Katherine Norton
George de Forest Brush paints people and dreams
There are countless portrayals of the American Indian available to those who seek them. Less easy is the task of finding images of Native Americans that are unadulterated by centuries of stereotype. Luckily, the National Gallery of Art, in conjunction with the Seattle Art Museum, have compiled a small exhibit of images of American Indians by the painter George de Forest Brush, a late 19th century American artist who fell in love with “the noble savage.”
By Katherine Norton September 25, 2008
D.C.: Drab City
This past Sunday, New York Times photojournalist Bill Cunningham chronicled the close of Fashion Week with a study on the shoes about town. While hanging out on 5th Avenue taking pictures for his weekly “On the Street” feature, Mr. Cunningham ran across studded stilettos and snakeskin stacked heels paired with super-high hemlines. Three hundred miles south, I observed a very different scene in Columbia Heights.
By Katherine Norton September 18, 2008
Water Polo? Seriously?
The Georgetown gallery scene doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, but gems are ready and waiting to be unearthed for those industrious enough to pick up a few brochures. But first, a brief lesson in jock culture: because the bodies of water polo players are submerged in water, the helmets players wear serve the same identifying function as jerseys do in other sports. John Trevino, a D.C. based artist and Howard University professor, has taken this idea and run with it in “What Comes Next,” an exhibit of portrait photography at District Fine Arts (DFA) on Wisconsin Avenue. The portraits, photos of black men and women in cartoon water polo helmets, ultimately fall short of their aim to “examine dreams and memory created as the residual of human interaction.”
By Katherine Norton September 11, 2008
Mourning the demise of DIY fashion
It’s obvious that times have changed, but in past decades, people held on to vestiges of the do-it-yourself spirit. Groovy 70s gals routinely crocheted vests, and jeans of the 1980s were bathed in sinks full of bleach. No such trends exist today, though.
By Katherine Norton September 4, 2008
Martin Puryear at the National Gallery of Art
Minimalism is not easy to get into. Even if you can appreciate beauty in simplicity and purity of form, it’s hard not to be skeptical when you read that a big black rectangle is really a reflection on the nature of our inner and outer selves. The National Gallery’s retrospective of sculptor Martin Puryear’s work, though, woos visitors with displays of graceful shapes and clean lines, without hitting them over the head with lofty, obtuse meanings.
By Katherine Norton August 28, 2008
Culottes for you lots: a bi-weekly column on fashion
It sounds very third grade of me to say so, but I love back-to-school shopping. I can’t resist the earth-toned window displays, and every year I buy corduroy that I never end up wearing. There are still a few humid weeks of August left and nary a leaf has fallen, but I’ve already cast my summer wardrobe aside and am imagining crunching through leafy drifts in knee-high boots and a navy blazer. I’m getting giddy just thinking about it.
By Katherine Norton August 22, 2008
Arty Dreamy Movies
If you’re looking for a dose of cinematic pretension (we all get that itch sometimes), Andrea Simon’s 1989 short film, The Happiness of Still Life, will take care of all your needs. The movie, which is running in the National Gallery’s Spring Film Program in 16 mm format, is a study of Austria’s Biedermeier culture of the mid 1800s—a lapse into middle class ecstasy characterized by pretty furniture and domestic bliss. While the film itself isn’t necessarily pretentious, if you leave the theater thinking you completely understood it, you probably are.
By Katherine Norton April 24, 2008
Cabaret: what good is sitting alone in your room?
Before the audience of Mask and Bauble’s spring musical, Cabaret, is ushered to its seats, it is afforded a brief glimpse into a dimly lit dressing room. The room, populated by ladies in bustiers and hotpants and men in lipstick, is just a tantalizing taste of the raucous, racy experience ahead. While not without its serious plot points, the show is worth seeing for the erotic musical numbers alone, which almost make the storyline incidental.
By Katherine Norton April 17, 2008
Culottes for you lots: Your closet’s secret stash
There are so many mornings when I wake up, open my closet and listlessly browse its contents only to come to the despairing conclusion that I have nothing to wear. This is particularly frustrating because I feel like I’m always shopping, and my new clothes are constantly evaporating into thin air, when I know that they’re really hanging there, pitifully staring at me after ownership has stripped them of their exciting potential. Once in a while, however, I’ll remember the secret stash that I have, that everyone has, lying fallow among the hangers.
By Katherine Norton April 10, 2008
2amys: When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
Another review of 2amys, one of D.C.’s tastiest gourmet pizza purveyors, may seem like a waste of valuable newsprint. After all, the District’s young and beautiful made it a tried and true favorite, and it was voted “Best Pizza” by the Washington Post in 2006. Let’s remember, though, that it’s 2008, and the restaurant hasn’t won that illustrious title in two years. In fact, 2amys has recently fallen slightly out of favor with critics, and its hipster clientele has largely been replaced with young parents toting unruly tots who probably couldn’t appreciate a good sfogliatelle if it fell into their diapered laps.
By Katherine Norton April 10, 2008