What I'm Watching Wednesday

Last week, my husband had a business meeting in Washington, DC, and I tagged along. While he was at work, I went and played. Here are some pictures from my trip.

At the National Gallery of Art, on my way to the Gauguin exhibit, I wandered through the Modernist area, turned a corner, and saw this:

I had seen pictures of Henri Matisse's cutouts, and I hadn't been impressed; however, walking into a room with these massive pieces stretched across huge walls just about blew me off my feet. I kept looking and looking and looking. Here is a close-up of one of the sections:

You can see the brushstrokes where his assistants painted the paper! I wanted to spend the rest of the day in the room, but I also wanted to see the Gauguin exhibit, which I then did. Truth be told, I've never particularly liked Gauguin, and after seeing the exhibit, I still don't; but at least I gave the guy a chance. I did really like the Venice exhibit, which is across the hall from the Gauguin exhibit. (No picture taking was allowed in either exhibit.)

The following day, I went to the African Art Museum, and if you get to Washington any time soon, please be sure to see the Artists in Dialogue exhibit. This was an exhibit where I wanted to just sit down and touch with my eyes all I could. Again, picture taking was not allowed, and I was fighting the urge to touch the pieces. On Saturday, when Hubby was able to play hooky, I took him to this exhibit, and he, not normally one to get excited about conceptual art, kept saying, "Thank you for bringing me here!" and kept looking and looking and looking.

On Saturday, Hubby and I walked up hill about a mile and a half from our hotel to the Washington National Cathedral. It is well worth a visit, but the only pictures we took were on our way out of the grounds (which are shared with St. Albans School - the school Al Gore attended). We had a lot of fun speculating about the backstory behind this:

I think it's safe to say that kids are kids wherever you go. In my next post: cherry blossoms!