On Saturday I went to DC Moore Gallery to see the Jane Wilson exhibition about which I blogged last week. I was so taken with one of Wilson’s watercolors, “Breaking Light,” that I bought it on the spot–the first time I’ve ever bought a piece of art that was hanging at a show. You can’t view “Breaking Light” on line, alas, but it’s still hanging at the gallery, and if you should happen to buy the catalogue, you can see it reproduced in the “Works on Paper” section.
Also included in the catalogue is the transcript of an interview with Wilson that contains this illuminating remark:
Although I was thoroughly intrigued and influenced by abstraction per se and, in fact, painted quite a few works in the ’50s that might be considered Abstract Expressionist, I finally realized that I really liked subject matter and that I really liked the history of art. I wanted to pursue the natural world in ways that were meaningful to me and not ridden by theory or “position-taking.” This meant going directly to traditional subjects and finding out how I might develop them. I became an avid museumgoer and liked looking back. I was beginning to realize that all of the artists of the past whom I admired in a bone-deep way had used the past as a source of the future.
On Monday morning I wrote two pieces, a “Five Best” article for this Saturday’s The Wall Street Journal and a twenty-minute speech that I’ll be delivering tonight at an Actors’ Fund of America dinner. I then met an opera critic for lunch at Good Enough to Eat, during which we discussed the opera libretto I may or may not be writing.
I spent the afternoon booking travel (about which more below) and answering my mail, including an e-mail from the press rep of a theater company in Maryland who saw this posting and invited me to come see one of her company’s shows in May. I accepted. Talk about cause and effect!
After dinner I strolled down to the ArcLight Theater to catch the opening-night performance of an off-Broadway show, Jonathan Leaf’s The Germans in Paris, which I’ll be reviewing in Friday’s Journal.
Today I write, go to the gym, and give my speech. Tomorrow afternoon I’m off to Raleigh to see the world premiere of Carolina Ballet’s Monet Impressions, an evening of dances by Robert Weiss and Lynne Taylor-Corbett, and take a peek at the North Carolina Museum of Art’s Monet retrospective.
I fly back to New York on Friday, then depart once more on Saturday morning to see shows in Boston, Washington, and Arlington. I plan to blog from the road, but irregularly, so don’t be surprised if I drop out of sight from time to time.
Over to you, OGIC!