Color in the Capital

In Washington, D. C., this past weekend, we saw color everywhere.  The Matisse Cut-Outs at the National Gallery burst with color as did the neighboring sculptures and mobiles of Alexander Calder.  Works such as Crinkly Worm and Black Camel with Blue Head and Red Tongue made us want to laugh out loud.

But across the street at the Newseum, the displays were more muted.  There we saw a portion of the Berlin Wall, which, though covered with graffiti on one side, is blank and dull on the other.  Black and white Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs line the walls downstairs, and the horror of 9/11 is captured in a video where a NYC reporter describes the rubble of the twin towers as "monochromatic."

Life comes to us in many shades.  Sometimes black and white is all we can take.  Other times gray is forced upon us, as the East Berlin side of the Wall so vividly shows.  And other times, when life is really bleak, we can see only one shade.

If we're lucky, Matisse and Calder show up every so often, and whimsy and mirth take over for awhile.