Updates, Live: A Visit to Renwick Gallery

Sam Maloof
Drop-Leaf Dining Table with Wood Hinges
and
Eight Texas Dining Chairs
1975
Brazilian rosewood and leather

I wanted to see some works of Sam Maloof and of Dale Chihully and I knew that I would find them at the Renwick Gallery. It is part of the American Art Museum, only it is located in a different place, on Pennsylvania Avenue close to the White House.

The building is the work of architect James Renwick, who designed also the Smithsonian Castle.

So I went last Sunday at the Renwick. The first floor was hosting a great glassware exhibition, a Lino Tagliapietra retrospective. It's a pitty I could not take pictures there; you should look on the web site of the artist to have just an idea. Believe me, when you see them with your eyes, it's unbelievable.

I went then on the second floor to look for Maloof and Chihuly, and I found their works in the same room, near the Grand Salon.

I had already seen on the web the walnut Rocking Chair made by Maloof; it's at MAD in New York. Here at Renwick they have this rosewood Dining Table, so magnificent in its perfect balance and minimalism.

I tried several shots, to catch the best perspective, and I was not pleased with my images, so I tried also to record a video.

Look here at this close-up to get also the minutia of the detail!

Chihuly is different: he is an exuberant; it is true that you cannot be otherwise when you play with glass. I remember when I visited in Bucharest Curtea Sticlarilor; I was there accompanying someone from New York who knew of it from its fame and once in Romanian capital asked me to lead him there.