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Special Report
Best of the arts
Our picks for this year’s best music, movies, television, arts, classical music, dance, museums and theater.
Top theater, classical music, dance, museums and arts of 2012 Our picks for the standout arts of 2012.
Best art: “Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape”
Stunning and synoptic, the National Gallery's “Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape,” was the local highlight of the year.
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2012 Successio Miro/Artists Rights Society, New York/ADAGP, Paris
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Best art: “Roads of Arabia”
The Sackler Gallery's spectacular “Roads of Arabia” exhibition is an in-depth look at art and archaeology that fleshes out Saudi Arabia’s complicated history as a religious and commercial crossroads.
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National Museum, Riyadh
Best art: “Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard”
The Phillips Collection's “Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard” gave a nuanced view into how the spread of amateur photography influenced French painters of the late 19th century.
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Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Best art: “George Bellows”
George Bellows's boxing paintings throb, pulse and jab with violence, energy and animation. His retrospective is on display at the National Gallery of Art.
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Cleveland Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection
Best art: “A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII”
The Corcoran Gallery of Art continued to wow with small exhibitions such as Taryn Simon's unnerving documentary photographic project.
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Wilson Center for Photography
Best art: “Song 1”
Doug Aitken’s projection piece “Song 1" unexpectedly made a lasting impression, transformed the dead space of the Mall during and made the Hirshhorn a gathering space for a more diverse and youthful audience than many art museums attract.
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Hirshhorn Museum
Best art: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library renovations
Two possible reconstructions were unveiled for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, and both would reconfigure the interior to make it more accessible to modern library users and keep the library in the heart of a burgeoning downtown cultural district.
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D.C. Public Library
Best exhibit: “Food: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000”
“Food: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000,” which opened last month at the American History Museum, traces food history. It includes the beloved kitchen of food television’s first star, Julia Child, and her 18-seat table.
Michael S. Williamson
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The Washington Post
Best exhibit: “In Full Glory Reflected: Maryland During the War of 1812”
On display at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, this exhibit examines the subtleties and existential questions raised and answered by the often forgotten war.
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Collection of the Maryland Historical Society, H. Furlong Baldwin Library, PVF
Best museums: National Children’s Museum
The National Children’s Museum will finally reopen Dec. 14 at the National Harbor in Prince George’s County. The reopening adds an exciting new choice for parents who’d like more educational options for playdates.
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Courtesy of the National Children's Museum
Best exhibit: "Birds of Paradise: Amazing Avian Evolution"
“Birds of Paradise: Amazing Avian Evolution,” the nine-part National Geographic exhibition, tells the enchanting evolutionary story of the New Guinea birds that have developed bizarre extremes of color and behavior.
Tim Laman
Best exhibit: "Women Who Rock"
“Women Who Rock,” on display at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, had impressive rocker-girl artifacts. Shown here, Lady Gaga's bedazzled Armani outfit from the 2010 Grammy Awards.
Lavanya Ramanathan
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For The Washington Post
Best exhibit: "African Cosmos: Stellar Arts”
“African Cosmos: Stellar Arts,” which closes Dec. 9 at the National Museum of African Art, feels powerful, old and soaring.
Jonathan Greet
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Courtesy of October Gallery, London
Best classical music: John Cage centennial
Washington marked the centennial of John Cage’s birth in September with a citywide festival that gave eager audiences an intensive, even unprecedented dose of his music.
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AP
Best classical music: Arditti Quartet
Washington is increasingly making room for contemporary music, including the Arditti Quartet, who performed at the Library of Congress in April.
Astrid Karger
Best classical music: International Contemporary Ensemble / Michel van der Aa
Newcomers the International Contemporary Ensemble played Michel van der Aa as part of the Phillips Collection’s living composers series in May.
Carrie Schneider
Best classical music: Herbert Blomstedt / National Symphony Orchestra
Herbert Blomstedt once again showed how to illuminate traditional repertory at its best by playing Beethoven and Strauss at the National Symphony Orchestra in February.
Gert Mothes
Best classical music: Jeremy Denk
Some of the year’s standout recordings included Jeremy Denk’s Nonesuch Records debut disc that paired the Ligeti etudes with Beethoven’s Op. 111.
Samantha West
Best classical music: Kevin Puts
Kevin Puts won the Pulitzer Prize for his opera “Silent Night,” which had its premiere at the Minnesota Opera and heads to Philadelphia in February.
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AP
Best classical music: Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart
Husband and wife Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart duet. Lear, a beloved Washington-based teacher, mentor and diva, died in July.
Ray Lustig
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The Washington Post
Best galleries: Hemphill Fine Arts
Maryland artist Colby Caldwell's photographs of avian remains, abandoned duck blinds and used shotgun shells, supplemented by colorful digital abstractions, in Hemphill Fine Arts’ “Gun Shy” were evocative of loss and decay.
Colby Caldwell
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Hemphill Fine Arts
Best galleries: Heiner Contemporary
Justin Gibbens contributed to the avian-themed group show at Heiner Contemporary called “Winging It,” along with Colby Caldwell and photographer Todd R. Forsgren.
Justin Gibbens
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Heiner Contemporary
Best galleries: Hamiltonian Gallery
Using photographs and video, local artist Joyce Yu-Jean Lee’s “Passages” exhibited her small, glossy photos in a darkened room in Hamiltonian Gallery and spotlighted notable structures as Rembrandt’s house and the Great Wall of China.
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Courtesy of Joyce Yu-Jean Lee
Best galleries: Neptune Fine Art
The principal theme of Neptune Fine Art’s “Picasso & Matisse: Models & Muses 1906-1956,” unsurprisingly, was the female form, generally undraped. But the selection of works was also a celebration of line, supple and straightforward.
