National Gallery of Art: Harry Callahan at 100

[chassis]

I visited the NGA today in Washington, DC, and saw the Callahan exhibit. It was the first time for me at this facility, and also viewing Callahan's images. The NGA is pretty excellent. To get to the photography galleries I had to walk through an amazing exhibition of sculpture from Rodin and Degas.

The short version: I appreciated a few of Callahan's abstracts (Weeds in Snow, Telephone Wires), but his style mostly didn't appeal to me. His later, larger images were nice. The printing was very good, with full tonal scale and rich blacks. It wasn't very moving to me, but if you are a Callahan fan, I think the exhibit was well presented.

On the way out of the NGA I walked through galleries with paintings from many famous names: Picasso, Monet, Renoir, others. I didn't realize what a collection the NGA has. Like the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art is a great (free) resource to help inspire your photographic and artistic journey.

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks for the information. Callahan is one of my favorite photographers. I'll be in D.C. in January, hopefully it will still be up then.

If you want a better understanding of what he was up to here are two excellent books:

"Harry Callahan:The Photographer At Work" by Britt Salvesen

"Harry Callahan" text by Sarah Greenough, published by the National Gallery of Art

[Darin Boville]

My favorite Callahan book is the 1996 National Gallery of Art monograph--apparently out of print but available via Amazon bargain books for $55 (or much less used). From what I've seen all other Callahan books are based around a similar set of images.

The show itself was very good--and finding the monograph a few years later for a $10 or so on the secret National Gallery of Art sale table was even better...I bought several as gifts.

--Darin

[Scott Davis]

Just a tip for those coming to DC and wanting to see photography - the NGA is not the only place in town to see photography, nor is it the best. They do sometimes put on interesting shows (there is currently an exhibit in the East wing of 19th century Spanish photography), however the majority of their photo exhibits are squeezed into that one small exhibit space downstairs in the West wing where the Callahan exhibit is now. On the flip side, the Museum of American Art/National Portrait Gallery (housed in the old Patent Office building, above the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro station) has an outstanding photography collection and regularly displays it in well-curated exhibits. It's also a great museum to visit if you're in town on business, as their operating hours are 11 AM to 7 PM. The Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection also have touring photography shows from time to time.