The Art of Video Games: Announcing GameFest January 26, 2012

Join us for the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

To celebrate the opening of The Art of Video Games exhibition, we will be holding three jam-packed days of events and activities from Friday, March 16 through Sunday, March 18, 2012. The schedule kicks off on Friday with panel discussions that include industry pioneers such as Don Daglow and RJ Mical, as well as innovative contemporary game designers such as Kellee Santiago and Ken Levine. Following this is a keynote presentation by Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and often considered to be the father of electronic gaming (please note that this program is sold out). On Friday night, join us in our cool courtyard for a special screening of the original TRON, during which our cafe will remain open for drinks and snacks.

Saturday and Sunday will be filled with open play on historic and contemporary game consoles, craft activities, live action game play, and music. Saturday night brings you the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and includes a special treat after the screening, when curator Chris Melissinos will host a discussion with the documentary stars Walter Day, Brian Kuh, Billy Mitchell, and Steve Sanders. For the full schedule of events during GameFest, please see our website! Note that all programs and activities are free, open to the public, and do not require registration, but will operate on a first-come first-served basis whenever space is limited.

Q and Art: Silhouettes January 24, 2012

This post is the first of an ongoing series on Eye Level: "Q and Art" and is the successor to our series "The Best of Ask Joan of Art." Begun in 1993, Ask Joan of Art was the longest-running arts-based electronic reference service in the country. We retired the service late last year but want to continue to bring you interesting questions and answers about art and artists from our archive.

Left: an unidentified artist's hollow-cut silhouette of Evelyn Byrd, center: M. A. Honeywell's cut-and-pasted silhouette Lady, right: George Catlin's painted silhouette Mr. Fred H. Robinson

Question: I heard that the term silhouette comes from the name of the 18th century French finance minister Etienne de Silhouette. What is the history of silhouettes in the United States?

Answer: Silhouettes were a popular art form in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries because they were accurate, inexpensive, quick to make and easy to send to a friend or relative. Scholars believe Etienne de Silhouette’s name became connected with these black and white portraits because of the finance minister’s extreme cost-cutting. Referring to his penny-pinching efforts, affordable items were often labeled à la Silhouette. Earlier names for silhouettes included shades, profiles or shadow pictures. The more sophisticated sounding "silhouette" was popularized in the United States and England by European artists who wanted to make their portraits stand out from the shades that were already common.

The earliest known mention of a silhouette in America was in a 1769 letter from Harriott Pinckney: "Thos. Wollaston has summon'd me today, to put the finishing strokes to my shadow, which straightens me for time." By the end of the 18th century silhouettists had established studios in cities, and many traveling silhouettists offered their services to smaller towns. Artists distinguished themselves from the competition through advertisements in the local newspaper that promoted the artist's speed, accuracy and innovative technique. While some artists used only scissors and possibly paint to create their clients portraits, many others employed a mechanical device, known as a physiognotrace, to trace and simultaneously reduce the sitter's profile. Beginning in 1802, Charles Willson Peale placed a physiognotrace in his Philadelphia museum. Visitors could use the device themselves or pay Moses Williams, Peale's slave, to operate the physiognotrace for them. The device was an enormous success, and more than 8,500 silhouettes were cut in the first year. Williams made enough money from the service to buy his freedom.

As photography became more common in the mid 19th century, silhouettes fell out of fashion. Photographs shared and improved on many of the benefits of silhouettes. However, despite photography's triumph over the older art form, we still see the influence of these simple portraits in the decorative arts and the work of contemporary artists such as Kara Walker.

Silhouettes in the United States (and in the American Art Museum's collection) are divided into three main types: painted, hollow-cut (profile cut from the center of a sheet of light colored paper and placed over a dark ground), and cut-and-pasted (profile cut from black paper and pasted onto a white ground).

For more information on silhouettes, look for Emma Rutherford's and Lulu Guinness's book Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow.

