Smithsonian American Culture

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Cultural Report # 1: Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
Living in Northern Virginia allows me to visit a plethora of culture-enhancing sites around the Washington, D.C. area. For this assignment, I visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. which is located a few blocks from the National Mall which features the more popular Smithsonian Museums such as the Museums of American History, Air and Space, Natural History and the National Gallery of Art. Information about the Museum can be found on their official website: https://americanart.si.edu/.
The Museum features all aspects of American visual art, ranging from the nation’s infancy to current art. The different types of American Art displayed include: photography, …show more content…

The backstory of the sculpture is almost as intriguing as the sculpture itself. Carved out of marble in 1876, it debuted in Philadelphia to great acclaim, but mysteriously disappeared for over a decade, eventually turning up in a Chicago salvage yard in the 1980s (The Death of Cleopatra, n.d.). The rawness and realness of the sculpture really stuck a tone with me as she appeared to have just succumbed to suicide by way of an intentional snakebite. Additionally, the sculpture contained many intricate details and symbolic messages carved into it, such as the hieroglyphics on the side and the matching sphinx heads on the ends of the armrests. Even though she had succumbed to suicide, she still portrayed a commanding quality as she wore her crown and royal attire with the poisonous snake in one hand and her limp arm hanging off the side of the throne. She defiantly killed herself rather than surrender to her potential captures which further made me feel the power that the sculpture represented, especially being a woman and reflecting on the power of her convictions. Additionally, the rawness of the sculpture appealed to me because the sculptor conveyed the shocking aspect of Cleopatra where she had already succumbed to death, rather than portray the moments leading up to her death, which would have elicited a much different

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