National Portrait Gallery I
This past Saturday Isaac and I found ourselves in need of a cultural outing, so we made a spontaneous visit to the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. They share the same historic building, which has been closed for several years, just reopened on 1 July.
We saw many things of interest — including old friends that we'd felt out of touch with during the renovation — a few of which I'll discuss separately. Those tend to be, among others, portraits by John Singer Sargent. One of my unexpected "finds" this visit was upstairs in the Portrait Gallery: a small portrait of Amelia Earhart, drawn in the 1930s by an artist whose name escapes me. It was amazingly modern and streamlined looking, as well as being a vigorous likeness, all in a space barely larger than a postcard.
In the American Art side there was a special exhibit of works by William Wegman called "Funny/Strange". Some of his earlier works would have been of some interest except that they all seemed overshadowed by his later pieces featuring his friendly Weimaraner dogs (notably, Man Ray and Fay Ray); the show was divided roughly in half with earlier works and more recent works featuring the dogs.
Also in the Portrait Gallery, the Outwin Boochever 2006 Portrait Competition Painting and Sculpture Exhibition. The exhibit displays 51 portraits selected by the jury from the 4000 submitted, and what a diverse and stimulating bunch they were, too! The website gives some idea, but they have a great deal more presence in person, particularly since modern art tends to occupy large areas. I've always been drawn to portraiture, and it was a delight to see so many fresh ideas.