Pilgrimage: Five Questions with Annie Leibovitz January 20, 2012

Annie Leibovitz, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, 2009, © Annie Leibovitz. From Pilgrimage (Random House, 2011)

Pilgrimage is a personal journey by photographer Annie Leibovitz, celebrated over the decades for her astute portraits of the cultural landscape. In Pilgrimage, the landscape is real: out of the photographer's studio and into icons of America, from the homes or workplaces of Elvis Presley to Ralph Waldo Emerson to Georgia O'Keeffe, from Niagara Falls to Yosemite Valley to Emily Dickinson's home in Amherst, to the work of photographers Alexander Gardner and Ansel Adams, to name a few. The photos at first appear quieter than her renowned commercial work, and glow with a light that seems to have been turned on within. Pilgrimage runs at American Art from January 20 through May 20, 2012.

Eye Level: Tell me how Pilgrimage came about.

Annie Leibovitz: It started off with a list of twelve or so places, people, and ideas and it became a book of twenty-seven, and it continues. Everything on the list made it into the book. One of the key places was the Lincoln Memorial. I grew up in the D.C. area and attended high school here. I honestly don't know why I put it on the list, but it became a touchstone.

EL: Speaking of Lincoln, having the exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in the building where the president had his second inaugural seems appropriate to the emotional tone and content of the book.

AL: It's so exciting to be doing this at the Smithsonian. When I was at the Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois, I bought a copy of Lincoln's writings that the Library of Congress had published and I just fell in love. We all knew the Gettysburg Address as kids, but did not take in the eloquence of the writer, and how beautiful his prose was. We flew down to Kentucky in search of his log cabin, and headed toward Hodgenville, a little town about 50 miles outside of Louisville. We found his birthplace, Sinking Spring Farm, then Knob Creek Farm, where Lincoln lived from about age two through eight. It was about ten miles between the two sites. [It was wonderful] just to be out in the country and [experience] The Lincoln Heritage trail. It's a great country; let's face it.

EL: Lincoln was no stranger to having his photo taken.

AL: Lincoln himself is quite interesting. He and his son Tad would cross the street from the White House to get his picture taken. He was the most photographed president at the time. If you think about the technical limits of the time, you never got his whimsical side because he would have had to sit for four minutes with a smile. Lincoln's secretary, John Nicolay wrote, "Lincoln's features were the despair of every artist who undertook his portrait." Apparently he was unbelievably charming.

EL: I love how one story brings you to another. For instance, Abraham Lincoln brings you to Gettysburg (and photographers Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner) to the Lincoln Memorial to Daniel Chester French to Marian Anderson...

AL: You can't help it. I became obsessed with Gettysburg and tried to understand it by following in Alexander Gardner's footsteps through the southern battlefield. William Frassanito's book, Gettysburg: A Journey in Time, is really the bible on Gettysburg. He spent a great deal of time there, and discovered that all of Gardner's photos were taken in one spot, though they [had been described as] representing the whole battlefield. Gardner would drive his wagons in, park them at, say, Rose Farm or Devil's Den. And the horrifying thing Frassanito discovered is that the famous "Rebel Sharpshooter" had been dragged forty yards and propped up. So I was literally walking around with Frassanito's book. I was hooked. In fact, last year I cleared the room at Thanksgiving by talking about Gettysburg for three hours. "Enough, enough" people said and walked out. But it's a subject you can get so involved in.

EL: Having this book in my hand is an intimate experience but how will that translate to the exhibition?

AL: It always was a modest project, which is why the rooms here are almost perfect. I wanted to keep it as a learning experience because it was a learning experience for me. You get to go on the road trip with me. The prints are modest [in size], not that large. There are just two sizes: a little smaller and a little larger. The material was always a notebook, a gathering of notes. It served me and filled me up with inspiration to refill my heart and soul. That was the first thing I accomplished on some level. And it's all out there for us. Our history is there. You don't have to make an appointment to go to Walden Pond. You can go to Yosemite to see what Ansel Adams saw. Everyone should sit down and make their own lists. I want everyone to go out and make their own lists and fill themselves up. That's my great hope. This is my list and it doesn't end...

Annie Leibovitz's exhibition, Pilgrimage, will be at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from January 20 through May 20, 2012. Her artist talk on January 24 is sold out, but you can watch the webcast here.

Five Questions: Opera at the Renwick January 17, 2012

Washington National Opera Principal Coach for the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Ken Weiss provides some insider information on how he selected the artists and repertoire for the upcoming January 22 performance in the Renwick Gallery's Grand Salon, in a discussion with Jo Ann Gillula, Chief of External Affairs at the museum.

