Meera Nayak
What is your favorite DC museum and why?
By Meera Nayak
Summer 2014
The Corcoran Gallery of Art
As I entered the rotunda of this beautiful building, Venus greeted me in a magnificent light display. The colors carried me up the stairs to the modern and contemporary art galleries where I recognized Rothko, witnessed Warhol’s take on Mao, and was blown away by Joan Mitchell’s nearly wall-to-wall oil on canvas. I got a taste of Washington’s minimalism—breaking the world down into its smallest bits, and then creating phenomenal pieces out of them.
Whether inside the House of Representatives or outside in the Wild West, I was taken on an American journey through “Visions of Place.” After indulging in some Ansel Adams photography, I finished with an escape to “An Intimate View” with the European collection. French Realism, British portraits, and interpretations of Italian architecture fill the golden frames. My orange pin will always remain a memento of these incredible private holdings.
The Phillips Collection
It was ten minutes to five, the ticket sales were about to close for the day, and somehow I managed to make it inside this rich collection. The pieces attest to his unique ability to showcase not only that sublime spirit we feel when we see art, but also the versatility of that spirit. The works, they thrill you, they entice you, they transcend you to a Time and Timlessness, a roughly 45 by 85-inch work by Augustus Vincent Tack.
More than the painting, I enjoyed the story of the man behind Power. Having left the legal sector, Edward Bruce took a six-year apprenticeship in Italy to pursue this craft. Phillips, Bruce writes in admiration, “collects art as an artist would.” He seems to have it all—still life by Matisse, the fields of Cézanne, a Jackson Pollock collage, O’Keefe’s Red Hills. I even saw an Odilon Redon—the flowers of his Mystery were reminiscent of those I took note of during my travels to Amsterdam.
The use of space is as dynamic as its collection. There was a workshop going on to learn how to write poetry of the 50s. It was so lively, there were people everywhere, taking a break after work, meeting each other, wearing neon green wristbands and sipping wine on the patio before summer got too hot.
A now favorite of mine, by Louis Eilshemius, called New York Rooftops, is a romantic scape. As if I wanted to be transported to the view, I went back to see it before I left. Whether you are walking into the multiple jazz performances or trying to figure out what the girl holding the water glass at the Boating Party was thinking a la Amélie, this is DC’s 21st Street treasure
The painting New York Rooftops seen at the Phillips Collection.
Meera is a Political Science and Philosophy Major. She is currently interning at Course Hero.
