't on the exam .... and i didn't write a paper on him ... after an afternoon at the hirshhorn, my children know about the paper i wrote about wayne thiebaud ... his was pop art ... mostly food ... mostly sticky food ... and mostly sticky cafeteria food, at that .... all beautiful if you have a penchant for cake and ice cream and candy .... which i do ....

back to yves klein .... have you heard of him? probably not ... so, i saw his exhibit (he's long dead, but i can still call it his, right?) at the hirsHHorn ..... it was the most gorgeous blue .... all of it ... nearly every piece was blue ...but that perfect shade of blue was nearly all that i could take away from it .... my family was unimpressed, and didn't even want to take the time to read about it .... usually, stopping and reading the exhibit information can slow them down, make them see the artist's point of view, even if not all together understand the art ... i suppose some art isn't even meant to be understandable ....

so .... all of that ... the time article (that uses one of my favorite words, ineffable, twice!) , my newly beloved hirshhorn, me being awake at 6.30 while my children sleep an mr.e.beck.artist is off to run in the fourth of july road race, compel me to tell you about this obscure artist, yves klein ....

i think this afternoon i'll be painting some blue ...

happy red,white and blue to you ....