The big retrospective devoted to Henry Moore (1898-1986), which
has now come to the National Gallery of Art in Washington,
would be a capital event at almost any time. Yet this splendid exhibition is
especially compelling just now for anyone who comes to it from a recent visit
to the retrospective devoted to Alberto Giacometti Read More
When was the last time you saw a major American museum
devote 10 large galleries to the sculpture of a distinctly minor contemporary
talent? This is but one of the many questions raised by the overscale
exhibition of Cy Twombly’s underweight sculpture at the National Gallery of Art
in Washington, D.C. Even in a period Read More
A mere five years after the great Vermeer exhibition at the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and only a couple of years after
the enchanting show devoted to Pieter de Hooch at the Wadsworth Atheneum in
Hartford, we are now treated to an even more expansive account of these
17th-century Dutch masters and Read More
Of the many things to be said about the extraordinary exhibition called Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries , which Sarah Greenough has organized at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the first is this: It not only illuminates a crucial chapter in the history of American modernism on Read More
The exhibition of Art Nouveau, 1890-1914 , organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and now on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is said to be the largest and most comprehensive survey of its subject ever attempted. I can well believe it. With more than 350 objects-which range Read More
Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art who approach the current Tilman Riemenschneider exhibition by way of the Greek sculpture galleries–the most likely route to the show within the museum–are in for something of a shock. The spirit of classical humanism that we encounter in the Greek sculpture galleries transports us to a realm of Read More
This space rarely, if ever, runs service pieces. But I feel obligated to share a discovery I made recently that may help parents traveling with children to have more pleasant, culturally enriching vacations. Visit an art exhibition as a family.
I’m not talking about museums such as the Met or the National Gallery in Washington. Read More
It is unlikely that the arguments still circulating about Rembrandt’s motives in producing so many self-portraits-a larger number, in fact, than any other artist we judge to be important-will ever be resolved to the satisfaction of either his admirers or his critics. For the arguments about Rembrandt’s motives are, for the most part, really arguments Read More
There are times when it is the curious fate of an artist to achieve his greatest work as a consequence of being denied his fondest aspirations. That was the paradoxical destiny of the 19th-century French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), whose work is currently the subject of a sensationally beautiful exhibition at the National Gallery of Read More
Of the mounting of exhibitions devoted to the masters of Impressionism there appears to be no end. Hardly a season is now allowed to pass without some show or other drawn from the capacious oeuvres of Impressionism’s Big Four-Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and Camille Pissarro (1830-1906)-or otherwise based on Read More
