Decent Docents

The boys and I went down to the National Gallery to see a collection of short children's films. We made it just in time, only missing the first few minutes of the first film. After each film, Cassius would lean over and give me a silent thumbs up to let me know he had enjoyed that one. Once the films were over, I was interested in seeing how they reacted to an actual art museum. We'd never really been to a grown up museum like this one before. The American Art Museum is a little more experimental in its collection, and I wondered how the boys would react. Well, first, they loved the escalator. 

Daddy, now YOU try it!

Then, they were remarkably interested in the Giacometti sculptures to the point where Cassius was identifying them from afar! I showed them the famous picture of Giacometti walking amongst his sculptures, and they dug it. Maceo pointed out that the sculpture in the photo was the one right in from of us!

From there, we entered some of the galleries and I asked them to point out the ones that they really liked. Here's Maceo with one of his faves:

The docents giving me some insight into Gene Davis's "Black Popcorn."

Cash chose an artist I really like, Claes Oldenberg:

"So, so, so, this is a pencil."

And Maceo went with a solid choice in Wayne Thibaut, although he merely told me he "wanted to eat that one", pointing at the canvas. Damn liberal arts education....

"If you really look, you can see how yummy they are,"
my docent told me.

They did like talking about the pieces, looking carefully at them, and proffering ideas about what to look at, what it meant, what it was.

"Beam me up, Macers."

We made our way through some parts of the museum I had never visited before, including quite the staircase:

And finally, we ended up on a terrace outdoors where there were some very interesting and fun pieces. Some were terrifying, like the giant rooster.

I'm saving this one for their high school band's first album.

Some were quite intriguing, like this one called "Ugly Buddha Watches Ugly Television."

We spent quite some time there, and the boys were really great. On the way to the car, I praised them for being such great museum goers and companions. It was delightful. And of course, we had to look at the old standby that all kids in DC know--the incredibly sharp angle of the museum where it seems like the building is toppling over on you.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!