I had an hour to kill and was still in museum mode. Mo and Sam were well out of museum mode, in fact, they are rarely in museum mode, so I decided to take the hour before we met Meg and Cal for dinner and visit the National Portrait Gallery. Unlike the other Smithsonian's that close at 5:00, the Portrait Gallery closes at 7:00. An hour is not a very long time to visit a new museum, so I went right to the Info. Desk and asked what I should visit. They were very helpful and suggested a portrait exhibit that was closing the next week and the Presidential Portrait Gallery. Both were wonderful - I could have spent much more time. I am generally not drawn to portraits, but the Presidential portraits were compelling. With each painting there was a brief biography with some key fact about the man, not just history. It again reminded me of the importance of story telling in art. Yes, the painting exists as an object of beauty in itself, but a story, or history, can make the piece come alive for the viewer in a completely different way.
One thing did strike me in viewing the Presidential Portraits - the art of portrait painting had declined. The masters are of the past, not the present - at least in painting. I suspect photography is where the art of portrait had now gone. Don't get me wrong, the recent portraits were compelling, but they were not the same as the older portraits. In some ways they were more flat. In the older portraits, you could see the joy or pain in the eyes of the man. I think it was the eyes that I focus on - the windows to the soul - and some did show the wear and tear of power. I saw the decline sometime around Grant. The only recent painting I stayed with one the abstract portrait of Kennedy. Ifs form did reflect the man and the time - a jumble of unclarity and the sense of something unfinished.
Unfortunately, the Museum was closing and as I walked out I passed numerous rooms that teased me and drew me to them. Oh well, next time I'll have to allot more time to the NPG.
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