Nature's Best 2012 Photography Awards: Windland Smith Rice International Awards

Where: Natural History Museum

When: through March 4, 2014

The Natural History Museum displays the winners of this competition every year.  If you like nature photography, this is a must see exhibit.  I always look forward to seeing this - it never gets old.

I think what makes it so appealing, in addition to the fantastic photography, is the display itself.  All the pictures are in large format, so you feel as if you're drawn into the picture.  They also use top-quality paper and printing, so these are the best photos you can see.  The colors are just spectacular, and there's a wide range of subject matter.

It's hard to pick a favorite photo, but I think mine was the one of the gorilla mother and baby.  The mother was looking at a magazine, with a photo of her baby.  A great moment, captured beautifully.

I looked up some information on Windland Smith Rice.  She was a nature photographer, as well as a mentor to others in the field.  Sadly, she died at age 35, of a disease that affects athletes (she ran triathlons).  This competition is held in her name to honor her memory.  I'm very sorry for her family's loss, and this is a wonderful way to remember her.

Verdict: Don't miss this display - easily managed in a lunch hour.

Puppetry in America

Where: National Museum of American History

When: through March 26, 2014

This exhibit is in the display cases in middle of the first floor, just as you come in from Constitution Avenue.  There is a wide variety of things in the cases, lots of popular culture items - things that would attract the eye and lead you to wander further into the museum.  The cases themselves look rather dated; I think they're not the best venue for the items contained within them, but perhaps they are the best the museum has to offer at present.  We can only hope that a wealthy donor will visit and share my views - offering to replace them with nicer fixtures.

The small display of puppets is actually quite interesting, and I learned an enormous amount in a very short period of time.  I had no idea shadow puppets were originally from Asia, or that hand puppets have been around since the stone age.  I didn't realize the word marionette was French and referred to the Virgin Mary, one of the earliest figures to be used in morality plays.  I learned that the only puppet factory in the United States, one of the largest in the world, was founded by Hazelle Hedges Rollins.

In addition to all of this education, I also got to see some great puppets.  Not only did they have a Punch and Judy from the late 19th century, they also had some modern-day figures on display.  Persons a bit older than myself will probably be drawn to the Howdy Doody, the Charlie McCarthy or the original Jim Henson muppets (pictured above).  I was thrilled to see Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit, from Captain Kangaroo.  All they needed was some ping pong balls!

Verdict: Give this a look whether you're in the museum for another show, holiday shopping at the Museum Store, or if, like me, you haven't been to American History for a while.

The Dying Gaul: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome

Where: National Gallery of Art, West Building, Main Floor

When: through March 16, 2014


I think this is the first time I've gone to see an exhibit on the day it opened, which happened to be the only day I was able to get to the museums this week.  I prefer going two or three times per week, but sometimes life intrudes!

Like the Capitoline Venus, on display in the same place earlier this year, this sculpture is a masterpiece of ancient art and is on loan from the Capitoline Museum in Rome.  This is the first time the piece has left Italy since Napoleon carted it off in 1797 and put it on display in the Louvre in Paris.  I'm assuming the National Gallery asked nicely, rather than sending an army to pillage it.  It's part of the celebration of Italian culture that's been going on this year, as was the Venus and the da Vinci Codex at the Air and Space Museum.

The Dying Gaul has been admired by students of art (for whom a copy was part of their standard curriculum) and art lovers generally for hundreds of years.  Thomas Jefferson was eager to acquire a copy for a never-realized art gallery at Monticello.  The work also became a required stop on the Grand Tour, and inspired works by many other artists.

This piece is quite impressive - the musculature is incredible.  It's not a terribly pleasant work, as it depicts a dying warrior, but you can't help but admire the craftsmanship.  Happily, you can walk around the entire sculpture, so as to get a full sense of just how good this is.  There's almost no damage to the piece, which considering that it was created between 1800 and 1900 years ago is quite an achievement.  I noticed that the sword depicted next to the Gaul looks as if the tip has been broken off, but other than that, it seemed to be intact.

My only criticism is of the location of the work, and this is a problem that will resolve itself in a few weeks.  The Gaul is in the rotunda on the Main Floor, in just the same spot as the Venus.  As a general rule, this would be an excellent bit of placement.  Amidst the massive marble columns and fountain, it's the most dramatic area of the museum.  So what's my beef?  At present, it's decorated for the holidays, which means it's a festive display of lighted greenery and bright poinsettias.  Incongruous to say the least for such a serious sculpture.  Oh well, after the holidays, the Gaul will fit right in.

Verdict: Absolutely worth seeing, although I might wait until after the holiday decorations are put away.  On the other hand, the floral display is lovely and worth a visit all on its own!

Bound for Freedom's Light: African Americans and the Civil War

Where: National Portrait Gallery

When: through March 2, 2014

The National Portrait Gallery has a large collection of Civil War-related pieces, as one might expect, and as we're now marking the 150th anniversary of the War, they've set up a series of exhibits on different aspects of that conflict.  They are displayed in a little niche in the area where the Civil War portraits are hung, and they change each year.  Right now, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the focus is on the role that African Americans played in the Civil War.

At the beginning of the conflict, neither side would allow African Americans to take up arms, perhaps in part due to the fact that both North and South believed the War would last only a short time.  Sadly, that proved not to be the case, and in 1863, the Union Army accepted African American recruits.  Mention is made here of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the focus of the larger show at the National Gallery of Art.  I realize that the National Gallery is not part of the Smithsonian, but it would have been nice to see a reference to that show.  If someone's looking at this exhibit, they'd probably like to know about the NGA display.  I guess it's the librarian in me - always looking for cross-references.

