"SMOKE SIGNALS" was the first movie written, directed and produced by American Indians. See the 1988 award-winner Sunday.
» National Museum of the American Indian, 4th Street & Independence Avenue NW; Sun., Dec. 7, 2 p.m., free, 202-633-1000. (L'Enfant Plaza)
Written by Express' Nathan Martin
Photo courtesy Miramax
IT'S THE BEST party in D.C. — if you're a hipster, that is. In the morning you can tell your friends "I went and danced till dawn at the modern art museum." Their jaws will drop in awe.
Hirshhorn After Hours happens every few months, and the party-at-the-museum fun has unequivocally marked the 'Horn as the "cool" Smithsonian. See the new exhibit (a newly acquired collection) before everyone else. Even if you think the Hirshhorn's collection can't be improved by anything, wait till you inspect it with a drink in your hand. Dan Deacon and DJ Gavin Holland will provide the music.
» Hirshhorn Museum, Independence Avenue at 7th St. SW; Fri., Nov. 7, 8 p.m., $10-$12; 202-633-1000. (L'Enfant Plaza)
Photo courtesy Smithsonian Hirshhorn
FRITZ SCHOLDER CHIPS AWAY at traditional notions of American Indian art, moving from feathered headdresses toward a more realistic examination of contemporary Native American life.
"Indian/Not Indian," a new exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian, presents an overview of Scholder's work, from the candy-colored frontier scene "Four Indian Riders" to the shadowy and introspective portrait of an "Indian Contemplating Columbus."
One-fourth Luiseno, Scholder was teaching at the American Indian Institute for the Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., when he saw his students questioning their Indian heritage. They inspired Scholder to launch his "Indian" series, challenging traditionally "Not Indian" notions, as in "Indian With Beer Can," in which playground adversaries cowboy and Indian become indistinguishable.
Scholder studied with pop painter Wayne Thiebaud at Sacramento City College, and those pop art sensibilities are apparent here, as are the influences of Paul Gauguin and Francis Bacon. Scholder's brightly colored works touch on other subjects — vampires, for one. (The artist even traveled to Transylvania.) As Scholder has aged, his paintings and sculptures appear to contemplate mortality; one piece is of skulls painted using his own blood mixed with Diet Coke.
Continue Reading "Native Common Sense: Fritz Scholder Paints It" »
MANY WHO KNOW of the Museum of Jurassic Technology discovered it in Lawrence Weschler's 1995 book "Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology." David Wilson is the instigator of the mind-boggling melange of oddities and amazements in Culver City, Calif.
Much has changed in 13 years, including the addition of the Borzoi Kabinet Theater and the Tula Tearoom. On Saturday, Wilson talks about masters of microminiature art, the passions of museology, and his "unbounded interest and attraction to all phenomena."
» EXPRESS: Is it important to discern truth and fiction?
» WILSON: Actually, we at the museum, we never think about those things.
» EXPRESS: How much does Weschler's concept of "wonder" matter?
» WILSON: Actually, we didn't ... spend any time talking about wonder. And after the article [in Harper's, where the book was exerpted] came out, we started having around the museum these handmade signs that had the word "wonder" and then the international "no" sign through it: a red circle with a slash. Which can be read one of two ways.
Continue Reading "A Very Curious Fellow: The Museum of Jurassic Technology's David Wilson" »
IT'S GOT NOTHING to do with candy or masks, but the Smithsonian celebrates the spirit and humor of the Mexican Day of the Dead on Friday with its own Noches de Muertos.
Featuring artists Sol y Canto, right, and Melodic Vision, the one-night performance explores the uniquely welcoming view that Mexican culture takes of big sleep.
» National Museum of the American Indian, 4th Street & Independence Avenue SW; Fri., Oct 25, 7 p.m., $20-25; 202-633-3030. (L'Enfant Plaza)
Written by Express' Nathan Martin
LATE 1960S AND early 1970s "Light and Space" works, recently acquired from internationally renowned collector Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, are going on display at the Hirshhorn.
These conceptual works by Sol LeWitt, Robert Irwin and others defy the traditional categories of paintings and sculpture. In the next-door gallery, Panza and his wife curate the second in the Hirshhorn's "Ways of Seeing" series.
» Hirshhorn Museum, 1300 Independence Ave. SW; Oct. 23-Jan. 11; 202-633-1000. (Smithsonian/L'Enfant Plaza)
Photo by A. Zambianchi-Simply.it, Milan
EVEN IF YOU'RE not normally into that artsy stuff, you'll be able to appreciate this second part of the Hirshhorn's "The Cinema Effect" exhibit — after all, it uses contemporary film and TV to make art. Ha! It wasn't art before! Take that, Aaron Sorkin!
Sorry about that. Anyway, this exhibit is filled with art drawn from all kinds of realistic film. It's accessible and astounding.
» Hirshhorn Museum, Independence Avenue at Seventh Street SW; free; 202-633-1000. (L'Enfant Plaza)
Photo courtesy Kerry Tribe
THE GREAT THING ABOUT being married is that you have to appeal to only one person — and it isn't even you. The same goes for all kinds of romantic bonding, and it creates a dynamic that is utterly irreproducible.
Coupling is culture, the creation of an ever-evolving two-person civilization. Each pairing creates its own language, music, play — all of which evaporate on parting. Or on simply being exposed to another person.
And yet coupling is precisely what Amy Sillman is interested in. The painter asked friends to pose, then made taut, rubbery representational ink sketches, some of which hang at the entrance to her Hirshhorn "Directions" show, subtitled "Third Person Singular." In the gallery behind are the larger abstract oils they sometimes led to, sometimes followed.
Photo of riders at L'Enfant Plaza on Monday evening by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE the big test for Metro: the first baseball game at the new Nationals stadium that started at 7:10 p.m. on a weeknight — which meant fans would be traveling at the same time as evening rush hour riders.
I decided to dive in to the prospective craziness to sample it firsthand. But from this rider's vantage point, the big test ended up feeling more like a quiz. One that the teacher didn't collect or grade.
Maybe it was because the weather dipped into the upper 40s by evening — a bit chilly to sit in an uncovered ballpark. Maybe it was because the NCAA college basketball championship game was scheduled for the same night. Whatever the cause, the trip to the stadium on Metro wasn't that crowded. And, due in large part to the transit agency's efficiency, it was easy as pie.
IT SEEMS AS IF WANEGECHI MUTU is the kind of artist who would hesitate to define herself based on a place — neither her birthplace of Nairobi, Kenya, nor Brooklyn, where she lives now. Instead, the provocative collage maker sees herself as a "contemporary, urban-raised woman." Maybe that's why she's able to pull off her creepy, grotesque images of women — constructed from glossy fashion magazines and books of African art — merging two sets of cultures into art both critical and sensuous. She'll talk on Thursday at the Hirshhorn as part of its "Meet the Artist" series.
» EXPRESS: What exactly do you do?
» MUTU: I take what seems like an image that is one particular way, and I switch it around and give it a new life. I use images from National Geographic, which still have a very colonial underpinning, and I turn them into, sort of, fantastical, titillating, critical subject matter. And I do that with bits and pieces from glossy magazines, fashion magazines, hunting magazines, motorbike magazines. ... I guess I'm an image optimist.
Continue Reading "Re-imagining Photographs: Wanegechi Mutu" »
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