Happy Friday, DMV! It’s April 10.
I stumbled across an email this week about a press viewing of an exhibition opening tomorrow at the National Gallery of Art. Ooh, fun, I thought: Let’s do it. So yesterday, I spent the morning at the museum — when it was still closed to the public. The few of us invited for the viewing had the show to ourselves.
Viewers at the “Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience” on Thursday at the National Gallery of Art. (Photos by Alisa Tang)
“Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience” includes more than 100 works from the late 18th century to the present. According to the signage: “… their works suggest glimmers of a collective vision — a spark for conversations about what America is and can be.”
I spent about an hour and a half taking the show in. I went through it once, then circled back and forth. It gave me feelings.
I spent time with a collection of 69 photos by Richard Avedon called “The Family.” In 1976, Rolling Stone magazine commissioned Avedon to photograph presidential candidates. He expanded the project to include politicians, bureaucrats, labor leaders and newspaper publishers.
As I looked at the images, I couldn’t help but focus on their power poses.
From The Family, 1976, silver gelatin prints, Richard Avedon, a portrait of George H.W. Bush, Director, CIA, Langley, Virginia, March 2, 1976.
Shirley Chisholm, US Congresswoman, New York, New York City, July 12, 1976, Richard Avedon.
Daniel Inouye, US Senator, Hawaii, New York City, July 14, 1976, Richard Avedon.
My first walkthrough of the show, I kept thinking about power poses. Who holds power in each image? Who strikes the power pose? How do they do it?
Chief Maungwudaus, 1845–1850, American 19th Century, daguerreotype with applied color.
A viewer in front of Cara Romero’s Sisterhood Is Sacred, 2018, printed 2023, inkjet print.
My multiple laps through the show had me thinking about Americans at war, the people allowed into and barred from the United States, and destruction of land for resource extraction. In Michael Jang’s 1973 photo “Aunts and Uncles,” I saw a reflection of my own fun-loving community and extended family in the Midwest.
As I left the show, I spent time with one last piece — “Maka Wicasa” by Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees — which delivered this parting thought.
Written at the top of the piece: “… Grandmother Earth asked sadly, ‘Who are you?’”
At the bottom, comes a response: “After a long time we remembered, ‘Maka Wicasa — Earth People.’”
“Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience,” in the National Gallery of Art’s West Building, opens tomorrow and will be on view through Sept. 20.
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📰 News around the DMV
Virginia to raise minimum wage to $15 by 2028 under new law (Virginia Mercury)
📷 Your joy
(Jennifer Miranda)
Jennifer Miranda, 38, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, snapped this pic on March 29.
“The cherry blossoms are almost faded now, but I managed to capture the wonder of my almost-three-year old daughter after she had plucked a perfect blossom to share with me,” Jennifer wrote in her submission.
“Every year my husband and I take the kids to visit a little street near our house in Gaithersburg, close to where I grew up, that hold special significance for our family and also has the most beautiful cherry blossoms every spring that we have made a tradition of visiting.
“On this year's outing, we enjoyed meeting some of the neighbors on the street and another family with a young daughter who were there to take photos with the blossoms too. I love how the fleeting glory of these trees in the springtime brings people together to enjoy their beauty.”
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