Multiverse

Artist Leo Villareal's (American, b. 1967) light sculpture Multiverse (2008), created for the underground walkway between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art. The work features 41,000 computer-programmed LED nodes that run through channels along the 200-foot-long space. 

After hardware was installed in the existing architecture, Villareal programmed light sequences through his custom-designed software to create abstract configurations of light. 

Villareal began experimenting with light, sound and video after studying set design, sculpture, new media design, and computational media.

National Gallery of Art, on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue N.W. 

Shadow Sites

Detail from Shadow Sites II, Jananne Al-Ani, 2011, single channel digital video.

Vast deserts and ancient ruins often define imagery of the Middle East. These views of a landscape as a timeless and depopulated space have long fascinated Iraqi-born artist Jananne Al-Ani, culminating in her Shadow Sites exhibition, on view at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Al-Ani's latest video work, Shadow Sites II (2011), is composed of aerial film footage shot in Jordan from a vantage point far above the landscape, reminiscent of early archaeological and World War I reconnaissance photographs. On view through February 10, 1050 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Beat Memories

Allen Ginsberg photographed by William S. Burroughs, 1953, copyright 2012 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved. 

Photographs taken by 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) of himself and his fellow Beat poets are the subject of an exhibition at New York University's Grey Art Gallery. Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg includes portraits of William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and other literary figures of the Beat Generation. The black-and-white works are supplemented by original manuscripts, typewritten poems, correspondence, drawings, and sketches. 

Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, 1953, copyright 2012 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved. 

Photographs document the counterculture generation from the '50s through the '90s. "We are pleased to host this exhibition of Ginsberg's celebrated portraits," notes Lynn Gumpert, director of the Grey Art Gallery. "Many were taken within walking distance of Greenwich Village, which holds countless favored Beat haunts. Exhibiting Beat Memories at the Grey Art Gallery displays these captivating works nearly next door to their original settings."

William S. Burroughs photographed by Allen Ginsberg, 1953, copyright 2012 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved.

Ginsberg moved from New Jersey to New York City in 1943 to begin undergraduate studies at Columbia University. There he met William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, who would become leading Beat figures. As he was developing his poetic voice, he photographed himself and friends in New York, San Francisco and on his travels.

Bob Donlon, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, painter Robert La Vigne, and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights Books, San Francisco, photographed by Peter Orlovsky, 1956, copyright 2012 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved. 

The poignancy of a photograph comes from looking back to a fleeting moment in a floating world. --Ginsberg, 1990. 

On view through April 6, Grey Art Gallery, NYU, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY. 

The Newspaper in Art

El Lissitzky, Sergei Sen'kin, Katalog des Sowjet-Pavillons auf der Internationalen Presse-Ausstellung (Catalog of the Soviet Pavilion at the International Press Exhibition), Cologne, 1928. Concertina volume with photomechanical reproductions, collection Merrill C. Berman. 

A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Shock of the News, examines the manifestations of the "newspaper phenomenon" from 1909 to 2009 through works by more than 60 artists. A span of collages, paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, and photographs reflect on the role of newsprint in art, as subject and material. 

Artist and designer El Lissitzky (Soviet, 1890-1941) designed the exhibition catalog for the Soviet Pavilion at the International Press Exhibition in Cologne, 1928, an exhibition that informed visitors about the significance of the press in Soviet society since the Revolution. The catalog integrates typography and images into a dynamic compositional style, presenting material not in diagrams or drawings but as a fusion of exhibition items--kinetic objects, models, statistics, neon advertisements, and illustrations. 

Hans Arp, Cover of the journal Dada, no. 4-5: Anthologie Dada, 1919. Woodcut on colored paper adhered to newsprint (deluxe edition), Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 

Sculptor and collagist Hans Arp (French, 1886-1966) had his origins in abstract painting, later taking up impulses from Cubist collage. Putting together materials as he discovered them, Arp mixed organic and geometric shapes, creating montages of unaltered fragments of found objects. 

Man Ray, Transmutation, 1916. Watercolor, ink, crayon, charcoal, graphite, and collage on newspaper, Moderna Museet, Stockholm. 

