The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Part 3

Five closer looks!  I always try to pick at least one work of art that I spend more time with whenever I visit a museum.  I ask it to speak to me.  To tell me a story.  Its story.  And I give myself permission to enter into a dialogue with it.  Here are five works of art the caught my attention in this way this morning while I visited the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

1) "Will-o'-the-Wisp" by Elizabeth Adela Armstrong Forbes

Beyond the sheer beauty of the execution and assemblage of this lush triptych, there is the mystery held within the details.  You would miss them at a casual glance.  They will delight you, if you just linger and look.  I love also how her style sweeps the images upon the canvas in an impressionistic way forcing me to fill in the gaps, to see the details, ergo to engage in the narrative of the work.

2) "The Stags" by Patricia Piccinini

What would you call this stroke of whimsical genius?  The very notion that a pair of Vespas would--could!--sprout deerlike horns of review mirrors and then...again, what?  Spar for dominance?  Engage in puppy play?  Is this sibling romping or a battle to the death?  The shear genius of "animal-pamorphisizing" mechanical objects to retell a familiar trope.  I mean, honestly, where do I begin?  The accessibility to the encyclopedia of considerations is only matched by the range of ideas evoked.  The homage to museum taxidermy is palpable.  The craft given to the actual execution of the idea stunning.

3) "Self Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky" by Freida Kahlo

You simply cannot walk past a Freida Kahlo self-portrait.  She is looking right at you!  And then you glance at the props, the dress, the curtains, the flowers, and letter...  You know everything has tremendous meaning.  Everything is sentence or maybe just a word in a paragraph of a story you really want to know.  I feel that her choice of white is most significant.  It speaks of purity, a pristine love.  Then I read the letter in her hands and I understood.  She was always taken with Leon Trotsky.  He was in Mexico when he was assassinated.  And that's just the beginning of the tale she is telling here.

4) "Viriato" by Joana Vasconcelos

This work caught my eye from across a crowded room.  It's a dog, right?  A curious dog.  A dog enclosed in the most intriguing and beautiful mesh of crocheted netting.  I really don't have anything else to add.  It is simply a beautiful work of art. 

5) "United States (Mexican Series)" by Rosangela Renno

Art as social, political, racial, economic, gender, sexuality, ethnic, humanitarian commentary?  YES!  God Dammit, yes!  This is the passion that this series of portraits enraged within me.  Me.  The Art.  The quiet, nearly empty gallery...  Looking into the faces of the subjects felt holy.  With only their faces, with only the names of their hometowns, this artist created a sanctuary to the human condition, a chapel to challenge the humanity of everyone who was either brave enough or foolish enough to engage.  I spent a very long time with these images.  I hope some centilla of their profound presence communicates here to you.

What follows is a sampling of the individual images.  I only wish I could have sharted them all.