Great Escape: The Art of George Ault

Each week, we’ll tell you about one great idea to give you a much-deserved break, and make your life a little easier, maybe a whole lot easier, or just to help you recharge. 

This week, try to visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum and see the exhibit, "To Make a New World: George Ault and 1940s America." Few things say "Don't bring the kids" like a quiet museum exhibit filled with evocative and moody paintings, and although the experience will not provide a lighthearted escape from your daily chores, it will provide an engaging, fascinating and haunting one. 

The exhibit, which opened on March 11 and runs through Sept. 5, centers on five paintings Ault made between 1943 and 1948 depicting the crossroads of Russell’s Corners in Woodstock, N.Y. There are an additional 22 artists represented in the show, including some as well known as Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, while others are much less familiar. The exhibit evokes an America that we usually don't think of when we think of the country during World War II — an America filled with uneasiness and uncertainty.

According to Alexander Nemerov, the curator of the exhibit, "It was this quality of darkened and haunted mystery — a lonely junction at night — that made me think Ault’s pictures spoke to their times. Even so, Ault is not an obvious choice to anoint as the centerpiece of a show subtitled ‘1940s America.’ But viewed in retrospect, Ault’s isolation gave him a chance to speak broadly — to address the sorrow and moody loneliness others felt then too.” 

Sometimes the best escape is one that gives you a chance to view another world, and another time, through someone else's eyes.