Phillips Collection

Today Cardgrrl and I went to the Phillips Collection, a relatively small private art museum. Though a few old masters are represented (I think today was the first time I've seen an El Greco work on display), it's mostly 20th century stuff--some beautiful, some interesting without being beautiful, some just weird and incomprehensible. For the most part, it was work by people I've never heard of, though there was the scattered Monet, Cezanne, Matisse, and Mondrian thrown in.

One of the most interesting pieces is a brand-new exhibit, a two-part thing called "Skin" by A. Balasubramaniam. The outdoor portion is a steel sculpture, vaguely shaped like a human heart, with channels running through it, confounding one's conception of what is the piece's interior and its exterior, reminding me of a Klein bottle. (It pleases me to have a girlfriend who knew what a Klein bottle was without needing to have it explained.)

The inside portion is a series of five small works that use the wall of the gallery itself as the medium. One looks like a fist has attempted to punch through a wall made of rubber, and got stuck. Three look like skin has been bunched up and is being held in place with nails. One looks like an ugly gaping wound, as if in the middle of a surgical procedure.

You can see a 5-minute video of the installation work of both parts here.

There wasn't a lot that made me think, "Oooo, I wish I were rich enough to own that," but all in all, it was a nice and educational sampling of the last hundred years of art history.

Then we walked a couple of blocks to Dolcezza, a little shop with amazing gelato and sorbet, in unexpected but delicious flavor combinations.

Even though these people in D.C. do strange things like mix lots of moisture with their air, this whole not-working-for-a-while thing is pretty nice, I must say.

Addendum

Cardgrrl's photos from the museum are here.