Washington National Opera Domingo Cafritz Young Artist Program, Photo by Harold Dorwin

Eye Level: Traditionally, the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists program has presented operatic scenes at the Renwick. This performance opens with art songs by Richard Strauss. Can you tell us why you selected these and what you particularly love about them?

Ken Weiss: I think of each of these songs as a miniature operatic scene, developing a distinct character and telling a story. They're especially challenging because you have to engage the audience in the character and story quickly, and without the aid of sets, props or costumes. All the drama has to be created with the music and the poetry alone, and that makes song repertoire great training for opera singers!

If you know Richard Strauss primarily from his operas, the shocking Expressionism of Salome and Elektra, or the grand depictions of Viennese high society in Arabella and Der Rosenkavalier—these songs may be a surprise to you, as they're very intimate and lyrical pieces. We've chosen five that each depict a different stage of love, and arranged them as though they were five scenes from one growing and changing relationship.

EL: You are also presenting Lieder by Gustav Mahler. What led you to present this German repertoire?

KW: The Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, or "Songs of a Wayfarer," are among Mahler's most personal and heartfelt pieces. They tell the story of a young man who leaves his home, looking for solace on the open road, when the girl he loves marries someone else. Mahler wrote the texts himself, in the aftermath of a failed love affair in his own life, and they're a beautiful and heartbreaking chronicle of the stages of his grief.

Both the Mahler and the Strauss offer pianist Artem Grishaev a special opportunity to shine. Those of us who work in opera houses spend most of our time playing piano arrangements of scores really written for orchestra. In this program, Artem gets to play music originally composed for the piano (though Mahler later orchestrated this set, and it's often heard in the orchestral version.)

EL: You conclude these musical offerings with some of the best-loved operetta composers: Lehar, Siecynski, and Kalman. Why such a contrast and what about these selections appealed to you?

KW: The German and Austrian Romantics wrote a lot of emotionally intense music, but no portrait of their time would be complete without its lighter side! The sparkling music of operetta was an essential part of the musical scene in the time of Strauss and Mahler, and they had more in common with operetta composers than you might suspect. They drew on the same influences, and shared a musical language. The first song in the Mahler group, for example, features what sounds like gypsy (or klezmer) wedding music—the same kind of music explored in Emmerich Kalman's Komm, Zigany, which leads off our operetta set. The Viennese waltz, so prominent in Franz Lehar's operettas, also turns up constantly in the works of Richard Strauss, most famously in Der Rosenkavalier.

EL: What can we look forward to in hearing these young artists?

KW: All three singers on this program are accomplished young professionals beginning to appear in major companies around the U.S. and abroad. Jennifer Waters and Javier Arrey made acclaimed debuts in last summer's Menotti festival at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Spain; Jeffrey Gwaltney stepped in last summer on short notice to take over the principal role of Giasone in Glimmerglass Opera's production of Cherubini's Medea. Pianist Artem Grishaev comes to us from the training program at Moscow's Bolshoi Opera, after recent performances at the Queen Elizabeth Competition.

We built this program around music that the artists really wanted to perform. They bring not only technical and musical skill, but also a personal commitment to this material, and it's been really exciting to work on it with them.

EL: What do you enjoy about performing opera in the Grand Salon?

KW: The Grand Salon has wonderful, resonant acoustics, and a terrific piano. It's particularly appropriate for this program, because it dates from the same era as the music we're performing. But it's proved to be a wonderful venue for all sorts of repertoire, from Mozart and Verdi, to Russian opera and zarzuela. Our most longstanding tradition in the Grand Salon is our annual performance of scenes from American opera, and we're looking forward to this year's performance on May 20th!

Renwick Postcard Competition January 11, 2012

Cross stitch postcard celebrating the Renwick's 40 years by Katie Crooks.

The Renwick Gallery is celebrating a milestone year in 2012, its 40th! To give our audience a chance to participate in the fun, we're holding a postcard design contest. We want to see how visitors (both onsite and online) translate the best in American craft, decorative arts, exhibitions, and programs on a mail-worthy 5 by 7 inch space. And most of all, we are excited to see the creative way in which you see the Renwick Gallery.

Yes, you!

If you haven't created a design yet, you really should. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Monday, January 16, 2012. Need more information? Go to AmericanArt.si.edu/renwick/postcard for all the details. Hurry-up, time's a tickin'!