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.