The Kreeger Museum Turns 30
By • September 11, 2024 0 449
In 1994, four years after David Kreeger’s death and two years after his widow Carmen moved out (she died in 2003 at the age of 94), the Kreeger Museum opened to the public in the serene former home of two of Washington’s leading philanthropists.
This year, the Kreeger Museum — a travertine beauty designed in 1963 by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster — is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
A special exhibition, “Here, in this little Bay: Celebrating 30 Years at the Kreeger,” is on view through Oct. 5. Curated by Kristen Hileman, the show is meant to illustrate artists’ changing approaches to the natural world — an appropriate choice for a museum set amid sculpture terraces and gardens on five acres.
“Here, in this little Bay” displays works by 14 contemporary painters, sculptors and photographers. Though all currently live in D.C., Maryland or Virginia, they represent eight countries in addition to the U.S.: Argentina, Burma, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Greece, Iran, Japan and Korea.
The exhibition’s title comes from a poem by British poet Coventry Patmore (1823-1896), who was writing about seaside cliffs. While it references nature, it might also be taken as a play on words. Architecturally speaking, the building is made up of “bays” — cubic units of 22 by 22 by 22 feet — open on various sides, with vaulted and domed roofs. Johnson called the design “Mediterranean modern” or “contemporary Moorish.”
A graduate of Rutgers and Harvard Law School, David Lloyd Kreeger was a lawyer at the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior before becoming special assistant to the Attorney General in 1941. Returning to private practice in 1946, he began advising and finding investors for Geico two years later, eventually becoming the company’s chairman and CEO.
He met teacher Carmen Matanzo y Jaramillo in Puerto Rico while working for Interior. The couple married in 1938 and began to collect art in the 1950s. The museum’s permanent collection comprises 19th– and 20th-century paintings by European masters — Degas, Monet, van Gogh, Bonnard and Picasso, to name a few — as well as works by prominent Washington artists and choice examples of African and Asian art.
Upcoming concerts include appearances by trumpeter Alex Norris in the Jazz at the Kreeger series on Saturday, Sept. 21, and by Trio Zimbalist, playing Beethoven, Shostakovich and Martinů on Thursday, Sept. 26. Other events: Photographic Explorations, a panel with artists Chan Chao, Kei Ito and Soledad Salamé, moderated by Hileman, on Saturday, Sept. 28; a First Studio: Art, Story and Workshop event for ages 3 to 5 on Saturday, Oct. 5; and a museum-wide open house on Saturday, Oct. 26.
2401 Foxhall Road NW
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
