A Museum and a Garden Continued - WITH Photographs!

By the time I am ready to post this entry, I hope my photographs have uploaded.  Otherwise, it will make for dull reading, and you will have to remember to check back tomorrow to look at the photos.

 

My first full day in D.C. I had planned to go to two museums: the National Museum of Natural History (to which I had never been) and the Renwick (again).  Well, D thought he might have time to join me so instead I went to the National Arboretum end of the mall right on top of the Museum of the American Indian (in which I had been very disappointed on my only visit there two or three years ago).  From there I called D and found out that he would not have time after all.  So, since it was hot (not beastly, but humid hot), I decided to cool off in the American Indian museum and see what I thought of it this time.

 

As so often happens, a second visit did improve my opinion.  I went to see a special exhibit figuring that might be more interesting than the permanent ones that had left me unimpressed.  "Oh dear," I thought, "the special exhibit is Central American Ceramics."  I wandered in the first room and started on the fringe.  One can always learn something and one can frequently find inspiration are two of my personal mantras.  So I metaphorically smacked myself, straightened my spine, and moved into the exhibit.

 

It was stunning.  Simply amazing.  Riveting.  (Photos to come - some time!)

This marble vessel is the type of "ceramics" I expected to see a lot of - white marble or marble-like, straight sided, and squared off handles.

Instead, the following items are the kinds of things I saw.

The designs on this plate above and the precision of their execution are amazing.  The plate is completely decorated.  Note how the crocodile depiction is deliberately asymmetrical.

This piece above and the next one below really captured my fancy.  I think of our own depiction of Halloween spirits.

The vessel below is an especially fine piece, I think.  It has marvelous painted designs as well as the three dimensional additions (influenced by a tree that has thorny bumps like this vessel).

 One of the things this museum does is show you the ancient (in this case) ceramics and then include modern pieces by native people that clearly show the influence of their cultural heritage.  The designs are not copies of earlier work, but the viewer is encouraged to see how a contemporary artist has used his or her "bred in the bone" artistic heritage to extend that earlier artistic vision and alter it to suit the artist and today's aesthetic.  It was interesting to me to hear what a few visitors had to say about the newer works once they "got" why it was there.

Unfortunately, the placard with information about this piece did not upload (my error, I'm sure), but this is the modern piece made in 2012 (I think) and influenced by other ancient ceramics with repetitive geometric designs equally dramatic.

 

 

Then I had lunch (in my experience, this is one of the best museums for food in DC) which was a wild rice and watercress salad with a smidgen of  a taste of a hearts of palm and pineapple salad and wandered some more.  This time I found an exhibit of contemporary - well, doll making for lack of a better description.  For those of you who enjoy embellishing your work with beads, embroidery, or thread, oh my, just wait for the photos.  These were no ordinary dolls.  I may have to search for the correct term.  If you appreciate outstanding hand work, please check back to see the pictures!



See below for the site to see more (and better) photographs of this wonderful exhibit.  This is only one of several dolls - all hand made (even the animals) and hand embellished.  They are works of art and worth some study.

 

I finally left to get to the Natural History Museum which had two exhibits I wanted to see.  On my way there, I wandered through the Sculpture Garden where I saw wonderful specimens of larches (aka tamarack) and lindens.  There's a great pool with jets of water all around where one can sit and simply relax.  And there's sculpture.  Whimsical, delightful sculpture.  I have pictures, I promise. 

 

Tomorrow's entry will, I sincerely hope, have many, many photos.  Until then . . .

Here is the address for the National Museum of the American Indian. 

http://nmai.si.edu/home/

Once there, you will see the above doll in the box "Grand Procession: Dolls from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection.  Click on the text under the photo and you will enter a magical world.