One of the smaller Smithsonian museums that I have visited is the Renwick Gallery. It is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum but only houses a few exhibits. It is housed in a building built in 1861 that was DC’s first art museum. During the Civil War it was used by the Union to dispense Army uniforms and at one point it became the U.S. Court of Claims. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson transferred the building to the Smithsonian “for use as a gallery of arts, craft, and design.” The building was renamed the Renwick Gallery in honour of its architect.
Although very small, the Renwick is home to some of my favourite pieces that I have seen so far.
This is "Game Fish" It is made of game pieces, and toys and blocks and yo-yo's and all that kind of stuff.
This one is " I am no one"
This one is one of my all time favourites. It is called " Ghost Clock". Although it looks like a normal bed sheet over a grandfather clock it actually is not. The whole thing was hand carved from a single block of laminated mahogany. The details are so great that even up close you could be fooled into thinking it is exactly what the artist wants you to believe it is....a grandfather clock, covered in a bedsheet.
From the Renwick Gallery I made my way over to the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. (actually I went to the archives first but that is for another post). It is made up of 2 museums, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Nationl Portrait Gallery. Both very neat places and one the few museums that is open late (until 7pm).
The building itself has been around for a while (construction started in 1836 to be exact). It was one of the first public buildings contructed in early Washington and was the site of Lincoln's inaugural ball in March of 1865. The building is modeled after the Parthenon in Athens and has a really neat indoor courtyard that has cascading water sidewalks and a star lit sky. Here are few pieces that I found interesting.
This picture is from 1881 by a Virginia artist named Richard Norris Brooke. It is called "A Dog Swap"
This is "Adams Memorial" by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It was commissioned by writer Henry Adams after the suicide of his wife. He wanted it to express the Buddhist idea of Nirvana (a state of being beyond joy or sorrow). The figure reflects the search for new insights into the mysteries of life and death. The being is neither male or female, neither triumphent nor downcast. It did not seem to fit in with the other pieces that were in the area but when reading the description it appears to fit in perfectly.
This one is " The throne of the third heaven of the nations' millenium general assembly" by James Hampton. It is made of gold and silver alumium foil, kraft paper, and plastic over wood furniture, paperboard and glass. Although it is believed that the museum has aquired all the pieces that belong, it is believed that the artist died before his work was completed. The picture really does not give a clear feeling of what it is like to stand in front of it but I cannot image that there could be more to it. It truly was impressive to see.
This is bottlecap giraffe. Artist unknown.
Julie
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