An early collage piece entitled Transmutation, 1916, points to painter, photographer and filmmaker Man Ray's (American, 1890-1976) interest in the film medium and anticipates his later film production of the 1920s. It features a sheet of newspaper turned on its side, over which are pasted the letters THEATR, indirectly referring to Ray's own cinematic ideas. 

A novel exhibition of artists using newspaper as an integral part of their material. On view through January 27. 

National Gallery of Art, on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington, DC. 

Picasso Black and White

Pablo Picasso in front of The Kitchen (La cuisine, 1948) in his rue des Grands-Augustins studio. Photo: Herbert List/Magnum Photos.

The Guggenheim Museum's Picasso Black and White exhibition focuses on the Spanish artist's lifelong exploration of a black-and-white palette throughout his career. Claiming that color weakens, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) purged it from his work in order to highlight structure and form in his art. 

Pablo Picasso, Accordionist (L'accordéoniste), Céret, summer 1911. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, by gift. Copyright 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Kristopher McKay copyright The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. 

This chronological survey, spanning 1904 to 1971, includes paintings, sculptures and works on paper. The recurrent motif of black, white and gray is evident in his Blue and Rose periods, investigations into Cubism and neoclassical figurative paintings. In his later works he continued to apply a reduction of color. 

Pablo Picasso, The Milliner's Workshop (Atelier de la modiste), Paris, January 1926. Musée national d'art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Centre Pompidou, Paris, gift of the artist, 1947. Copyright 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: CNAC/MNAM/Dist. Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY. 

Managing a complicated composition without having to organize contrasts of color, Picasso created such masterpieces as The Milliner's Workshop (1926). The graphic quality of his black-and-white works harks back to Paleolithic cave paintings, grisaille and European drawing. 

I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them. Everything you can imagine is real. --Picasso

Pablo Picasso, The Maids of Honor (Las Meninas, after Velázquez) (Les Ménines, vue d'ensemble, d'après Velázquez), La Californie, August 17, 1957. Museu Picasso, Barcelona, gift of the artist, 1968. Copyright 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Gassull Fotografia. 

Picasso used this distinctive motif to explore a centuries-long tradition of Spanish masters, such as Diego Velázquez, El Greco and Francisco de Goya, whose use of black and gray was predominant. While his work is often seen through the lens of his diverse styles and subjects, this exhibition presents a perspective on a lesser known aspect of his art. On view through January 23. 

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

Freedom Plaza

Freedom Plaza's entry to Pennsylvania Avenue. A site for festivals and events, the plaza was designed by Venturi, Rauch & Scott Brown in 1980 and displays Pierre L'Enfant's original plan for Washington in black and white stone. Around the edges of the map are inscriptions with quotes about the District from Walt Whitman and President Wilson, among others. 

Woodrow Wilson House

The Woodrow Wilson House is a National Historic Landmark and house museum located in the Embassy Row section of Washington. President Wilson retired to this Georgian Revival townhouse on March 4, 1921, at the end of his second term. A time capsule of President Wilson's Washington years (1912-1924), it offers visitors a glimpse into the life of a scholar, educator, governor, and statesman. Above, sheet music and Steinway piano in the drawing room.

Photo credit Robert A. Enholm.

 

The Woodrow Wilson House transports us back to the early twentieth century when electricity, telephones, automobiles, radio, airplanes, and silent movies were novel and the world was dominated by kings and emperors with vast colonial holdings. President Wilson's administration saw many of the changes that created what we know as the modern world.

--Robert A. Enholm, Executive Director, Woodrow Wilson House Historic Site

 

The house contains memorabilia and original furnishings including portraits, books, commemorative china, furniture, and autographed photographs of world leaders. Above, view through the arched window on the stairway landing to the solarium and upper terrace of the garden.

 

  

President Wilson had no ghostwriter and only rarely dictated letters. Most of the time he composed messages, notes and addresses and typed them out on his own typewriter. Many of these papers were drafted on an old portable typewriter which he took with him into the White House.

 

 

The library holds the leather chair Wilson used at Cabinet meetings, numerous personal effects and volumes related to or dating from the Wilson era.

 

The Woodrow Wilson House is located at 2340 S Street, NW, Washington, DC. Open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Maintained and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.