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.
Bookmarks