If you want to experience the depth and range of work by Washington’s artists, go to City Hall.
Thanks to a public art venture launched two years ago, homegrown creations fill the walls of six floors — including 28 newly added works.
“The selection panel wanted to fill in some historical gaps in African-American artists, native D.C. artists and Washington Color School,” said curator Sondra Arkin, as she prepared her own new abstract creations for display at Nevin Kelly Gallery on U Street. “There are many distinct groups of artists — by university affiliation, gender, ethnicity.”
Selecting additions is no easy task for the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
“For every artist in the collection, there are 10 more who should be represented,” she said.
Some of the highlights:
* Printmaker Percy Martin has spent a quarter-century documenting the lives and rituals of a mythological people dwelling in his imagination. Check out “Bushman Beginning a Dreamwalk.”
* In 1927, Alma Thomas became Howard University’s first fine arts graduate. The chosen watercolor offers a glimpse into the District’s colorist movement.
* Kevin MacDonald’s 2006 death was a blow to the local scene. “Little House on the Tract” shows what he could conjure with acrylic wash, watercolor pencil, graphite, tea and coffee.
* The lush “Exotic Flower #12” aptly demonstrates the gifts of realist painter Manon Cleary. In each of her works, she unpacks treasures with a splendid grace.
* Over six decades, Lilian Thomas Burwell has journeyed between two and three dimensions, photo-realistic to abstract expressionism. In “Fuego,” she uses acrylic, Arkin says, to “carry the work beyond the manifestation of the implied combustion at its source to suggest the air which feeds it.”
* Modernist James Lesesne Wells brought the Harlem Renaissance to the District’s art scene, specializing in color linoleum prints such as “Peace Corp Africa.”
A combined dedication ceremony and artists’ reception will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 23. The celebration is open and free to the public; count on a big after-work crowd.
With its expanded showcase of homegrown artwork, City Hall merits a visit. And you don’t need a ticket.
If you go
City Hall Art Collection
John A. Wilson Building
1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
202-724-5613
Free
