EVENT CATEGORIES
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ART
Through July 9
Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism
Frédéric Bazille (1841-70) created paintings inspired by contemporary life that challenged the aesthetic conventions of his day and helped to lay the groundwork of impressionism. In celebration of the 175th anniversary of the artist’s birth, this exhibit brings together some 75 paintings that examine Bazille as a central figure of impressionism.
National Gallery of Art
Through July 9
Inventing Utamaro: A Japanese Masterpiece Rediscovered
In 2014, the Okada Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan, made an announcement that startled the art world. The new arts center revealed it had discovered a long-lost painting by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), a legendary but mysterious Japanese artist. Titled “Snow at Fukagawa,” the immense work is one of three paintings by Utamaro that idealize famous pleasure districts in Edo (now Tokyo). For the first time in nearly 140 years, these paintings reunite in Inventing Utamaro at the Freer|Sackler, the only location to show all three original pieces.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
July 10 to 12
Survibe
Joan Tarragó, Sabek and Elliot Alcalde are traveling 4,139 miles on a painting roadtrip, a hand-drawn route that crosses half of the country, from Texas to New York to D.C. Their Survibe Project is a living documentary in which they will get to know as many people and places as possible while painting huge walls, engaging in art collaborations and creating pop-up exhibitions as well as 360-degree photographic and video content, 24/7.
Former Residence of the Spanish Ambassador
July 14 to Oct. 29
Equilibrium: Fanny Sanín
This spotlight exhibition, featuring five paintings and more than 30 preliminary drawings by Fanny Sanín, invites viewers into the artist’s meticulous, intuitive process, as she creates compositions of geometric forms with precisely defined fields of color.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Through July 24
Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Flair
For 50 years, the Ebony Fashion Fair shaped a new vision of black America through contemporary fashion. Founded by Eunice Walker Johnson in 1958, the traveling fashion show broke the color barrier to bring the pinnacle of global fashion to communities that were eager to celebrate black accomplishment, aspiration and success. The George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum present the story of the Ebony Fashion Fair and its cultural impact with 40 garments, including stunning gowns, feathered coats and statement designs by Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood and burgeoning designer Naeem Khan, who would go on to dress first lady Michelle Obama.
The George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum
Through Aug. 6
Gateways/Portales
What do D.C., Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Baltimore, Md., all have in common? They are all urban areas, are all on the East Coast and all have experienced rapid growth in their “Latinx” populations, most with spurts beginning in the 1980s. “Gateways/Portales” explores the triumphs and struggles of Latinx migrants and immigrants through the lenses of rights and justice, representation and celebration.
Anacostia Community Museum
Through Aug. 6
José Gómez-Sicre’s Eye
A half-century ago, Cuban-born curator José Gómez-Sicre took the reins of the OAS’s art program, thrusting himself into the rapidly expanding Latin American art world and bringing young, emerging talent to the OAS’s budding exhibition space. Impassioned by the arts, Gómez-Sicre planted the seeds of what is today considered among world’s finest collections of modern and contemporary Latin American and Caribbean art. The OAS will be celebrating the centennial of Gómez-Sicre’s birth throughout 2016, honoring his contribution to the legacy of the hemisphere’s art.
OAS Art Museum of the Americas
Through Aug. 6
The Urban Scene: 1920-1950
American artists of the early 20th century sought to interpret the beauty, power and anxiety of the modern age in diverse ways. Through depictions of bustling city crowds and breathtaking metropolitan vistas, 25 black-and-white prints in this exhibition explore the spectacle of urban modernity.
National Gallery of Art
Through Aug. 13
Escape: Foon Sham
“Escape” showcases Foon Sham’s mastery of wood sculpture. To be within one of his vessel sculptures is to experience the palpable space of a woodland creature’s habitat, or the place of concealment. At the American University Museum, Sham has built one horizontal tunnel measuring 62 feet long and one vertical tunnel towering 36 feet high. “Escape” is one of a series of participatory sculptures, begun in the 1990s, meant to be experienced with all the body’s senses and to resonate socially.
