Bazille at the National Gallery
• June 21, 2017

  About two years ago, I flew to South Africa to visit my mother’s family (she moved to America shortly before I was born). The last time I had visited […]

‘Portals’ — and the Paris Accord
• June 7, 2017

  Our president plans to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, a landmark agreement negotiated in 2015 by representatives of 195 countries. The accord signifies a commitment […]

Summer Visual Arts Preview
• May 24, 2017

  At some point soon, we will all need respite from the summer heat — some dimly lit, air-conditioned place away from the blistering July sun, where we can pursue […]

Book Hill Art Walk, May 5
• May 3, 2017

    The Georgetown Galleries of Book Hill will host their annual Spring Art Walk this Friday, May 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. The walk has become a staple […]

Portrait Gallery’s ‘The Face of Battle’
• April 19, 2017

    There is a tragic impermanence to artwork about war. For each immortal painting like “Guernica” or “The Third of May 1808” (Picasso and Goya, respectively), there are thousands […]

June Schwarcz at the Renwick
• April 5, 2017

Generally speaking, the “how” of art is not something that particularly interests me. A great deal of expository efforts go into exhibition descriptions of contemporary and craft artists, in which […]

In the Tower at the National Gallery: Theaster Gates
• March 22, 2017

  Walking into the Tower of the National Gallery of Art’s East Building, you are greeted by monuments. Towering planes and structures of stone and wood reach toward the skylights […]

At the Hirshhorn: Kusama’s Meditative Carnival
• March 8, 2017

The hype was staggering from the moment it was announced. The Hirshhorn would mount the first Washington exhibition of Yayoi Kusama, the radical Japanese artist who has dominated the worlds […]

Museums Are Our Responsibility: Visual Arts Preview
• February 22, 2017

One of our new president’s campaign promises was to eliminate government waste, pledging to cut all unnecessary federal spending. This includes line items like federally funded research and development centers, […]

Toulouse-Lautrec at the Phillips Collection
• February 8, 2017

Of all the Post-Impressionists in 19th-century France, perhaps no artist has maintained such a lasting cultural influence as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Admittedly, there is an audacity to that claim. This […]