Washington, D.C.’s iconic art museums are closed for the foreseeable future in accordance with the Mayor’s stay-at-home order. For art lovers, that means adjusting to a new reality in which art is viewed online, not in person.
Here’s the status of some of the season’s most anticipated art exhibitions.
Yayoi Kusama at the Hirshhorn: The follow-up to the blockbuster “Infinity Mirrors” exhibition of 2017 was supposed to open Saturday. “One with Eternity” showcases the Kusama pieces in the museum’s permanent collection, including the Japanese artist’s earliest infinity room, “Phalli’s Field.” The Hirshhorn has postponed the exhibition indefinitely, but since it’s a collection-based exhibition, it likely will still go up in the not-too-distant future when museums reopen.
Meanwhile, the Broad Museum in Los Angeles is bringing “Infinity Mirrors” to devices everywhere via Instagram TV. Curators have paired videos of Kusama installations with trippy drone, electronic, ambient and pop music.
Various Masters at the National Gallery of Art: The NGA’s special exhibitions on Degas, Raphael, and European open-air painting are all closed, and an exhibition on Baroque art planned for early May has been postponed. Every day, however, you can explore a section of the gallery through the NGA’s vibrant Instagram account. “Tours” include close-up images of the paintings, brief descriptions and curator comments.
Native Women Artists at SAAM: The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrated the opening of its first major exhibition on Native women artists, “Hearts of Our People,” in late February, just before the virus reached the District. It was originally scheduled to close on May 17 and move to its next stop on a national tour; SAAM did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether that date will be pushed back in light of the coronavirus shutdown. You can take a virtual tour of the exhibition here.
Black Artists and European Modernists at the Phillips: “Riffs and Relations” opened just two weeks before the Phillips Collection had to shut down. The exhibition explores the dynamic between black visual artists and white European modernists in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Phillips has published a YouTube video series featuring a tour of the exhibition and stories about key artists. You can also learn about one of the gems of its permanent collection, Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series,” here.
Women Artists at the National Museum of Women In the Arts: The NMWA is one of many private museums in the District that’s going to face steep financial struggles due to the shutdown. Through it all, remaining staff are still putting up online programming. On Saturday they’re hosting virtual “Slow Art Day” — participants examine around five works of art for 10 minutes each and then join an online discussion about the experience of “slow looking.”
This story originally appeared on WAMU.
Mikaela Lefrak