Hirshhorn Diaries--12

"Woman", Willem de Kooning, 1965

The example above was one of a series on display at the museum. Ah, de Kooning. A sometimes disgusting talent. Visceral paintings of female viscera. His women, rendered pink and red split; flayed open as if on some sadist's dissection table. Lips partially removed. Cheeks peeled. Tears in the sex. Glorious misogyny, rendered with the disturbing accuracy of a painting genius. Why do I like de Kooning? Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps it's more because of what I think he is honest about in his work, rather than whatever his darker impulses might be.

Hirshhorn Diaries--11

"Reclining Figure: Internal and External Forms (Working Model)", Henry Moore, 1952

There is nothing easy about Henry Moore. Anyone interested in complicated expressions of form would be wise to focus on Moore's work and not on the Colorformistas the Hirshhorn was celebrating this go around. Moore is a tactile genius, able to elicit a strong and irrepressible desire to touch and examine--to the point that it is almost a crime that we are not allowed to touch. A piece so complicated, that I often had to reexamine my assumptions each time I looked up from my journal. In fact, it is a piece I could spend all day interacting with.

Hirshhorn Diaries--10

"Woman (Personage)", Joan Miro, 1947

One of the more hilarious sculptures in the museum. Some kind of sex-penguin with a lady-bug vagina and a crunk booty. Has objectification ever been so cute?

Hirshhorn Diaries--9

"Soft Night", by Arshile Gorky, 1947

A painter who is undeniably talented and important, but one whom I find, more often than not, I'd rather read about than spend hours contemplating. With the exception (of course) being this piece: a disquieting gray exercise with essential splashes of color that hint at an underlying wish reacting against an imposed paralysis.

Hirshhorn Diaries--8

"Video Flag", by Nam June Paik,, 1985-96 (watch a grainy video of it here)

I could stare at Paik's video-drone art for hours, relishing the retinal punishment and mulching of my cerebrum. Like some benign Cronenberg-hell, Paik's work invites (and traps) observation: An electric pop-hole, sucking in anyone who looks.

Hirshhorn Diaries--7

"Sky Light", by Alma Thomas, 1973.

Sadly, I could not find an image of this. Painted a few years before she died, "Sky Light" is one of those paintings that has the unique ability to induce a sense of vertigo when looked at for prolonged periods of time.

Hirshhorn Diaries--6

"Head of Woman", by Pablo Picasso, 1909

Let us pause a moment to, once again, observe Picasso's "Head of Woman". A sculpture that--paired with Rodin's "Balzac"--will remain, for museums around the world, the equivelent of Skittles and Snickers at a gas station.

Hirshhorn Diaries--5

"Torso of a Young Man" by Constantin Brancusi, 1924

If by "young man" you mean large, smooth, thick, bronze penis--then, yes...

The Hirshhorn Diaries--4

"Sick Boy" by Medardo Rosso 1922

The lost art of figure sculpture. Some starved child finally warm in death and the ill omen of a century of war.

The Hirshhorn Diaries -- 3

"Crouching Woman" by Auguste Rodin, 1881

I am always stunned when reminded the year Rodin died: 1917 (77 years old). His method of expression, as well as the importance of proportionality in his work (even given its slight exaggerations), always has me thinking he were the grandchild of Michaelangelo, and not an artist born more than 300 years later. The fact that there are actual photographs of him blows my mind. I definitely see something 19th century about his subject matter, yet the sinewy action and naked eroticism in much of his work is distinctly modern. For example, in this piece the woman's body is in such a primal position, yet there is that head-turn of a tortured abashment. Her legs spread implying a sexuality that could only exist so explicitly (and, largely, less artistically) in the 21st century.

The Hirshhorn Diaries: October 25, 2007-3

"Mountains and Sea" Helen Frankenthaler, 1952

The halos (resulting from the oil stains), as well as the largely abstract landscape, make it an ideal painting for some UCLA earth sorority (a compliment).

The Hirshhorn Diaries: October 25, 2007-2

"Round Rainbow" Olafur Eliasson, 2005

Click here to see a grainy video of Eliasson's sculpture.

Like some Lynchian experiment, only through light. Simple and compellingly intricate: a crystal(?) ring spins in front of a framed spotlight, slowly bending unified streaks of refracted light and rainbow eclipses that never break or blink. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album cover if it could dance.

The Hirshhorn Diaries: October 25, 2007-1

"Untitled" by Robert Irwin, 1960's

An acrylic disc, painted an opaque white, cast in surrounding overlapping shadows by two spotlights that negate the circle at the center--an effect that can only truly be appreciated in person, resulting in a negated 3-dimensional clover. Irwin's use of light and shape to influence color results in a powerful effect: a disappearing silver bar that bisects the disc across the middle as if cinching its center. Haunting, especially when listening to Death Cab for Cutie.