IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO today that Alan Bean became the fourth man to walk on the moon. During the Apollo 12 mission, he executed scientific experiments and collected rocks for study back on Earth, and everything the astronaut learned served to further NASA's understanding of the moon.
But that knowledge has also been invaluable to Bean's post-astronaut career: Since June 1981 he's been a full-time painter whose sole focus is capturing his experiences on, and knowledge of, the moon.
"My job is trying to tell as many of the stories that I know that I think will get lost if I don't tell them," Bean said on his paintings. "When I'm thinking of my life expectancy — I'm 77 now — I don't say, 'Gee, I hope I live a long time so I won't die.' I say, 'I hope I live a long time because I have a lot of these things to do before I'm gone.'"
The National Air and Space Museum's exhibition "Alan Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist on Another World" displays more than 50 pieces, plus 18 NASA artifacts related to the mission, and it shows how the astronaut artist balances his right- and left-brain thinking to create images that are as striking visually as they are elucidating scientifically. [Click here to read our interview with curator Carolyn Russo.]
But despite the moon trip being a defining point in his life, Bean said he rarely thinks of the Earth's satellite outside of when he's working on a painting.
"I don't — I'm thinking art thoughts," he said. "I may be saying, 'Does this look like the surface of the moon?' ... So, from that point of view, I'm thinking about the moon. But when I say, 'This rock needs to be more three dimensional, it needs to set on this sloping surface.' That's an art problem."
That's not to say Bean is over the moon. He knows the importance of his space exploration, including commanding Skylab 3 in 1973, which is why he's so intent on sharing his experiences through art.
"This was a great human adventure — certainly one of the greatest of the 20th century," he said. "And here I am lucky enough, blessed enough, with interest and skills to tell this story in a way that no one else can do it. I feel that duty."
There's more of our conversation with Capt. Bean after the jump, including his revolutionary ideas about what he would do if he ran the space program. (Two words: Oprah Winfrey.)
Continue Reading "Not Over the Moon: Alan Bean, First Artist on Another World" »
THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY'S "Portraiture Now: Communities" is not laid out to indicate a starting and ending point. That makes sense, because the show is is as conceptually open-ended and accessible as it is physically.
"Communities" features the works of three painters, all thematically bound by a blending of old techniques and new, democratically rendering American subjects from almost every walk of life.
A leveling of the social playing field in the age of online dating, social networking and virtual identity, Jim Torok's 23-piece "A Colorado Family," for instance, maps underlying features that unite its three generations, broaching a profound question: What indelible human traits bind us as a people? An inversion of Chuck Close's photo-enlargement techniques, it's no quaint irony that his 5-by-4-inch oil-on-panel portraits, each of which can take a year to complete, are little larger than Polaroids.
Continue Reading "A Picture of a Nation: 'Portraiture Now: Communities'" »
OVER THE PAST FOUR DECADES, painter Brice Marden has created monochromatic paintings, examined linear networks and found inspiration in Japanese and Chinese calligraphy. The abstractionist comes to the National Gallery of Art on Sunday to converse with Harry Cooper, curator and head of the department of modern and contemporary art. Marden has five paintings and two drawings on display in "The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works," on view until May.
The show contains 126 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints that the Meyerhoffs collected between 1958 and 2004, and includes works by Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. Marden says he knew the Meyerhoffs, and they would visit his studio to purchase paintings.
Of his works in the show, Marden says, "there's a very strong unifying vein that runs through the whole group, even though in a certain superficial way they all look very different from each other."
Continue Reading "The Collector's Art: Painter Brice Marden at the National Gallery of Art" »
SATURDAY: Learn the secrets of potions, powders and elixirs when the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum in Alexandria lets visitors go behind the counter. Saturday's tour through the museum's collection, its building, history and the development of pharmaceuticals from the time of the shop's founding in the 18th century. Behind the Counter tours take place every every third Saturday of the month and include a light breakfast.
» Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum and Gift Shop, 105-107 S. Fairfax St., Alexandria; Sat., Nov. 21, 9 p.m., $25, reservation required; 703-838-4242.
Photo courtesy Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum
THE LIFE-SIZE CLAY FIGURES are an imposing lot, with intricate armor and solemn faces to indicate their task of accompanying China's first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, into the afterlife. The soldiers, archers, musicians and generals now stand in the National Geographic Museum in "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor," which runs through March.
The figures, made nearly 2,000 years ago, were discovered in huge underground pits outside the city of Xi'an in 1974. Shihuangdi's tomb complex was massive, taking 36 years to make, and it's estimated that there are 2,000 soldiers and hundreds of chariots and horses in the pits. The exhibit includes 15 warriors, weapons, armor and coins, among other objects, excavated from the tomb complex.
D.C. is the fourth and final U.S. city to host the "Terra Cotta Warriors" exhibit, and they have also been on display at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, Calif.; Atlanta's High Museum of Art; and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Continue Reading "Tough Crowd: China's Terra Cotta Warriors at the National Geographic Museum" »
MONDAY: We never needed the Nobel committee to tell us Orhan Pamuk was brilliant. But yes, the Turkish author did win the Literature prize two years ago.
He's back with a new novel, "The Museum of Innocence," and he'll tell you about his life and inspiration at the National Museum of Natural History.
» National Museum of Natural History, Baird Auditorium, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW; Mon., Nov. 23, 6:45 p.m., $25, students $10; 202-633-3030, Residentassociates.org. (Smithsonian)
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
ONGOING: The Chinese emperor Qin Shihuangdi had thousands of life-sized clay figures sculpted to accompany him to the grave — archers, acrobats, you name it.
The rock stars of his tomb, though, are the warriors, and you can see 15 of them in the exhibit "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor," which opened Thursday.
» National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th St. NW; through March 31, $12, children $6; 202-857-7700, Nationalgeographic.com. (Farragut North)
Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post
ONGOING: It's a solo show by a Belgian conceptual artist featuring live chickens. What else do you need to know?
Oh, fine. The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, dreamed up by artist Koen Vanmechelen, combines mixed-media art (sometimes made of eggs) with, um, artistic chicken breeding? It's about genetic engineering! And rebirth! Or something. Really, we have no idea, but it'll be a good date-night conversation piece.
» Conner Contemporary Art, 1358 Florida Ave. NE; through Dec. 31, free; 202-588-8750.
Photo by Richard A. Lipski/The Washington Post
SATURDAY: The resurgence of handmade culture in America bodes well for the future. At the very least, if civilization collapses we'll have tons of people who know how to make ugly hats and "Twilight"-themed Fimo jewelry.
But it's nice to see people making things for themselves, and that's commemorated in "Handmade Nation," a short documentary about crafters showing at the Renwick Saturday afternoon. Will DIY sink back into obscurity once this recession is over? We hope not. Go check out the movie — maybe it'll inspire you to make something of your own.
» Renwick Gallery, 17th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. NW; Sat., Nov. 21, 2 p.m., free; 202-633-1000. (Farragut West)
Photo from Indiecraftdocumentary.blogspot.com
THIS WEEK: We've always thought Mt. Vernon was just about beautiful enough to eat — and finally, someone agrees with us. Former White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier is making our dreams come true this week.
Chef Mesnier will be inside Mt. Vernon constructing a gigantic replica of George Washington's former home out of gingerbread for Christmas. The structure will be highly-detailed and will include a number of figurines made out of marzipan. Drop by any time between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to watch him while he works and smell some of that delicious, delicious gingerbread.
We're salivating already.
» Mt. Vernon, 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, Mount Vernon; through Tue., Nov. 24, free; 703-780-2000.
Written by Express' Sarah Mimms
Photo by Frank Johnston/The Washington Post
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