The Joy of Doing Things Alone

Last Sunday marked the end of a nearly two week vacation, my first official one since I began working full -time nearly two years ago. I made grandiose plans of weekend jaunts to New York and all of the work, sleep and work I was going to do with my idle time. While there was PLENTY of time for work, there wasn't much time left over for much else. I attended class through the middle of the week, spent lots of time at my internship and very little time lazing about.

The last thing I had on my vacation bucket list was a trip to the Corcoran (I've been dying to get back there since our visit a few weeks back) and had been meaning to pay the 30 Americans show a visit...I took my roommate and two good friends with me and I couldn't have made a more egregious error. Before I could so much as read a label or make it through a single intro text, my friends had left me behind and had ambled through the exhibit like they were in Giant trying to make good time to the register.

There was so much to see, so much to marvel at, so much to take in, and I felt rushed. Who cared about lunch when there was a Kehinde Wiley the size of my house to ooh and ahh over? Not to mention, the Gordon Parks gallery? The Parks works were so touching, they will have to serve as the foundation for my next blog entry.

I shouldn't have allowed my friends to distract me. However, I do see this experience (or lack thereof) as a poignant reminder of what I must do as a future curator, lover of art and a person; 1. keep a little for myself, 2. take my time and take it all in and 3. learn and revel in the joy of doing things alone. I should have gone to the show by myself and given myself the opportunity to commune with the art. There were so many phenomenal artists I had simply NEVER heard of. Which serves as another reminder, no matter how much you know or THINK you know, there's always more to learn. THANK GOODNESS!

There is a Miles Davis quote from an interview where Davis is asked about what he thinks about his critics and what they have to say about his works. I can't recall exactly what he says, but it was something to the effect, "Critics? What critics? If it gets by me, it's alright." I have to start being my own best critic and pay no nevermind to the people, even the people who call themselves my friends if they try and take me off of my game and get me to take my eyes off of the prize: my Masters in Art and Museum Studies.

National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery

After a wonderful in-class exercise with label-writing a field trip to the National Portrait Gallery was in perfect order.  The fact that NPG prioritizes the sitter before the artist on their labels is something that I had never given any thought to previously. It would seem to make sense however. The art they exhibit is more about the sitter than it is about the artist. Although the artist is extremely important, unless the sitter is deemed extraordinarily important or it is a major masterpiece that is a revered part of the canon, it seems that very rarely is the sitter shown very much attention at all. Almost as though they were a prop, a throwaway, an add-on or a bonus. 

140 is the magic number

Enough words to make the point plain, to flesh out the concepts and move on.  Much like a more fleshed out but carefully contrived more scholarly Twitter. I believe that with guidelines such as these in mind, I would be able to hone in on becoming more succinct with my writing. It is something I know I should definitely focus on.

Bill & Melinda Gates: The Billionaires Next Door

The amount of time spent deconstructing the newest addition to NPG’s collection was also very insightful. Bill and Melinda Gates’ appeal to be more like everybody else despite their billions and billions of dollars. It’s refreshing albeit a bit unrealistic, aside from the fact that their portrait is impressive in technique but approachable in its outcome. Upon first glance I certainly thought that the portrait was a painted over digital print on canvas. I can only compare the detail and intensity to the portraits of Simmie Knox, a portraitist who is based, here in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area has painted several Presidents, Dignitaries, university presidents and historians among others. http://www.simmieknox.com/official.htm

Mary Cassatt and Immortalization

The portrait on display of Mary Cassatt by Edgar Degas is troubling. Troubling because if I were Cassatt I would have sat a little more erect, made myself a bit more presentable and would have insisted on my  friend painting me not as I really was, but as I wanted to be portrayed for years to come. I guess that brings to the fore, the concept of immortalization. Self-promoting or sustaining vanity and perhaps foresight. Perhaps it is naïve of me to think that everything should be beautiful, but when it comes to how I want to be remembered, I certainly don’t want to be remembered as slump shouldered or run-down. I may feel that way, but I certainly don’t want to be remembered that way. Perhaps Cassatt really did think better of it after the fact, she forbade Degas to sell the painting to an American collector.

All in all, it was a wonderfully enlightening afternoon, I enjoyed myself immensely.

