Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meiere
March 19, 2011 - November 27, 2011
401 F St. NW Washington DC
Hildreth Meière (1892–1961) found her muse in monumental buildings: their domes, ceilings, walls, windows, and floors were her canvas. A master of scale, she is best known for conceiving murals and mosaics of arresting beauty, combining glittering hues and flowing forms.
National Academy of Sciences, Dome, Great Hall, Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2011 Hildreth Meière Dunn
She confessed to falling in love “with mural painting and great beautiful walls” during a trip to Italy where she was overcome by the “glories of the Renaissance and all that preceded it.” Able to seek out the best teachers, she studied art in Florence as well as in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York—her hometown.
Her career was launched in 1923 when architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue hired Meière to decorate the dome of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Before the commission was complete, she was working on two additional projects for him, most notably the Nebraska State Capitol, which ultimately encompassed eight distinctive works and collectively became her pièce de résistance.
Meière was a consummate collaborator, able to work with architects and clients, as well as the craftsmen who would execute her narrative creations. Her versatility was legendary, allowing her to expand her repertoire beyond painted wall murals to include glass and marble mosaics, marble floors, glazed terra-cotta tiles, metal relief sculpture, stained glass, leather doors, and wool tapestry. She completed more than 100 commissions which ranged from corporate art to liturgical works, and includes the apse mosaic in the Chapel of the Resurrection at the National Cathedral.
Buddha 2.0
February 26-July 31, 2011
1050 Independence Ave. SW
Washington DC
Majestic sixth-century Chinese Buddhist sculpture is combined with 3-D imaging technology in this exploration of one of the most important groups of Buddhist devotional sites in early medieval China. Carved into the mountains of northern China, the Buddhist cave temples of Xiangtangshan (響堂山, pronounced "shahng-tahng-shahn") were the crowning cultural achievement of the Northern Qi dynasty (550–77 CE). Once home to a magnificent array of sculptures—monumental Buddhas, divine attendant figures, and crouching monsters framed by floral motifs—the limestone caves were severely damaged in the first half of the twentieth century, when their contents were chiseled away and offered for sale on the international art market.
In Echoes of the Past, ancient sculptural masterpieces are united with a set of innovative digital components, including a video installation that offers an immersive, kinetic re-creation of one of the largest stone temples. Touch screens and research kiosks offer more detailed information about the site and the themes explored in the exhibition.
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