In the East Wing

Bill and I are going to have a look at some of the stunning East Wing galleries at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Come with us. They have this Bonnard, Work Table, 1926/27. I love that carpet.

And that cat.

In the same room they have sculptures by Brancusi and Giacometti. I'm drawn to this bird by Brancusi, Maiastra. 

Bill was drawn to Giacometti's spectral figure on The Chariot, 1950.

The National has a half dozen Joseph Cornell constructions. Here's Sand Fountain, 1948.

If you look at it from this angle you can see there is sand in the broken glass.

We've seen a number of Sol LeWitt wall pieces lately. LeWitt writes instructions for drawings and they are done by others in a variety of ways. I love Wall Drawing No. 681 C and asked Bill to walk by it. Isn't he lovely -- and what a wonderful wall!

I love Wayne Thiebaud's Cakes, 1963. That's Ed Ruscha's Lisp, 1968 beside it.

Do paintings get more cheerful than this?

I went down on one knee to catch these details. The gallery staff are so tolerant! I'm sure they've seen it all.

I wonder if the camera can get the painted texture. Bill says, "The paint is as thick as icing."

Let's see if we can catch the decorative, three dimensional frosting here.

Bill asked me to pose in front of these Rothkos. We forgot to look at the names so Bill looked them up. That's Untitled, 1953, on the left and Untitled, 1949, on the right. Pure magic. Any guesses on the name of the middle canvas?

I was very curious about this large, quite assertive, Jackson Pollock. It's called Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist).

I wonder if the camera can catch exactly what the surface of the painting looks like up close.

All the splashes and pools of paint.

I love the paint at the right edge of the canvas.

Between the Rothkos and the Pollack is this door into a magical room of Alexander Calder's sculptures and mobiles. It is very hard to leave this room.

We're famished by this point. The cafeteria here is first rate. It's just on the other side of this tunnel connecting the East Wing to the West.

How about this light-installation. It's Multiverse by Leo Villareal. We're not familiar with his work but we love this. We're being carried along toward the Cascade Cafe and our lunch.

The Cascade Cafe salad bar quickly became our favourite lunch spot in Washington.

If we were on the Mall we would usually nip over there for an inexpensive, fresh, wholesome, delicious plate of salads and antipasti.

And on the way in and out we would see a bit more of the vast collections of the National Gallery. At the National Gallery of Art it's natural to feed the body and the soul at the same time.