DC Artists @ SAAM

a narrow white cube gallery at the smithsonian american art museum with wood floors and a black mies bench at the center, features all dc artists: from left, a round painting divided into muted 60s color quadrants, the only public painting by mary pinchot meyer; and a dark atmospheric nebula-filled painting by kenneth young are on one wall. on the right, with a plinth to keep people back, a paint soaked canvas by sam gilliam hangs in swags from four chains in the ceiling, and next to it, the poured rainbow corner of a wider morris louis painting. 10/10 no notes

You can’t go to the National Portrait Gallery without going to the American Art Museum, and vice versa. So after the Felix thing yesterday, I made a run through the SAAM contemporary galleries. Nam June Paik’s neon America was blinking red, and this gallery of DC artists was a great grouping.

[THE] Mary Pinchot Meyer painting in a public collection was up, next to a nice Kenneth Young, a classic Sam Gilliam, and a good Morris Louis. Behind me was a weirdly levitating Anne Truitt and a huge Alma Thomas. The way they hung a Carmen Herrera outside the gallery, but visible between the Meyer and the Thomas, was a nice touch.