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Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society, New York
Best galleries: Marsha Mateyka Gallery
Jae Ko has long worked with rolls of paper, which she twists into spirals held together by a mixture of glue and black sumi ink. Her seventh solo exhibition, “Recent Sculpture,” showed some developments, including increased scale and the use of red ink.
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Marsha Mateyka Gallery
Best galleries: Touchstone Gallery
Bill Mould’s “Spirit and Enigma” neatly balanced modern technique and classical themes. He shaped clay in unusually thin layers, parchment or other foldable substances, and inscribed it with text from ancient, sometimes undeciphered languages.
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Courtesy Bill Mould and Touchstone Gallery
Best galleries: Charles Krause/Reporting Fine Art
Jerzy Janiszewski designed the logo for Poland’s Solidarity movement and later had to flee to Spain. This show included one poster from the period and elegant collages made from elementary ingredients as Barcelona Metro tickets.
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Courtesy of Jerzy Janiszewski and Charles Krause/Reporting Fine Art
Best galleries: Connersmith
Leo Villareal’s “New Work” was retinal with a vengeance, its colored lights flowing in emulation of 1960s color-field paintings. The LED- and computer-based “paintings” have been much debated, but what’s inarguable is the visual appeal.
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Leo Villareal/Courtesy of Connersmith
Best dance: Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Company
Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Company proved once more Burgess’s deep sympathies and an ability to illuminate several windows of perception at once.
Juana Arias
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For The Washington Post
Best dance: Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company
Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company’s revival of Anna Sokolow’s “Lyric Suite” at Dance Place delivered subtle surprises and scuttles expectations.
Sarah L. Voisin
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The Washington Post
Best dance: Septime Webre’s “Alice (in Wonderland)”
Septime Webre’s bright new production of “Alice (in Wonderland)” at the Washington Ballet underscored his company’s strengths — energy, energy, energy.
Steve Vaccariello
Best dance: Paris Opera Ballet’s “Giselle”
Paris Opera Ballet’s “Giselle” was a sharp-etched drama between a virtuous commoner and an unscrupulous blue blood resonated for our time, performed with perfect romantic-era sensitivity.
Sebastien Mathe
Best dance: Ballet Preljocaj’s “Snow White”
Ballet Preljocaj’s “Snow White” was one of the most original, immersive and deeply felt dance productions to arrive here in recent years.
JC Carbonne
Best dance: Bolshoi Ballet’s “Coppelia”
An antique ballet can feel intensely alive if it is given believable performances like the ones in Bolshoi Ballet’s “Coppelia,” led by a brainy heroine who rejects victimhood and solves her problem with style.
Damir Yusupov
Best dance: Mark Morris Dance Group’s “L'Allegro
The Mark Morris Dance Group’s “L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" brimmed with the living visual detail of a pastoral painting.
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Courtesy of Mark Morris Dance Group
Best dance: Kyle Abraham’s “Radio Show”
Kyle Abraham’s “Radio Show” was a mesmerizing piece by a powerful young artist that offered high drama, broken connections, thudding silence and a firm belief in the clarity of the body.
Steven Schreiber
Best dance: Mirenka Cechova’s “S/He is Nancy Joe”
Mirenka Cechova, a solo performer from the Czech Republic, fused comic-book with a moving account of transgender journey in her “S/He is Nancy Joe.”
Martin Marak
Best theater: “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play”
Playwright Anne Washburn and director Steven Cosson turned “The Simpsons” into the stuff of post-apocalyptic mythology to create the year’s most ingenious theater piece, “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play.”
Scott Suchman
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Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Best theater: “Astro Boy and the God of Comics”
Actors sketched onstage as others interacted with animated movies and 3-D cartoon figures in “Astro Boy and the God of Comics,” transforming The Studio Theatre.
Scott Suchman
Best theater: “Beertown”
Dog & Pony D.C. made it its mission to show how a Midwestern town meeting convened for a public vote on the contents of a capsule (shaped like a beer barrel), could be a profound, highly entertaining lesson in democracy’s group dynamics.
Clinton Brandhagen
Best theater: “Really Really”
A smashing cast and a clever narrative maze of misleading intersections and blind alleys make “Really Really” a provocative tale of sexual violence and ruthless self-advancement among our nation’s overly entitled youth .
Scott Suchman
Best theater: “Prudencia Hart”
“Prudencia Hart” is a site-specific play from the National Theatre of Scotland, set in a Scottish bar. For the run in Washington, Shakespeare turned the Bier Baron Tavern near Dupont Circle into a temporary playhouse.
Drew Farrell
Best theater: “The Normal Heart”
Larry Kramer’s devastating 1985 play, “The Normal Heart,” received the marvelous Broadway treatment it always deserved in 2011 that rewardingly wrung audiences out.
Scott Suchman
Best theater: “War Horse”
In “War Horse,” at the Kennedy Center, unseen (or barely seen) actors and puppeteers made it seem as if it were inanimate materials that deserved the ovation.
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Brinkhoff/Moegenburg
Best theater: “The Brontes”
The scrappy D.C. merrymakers of Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s Roadside Revue unveiled “The Brontes,” their saucy, raucous and witty rock concert-as-literary satire.
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Paul Gillis Photography
Best theater: “The Servant of Two Masters”
Christopher Bayes’s direction in “The Servant of Two Masters” showed that to enjoy broad physical comedy, one needn’t check one’s brain at the door.
Richard Termine
Best theater: “Dreamgirls”
At Signature Theatre, success arrived with “Dreamgirls.” Nova Y. Payton’s Effie White reminded audiences of the gangbusters wallop of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”
Christopher Mueller
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