Washington DC–November 13, 2022

I was going to go to the National Air and Space Museum, but it turns out you need advance tickets and there weren’t any left for Sunday.

Instead, I went to the National Gallery of Art, which is, surprisingly, not part of the Smithsonian. There are two buildings. The west building has older art, and the east building has modern art. I started out in the west building. After a few minutes I was getting bored; it was the “same old, same old.” I took the second picture...

...and then I noticed the shadows, which looked interesting...

...and there was my theme for the day. I decided to take pictures of the shadows of the famous artworks because the artworks themselves have been over-photographed, and you can probably find better pictures of them on the museum’s web site anyway.

Shadows

Regular Art

There were some things that did catch my eye, including this furniture and a couple of Dutch paintings:

Yellow couch and chair with light yellow seat

The Concert (Gerrit van Honthorst)

The Annunciation (Jan van Eyck)

On the other hand, there was this incredibly creepy work—Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels (Veronese, 14th Century):

National Gallery of Art, East Wing

The big Calder mobile has been re-installed:

Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South

Unlocked Chain (Joe Minter)

Old Man Cartwright with Adam and Little Joe (Henry Speller)
My sister-in-law was a big fan of Bonanza, and I’m pretty sure she would not have appreciated this.

From the Beginning to the End to the Beginning (Lonnie Holley)

More Art

Red Triplet (Mimi Herbert) - folded acrylic sheet

The top floor had a large Alexander Calder exhibit:

Hercules and the Lion

Finally, this shot from the roof terrace:

National Portrait Gallery/SAAM

OK, maybe I wasn’t all that done with art. I decided that, as long as I was in the area, I might as well go to the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum, which are housed in the same building. I saw these swing sets on the way: