Movies, Masons, and More: The Peculiar Past of NMWA’s Building

NMWA is one of 25 sites in D.C. with the chance to win up to $100,000 from Partners in Preservation (PiP), an initiative of American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Funds from this grant would help finance much-needed roof repairs—not so glamorous-sounding, but necessary—so that NMWA can stay focused on its mission of presenting and promoting fantastic women in the arts!

With a history as varied as the museum’s collection, NMWA’s building is a work of art in itself. Designed in a Renaissance-revival style, the six-story structure embodies orderliness and civic grandeur. Constructed by one of D.C.’s most prominent architectural firms (and famed architect Waddy Wood), the building was received landmark status in 1984. Purchased by NMWA in 1983, the building opened as a museum in 1987 after extensive renovations.

Ironically, the building was originally constructed as a Masonic Temple—women were not allowed entry.  Masonic symbols, such as carved squares and compasses, can still be seen in the museum’s architecture. The clearest symbols are on the building’s façade, particularly those in a frieze above the fourth floor. Visitors may spot some vestiges within the walls as well.

Before showing art, the building showed movies. In 1916, a first-floor theater began showing silent films. In the 1940s and early 1950s the Pix Theater ran racy “exploitation films” until resulting controversies caused their lease not to be renewed. Seven years later, the Town Theatre opened and played blockbuster films like Hitchcock’s Psycho until its closing in 1983.

The wedge-shaped building was also home to several small offices and shops during its first 20 years. A dentist, an insurance agent, and a uniform supply outfitter all operated on the second floor above the movie theater. From 1910 through ’21, the upper floors contained George Washington University’s law library, and a USO canteen was housed in the basement during World War II.

NMWA today

In 1997, the museum incorporated an adjacent property to create the Elisabeth A. Kasser Wing. The space now houses NMWA’s gift shop and sculpture gallery—more palatable uses than its past function as the “D.C. Pleasure Parlor.”

Although visitors can’t take advantage of the building’s previous functions by watching movies or getting their teeth cleaned, they can enjoy NMWA’s collection of art by many of the world’s most significant women artists. The building itself is seen as an embodiment of the museum’s mission—it is a place for women artists—and funds for vital roof repairs will ensure the continued integrity of its structure.

Popular votes on social media will determine some of the grants. Voters can chime in for NMWA once every day by registering on the PiP website or logging in on PiP’s Facebook page. By using the hashtag #NMWA in Twitter or Instagram posts, and by checking in on Foursquare, voters can help NMWA earn extra points!

Also, save the date! Drop by on May 5 for an open house and “Raise the Roof” with GirlsRock! DC!

Thoughts on Freya Grand’s “Minding the Landscape” (Part 2 of 2)

(This is Part 2 of a series on Freya Grand—click here for Part 1.)

In addition to the Romantic and sublime that can be seen in Freya Grand’s work, the idea of “minding the landscape,” and her way of presenting it, also recalls the thinking of Leonardo with regard to the earth and the elements. Leonardo spent many years researching geology and water, and conceptualizing the formation of the earth, both in his writings and his paintings. He too went exploring mountains, which were, for him, the most visible manifestation of the way the earth came into being, and to some extent, he can be seen to have anticipated Burke’s theory of the sublime.

Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks, ca. 1486

Leonardo wrote that coming upon a great cavern he “stood for some time, stupefied and incomprehending of such a thing…Suddenly two things arose in me, fear and desire: fear of the menacing darkness of the cavern, desire to see if there were any marvelous thing within it.” This experience gave rise to the cavernous rocks in his painting The Virgin of the Rocks (1483, Louvre, Paris).

But Leonardo also spoke of the earth being a body, a living being that resembled the human body in many ways. The rocks are like bones, he said, the framework of the body. The rivers and streams are like the veins and arteries. The ocean tides are like the earth’s breathing.

I feel that Grand’s paintings convey this connection of body and earth, depicting a sense of deep, hidden life in those waters moving over rocks, in those magnificent volcanoes and sweeping mountain ranges. In her representation of them, they seem to breathe and move, as if still in formation.