American University Museum
Through Aug. 13
States of Being: Photographs of Cuba and North Korea by Carl De Keyzer
An exhibition of prints by Belgian photographer Carl De Keyzer of scenes in North Korea and Cuba consists of 60 large-scale photos. The Cuba photos were taken shortly after former President Obama’s 2014 speech inviting the relaxation of the communist island’s 56-year embargo. De Keyzer’s North Korean prints also were shot in 2015. The British-run Koryo Group, which organizes travel tours in North Korea, arranged for De Keyzer to spend more than 40 nights in North Korea, during which time the globally renowned photographer traveled to every single one of the country’s provinces.
American University Museum
Through Aug. 19
Tierras Ambulantes (Clay in Transit)
Curated by Mexican artist Paloma Torres, “Tierras Ambulantes (Clay in Transit)” explores the work of seven sculptors who use clay as a means of returning to cultural roots and origins. The artists whose work is presented here build bridges between the past and present by creating contemporary pieces with such an ancient medium.
Mexican Cultural Institute
Through Aug. 20
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting
When Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoleon, arrived in the United States in 1815, he brought with him his exquisite collection of eighteenth-century French paintings. Put on public view, the works caused a sensation, and a new American taste for French art was born. T his exhibition brings together 68 paintings that represent some of the best and most unusual examples of French art of that era held by American museums and tells their stories on a national stage.
National Gallery of Art
Through Sept. 3
David Molander – Invisible Cities
If home is a place where we ought to feel safe, how is this feeling visualized in our collective home — i.e., the city? This question inspired David Molander to create scenes where small and large conflicts play out among different interests and processes. While we can choose to care about or ignore them, all of them play an important role in shaping the invincible cities that we call home.
House of Sweden
Through Sept. 3
Linda Lasson – Black Thread, Images from Northern Sweden
Exploring the lives of the Sami, Sweden’s indigenous people. Linda Lasson tells the stories of an exploited Northland and a displaced indigenous population through work that is archetypal contemporary poetry expressed as embroidery. The threads resemble drawings, and the graphic feel, mixed with the textile structure, exudes a sculptural aesthetic.
House of Sweden
Through Sept. 10
Markus Lüpertz: Threads of History
Offering unparalleled insight into the German artist’s pioneering early practice, “Markus Lüpertz: Threads of History” showcases more than 30 paintings from Lüpertz’s formative years in the 1960s and ’70s, as he challenged the limits of painting and forged his own style amidst the unrest of postwar Germany.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Through Sept. 10
Revival
Contemporary sculpture, photography and video by women artists explores how arresting aesthetics and intense subject matter can spur the viewer into a transcendent encounter with a work of art. Rousing the spirit rather than simply tantalizing the eye, the 16 artists in this exhibition harness scale, technique and effect in photography and sculpture to reanimate deep-rooted emotions related to the human experience.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Through Sept. 17
Yoko Ono: Four Works for Washington and the World
The Hirshhorn celebrates the 10th anniversary of Yoko Ono’s iconic “Wish Tree for Washington, D.C.,” a living tree that invites visitors to tie a handwritten wish to its branches, with a summer of the Ono’s emotionally charged installations and performances. Starting June 17, visitors can make a wish at the Wish Tree, leave memories of their mother at the U.S. debut of “My Mommy is Beautiful,” a 40-foot participatory artwork that becomes a communal tribute to motherhood, and watch the newly restaged Sky TV for Washington, D.C., a 24-hour live feed of the sky outside, created in 1966 when Ono was living in a windowless apartment and longed for a glimpse of nature.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Through Sept. 23
Markus Lüpertz
“Markus Lüpertz” explores the entirety of the prolific German artist’s five-decade career with a survey of his earliest works along with more recent paintings. Lüpertz, who began painting in a postwar Germany dominated by American Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, has exhibited a preoccupation with the relationship between figuration and abstraction over the course of his career. Demonstrating this relationship through nearly 50 paintings, the exhibition at the Phillips includes important examples from Lüpertz’s “dithyrambic” pictures and provocative paintings of German motifs.
The Phillips Collection
Through Dec. 10
Stories of Migration – Sweden Beyond the Headlines
Migration is old news. It has helped shape countries and the world. But the current situation is unprecedented: More than 65 million people around the world have been forced to leave their homes. Migration is also an integral part of the history of Sweden; in today’s population, one in six was born in another country. Since the 1930s Sweden has been characterized by more immigration than emigration, including offering refuge to people fleeing war and political unrest. This exhibition aims to add new perspectives to the story of Sweden and migration and give insights into the current situation in the country. Beyond headlines of chaos and collapse, beyond politics and public authorities, there are people who try to build a life in a new country.
