Day 6 - Part Two

We arrived at our Metro station this morning to discover a Farmer's Market set up with produce, cheeses, breads and gorgeous flowers. It was a colourful start to our day.

Our next stop was the Eastern Market with a varied assortment of stalls selling everything from food to used clothing, from old windows to jewelery, from original artwork to funky shoes.

Shortening our visit to the Market, we headed to the National Gallery of Art. At the west end, we toured the National Sculpture garden first. Some of the creators of these pieces will be obvious, all are American sculptors.

Walking into the West wing of the Gallery we were immediately impressed! What a treat! The original building, when it was constructed in 1941, was the largest marble structure in the world. It is a work of architectural art with high ceilings, marble columns, garden courts and a rotunda that features a bronze statue of Mercury. On display are works by Rembrandt,  El Greco, Vermeer, Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, Cezanne. Monet, Manet and a two sided piece by da Vinci. My personal favourite was Modigliani.

Nude on a blue cushion
Modigliani

The artwork is almost eclipsed by the architecture...but, not quite. We enjoyed the Garden Courts, lined with comfortable seating, discovered many treasures in the labyrinth of small gallery rooms and finally made our way to the "moving walkway" that connects the West Wing with an ultra modern East wing.

The lights along the walkway blink, change colour and flashed as we moved along."Multiverse" is the name of the light sculpture that accompanies the walkway with programmed LEDs in a continually changing constellation.

The East wing contains a collection of modern and contemporary artwork. Chuck Close's two paintings were immediate highlights for both of us. "Fanny" was painted in oil on canvas using only his fingers.
The other painting of "Nat" was  painted in acrylics on canvas. They are each huge ( 7' x 9 1/2' ).

Fanny and Nat

Close-up of Nat....this is not a photograph!

The Invisible Object

by Alberto Giacometti

Feeling overwhelmed by such a rich display of talent we finally left the gallery and walked over to the Hirschhorn Sculpture gardens to sit under the trees for a rest before taking the Metro back to the hotel.