Freya Grand, (Left) Study for Cloonagh, 2010; (Right) Cloonagh Rocks, 2012; Images courtesy of the artist

Thought of in this way, Grand’s art has a rich art historical pedigree. Her art reflects Leonardo’s love and awe of nature and her systems, and connects to European Romanticism. But her family line includes the great landscape painters of America like F.E. Church who, like Grand, sought out the wild beauty of remote places. She has added her own misty link to that chain.

—Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. ,is Professor of Art History in the School of Art + Design at Montgomery College (Silver Spring, MD). She is also an AICA-awarded art critic and freelance curator in the Washington, D.C., metro region.

Thoughts on Freya Grand’s “Minding the Landscape” (Part 1 of 2)

(This is Part 1 of a series on Freya Grand—click here for Part 2.)

At her recent artist’s talk, Freya Grand discussed her process of creating the inspiring works currently on display at NMWA. Emphasizing her travels to remote and wild places, she related her habit of documenting what she sees with photographs and small sketches on site, even creating watercolors if weather permits, and then taking all that back to her studio in Washington, D.C. Her head full of images of what she has seen, the artist proceeds to get those visual memories out onto paper in exquisite graphite studies for her paintings.

Freya Grand, Plume, 2005; Courtesy of the artist

With each step of the process, Grand separates out the details, the accidental human or animal appearance in the scene, and focuses on the earth, the air, the water, and the fire—the elements, as it were, that underlie her subjects. The exhibition’s title gives us a hint here. Grand’s work is so compelling because it is not descriptive in the ordinary sense. These paintings are not an imitation of nature, but a re-creation of experience achieved from mind to hand to canvas in a process that is in many ways reminiscent not only of the great Romantic painters of the 19th century, but going back further, to the example and the concepts of Leonardo da Vinci.

Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea Mist, 1818

The first word that probably comes to mind when looking at Grand’s landscapes is “sublime.” Like many, I have noted connections with painters like J.M.W. Turner or Caspar David Friedrich, artists who tried to find ways to manifest 18th-century philosopher Edmund Burke’s ideas concerning the notion of the sublime in actual works of art. The sublime is an experience that involves the element of fear, something beyond the merely beautiful or picturesque because of that fact. It is something that most people have experienced in nature, for example while standing on the edge of a rocky cliff, feeling simultaneously exhilarated and overwhelmed at the greatness of what is in front of us, but feeling the fear of its danger at the same time.

Such experiences inspire Grand on her explorations into nature, and it is why her works are so moving and contemplative for most viewers. Her work completely conveys the sense of the experience of the artist confronting the natural scenes that are captured in both small and large paintings in this exhibition. Precisely because they are not specific, and that they often defy an understanding of scale, beyond admiration they provoke memories of such things in the viewer of his/her own moments of the sublime. The first time I saw Grand’s work, these rushed in on my mind, and kept me looking, and thinking, for a long time.

—Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D., is Professor of Art History in the School of Art + Design at Montgomery College (Silver Spring, MD). She is also an AICA-awarded art critic and freelance curator in the Washington, D.C., metro region.

The Innovative Anna Ancher

Now open at NMWA, A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony showcases over 60 paintings by the avant-garde Danish painter and her contemporaries at Skagen, a seaside artists’ community in northern Denmark.

On Member Preview Day, visitors view Michael Ancher’s “Anna Ancher returning from the field,” 1902

Ancher, the only female Skagen artist to receive high acclaim and sustain a lifelong career, consistently tested the bounds of painting. NMWA Associate Curator Virginia Treanor highlights Ancher’s interiors, sometimes devoid of human presence, as “evidence of Ancher’s interest, not in replicating the reality of the room or wall, or even the light, but rather what is left when these things are stripped away and all that remains are color and form.”

Rejecting idealized subject matter, the Skagen painters captured the reality around them. The exhibition’s thematic sections include images of Skagen’s rural landscape, the Anchers, hard-working townspeople, domestic interiors, and breakthrough works that showcase Anna Ancher’s stylistic innovations.

Anna Ancher, Sunlight in the blue room, 1891; Courtesy of Skagens Museum

A catalogue published with the exhibition contains full-color images of the Skagen artists’ works, historical photos of the artists’ community, and essays by Helga Ancher Foundation board member Elisabeth Fabritius and Skagens Museum curator Mette Bøgh Jensen. As Fabritius says, “Anna Ancher’s art is unlike that of anyone else. In its essence it is tied to the special world of motifs in Skagen: the fishermen’s families, the harvesters, the heathers, the special colors, and the brilliant summer light.” The respect she received for her artistic contributions was “unusual—a happy exception to the social conventions of that age.”

A World Apart is on view through May 12, 2013, and the 144-page exhibition catalogue is now on sale in the Museum Shop.

Visit NMWA on February 20 for a gallery talk with Mette Bøgh Jensen, check out other exciting programs, and don’t miss this special exhibition!

Discovering the Sublime: Freya Grand at NMWA

Now open at NMWA, Freya Grand: Minding the Landscape features the artist’s work painting and drawing remote, uninhabited landscapes. As she describes her work process, seeking out new and inspirational landscapes, “I have never gotten to a remote place and thought, ‘There’s nothing for me here’; there is always something…I would go to mountains and the sea anywhere.”

Tungurahua, 2011; Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.; Image courtesy of the artist

 

Grand works in varied formats and sizes: the exhibition includes graphite-on-paper drawings as well as small “block” paintings on panel, and large oil paintings on canvas.

A catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition contains full-color images of the artist’s work, a statement by Grand, and an essay by NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn A. Wat. As Wat says, “In Grand’s finished paintings and drawings, waves crash against rocks, clouds rake across mountains, and gnarled trees twist their way toward the sky. In this respect, she is akin to the European painters and poets of the Romantic era who were thrilled to contemplate the ‘sublimity’ of the natural world and humankind’s powerlessness against its forces.”

Minding the Landscape is on view through May 5, 2013, and the 96-page, softcover catalogue is now on sale in the Museum Shop.

Plan on coming to NMWA on March 8, International Women’s Day, for an artist talk with Grand, and make sure you don’t miss this exhibition!

Great Washington Museums: Hillwood Estate

Great Washington Museums Celebrate Great Women Artists is a NMWA-organized collaborative city-wide project highlighting works by women artists. During 2012, institutions throughout the Washington area are featuring an array of signature works by women artists that have enriched their distinguished collections. This landmark program, in conjunction with NMWA’s 25th anniversary celebration, continues NMWA’s dedication to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. This excerpt explores one of the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Garden’s signature works by a woman artist, a kovsh by the firm of Maria Semenova. Visit www.nmwa.org and download the pdf map to begin your journey!

Firm of Maria Semenova, Kovsh, 1898–1908; Silver, enamel, Siberian amethysts, chrysoprase, and garnets, 8 in. long; Hillwood Estate, Museum, & Garden, Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973 (acc. no 15.89)

In 18th- and 19th-century Russia, women regularly participated in family businesses, including gold and silversmithing. However, it was not until the late- nineteenth century that they began to register their own names and hallmarks. Maria Semenova came to the world of metalwork through her father’s workshop and eventually directed this firm. She frequently updated traditional Russian designs, such as this impressive kovsh (drinking vessel) in the Hillwood collection. Her choice of stones and her treatment of enameled flowers mark this work as innovative.

Hillwood is also holding an exhibition of Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave’s paper costumes, on view through December 30, 2012.

Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, 4155 Linnean Ave., NW; www.hillwooodmuseum.org

Great Washington Museums: Corcoran Gallery of Art

Great Washington Museums Celebrate Great Women Artists is a NMWA-organized collaborative city-wide project highlighting works by women artists. During 2012, institutions throughout the Washington area are featuring an array of signature works by women artists that have enriched their distinguished collections. This landmark program, in conjunction with NMWA’s 25th anniversary celebration, continues NMWA’s dedication to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. This excerpt explores one of the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s signature works by a woman artist, Joan Mitchell’s Salut Tom. Visit www.nmwa.org and download the pdf map to begin your journey!

Joan Mitchell, Salut Tom, 1979; Oil on canvas, 111 x 316 in.; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gift of the Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Arts with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts

The origin of Salut Tom, one of Joan Mitchell’s largest and most important paintings, is the view of the river Seine from her estate in Vérheuil, France, where the French Impressionist Claude Monet lived in the 1870s. Motivated by her mental image as well as the actual landscape, Mitchell redrew and repainted the scene many times, displacing the factual traces of her subject with abstract ruminations. Although she consistently denied being influenced by Monet, it is difficult not to compare Salut Tom to the French artist’s multi-panel vistas of water lilies. On view throughout 2012.

Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 Seventeenth St.,  NW; www.corcoran.org

 

Great Washington Museums: Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Great Washington Museums Celebrate Great Women Artists is a NMWA-organized collaborative city-wide project highlighting works by women artists. During 2012, institutions throughout the Washington area are featuring an array of signature works by women artists that have enriched their distinguished collections. This landmark program, in conjunction with NMWA’s 25th anniversary celebration, continues NMWA’s dedication to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. This excerpt explores one of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s signature works by a woman artist, Sally Milgrim’s ball gown for Eleanor Roosevelt for the 1933 inaugural. Visit www.nmwa.org and download the pdf map to begin your journey!

Sally Milgrim, Eleanor Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural ball gown, 1933; Costume; Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History; Gift of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt

This slate-blue silk crepe evening gown was designed by Sally Milgrim (1898–1994) for the 1933 inaugural ball. Embroidered with a leaf-and-flower design in gold thread, it featured detachable long sleeves. The belt buckle and shoulder clips are made of rhinestone and moonstone. Milgrim, known for her clothes’ quality and detail, began designing in the 1920s, adding women’s clothing to her family’s custom suit business, and went on to have stores around the country. On view November 2011–December 2013 in The First Ladies exhibition.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History, 14th St. & Constitution Ave., NW; Website: http://americanhistory.si.edu

Great Washington Museums: Georgia O’Keeffe at the National Gallery of Art

Great Washington Museums Celebrate Great Women Artists is a NMWA-organized collaborative city-wide project highlighting works by women artists. During 2012, institutions throughout the Washington area are featuring an array of signature works by women artists that have enriched their distinguished collections. This landmark program, in conjunction with NMWA’s 25th anniversary celebration, continues NMWA’s dedication to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. This excerpt explores one of the National Gallery of Art’s signature works by a woman artist, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jack-in-Pulpit Abstraction—No. 5. Visit www.nmwa.org and download the pdf map to begin your journey!

Georgia O’Keeffe, Jack-in-Pulpit Abstraction – No. 5, 1930; Oil on canvas, 48 x 30 in.; Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O’Keeffe, 1987.58.4

In 1930, Georgia O’Keeffe painted a series of six canvases depicting a jack-in-the-pulpit. The series begins with the striped and hooded bloom rendered with a botanist’s care, continues with successively more abstract and tightly focused depictions, and ends with what might be the essence of the jack-in-the-pulpit, a haloed black pistil standing alone against a black, purple, and gray field. No. 5 represents an advanced point in O’Keeffe’s process of increasing detail and abstraction to discover the immanence of nature. On view through May 2013 in the NGA East Building.

National Gallery of Art, 4th St. and Constitution Ave., NW; www.nga.gov

Great Washington Museums: Inter-American Development Bank

Great Washington Museums Celebrate Great Women Artists is a NMWA-organized collaborative city-wide project highlighting works by women artists. During 2012, institutions throughout the Washington area are featuring an array of signature works by women artists that have enriched their distinguished collections. This landmark program, in conjunction with NMWA’s 25th anniversary celebration, continues NMWA’s dedication to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. This excerpt explores one of the Inter-American Development Bank’s signature works by a woman artist, Olga de Amaral’s Riscos calizos (Limestone Cliffs). Visit www.nmwa.org and download the pdf map to begin your journey!

Olga de Amaral, Riscos calizos (Limestone Cliffs), 1988; Wool, 99 x 114 in.; Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

Colombian textile artist Olga de Amaral (b. 1932, Bogota, Colombia) began her artistic career in Colombia in the late 1950s and studied textiles at the Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Bloomfields Hills, Michigan. She was one of the first artists in the 1960s to transform textile arts from a primarily two-dimensional representational art form into a three-dimensional, abstract art form. Her textiles are in significant collections around the world. On display from mid-January through December 2012 in the East Lobby, Ground Floor of the IDB main building. By appointment: contact Soledad Guerra, 202-623-1213, or Debra Corrie, 202-623-3278.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Cultural Center, 1300 New York Ave, NW; http://www.iadb.org/cultural.