House of Sweden
Through Jan. 1
Spectacular Gems and Jewelry from the Merriweather Post Collection
For centuries, extraordinary gemstones have been the centerpieces of stunning jewelry made to adorn royalty, aristocracy, high society and Hollywood stars. Over 50 pieces that once belonged heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, one of the greatest jewelry collectors of the 20th century, will tell the story behind some of the remarkable stones and the jewelry into which they were transformed.
Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Through Jan. 15
Architecture of an Asylum: St. Elizabeths 1852-2017
Established by Congress in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane, St. Elizabeths is widely considered a pioneering psychiatric facility. The hospital is a prime example of the “Kirkbride Plan” for mental health hospitals, which promised to help patients with a specialized architecture and landscape. This exhibition traces St. Elizabeths’ evolution over time, reflecting shifting theories about how to care for the mentally ill, as well as the later reconfiguration of the campus as a federal workplace and a mixed-use urban development.
National Building Museum
Through Feb. 17
Painting Shakespeare
Discover the paintings collection at the Folger — its stories, its glories and Shakespeare’s power to inspire visual artists. From humble oil sketches to international masterpieces, this exhibition presents kids and adults alike, with a sometimes surprising, and always eye-catching, view of the man and his works.
Folger Shakespeare Library
Through June 24, 2018
Jim Chuchu’s Invocations
The museum is the first institution to acquire and display Kenyan multimedia artist Jim Chuchu’s mesmerizing suite of video projections, in which two distinct videos loop in succession and follow the structure of initiation rituals. Surrounded by Chuchu’s pulsing house beats and evocative imagery, viewers are invited to contemplate the separations and releases that shape our individual and collective identities.
National Museum of African Art
DISCUSSIONS
Tue., July 25, 6:30 p.m.
Goethe Book Club: Alina Bronsky’s Broken Glass Park (Scherbenpark)
Read and discuss works by contemporary German authors in this series hosted by the Goethe-Institut. All books can be read in recent English translation or in the German original; discussion will be in English. “Broken Glass Park” centers around a teenage girl living under extraordinary circumstances — her family migrates to Germany, where a pattern of violence ends with the murder of her mother at the hands of her stepfather.
Goethe-Institut
MUSIC
Through July 4
Serenade! Choral Festival: A JFK 100 Celebration
Featuring 16 choirs from 12 countries, this annual festival, not in its seventh year, is part of the centennial celebration of John F. Kennedy’s birth. Each choir selected for this year’s annual festival comes from a country served by one of Kennedy’s enduring initiatives, the Peace Corps. Choirs from India, Northern Ireland, Panama, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Bulgaria, Latvia, Mongolia, Canada, Spain, China, and the United States give free performances throughout the D.C. area, including five concerts on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and a grand finale concert in the Concert Hall. For information, visit www.classicalmovements.com/dc.htm.
Kennedy Center
Fri., July 7, 12 p.m.
Mark Damisch
Mark Damisch is an American concert pianist who began studying organ at the Evanston Conservatory of Music at the age of 4, performed his first piano concert at 7 and as a teenager in 1974, toured Europe both as a pianist and also in a vocal group alongside the Vienna Boys Choir. Admission is free; to register, visit http://acfdc.org.
Embassy of Austria
Sat., July 8, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sound Scene X: Dissonance
“Sound Scene X” unites local audio artists and contributors from across the globe to transform the Hirshhorn into a sonic wonderland highlighting the unique sounds of D.C., centered on the theme of “dissonance.” Visitors will have the rare opportunity to: listen to the solar system in real time; play a veggie keyboard; build wind chimes from recycled materials; compose melodies based on body temperature; and construct a wall of silence.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
THEATER
Through July 2
Jesus Christ Superstar
Experience Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s stunning award-winning rock opera in a sleek, modern, environmental production. Please call for ticket information.
Signature Theatre
July 7 to 30
The Originalist
Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner and distinguished D.C. actor Edward Gero reprises his role as Justice Antonin Scalia, in a “lively performance” that “lands the laughs, delivers the gravitas and at every turn makes you believe this tantalizing man” (The Washington Post). He is joined by former D.C. resident Jade Wheeler as a young, liberal law clerk who becomes a sparring partner for the conservative Justice, and Brett Mack as an eager Scalia devotee. Post-show conversations include journalists Nina Totenberg and Jess Bravin and actor Gero and playwright John Strand on July 19, as well as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Artistic Director Molly Smith on July 22. Tickets are $40 to $90.
