I took metro downtown today to DC. Thought I would walk around and look at art and stuff. It has been about ten years since I have been there.
Did most of the west side of the National Mall. The American History Museum, Natural History Museum, National Gallery of Art, and the East Building.
Much has changed, but there were some familiar things too.
In the 1970’s I used to spend hours in the museums, with family, school trips, or just wandering after being dropped off.
The American History Museum changed the most. Much more popular culture oriented, and a whole bunch of corporate branding of almost everything. Sad and sickening. I didn’t spend as much time there.
Natural History has been updated, and is pretty nice. Most if not all of the old ‘anthropology’ exhibits are gone. Lots of cafe’s and museum shops.
The East Building was pretty cool. There was a Mark Rothko exhibit that I skipped, but they had my favorite Abstract Impressionist and other modern stuff. There also was an exhibit of pieces from the Corcoran, which was nice. There has been a lot of criticism from the art community over the handling of the Corcoran Museum collection.
In the National Gallery I took in the Dorothea Lange portrait exhibit. A must see, really striking photography.
All in all, a good day.
The photo is from the National Gallery Sculpture Garden, a piece called Puellae by Magdalena Abakanowicz
#AsSeenWalking #Art #MyPhoto #Sightseeing
