Washington DC–July 9, 2017

My first stop, as always, was the Hirshhorn Museum.

These metal stands look a bit like art themselves.

Upon entering, the museum, I saw this public artwork by Yoko Ono. She’s not my favorite singer, but this was an incredibly clever idea; people could write notes about their mother on index cards and tape them up to the wall.

Trace (Ai Wei Wei)

Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei created this installation that has images of political dissidents drawn in 1.2 million LEGO pieces, which took him and his assistants a year to complete. (The Lego pieces are on 50 × 50 LEGO mats to allow them to be transported.) The wallpaper for the exhibit is titled The Plain Version of the Animal That Looks Like a Llama but is Really an Alpaca. (The story of how Ai-Wei-Wei got the LEGO pieces is interesting as well.)

Nicolas Party

The next series of paintings is by Nicolas Party, titled Sunrise, Sunset. The paintings, which are painted directly on the museum walls, were inspired by Obama’s election night address, when he said “no matter what happens, the sun will rise in the morning.”

Markus Lüpertz

This is from an exhibit named Threads of History

Other art

The first of these, “Lick and Lather,” are cast in chocolate and soup. The artist wore down the sculptures by licking the chocolate one and washing the soap version with her in the bath. Make of that what you will. The second is titled Still Life with Spirit and Xitle by Jimmie Durham, and the third is Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusuma.

Folk Life Festival

The Smithsonian was holding its 50th FolkLife Festival, with an emphasis on circus arts. If you don’t like clowns, scroll down to avoid images of them!

There was also an exhibit on puppet-making, and a section on youth, culture, and migration.

And a video of trampoline performers

Museum of American History

Random photos from the museum.

This is the back of a statue of George Washington.

As is this.

The author of this book is the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein.

I worked on the Apple II, so this makes me feel really old.

Renwick Gallery

The Renwick Gallery is my second favorite museum in Washington. This first set of pictures are ceramic works by Peter Voulkos.

...and these works by June Schwarcz

The carpeting and the ceilings are artworks in and of themselves.

Other Art in the Renwick

The first of these is not an antique Monopoly game; it’s painted on unfired clay. The second picture is a “Foreclosure Quilt” showing foreclosed properties in Washington DC. When I looked at the third one from a distance, I thought, “You put an impression in a pillow and call that art?” No. It’s not a pillow. It’s carved from marble.

This quilt shows foreclosures in the Washington DC area.

This is made of green watercolor paper

This artwork is made from film cells.

Renwick Video

This is a video of an installation titled Volume, by Leo Villarreal.

Miscellanea

Some flowers that caught my eye, and the exterior of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Some stickers on the back of a street sign

A protestor’s and a street performer’s signs across from the White House: