Foot and Fire

During my wanderings in the Museum, I found some great pieces, pieces that do not reflect the "image" formed by the media in our minds. For example, I found some Picasso works which are not cubism as we usually know him with. I also found Marc Chagall in MoMA when I thought I need to see some Jewish galleries before I can meet it. I also liked the Klimt piece there when Neue Gallerie was where I thought all Klimt were. I will share them with you in due time and in separate blogs.  For this blog, I found a Jackson Pollock at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington D.C. and I was so pleased to see his creative father figure Thomas Hart Benson and learned about their story. I have seen a biopic of him and this side of his story was not touched.  Jackson Pollock has persevered in his quest to being an artist and succeeded in having his "drip" technique accepted in the American art world.  He was not a strong figure painter as I would surmise. Bu...

The word Smithsonian brings back memories of reading Time Magazine and Reader's Digest Magazine back in my younger days and New Yorker in my college years. It is a depository of all American Art. I learned that the Smithsonian Institute houses varied all-American thingy that has historical significance. I just chose two, the Museum  of American Art and its sister, the Renwick Gallery. These are the six features in the museum when we visited. I like the space and dedicated rooms, wings and floors in this museum as it gave intimacy to the art and the viewer. Meanwhile, the traffic is flowing outside of the room which is not annoying when one is having a personal commune with a particular art.  I want to bring your eyes with me to gaze towards the painting of Frederic Edwin Church as its glowing and admirable Northern Light has a gift of reflection on the end result of every war. This is a very relevant painting when taken in its hi...

The Renwick Gallery is the sister of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, which  houses contemporary american arts from sculpture to installations to crafts using trashes and currently celebrates its 50th year. My top three favorites from this gallery are the truce flag, the glass cast sculpture and the spirit box. Top 1  I was in awe of the TRUCE FLAG and the question which applies to our warring nations today, "What if this flag of truce was the flag we knew, instead of the Confederate battle flag?"  Yes, what if?  What if we start anew for the 21st century and move forward? It's not abandoning the past but looking at the future without guns and blood.  Sonya Clark born 1967, Washington, DC in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia Monumental 2019 Woven linen with madder dye and tea stain Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the American Women's History Initiative A...