It’s late afternoon on January 20, and the day has been full of coverage of the inauguration of President Obama. It’s a day rich with symbolism and pageantry. As I’m watching, the First Family is ascending the viewing platform to watch the celebration parade, and Hail to the Chief is playing once again.
There are plenty of powerful visuals from today that will remain in memory for a long time to come, but music has also been very significant. It was a most interesting moment when noon came around today, January 20th, 2009. According to the Constitution, the new president takes on the roles and responsibilities of office at the stroke of noon, regardless of the administering of the Oath of Office. At this particular passage of noon, a quartet of musicians was playing Simple Gifts by the American composter, Aaron Copeland, in a arrangement by John Williams. The quartet was made up of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and pianist Gabriela Montero.
It was an especially lovely moment, as the seamless transfer of power occurred during this beautiful piece of music. It was a moment shared by all in quiet reflection as the music travelled throughout the sea of people assembled. I don’t know exactly at what point the precise passage of noon came and went, but there was a point where the music picked up to an allegro tempo, the quartet beamed at each other, Yo-Yo Ma especially smiling and his body moving in harmony with his cello, and the four parts energetically weaved into one glorious, synchronized sound. I can’t help but think of that moment of unity and beauty as the beginning of a new chapter in American history.
The visual arts have also punctuated this day. A luncheon was held in the Statuary Room of the Capitol, a hall filed with figures of past leaders. A relatively new tradition (since 1985) is the selection of a painting to serve as a backdrop for the head table. The luncheon theme, “A New Birth of Freedom,” was represented by a painting by Thomas Hill (1829-1908, American; born in England), his “View of the Yosemite Valley”.
Thomas Hill, Yosemite Valley, 1876, oil on canvas. Oakland Museum of California, Oakland Museum Kahn Collection
(This is not the actual painting that was at the luncheon, but another version of by Hill. For an audio description of this work, visit The Autry National Center of the American West, http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/yosemite/hill.php?height=450&width=530 )
The painting is in the tradition of the epic American landscape, a view of the new frontier as a land of vast hope and opportunity, a rich wilderness of potential, but a demanding and rugged landscape from which the fruits of labor are not easily drawn. It’s an apt metaphor for our current situation, comprising both promise and struggle.
But there is even more significance than the imagery itself, as the Joint Congressional Committee on Inauguration Ceremonies website explains, “The subject of the painting, Yosemite Valley, represents an important but often overlooked event from Lincoln’s presidency — his signing of the 1864 Yosemite Grant, which set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias as a public reserve.” (http://inaugural.senate.gov/media/releases/release-010909-lunchdetails.cfm)
The historical symbolism of art and architecture formed the theatre in which the events of today continue to take place, and one of the most striking things, in terms of visual representation and documentation, is the inclusive nature of what we are seeing online and on television. Numerous news websites are actively soliciting viewer photographs and using new technology to put together images from many viewpoints, not just the official lens of the television news camera.
It’s a great metaphor for the day, as we take in the messages of unity and shared responsibility in language and rhetoric, but also in the images of America as a unique and extraordinary diverse society, and one that is stronger for it.
Here are just a few of the Inauguration Day (and related sites) with some interesting visuals:
The National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC has a number of presidentially themes items of interest. Current exhibitions on view (with online tours) include:
One Life: The Mask of Lincoln
Presidents in Waiting
Also on display is the iconic image of Obama by Shepard Fairey (shown at the top of the page):
CNN is using software called Photosyth to produce a panoramic collage of the moment when President Obama took the oath of office. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/44.president/inauguration/themoment/index.html
CNN also shows its gallery of Obama-inspired art:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/16/obama.art.irpt/index.html
In her Art City blog (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online), Mary Louise Schumacher reports from the Manifest Hope exhibition in Washington D.C., with plenty of photos of the artwork and art viewers: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/37872129.html
And in Milwaukee, an inauguration day celebration by the Democratic Party at Serb Hall will be complimented by a display of Obama Artworks. (Doors open at 7pm).
- KM Murrell
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