Bringing the Silhouette Out of the Shadows

Where: National Portrait Gallery

When: closing March 10, 2019

Last week, I saw a lot of things at the National Gallery, this week it was back and forth to the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum.  The first show I saw was one on silhouettes, an art form I'd given very little thought before now.

One of the difficulties facing the National Portrait Gallery is that so much of their collection consists of images of white men.  That's not their fault, white men were the people who held high office, owned the land and had the money to commission portraits of themselves for most of this country's history.  However, I've noticed that the NPG has tried very hard to add portraits that more completely reflect America as it is today, and America as it has always been - a nation of many different kinds of people.  This show of silhouettes might strike you as monochromatic, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Don't be fooled by the apparently simplicity of silhouettes; there's a lot more going on in these representation than you'd think at first glance.  The silhouette contained in "Flora: Bill of Sale" is one of the earliest known representations of an enslaved person.  Martha Ann Honeywell, a silhouette artist was not only a woman, she was also born with no hands or forearms and only one foot.  Nonetheless, she curt silhouettes, wrote verse and sculpted waxworks.  If she were alive today, she'd surely be featured in the Smithsonian's exhibit of works by artists with disabilities.  Moses Williams, an enslaved young person, was not only the subject of a silhouette by Charles Willson Peale, he was also quite gifted at the art of silhouette himself.

But it's not only historic pieces on display in this show.  Four modern-day artists working with silhouettes are featured also.  Kara Walker, whose work I've seen before at American Art, has a room full of depictions of violence towards African-Americans in silhouette.  Kristi Malakoff has constructed a silhouette maypole, a sort of intersection of silhouette and sculpture.  I loved the little birds flying above the action below.  Camille Utterback invites the visitor to create a silhouette by moving around her room; it seems odd at first but is actually kind of fun.

My favorite was Kumi Yamashita's room.  She folds paper and projects a light onto it to make a silhouette shadow on the wall.  It's hard to describe but really impressive.  Reading the wall notes, I was reminded of her incredible work from the Outwin competition - a portrait of her niece made of one continuous piece of thread wound around innumerable brads on a piece of wood.  Just stunning.

Verdict: Very interesting combination of old and new silhouettes - well worth a visit.

Riding the Coattails of the Musical

Where: Postal Museum

When: closing March 3, 2019

When I go to the Postal Museum, it's a long enough trip that I try to see more than one exhibit.  In addition to the John Lennon stamp album, I was able to see this show about Alexander Hamilton and the mail.

There are letters to and from Hamilton and stamps depicting him.  The Post Office started as a part of the Treasury Department (new fun fact!), much to the chagrin of Thomas Jefferson.  Hamilton and his regard for a powerful central government fell out of favor after his untimely death, but the Civil War revived his reputation, as the idea of the U.S. as a small agrarian country gave way to a larger, more industrial nation.

My only complaint with this show is that the pistols used in the duel between Aaron Burr and Hamilton were on display when the show opened, but only until mid-September.  If I had known I could have seen these artifacts, I would have gone sooner!  Clearly, I need to read the descriptions of exhibitions at the Smithsonian website more carefully, but shouldn't this sort of information be displayed more prominently?  I'm pretty sure this would have been a major draw to a museum that I've never seen crowded.

Verdict: If you like Hamilton, or are interested in early American history generally, check this out.  Without the pistols, I can't say this is of general interest.

And...We're Back!

Where: American History Museum

When:  closing March 5, 2019

So, as I type this, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over, and the Smithsonian and National Gallery of Art are open.  I went to see nine shows in four days, as the possibility exists that we could be right back in the soup by mid-February.  So frustrating!  I really hope the government stays open, because when there's a shutdown, innocent people suffer.  Plus, it actually costs us more money to close the government than to keep it open.  I'm really fuming over this, as you, dear reader, can doubtless tell.

But, while I have the largest museum complex in the world (and the National Gallery) available to me, I intend to make the most of them.  I've seen everything currently closing in February and am making headway into March.  If, in the next two weeks, I can get to all the shows closing before June, I'll feel pretty comfortable.  Will I be able to do it?  Stay tuned friends!

My first stop on my "welcome back tour" was American History.  My favorite museum when I was a child on class trips, I still love this place, as much for its small tucked away shows as for its "big ticket" displays.  I went to the Small Documents Gallery (which is named after the Smalls, who I'm assuming are donors, not for its size) to see a show on the Japanese internment camps.  An excellent display on a serious topic, the exhibit started by explaining the anti-Asian prejudice that has existed in America since at least the late 1800s.  Frankly, I was reminded of the current climate, as I read about fears of a "yellow horde" taking over the country.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, that fear turned into hysteria, and off went over 100,000 people to internment camps, losing their homes, their businesses and most of their possessions.  Even Dr. Seuss, who I had always thought of as a person urging tolerance, drew an anti-Japanese cartoon - shameful.

Amazingly enough, there were many young people of Japanese descent who served in the U.S. armed forces during the war, despite the fact that the families they left behind were incarcerated.  Being forced to live in primitive conditions was difficult, and it is a testament to the resilience of the Japanese-Americans in this situation that they created the art they did, formed the schools they did and fought for their rights after their release as they did.

Because the display doesn't end with the war.  It goes on to show the work that was done afterwards to get the government to acknowledge the wrong that was done.  President Ford rescinded Executive Order 9066, which created the internment camps; President Carter established a commission to issue a report on what should be done about the incarceration, and President Reagan signed a law admitting the wrong and issuing reparations to survivors.  A dear friend of mine who was born in an internment camp received one of those checks.

Verdict: Really fine display of a story that needs telling, especially when certain groups are demonized as scapegoats for our nation's problems.