The South did, however, make use of slave labor in non-military roles.  This struck me as incredibly awful.  To force people to assist their captors in fighting to make sure they can continue to own other human beings is yet another demonstration of how repugnant the institution of slavery was.  Many Confederate officers brought their own slaves to serve as body servants, but almost no images of these people exist.  One is on display here, the only such photograph in the Gallery's collection.  by 1865, things were sufficiently desperate that the South did enlist African-Americans in the Army, but by that time, the writing was on the wall.

Some African Americans escaped from their captors and gained their freedom by crossing the Union lines.  Until they were allowed to enlist in the Army, they served in the Navy or in support roles.  Women served as nurses.  One slave, Abraham, was literally blown to freedom.  The Union Army was attempting to break through a Confederate fortification in Vicksburg.  Abraham, working in the tunnels underneath, was blown across the Union lines by an explosion and gained his freedom in a spectacular fashion.

There's also a portrait of Major Martin Delaney, the first African-American major to receive a field command.  He'd been concerned that, although there were African-American troops, there were no officers to lead them.

Verdict: A good display, especially if you're interested in the Civil War or African-American history.  It's small, so easily managed in a lunch hour.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art

Where: Smithsonian American Art Museum

When: through March 2, 2014

A Washington Post art critic gave this exhibit a pretty ho-hum review recently, positing that Latino art wasn't really a meaningful concept.  His opinion is that the works of art displayed here are too diverse to make a coherent show.  This has been a controversial opinion, with Latino artists objecting to the idea that they are often overlooked from general surveys of American art, and when they get an opportunity to display their work, they get criticized then as well.  I decided to see what all the fuss was about and make up my own mind if there is such a thing as Latino art.

I'll grant you that the works displayed here are certainly diverse.  With so many different artists, how could they not be?  This show also covers a fairly wide time period, with some works from the 1960s and 1970s, and others quite recent.  A lot has gone on in the art world in the last 40+ years; there's no reason to think that Latino artists would be immune from these changes, any more than any other groups of artists.

What I did find was that there was a unifying characteristic to this art that transcended the different types of work on display.  I'm not entirely certain exactly how to describe it, but the best word I could come up with was exuberance.  There's something uninhibited in each of these works, something that's unafraid of being expressed.  To describe it as "in your face" sounds pejorative, and I don't mean it to be.  There's a determination to speak out, without fear and without dissembling.  Is this a uniquely Latino quality?  Is this what marks a work of art as not just American art, but Latino American art?  I'm not qualified to say, but that's my opinion - make of it what you will.

Setting aside the question of whether there is or is not Latino American art, the question becomes is the show any good or not?  I liked many of the pieces I saw, but others I passed over fairly quickly.  This is typical of my reaction to most shows; it's rare that I like or dislike everything that I see.  It's a great way to see artists with whom you might be unfamiliar, and I must say, the work "An Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio" by Amalia Mesa-Bains is worth seeing all on its own.  It's interesting to see a group of people making art that influences the mainstream American community while feeling isolated from that world.

Verdict: Go and see this show to make up your mind for yourself.  As for me, I think there is such a thing as Latino art, and I look forward to seeing more of it in years to come.

Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections

Where: National Gallery of Art, West Building, Main Floor

When: through March 2, 2014

There's lots of heaven and not much earth on display in this exhibit at the National Gallery.  If you like religious iconography, this is the show for you!  If you don't, you may want to give this a miss, or spend your time in just a couple of the rooms.  Personally, I grew weary of the religious art after a short time and was happy to move into a part of the show that dealt with jewelry and coins.  This is the Gallery's first show of Byzantine art, and I'm always happy to be part of the first of something or to see works that have not been on display in the US before, so that was satisfying.  Overall though, this just wasn't to my taste.

The Byzantine Empire began in 330, when Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to the site of the ancient city of Byzantium.  The city was renamed Constantinople and is now the modern city of Istanbul.  The Byzantine Empire lasted for over 1,000 years before it was sacked by the Turks in 1453.  This gives a wide scope for artistic expression, as times and tastes will undergo numerous changes in a millennium.  Interestingly enough, the art doesn't really change all that much.  Once Christianity displaced paganism, there's a certain sameness to the works, until the end of the Empire, when gothic influences can be seen to appear.

The first room has several examples of pagan statues, sadly defaced by Christians.  If you like noses, you'll be sorely disappointed.  Why knock them off, one wonders?  Is it because it's the easiest way to destroy a statue?  They were also moved by religious fervor to carve crosses into the foreheads of these representations of the ancient gods.  I was appalled by the senseless destruction, much like when the Taliban blew up those Buddhist statues.  Anyone who destroys art is a poor excuse for a human being.

Once the Christians had firm control of Byzantium, a new movement sprang up called Iconoclasm.  This is a belief that graven images are evil and must be destroyed.  Obviously, you don't have a great deal of artwork from this period.  The original Iconoclasts (this must be where the word comes from?) seem to have a lot in common with Oliver Cromwell, who also had a problem with art almost a thousand years later.  A pox on both their houses, I say! Cooler heads eventually prevailed, and the icons returned.

Although I lost interest in all of the religious paintings after a while, I did enjoy the mosaics on display.  I like tilework generally, and this was quite nice, although not in the best of shape after so many years.

The section entitled "The Pleasures of Life" held my interest most strongly - lots of jewelry, not so many paintings of a dying Christ.

Verdict: Overall, not a show I'd go to see again, although I did like seeing the early, pre-Christian work.  It was quite crowded when I went, so be prepared to share your experience with many others.