The DC Traveler

Many of Annie Leibovitz photographs are unforgettable.
The Rolling Stone cover image of a naked John Lennon hugging Yoko Ono taken the morning he was killed. The Vanity Fair cover of a nude pregnant Demi Moore.  The images of the Rolling Stones during one of their American tours.  Her classic images for the American Express card celebrity campaign. Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. album cover. And most recently, the controversial Vanity Fair implied semi-nude photos of Miley Cyrus in April of this year. 
She was the chief photographer for both Rolling Stone and a featured photographer for Vanity Fair. 
She will discuss …read more

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I was a bit disappointed when one of my favorite sculptures, The Awakening, was removed from Hains Point in East Potomac Park in February to be relocated at National Harbor. 
Created by J. Seward Johnson, Jr. as part of a sculpture exhibition, the 5-piece cast aluminum piece is now at its new home on a sandy beachfront location at Washington’s National Harbor, near the stage and plaza. 
The new location is inches off the waters edge and a smaller, somewhat less inviting and playful place than the former locations in a large grassy park.
 
Watch the video of the statute’s …read more

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Over 70 area galleries, museums, universities, embassies and art centers will participate in the first ever, FotoWeek DC, in Washington, DC.
Throughout the week of November 15-22, 2008, Washington, DC will celebrate the art of photography, with a gathering of the best in the DC photographic community, with series of exhibits, lectures, competitions, and celebration of all things photographic.
FotoWeek DC brings together photographic talent and a collection of images ranging from artistic to business, political to editorial. Events include:

Exhibitions at over 60 galleries and public spaces around DC
Juried exhibitions of some of Washington, DC’s most gifted photographers
Lectures and book signings …read more

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The works of three outstanding American nature photographers from different generations, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams and Robert Adams, each capture the essence of nature, in images of clouds, surf and rivers.

The collection on exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC showcases 21 images, including:

Stieglitz’s series of ten photos of clouds over Lake George, New York, a collection which has not been shown in its entirety since a 1923. 
Ansel Adams’ photos of the coastline and surf along San Mateo’s coast, south of San Francisco.
Robert Adams’ images of the Columbia River emptying into the Pacific in Oregon. 

Oceans, Rivers, and …read more

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Here’s a wacky convention – Anime USA, designed to bring together fans of Japanese Anime (animation) and Magna (comics – pronounced MAHN-ga, and to educate people about and help promote Japanese arts and popular culture.
Pronounced ah-NEE-may, it’s a popular form of art used in television shows, video games, movies, and on countless Internet sites.
Animation was popular in both the U.S. and Japan after WW-II, but in Japan, anime and magna (animation and comics characters) accounted for over 40% of all of Japan’s domestic films. While in the U.S., animation was mostly targeted at young children, in Japan, it had …read more

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The band KISS is not just a heavy metal band, it’s a rock merchandising empire. Probably no other rock band has parlayed their fame into more non-music revenue, perhaps other than Elvis Presley. The band’s list of merchandise includes comics, television, reality television shows, action figures, and tons of other KISS merchandise and memorabilia.
And KISS front man Paul Stanley is no exception. He will be exhibiting his oil and acrylic paintings, along with Giclee prints, at the Wentworth Gallery in Tysons Gallery in suburban McLean, Virginia.
If you can’t recall the different KISS characters, Stanley was the Starchild and is …read more

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Washington, DC’s latest American pop art addition is called “Modern Head”, by famed American pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein.
This blue painted stainless steel, 31-foot tall sculpture was installed at the corner of Ninth and F Streets in late August, on the grounds of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
First installed in 1996, just one block from the World Trade Center, in Battery Park in New York City, it survived the September 11th attack with only minor scratches.  A month later, it was moved to another gallery in Nassau County, New York, then to a botanic garden in Coral Gables, Florida.  …read more

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In 1908 New York, an art exhibition consisting of works from eight artists, mostly Philadelphia and New York newspaper illustrators, opened. The works were reflecting the rebellious attitude of eight artists against the current American Impressionist movement. Their style reflected rough and tough urban life — drunks, prostitutes, boxers, and other working class images were there themes. 
The exhibit catapulted these eight independent American artists and a new artistic movement. The artists, called The Eight, were a group of American painters who united to oppose academic traditions held by the established art world.
Their style advanced modernism, incorporating realist …read more

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American painter, Richard Diebenkorn’s early abstract impressionism work is not well known. But his Albuquerque period (1950-52), created a solid foundation for future work.

His individualist style were based, in part, of earlier works of abstract expressionists from a decade earlier. 
By the 1960s, he had become a known and respected abstract expressionist on America’s Pacific coast.
Closing soon is an exhibit of his influential work, at The Phillips Collection, in Washington, DC.
Diebenkorn in New Mexico
The Phillips Collection
1600 21st Street, NW, between Q and R Streets
Washington, DC 20009 (map it)
Dates and Times – Through Sept. 7, 2008
Hours – Saturday 10:00 a.m.– 6:00 …read more

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Political cartoons are almost as old as newspapers. And poking fun of presidents, political leaders and politics is a mainstay of humor today.
Three-time Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist Herbert Block (“Herblock”), cartooned about politics starting with his first cartoon that appeared in the Chicago Daily News, back in 1929.  The topics he covered early in his career included the aggressive pre-WW-II stance of the USSR and the growing concern of the rise of Nazi Germany.
In 1946, immediately after serving in WW-II, he joined the staff of the Washington Post where he worked until his death in 2001, at …read more

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