A Brief Trip to Washington, DC
Whether I am traveling for business or pleasure, I always try to visit notable sites that inform and inspire.
Earlier this month, I spent two days in our nation's capital attending business events. While there, I also visited Glenstone - a private contemporary art museum in Potomac, Maryland, just 15-miles from downtown Washington, D.C. The museum's exhibitions are drawn from a collection of about 1300 works from post-World War II artists around the world.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- The views in Washington, DC were breathtaking. My driver, Andres, captured some gorgeous sights during his early morning runs. Here is the Washington Monument – an obelisk on the National Mall built to commemorate George Washington. This photo was taken from across the Mall that spans 1.2 miles. The Monument is 555-feet five-inches tall and 55-feet wide at its base.
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- The Lincoln Memorial is a US national memorial built to honor our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the western end of the National Mall across from the Washington Monument, and is built in the form of a neoclassical temple.
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- And if you haven’t yet visited, inside is a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln, the “Gettysburg Address” and his second inaugural address.
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- A visit to our Nation’s Capital would not be complete without seeing the White House – the official residence and workplace of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. This view is the northern facade with a columned portico facing Lafayette Square.
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- Glenstone is an art museum that assembles post-World War II artworks of the 20th and 21st centuries and displays them in a series of indoor and outdoor spaces. The name “Glenstone” comes from two local sources: Glen Road, where the property line begins, and a type of carderock stone indigenous to the area, which is still extracted from several nearby quarries.
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- One of the first art works we saw was Richard Serra’s, “Sylvester”, 2001. Richard Serra is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings.
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- Here I am within the giant sculpture. It is a weatherproof steel outer spiral that is 13 feet 7 inches by 41 feet by 31 feet 8 inches and an inner spiral that is 13 feet 7 inches by 30 feet 8 inches by 24 feet 11 inches.
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- This is artist Michael Heizer’s “Compression Line”, 1968/2016, another land artist specializing in large-scale and site-specific sculptures.
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- This is the view from Room 7. This space does not have art in it. Instead, it is meant to offer a moment of rest for visitors.
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- This bench is a collaborative design by artists Martin Puryear and Michael Hurwitz. It faces the expansive window of Room 7.
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- This is an entire room installation by artist Robert Gober. The 1992 “Untitled” work is a room-scale, multi-sensory presentation made up of darkened exterior pathways, a brightly lit interior chamber, and walls covered by hand-painted, 360-degree murals depicting a forest.
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- The room also includes sinks with running water mounted on the walls, and multiple “prison windows,” up high with forged iron bars through which a view of a painted sky is seen.
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- Together, all the elements form an architectural, aural, and aesthetic environment. We took multiple snapshots of this room. Here’s a closer look a section of the wall.
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- This is also by Michael Heizer and is called “Collapse”, 1967/2016. This artwork consists of 15 heavy beams of rusted steel that appear to have been tossed into a deep pit lined with vertical walls.
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- Roni Horn’s, “Water Double, v. 3”, 2013-2015 incorporates the surrounding light, architecture, water court, and viewer into the work itself. It sits in a light filled room completely accessible by visitors.
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- We walked right up to see the two sculptures, considered by the artist to be one of her greatest achievements – a “water double,” solid cast glass duo in black and white.
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- And a clear view of the water inside.
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- This is a view of the Water Court, the open 18-thousand square foot central area of the museum’s Pavilions.
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- This is called “Moss Sutra with the Seasons” (2010–2015) by Brice Marden. It measures nine feet by 39-feet. Each of these monochromatic panels is inspired by a season, beginning at the left with the yellow of springtime and ending on the right with the blue-black of winter.
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- Here’s a closer look at the painting. The five-panel painting brings together two monochromes with complex, layered palettes that flank each side of a large central panel which features more fluid, calligraphic gestures against a subtle ground.
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- And this is by Lorna Simpson. It is called “Specific Notation”, 2019 and shows a figure of a women washed in layers of dark blue ink – a very abstract piece done with screenprint on gessoed fibreglass. This marks the first installation of a work by Simpson at Glenstone. It was a fun visit to Glenstone – please stop by the next time you are in the area.
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