Arena Stage
July 7 to 9
Salomé – National Theatre Live
An occupied desert nation. A radical from the wilderness on hunger strike. A girl whose mysterious dance will change the course of the world. This charged retelling turns the infamous biblical tale on its head, placing the girl we call Salomé at the center of a revolution. Tickets are $20.
The Shakespeare Theatre
Through July 8
When We Were Young and Unafraid
This powerful play takes you inside a shelter for women on the run in the early 1970s. Penned by “House of Cards” writer Sarah Treem, the drama transports you to a time before Roe vs. Wade, before the Violence Against Women Act and before women had anywhere to turn in times of distress as it tells the story of Agnes, a single parent who has turned her quiet B&B into one of the few spots where a woman on the run can seek refuge. Tickets are $35 to $45.
Andrew Keegan Theatre
Through July 9
Broken Glass
Theater J stages “Broken Glass,” one of the only plays by Arthur Miller to directly incorporate Jewish characters and history. In Miller’s riveting drama, Sylvia Gellburg has suddenly, mysteriously, become paralyzed from the waist down. Neither her husband, a self-denying Jew, nor her doctor can figure out why. Set in Brooklyn throughout the rampage of Kristallnacht in 1938, this play confronts our assumptions about being American, being married and coming to terms with one’s own identity. Tickets start at $37.
Edlavitch DCJCC
Through July 9
The School for Lies
“The School for Lies” transforms Molière’s 17th-century classic “The Misanthrope” into a modern satire crafted in vicious couplets and outrageous gags, creating a baroque comedy of manners brimming with contemporary slang. Please call for ticket information.
The Shakespeare Theatre
July 11 to Aug. 6
Cabaret
Step into the infamous Kit Kat Klub and leave your troubles outside. As part of its 50th anniversary, the renowned Roundabout Theatre Company presents “Cabaret,” the scintillating Tony winner about following your heart while the world loses its way. Tickets are $59 to $149.
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater
Through July 16
The Sound of Music
The spirited, romantic, and beloved musical will thrill once again with its Tony, Grammy, and Oscar-winning score in this brand new production, directed by three-time Tony winner Jack O’Brien. Tickets are $39 to $169.
Kennedy Center Opera House
July 18 to Aug. 20
Rodger’s & Hammerstein’s ‘The King and I’
Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher whom the modernist King, in an imperialistic world, brings to Siam to teach his many wives and children. Tickets are $49 to $159
Kennedy Center Opera House
July 19 to Aug. 13
The Mark of Cain
Synetic Theater’s newly devised work is a neo-surrealist distillation of human history, seen through the eyes of Cain, the world’s first criminal. As Cain makes his bloody “mark” in every corner of the world, we see that the conflict between progress and morality are ever present — a function of humanity’s need to create civilization through uncivilized means and attempt to touch the face of God. Tickets start at $35.
Synetic Theater
July 23 to Dec. 13
Matthias Mansen: Configurations
German-born artist Matthias Mansen creates large-scale woodcuts that explore abstraction and figuration. He advances the tradition of woodblock printing by transforming pieces of scavenged wood—discarded floorboards or fragments of abandoned furniture—into printing blocks, which he progressively carves and recarves.
National Gallery of Art
Through Aug. 13
The Second City’s Almost Accurate Guide to America: Divided We Stand
Who better to comment on the state of our nation than the comedians who mock it best? The Second City returns for another summer of uproarious irreverence on America’s divided political climate. Tickets are $49 to $65.
Kennedy Center Theater Lab
Sun., July 30, 7 p.m.
Esther, Sweet Esther
Based on the well-loved Biblical story, “Esther, Sweet Esther,” is a light and witty, two-act operatic musical about the heroic and faithful Jewish maiden who, after becoming the Queen of Persia, risks her life to save her people. The Broadway and Hollywood theatrical team of Jeremiah and Wendy Ginsberg bring the romantic biblical story to the stage, featuring the first Syrian opera singer, Lubana Al-Quntar, as Esther in the cast of 11 talented performers. Tickets are $90 or $175; for information, visit www.esthersweetesther.eventbrite.com.
National Press Club
