John and I have always loved I.M. Pei's design for the East Wing of the National Gallery of Fine Art in Washington DC, with it's H-shape, knife-sharp, triangular corners and pink marble cladding. Unfortunately his 31 year-old facade has proven unstable and the wing is surrounded by hoardings and cranes while emergency repairs are underway. We were also surprised that there is an extension of the building in patterned brick!
Happily, the interior of the building with it's four levels of wide-open space,
and its centre-piece -- a "mobile" sculpture by Alexander Calder (Untitled),
remains visitable.
John was drawn to Gerhard Richter's Abstract Painting 780-1, from 1992.
He wanted to see if our camera could capture the fine detail
of the worlds within worlds of the painting.
