After commuting to Bucks County for the Echo Lake conference week one, the WARP crew pointed our rental mini-van south for a three-day excursion to the greater Washington DC Area. Here are the highlights of the trip:
Renwick Gallery – Most readers of this blog are probably familiar with the Renwick, and all but one member of our group had visited in the past. It’s a wonderful museum and the state fair exhibition was the perfect whimsical start to our DC visit. Our docent told us the butter cow sculpture is a crowd favorite, and the WARP crew agreed. Made from hundreds of pounds of butter, the craft is just as impressive as the scale. As Liza pointed out, the Renwick does a great job highlighting the ways art and craft exist outside of “traditional” spaces, and state fairs are part of this constellation of art-supporting institutions. No funnel cake vendors at the Renwick, but we discovered a nice post-viewing happy hour at Larry’s Bar in Dupont Circle.
Butter cow sculpture in refrigerated chamber at the Renwick.
Collector Visits – The most unique part of the trip was our visit to the homes of three wood art collector families within a one-hour radius of DC. Our hosts were excited to open up their houses to us, and we moved from room to room, seeing living spaces which were given over to artwork, often from floor to ceiling. As we browsed shelving and walls, the group frequently recognized work from friends, colleagues, and former WARPers. In contrast to a museum setting, we were encouraged to handle the work, sit in chairs, and even lean in to smell a particularly fragrant vessel turned in camphor wood. Each had a story from the collector to accompany it, and it was clear that these pieces speak to each of their experiences, aesthetic sensibilities, and their relationships with artists.
Each collector also had a unique and serendipitous story about how they came to appreciate wood art, ranging from an unplanned dash into the Renwick to avoid a rainstorm to a lathe demonstration in a mall parking lot. It was interesting to see the ways in which wood art collecting extended beyond the walls of the houses. Each family had given large sections of their collections to museums, hosted artists at their houses, patronized craft schools, and materially supported the larger craft ecosystem in the US. The visits highlighted the fact that objects are not just objects, but stories, connections, and vessels of meaning.
Niv tries out an interactive wood turning at a collector’s house.
Glenstone – After experiencing the intimate setting of the collector visits, Glenstone museum in Potomac, MD, provided another point of contrast: monumental scale and open sightlines highlighting sparsely-placed yet visually rich contemporary and midcentury art. Robert Gobert’s untitled sink installation was a group favorite. The museum was a first for everyone in the group and a great bookend to the trip.
Other notes:
Joyce didn’t come along to DC, because she was in Richmond giving a lecture at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The VMFA said they’d post a video soon!
In the group fun department, the DC crew enjoyed going out to see Toy Story 5 in theaters, and Anders and Niv had a great time seeing Sondido Gallo Negro play Johnny Brenda’s. Thumbs up for both!