As the fall arts season begins, you have time to see summer’s art highlights. The summer blockbuster HIVE runs through September 4 at the National Building Museum. And you still have time to see Afro-Futurism at Honfleur, Ai Weiwei at the Hirshhorn, and exhibits on Marlene Dietrich and Sylvia Plath at the Portrait Gallery.
Edvard Munch, The Kiss in the Field, 1943. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen
EDVARD MUNCH: COLOR IN CONTEXT @ NGA
Best known for the iconic, highly commodified 1893 work The Scream, Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was also interested in the supernatural, and once tried to summon the dead with his friend August Strindberg. Munch’s art was as driven by spirits as it was fueled by advances in X-ray technology. An Interest in science and the otherworldly informed the artist’s use of color, and this exhibit of 21 prints examines “the choice, combinations, and meaning of color in light of spiritualist principles.” Stay tuned for a review of the exhibit.
September 3, 2017 – January 28, 2018 at the National Gallery of Art, West Building.
Judy Chicago addresses a gathering of volunteers in the Dinner Party studio, ca. 1978. (Amy Meadow/NMWA)
JUDY CHICAGO: INSIDE THE DINNER PARTY STUDIO @ NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS
Originally completed in 1979, Judy Chicago’s landmark installation The Dinner Party featured place settings for 39 mythical and historical women, including Sacajawea, Sojourner Truth, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Empress Theodora of Byzantium, Virginia Woolf, and Georgia O’Keeffe. As part of it’s 30th anniversary celebration, The National Museum of Women in the Arts goes behind the scenes of this work through archival material, test objects, and film. Stay tuned to DCist for a preview of the exhibit, along with an interview with the artist.
September 17, 2017—January 5, 2018 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Kim Gordon (David Black/Smithsonian)
CONCERT FOR YOKO ONO, WASHINGTON, AND THE WORLD @ HIRSHHORN
The Hirshhorn helps usher out the summer with a tribute concert to Yoko Ono, whose early groundbreaking solo albums have recently been reissued. Concert for Yoko Ono features Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon (pictured), Lizzi Bougatsos (Gang Gang Dance), and Moor Mother, who will perform selections of Ono’s music and performance art as well as their own works inspired by Ono. Tickets go on sale today, so act now!
Sunday, September 17, 7-10 p.m. at Hirshhorn Plaza. $25. Buy tickets here.
(The Hirshhorn)
ILYA AND EMILIA KABAKOV: THE UTOPIAN PROJECTS @ HIRSHHORN
Ilya Kabakov designed state-sponsored children’s books in the Soviet Union, and from the 1950s-1980s, he built three-dimension models in which he envisioned a better life for himself and his wife, Emilia. The Hirshhorn, which first presented the artist’s work nearly 30 years ago, will exhibit more than 20 of the Kabakovs’ models, “including monuments, allegorical narratives, architectural structures and commissioned outdoor works.” Stay tuned for a preview of the exhibit.
September 7-March 4, 2018 at the Hirshhorn.
Art All Night activities in Shaw include performances in Blagden Alley (Art All Night)
ART ALL NIGHT @ LOCATIONS ALL OVER TOWN
The annual arts festival began in Shaw in 2011 but has since expanded to include six neighborhoods across the city. Venues include traditional galleries like Dupont’s Hillyer Art Space along with embassies, businesses, and outdoor performance spaces. Stay tuned to DCist for a preview of this year’s festivities.
Saturday, September 23 from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.at various locations in Congress Heights, Dupont Circle, H Street, North Capitol, Shaw, and Tenleytown. Check the website for details.
(Artechhouse)
SPIRIT OF AUTUMN @ ARTECHHOUSE
After its successful inaugural exhibit XYZT (which is sold out through the remainder of its run), the L’Enfant Plaza space changes gears with a new interactive installation in which participants color in a drawing of a leaf on paper and can watch it transform into a digital object. Founder/Director Tati explains, “It’s a dreamlike landscape of fall, where one is able to create their own experience and let their creativity be a part of a larger, constantly expanding artwork.”
October 1-29 at ARTECHHOUSE, 1238 Maryland Ave. SW Tickets go on sale on September 4.
Very small traveling bag, 2015, designed 2012. Designed by Luisa Cevese (Italian, b. 1955), produced by Riedizioni (Milan, Italy). © Luisa Cevese Riedizioni.
SCRAPS: FASHION: TEXTILES AND CREATIVE REUSE @ GWU AND TEXTILE MUSEUM
The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum explore sustainability in fashion with an exhibit featuring innovative designers who use recycled material and otherwise bypass industrial pollution. Artists include Luisa Cevese, founder of the Milan-based design studio Riedizioni; Christina Kim, founder of Los Angeles-based brand Dosa; and Reiko Sudo, co-founder of Tokyo textile design firm Nuno.
September 2—January 7, 2018 at George Washington University and The Textile Museum, 701 21st Street, NW.
Charbel-Joseph H. Boutros, From Water to Water, 2013. Inkjet on Hahnemühle paper. Courtesy of Grey Noise, Dubai and Galeria Jaqueline Martins, Sao Paolo.
I AM and BETWEEN TWO ROUNDS OF FIRE: THE EXILE OF THE SEA @ AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
Fall openings at American University’s Katzen Arts Center include two related exhibits. CARAVAN, a non-profit organization that uses arts for peacebuilding, presents I AM, which “showcases the insights and experiences of Middle Eastern women as they confront issues of culture, religion and social reality in a rapidly changing world.” Between Two Rounds of Fire “draws on a diverse selection of Arab modern and contemporary works from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, United Arab Emirate.”
I AM is on view from September 5 – October 22; Between Two Rounds of Fire: The Exile of the Sea is on view from September 5 – December 17, 2017. At American University’s Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW.
