Impressions

After a near 45-minute drive from my home in Stevensville, Maryland, a few friends and I were finally to the National Mall in Washington D.C., home of some of the most beautiful museums around the world. The sun was shining, and the air was a crisp, but not too chilly temperature; it was a great day to be out and around our nation’s capital.  Instead of riding the bus with the rest of the class, I drove separately, and it was a slight mistake due to one reason; parking. It took me nearly 20 minutes alone to find parking, and ended up paying nearly $30. That was just about the only negative aspect about the trip however. After finding parking, I made my way down to the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art. A charity walk was just beginning as I was crossing the street to the Gallery, and all the walkers and runners had just began moving in large quantity. Entering the Gallery, I was amazed at the interesting style of architecture the building contained; very odd but very functional. The interior of the building was beautiful, white marble floors made the colors of the large streaming banners and works standout intensely. After meeting with the rest of the group and Professor Rodgers, I made my way through the East Wing. Starting with the Dwan Gallery, examining some of the most influential works from coast to coast in the years of 1951-1971. The gallery presented works by abstract expressionists, neo-Dadaists, pop artists, and nouveaux realists of the time. Next I visited the u

pstairs Photography Reinvented exhibition, which then led me to up the to the tower, where American artist, Barbara Kruger’s works were on display in very large format. After visiting these three exhibitions the allotted time was up, while I could have stayed and ventured around more, I was starving and it was definitely time to get some lunch.  After exploring around a little bit, we stopped at a not-your-average pizza place named &Pizza, which made #3 on the list of best pizza places in the D.C. area. It was very good, and fairly cheap, however it was a very long walk from the Gallery so we had to rush a little to get back to the National Gallery Sculpture Garden to meet with the rest of the group. Being a little late from our trek, I missed the group so I went around the Garden myself to take a look at the unique set of sculptures the Gallery has gathered. They were all so unique, yet so influential, standing as environmental replica’s, and bright outstanding cartoonish looking pieces almost like they were a part of a Dr. Seuss book. It was time to move on to the HirshHorn Museum, another very interesting architectural building. Upon entering I went directly upstairs to the exhibitions where I found myself slightly confused by the circular motion of the exhibitions. I would enter rooms and re-enter accidently until I finally figured out where I was going. However after figuring out the layout of the exhibition I realized how amazing it

really was, bringing out interest that I’ve never shown before. The exhibition contained a wide variety of outstanding media and some of the most interesting works of art I’ve ever seen in my life. All around I benefitted heavily from the trip, not only just enjoying my visit to the city, but opening my eyes to artwork I never would’ve imagined enjoying visually. Seeing works in print/original form, rather than on a computer screen makes a world of a difference.