Labels

I thoroughly enjoyed the in-class label writing assignment.  It has been, perhaps my favorite assignment this semester. The ability to interpret and engage with my peers and have formal and informal conversations was phenomenal. I learn by doing so much easier than by theory only. When I am engaged everything is put into perspective. The ability to get inside of my classmates’ heads and to give them a fresh point of view was wonderful. And, on the same token, to have my peers, my future colleagues to be able to help me flesh out ideas and concepts was refreshing. I hope that things I said made sense. My post-it comments were very much like a stream of consciousness. My reactions to some pieces were visceral, to others much more controlled or informed.

It’s difficult to know what you know about what interests you and to consider that others who may know nothing are part of your audience. Their take, their interest, their interpretations matter, because you are not curating just for curating’s sake or for yourself, you are curating and writing and narrating your story or a story for someone else. My mother would often say, “In life, there’s always a reason, and the reason.” I brought my reasons to the table for discussion and ended up walking away with many more that I would never have considered otherwise. This exercise is exactly why I am in this program, to be challenged and to engage with other future scholars.

I explored the concept of Black female identity. I chose images from Deb Willis’ Mother Wit Series, Carrie Mae Weems’ Kitchen Table Series, Varnette Honeywood, Kara Walker and Mickalene Thomas. I would hope that I spoke to the polytheism of women who may look like me, but dress, think, walk, talk and create differently. As a young black woman, I have lived my entire life in the skin I’m in but to be able to see myself and show other people life through my eyes was wholly empowering.

I expressed in class that I’ve never been much of an animals person, but after seeing Suzie’s affinity for them and after chatting with her, while I do not subscribe to her line of thinking, I can understand it much better and even have an appreciation. I even had an a-ha moment when I thought about the fact that much like Suzie’s dogs through the ages, they had been pets, kept-beings, property. And then,  I began thinking about how much like Suzie’s dogs, the women who were being portrayed were once considered property and in some locales, still are. It was a very sobering moment. One I think I may explore some day in a show I may mount. Fabulous.

Anacostia

Historic Anacostia is home to the “Big Chair,” Cedar Hill, the home of celebrated orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the Anacostia Neighborhood museum. I have visited the museum on three occasions. Each time, the exhibition was laid out in an intriguing manner, utilizing the gallery to create a personal experience in the space. Each exhibition arrested my attention and each time I have gone home feeling inspired and invigorated. I would have loved to have shared my experience with other visitors, but each of my three visits to Anacostia, I have been one of maybe three visitors in the ENTIRE museum. This pains me deeply, the museum is a GEM, I just wish more people were aware, one that it exists and two that they are free to visit it as they would any other Smithsonian. I wonder whether location and difficulty finding it or the subject matter that is to blame for their abysmal attendance.

If the issue is location, Anacostia’s situation seems to be akin to the predicament faced by private museums such as the Corcoran and Museum of Women in the Arts. How do these museums thrive? How do they convince tourists and native Washingtonians alike that their museum is worth the time and price of admission? That the feeling and overall takeaways are worth the effort? I would hope that there is a strategic plan either in the works or being assembled to address the seemingly precarious situation over the bridge in the historic neighborhood nestled cozily on a hilltop. Although the neighborhood is by no means inviting and there are still shady looking characters at every turn and I would NEVER suggest walking through any part of it alone or at night, for what Anacostia lacks in immediate aesthetic beauty it makes up in breathtaking vistas of the rest of the city and a rich cultural history.

Smithsonian-run shuttles used to run from downtown D.C. to Anacostia but with little interest and rising gas costs, as of last month, shuttle services were suspended. As one of two non-National Mall “satellite” museums in Washington, with the other being the American Art Museum in Chinatown, my concern is that attendance will never improve if shuttle services over to Anacostia remain cut. Although off-the-Mall, Smithsonian American Art has the advantage of being RIGHT in the heart of Chinatown, a revived area constantly buzzing with activity and it also has the advantage of being metro accessible.

Some may argue that with a focus on its predominantly African American subject matter that it should merge with the future National Museum of  African American History and Culture and the African Art Museum which already exists on the National Mall. I would disagree. Anacostia has its own mission and is an anchor in an already economically, artistically and socially depressed area. Removing the community museum or relocating it to downtown would throw off the balance that Anacostia provides as an anchor in its immediate community. I don’t have a solution yet, but it’s definitely something that I’m keeping at the forefront of my mind.