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THE HIRSHHORN'S NEW SHOW, "Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection," now open through Jan. 3, is the first major show of her work in 35 years, so there's a lot of new ground to cover. The artist, who died in 2004, was born in Baltimore and resided in the District, and associate curator Kristen Hileman said the area was important to Truitt.
"I think any artist … would want their work to be understood nationally and internationally, so it would be inaccurate to say that she's a 'local artist' or 'Washington artist,'" Hileman says.
"But she very intentionally chose to live and work in Washington, and you can see influences of the Eastern Shore in Maryland where she grew up. This area certainly influenced the colors and forms in her work and her path as an artist."
The exhibition is a survey of 2- and 3-D sculptures that Truitt made during her 50-year career, in which she studied proportion, scale and color. Hileman said Truitt "created a hybrid of painting and sculpture, and painting in three dimensions."
To kick off the show, there's a talk on Thursday at 7 p.m. about Truitt's career. Tim Gunn, chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne, "Project Runway" fixture and former student of Truitt's, will moderate a discussion among artist Martin Puryear, filmmaker Jem Cohen, photographer John Gossage and Hileman. It's free, and tickets are available at 5:45 p.m. in the lobby.
» Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 7th Street and Independence Avenue SW; through Jan. 3, free; 202-633-1000 (L'Enfant Plaza)
Written by Express contributor Amy Cavanaugh
Photo courtesy Hirshhorn Museum
AFTER NEARLY 40 years, Pilobolus Dance Theatre has evolved from a small dance group at Dartmouth College into a groundbreaking and imaginative cultural institution.
Although the troupe has many styles, all originating from a raw, organic take on the movement of the human body, they have become most popular for their bodily transformations. A dozen dancers tumble behind a screen like shadow puppets and suddenly arise into a flower, and then reconfigure into an elephant and just as swiftly tumble away.
According to Artistic Director Robby Barnett, Pilobolus' secret to success has been teamwork. "Part of collaboration is you have to talk about your ideas with other people," Barnett states, "You can't really harbor ideas for very long. There's a social contract that beats us forward."
Continue Reading "Twist and Shout: Pilobolus Dance Theatre" »
FROM ROCK HEROES of the '70s to London sensations barely out of their teens, from a band with an unpronounceable name to one made up of cartoon characters, this is one heck of a music season we're looking at. It's a great time of year to welcome back some old voices, hear some new ones or even get your world beat on.
Start here: "Hail, Tartancore!: Young Musical Bravehearts Are Defining Scottish Indie," featuring We Were Promised Jetpacks and The Twilight Sad, and then see our 14 other selections below.
NONE WOULD BE an appropriate soundtrack for Scottish patriot William Wallace to fire up the troops, but the high quality of indie-rock bands coming out of Scotland feels revolutionary.
From the reverbed noise-pop of Glasvegas and dramatic, strings-laden compositions of My Latest Novel and Broken Records to the nervy post-punk-guitar pop of Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks and The Twilight Sad, there's a shared yearning quality to their dramatic songs.
The final three bands are all close friends, and the latter two are touring the U.S. together. And it was Frightened Rabbit that helped get Jetpacks signed to its label, Fat Cat, which is also home to The Twilight Sad.
Continue Reading "Hail, Tartancore!: Young Musical Bravehearts Are Defining Scottish Indie" »
GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS look back as well as forward this fall with a slew of shows that focus on history -- James Osher's photographs, a look at industrialization in Japan, a visit from China's most famous army. There's even a jaw-dropping Hirshhorn exhibition that's been open for a while but won't be around forever.
William T. Wiley: Multitasker
Contemporary American artist William T. Wiley does it all, from drawing to sculpture to film. This retrospective features 88 of his works from the 1960s and on and takes a look at Wiley's ideas on war, global warming, racial tensions, pollution and practically every other problem facing the world today. Educational -- yes. Depressing -- possibly.
» Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1661 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; opens Oct. 2, through Jan. 24, free; 202-633-2850, americanart.si.edu. (Gallery Place-Chinatown)
AUTHOR APPEARANCES CAN be staid affairs, typically involving a short reading and a Q&A session followed by a long line to get just a few words with the writer. Margaret Atwood is upending that expectation on the tour for her latest novel, which incorporates music and drama into her readings. It's not simply an appearance, but a real literary event.
"Year of the Flood," Atwood explains, lends itself to such treatment. It follows a sect called God's Gardeners, who grow crops on abandoned rooftops, have canonized Al Gore and Rachel Carson, and "are trying to join religion, science and nature back together the way they once were," Atwood explains before adding an ominous qualifier: "The results are somewhat mixed."
WE GET A LITTLE wistful looking over the events on tap this fall that might appeal to the younger set. Did we have indie-rockers-turned-kiddie-rockers playing free shows for us? Did we have thought-provoking theater, professional espionage training or classical music geared just toward us sippy-cuppers? It must be nice to be a kid these days.
When the Corcoran Gallery of Art opens "Edward Burtynsky: Oil" on Oct. 3, it will be opening a show that curator Paul Roth calls "perfect for Washington."
"A couple years ago, we did a traveling Ansel Adams exhibition, and I wanted to make it unique to Washington, D.C.," said Roth, the senior curator of photography and media arts. "So we decided to focus on Adams as an environmentalist and invited a photographer who does landscape photographs with an environmental slant to come in and talk about their work in the context of Adams' work."
The artist who came in was Burtynsky, and, Roth said, "He told us he was working on putting together 10 years' worth of work on the subject of oil, which I thought was perfect for Washington, along with places like Saudi Arabia or Texas."
Continue Reading "Refined Close-Up on Crude: Edward Burtynsky on the Role of Oil" »
AUTUMN IS THE SEASON for literary blockbusters, when publishers haul out the biggest authors — and sometimes their weightiest tomes — for readers who left their thrillers and romances on the beach. This year is no different, and, locally, autumn means big events that are musts for bookhounds.
YES, YES; a certain Oscar-winning actress who tends to play royalty will grace D.C. stages this fall, but only for a limited time — if you don't have a ticket, best of luck. Local theaters are putting on a bevy of works classic and modern, musical and, uh, music-less — from girls playing Shakespeare to guys being replaced by machines.
Continue Reading "All the World's a Stage: Theater Events" »
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