Long Live the Egyptians ‘Immortality’ Exhibit Shows Fascination With Afterlife in Ancient Egypt by Anna Gawel Its allure is timeless — an enigma that has spanned centuries of intense study and fascination. Exalted in literature, dramatized on film, and analyzed by scholars from around the world, its enduring appeal continues to captivate us today. It is, of course, ancient Egypt—a civilization enshrouded in a perennial air of mystery. Most of the tombs have been excavated and many of its mysteries revealed, yet we still find ourselves drawn to all of the legacies left behind by this great and complex society—mummies, scarabs, curses, powerful pharaohs, bewitching queens, royal riches, as well as a legendary obsession with death and, ultimately, the promise of eternal life. Museums throughout the world have long capitalized on the public’s insatiable thirst for all things Egyptian, and now the National Gallery of Art hopes to match the phenomenal success of its 1976 blockbuster “Treasures of Tutankhamun” with its current exhibition, “The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt.”... Shots in the Street ‘Open City’ Photography Reveals Life Through Urban Vignettes by Serena Lei The city as subject material, the street as public theater: Street photography offers stories we try to unravel at a glance. Street photography is something we now recognize as a technique of spontaneity, like a snapshot of a crowded New York City street corner. It is a type of social commentary, but it is also the gritty, uncensored vignettes of urban life: that close-up moment of unexplained anxiety on a stranger’s face at a subway stop—someone we can study, personally, in that frozen moment, and never really know. “Open City: Street Photographs Since 1950,” now at the Hirshhorn Museum and Scul pture Garden, charts the evolution of street photography in an exhibit of more than 130 works by 19 international artists. The comprehensive exhibit is a study in urban society and realism, as photographers go from capturing real-life moments to creating them... Woman of Flowers Still-Life Paintings of Vallayer-Coster Display Rich, Fragrant Quality by Gary Tischler Size is a big deal at the National Gallery of Art. The buildings—I.M. Pei’s modernistic East Building and the classic West Building—are big. The collection is big. The exhibitions tend to be big, and the idea and reality of blockbuster exhibitions was nurtured and fine-tuned here, under the aegis of former director J. Carter Brown. So it might seem that the late-arriving and seemingly modest exhibition “Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette” looks almost like an afterthought...

Overlapping Spheres Singaporean Sculptor From Ireland Teaches Art and Bridges Cultures by Serena Lei The Embassy of Singapore and the Torpedo Factory Art Center are presenting the works of Singaporean sculptor Brother Joseph McNally in two concurrent exhibits titled “A Celt in Singapore.” Irish by birth, McNally adopted Singapore as his homeland after being sent by his ministry to work in Southeast Asia as a teacher. McNally combines both Celtic and Southeast Asian culture in his use of natural materials—from Irish bog oak to Malaysian belian ironwood—and in the myths that inspire his art... Pure Piedmont Diverse Works of Eight Turin-Based Artists on Display in Rare Show by Gary Tischler For a few days, Piedmont was all the rage at the Italian Cultural Institute. It was nothing but Piedmont this and Piedmont that. All the buzz was partially to correct a popular cliché: After all, when folks think Italian, they think Rome, Sicily, Florence, Venice, Milan. But Piedmont, and everything this diverse region in the Northwestern pocket of Italy has to offer, is rarely the first place people think about. The other reason was of course that in 2006, people will be talking about Piedmont quite a bit. That’s when the Winter Olympics are set to be held in Turin, the capital of Piedmont, and its beautiful Alpine surrounding... Dining: French Passion Tepper Brothers Continue Tradition of Excellence at Bethesda’s La Miche by Rachel Hunt and Stephen Qualiana Events Film Reviews: Soul of the Machine Rerelease of Classic Sci-Fi ‘Metropolis’ Closer to What Lang Intended by Ky N. Nguyen Legendary German-born director Fritz Lang’s science-fiction masterpiece “Metropolis” is one of the most well-known silent films, yet few have actually seen it,.... • ‘Elling’: Touching and Real • ‘Happy Times’ for Zhang • Life Changes • Gaelic Woody Allen • Office Games • ‘Lucía’ in Love Repertory Notes Film Directory/Cinema International Film Clips