Art After Hours

~Painting at the Phillips Collection~

Last week I had the chance to attend two “behind the scenes” events at art galleries: one at the Phillips Collection and one at the Library of Congress.  The library has several exhibition spaces, and once a week a Gallery Talk is held in one of them.  Last week the topic was the influence of the artist Charles Dana Gibson, whose artwork was popular in the 1890s and early 1900s. Charles Gibson’s sketches in newspapers and magazines often depicted a similar woman who came to be known as “the Gibson Girl.” The Gibson Girl became the ideal for women at the time: she was educated, athletic, and independent.  The Gallery Talk speakers (two women who work in the same division where I’m interning!) discussed the role of changing media in disseminating the image of the Gibson Girl so widely.  It was a topic I had never encountered before, and one I found very interesting, plus the sketches are really neat:

~Sketch of an athletic Gibson Girl~

~Depiction of a socialite Gibson Girl~

Later in the week, I met up with a group from William & Mary to attend the Phillips After Five program at the Phillips Collection.  This event is held the first Thursday of every month at 5 pm and includes food, music, and special tours of the collection.  This month the program was advertised as a collaboration with the simultaneous DC Jazz Festival.  When we walked into the gallery we were greeted by a live jazz duo (David Schulman), which was pretty great. However, the link to the Jazz Festival ended there—the rest of the event consisted of after-hours access to the regular Phillips collection, with a short presentation about several of the Impressionist paintings.  While the information about Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party was especially interesting, I was disappointed that the event didn’t relate more specifically to jazz as advertised. Still, for anyone who hasn’t been to the Phillips Gallery, it’s certainly worth a visit (but go during regular hours!).

 ~More art from the Phillips~

 ~Cezanne!~

~Presentation about Luncheon of the Boating Party~