Singing Just For Me

Where: Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

When: ends October 14, 2018

So after I saw Mark Bradford's Pickett's Charge, I asked the docent on duty at the main entrance reception desk where I might find the "Tino Sehgal: This You" performance.  I'd heard that a person would be performing as people walked by outside the museum and in the garden but wasn't exactly sure where to go.  She directed me to the garden, thinking that perhaps the performances wouldn't be going on, but that there were some Seghal sculptures to see there.

I never did find the sculptures, but as I was walking around aimlessly, a woman all of a sudden starting singing.  I stopped and listened and thanked her when she was done.  It was a little weird to have someone I didn't know singing just for me, but I thought it would be rude to walk past her or pretend I didn't know she was performing.

As I walked on, another person walked up, and she did the same thing (with a different bit of song).  He just walked on, so perhaps I'm not well versed in how these pop-up performances work.  Or maybe, he was just rude.

The woman had a good voice, so I liked hearing her, whether as a direct performance, or as a sort of background music as I made my way out of the garden.

Verdict: How often do you get to have your own private concert? If you're at the Hirshhorn this coming week, give a listen.

An Unexpected Pleasure

Where: National Gallery of Art, East Building

When: closing October 28, 2018

The East Building of the NGA is currently devoting a room to the works of Jackson Pollock.  The signature piece is the one pictured here, "Mural," from 1943.  He painted it originally for a hallway in Peggy Guggenheim's townhouse, and she donated it to the University of Iowa Museum of Art.  Why she decided to give it to an institution so far removed from the New York art world (as opposed to say, the Guggenheim), I don't know, and it's obviously outside the scope of this exhibit to elucidate that point.

However it made its way to middle America, it's back on the East Coast for a visit now.  Pollock is not really to my taste, but I'll say this for "Mural,"  it's far better than his drip paintings, some of which are on display.  There's something rather cheerful in the use of the color yellow in this painting, and I don't dislike the swirling nature of the lines.  You'll also see some works on paper, which I'm tempted to call doodling, but will not.

So, I was thinking that this was about what I had expected, which is to say, art I don't really care for very much, but nothing like as bad as Georg Baselitz, when I noticed a doorway into another room.  Thinking there might be more to the show, I walked through it and came upon this work:

Not more Jackson Pollock, but more of the NGA's modern art collection, and among the offerings, "Girl on Globe 2" by Yinka Shonibare.  I had seen this piece once before, at the Corcoran, and I knew that the NGA had acquired it, but I hadn't actually seen it in its new location before.

I was filled with surprise and delight to see this fantastic work - it's about climate change and the French Revolution and how society treats children all at once.  I'll say that the display at the Corcoran was far superior to this.  It was the centerpiece of a room a French count had built for his princess fiancee, so you had the pre-Revolution excess and the argument against it, all in one place.  Really wonderful curation.  Not so here; the Shonibare is in with a bunch of other modern works, but I'm so happy I found it, I'll not quibble.

Verdict: The Pollock show is fine, if you like that sort of thing, and I'm very pleased to know the Shonibare piece has landed in a place where I can see it any time I like.

Two Displays at Natural History

 When: closing July 9, 2018

How much life is contained in one cubic foot of earth or water?  Turns out the answer to this question is "a whole lot."

Scientists use something called a biocube to explore the mid-water - the part of the ocean below the surface.  The description of this area is great: it's cold, it's dark and everything is hungry.  This is not a place for humans, so they send a remotely operated vehicle to place the biocube and then watch everything that floats through it.

Sound fun?  You can make your own biocube and use it in more accessible areas.

When: closing sometime in October 2018

This is a library display in those two big cases on the ground floor.  No matter how busy the museum gets (and it gets really busy), I'm always the only person looking at those exhibits.  I feel bad for the people who clearly spend a lot of time setting them up, having had that thankless task myself in a library I once worked in.

This display is about insects - they are the most diverse group of animals on Earth and make up over two-thirds of Earth's species.  The Biodiversity Heritage Library is the largest open access digital repository of biodiversity literature in the world, and it's operated under the Smithsonian's auspices.  Scientists can use it to identify new species and track variations in species they already know about.

What I particularly liked about this display is that the open books look like butterflies - nice touch.

Verdict: Two interesting displays - if you're at the museum for one of the larger exhibits, give these a glance as well.