Washington

Barbara Fendrick, one of Washington’s premier art dealers, dies at 94

Published

2 years ago

January 4, 2024

Barbara Fendrick, one of Washington’s premier art dealers, dies at 94

Barbara Fendrick, a Washington art dealer who helped introduce the region to the work of luminaries such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, first by selling prints and drawings that she stored in boxes under her bed, then by opening an elegant Georgetown gallery that became a linchpin of the D.C. art scene for two decades, died Jan. 1 at her home in Chevy Chase, Md. She was 94.

One of her daughters, Julia Fendrick, confirmed the death but did not give a specific cause.

Through her namesake gallery, Ms. Fendrick organized the first Washington solo shows of artists including Robert Arneson, Jim Dine, Helen Frankenthaler, Louise Nevelson and Johns, the protean painter, sculptor and printmaker whom she described as her “good-luck artist.” Twenty-one of his etchings and lithographs were featured at the Fendrick Gallery’s opening, in 1970; nearly 20 years later, they were taken out of Ms. Fendrick’s personal collection and used to open the gallery’s short-lived New York branch, in SoHo.

An energetic dealer with an expansive, at times unorthodox approach to art, Ms. Fendrick began selling drawings and prints in 1960 at the suggestion of her husband, Daniel Fendrick, a research official at the State Department. They had four young children, with a fifth to come. Her husband saw a need for more Washington art dealers, and he also was looking for a way to find Ms. Fendrick work outside the home.

He “felt that I was overwhelmed with small children in diapers,” she recalled in a 2007 oral history for the organization ArtTable, “and I better do something.”

Ms. Fendrick had no formal credentials, although she got what she considered a free education in art while working as a docent at the National Gallery. She also had help from a well-connected cousin, the painter and sculptor Irena Baruch Wiley, who introduced her to a friend who was trying to offload a collection of European prints.

Before long, Ms. Fendrick was traveling the country, selling modernist works by Braque, Picasso and Miró and expanding into American art with prints by Josef Albers, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein. She hosted clients at her home, which was filled with antique French furniture and framed prints, as well as a makeshift gallery of art by her children. (“Look at this — it was definitely influenced by a Rouault print we had here,” she told a Washington Post reporter in 1962. “And this one has something of a Picasso we have upstairs.”)

As Ms. Fendrick told it, she opened her gallery in Georgetown after her children got tired of having to finish dinner early and run upstairs, “out of sight, out of mind,” so that she could meet with curators and other clients. But the business remained a family affair: Her husband, a co-owner of the gallery, wrote its monthly newsletter and designed its plexiglass display frames, while her children helped out at openings and receptions, cleaning and cooking and occasionally serving champagne.

Under her direction, the three-story gallery became a showcase for Washington artists such as Sam Gilliam, John Grazier and Andrea Way. It also featured the work of sculptors such as Albert Paley, who gained national recognition for the decorative “Portal Gates” he created for the Renwick Gallery, and spotlighted artists whose mediums were seldom represented in major galleries or museums, such as glass artist Dale Chihuly and furniture makers Wendell Castle and Arthur Cotton Moore.

“I like to do one offbeat show every year,” Ms. Fendrick told the magazine Craft Horizons, looking back on shows such as “The Book as Art,” from 1976, which explored the intersection between writing and painting. The show included work by John Cage, Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, and followed on the success of another unconventional show, “Clay USA,” which the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art deemed “the first major show of contemporary ceramics on the East Coast.”

Asked about her philosophy as a gallerist, Ms. Fendrick said that her mission was simple: “To show the best.” Yet she also suggested that with shows built around mediums such as metal, clay and wood, she had grander ambitions as well.

“I was trying to point out,” she said in the oral history, “that objects can be as interesting and as worthy as a painting.”

The younger of two children, Barbara Johnson Cooper was born in Indianapolis on Dec. 18, 1929. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father was a Navy lawyer whose job led the family to move to Florida and Washington, where she graduated from Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School.

At 17, she went to Lisbon to live with her cousin John Cooper Wiley, the U.S. ambassador to Portugal, and his wife, Irena, the artist who helped her launch her career as a dealer. Ms. Fendrick affectionately described them as her aunt and uncle and accompanied the couple to their next diplomatic posting, in Tehran.

Irena “taught me how to look,” she said, by taking her to European churches and art museums. Years later, she agreed to be represented by Ms. Fendrick’s gallery.

Ms. Fendrick attended Georgetown University and met her husband when they were both enrolled at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po. They married in 1953 and settled in Chevy Chase a few years later, where Ms. Fendrick began selling art while drawing inspiration from two other prominent women in the art world: Alice Denney, a Washington impresario of the avant-garde, and Tatyana Grosman, a printmaker and publisher who encouraged her interest in fine-art prints.

In addition to her daughter Julia, survivors include four other children, Lila, Peter, Anne-Marie and John Fendrick, and 10 grandchildren. Her husband died in 1992, the year after Ms. Fendrick closed her galleries in Washington and New York amid an economic downturn.

Business was bad, she said, but she was also exhausted by putting on monthly shows. She turned instead to working as an art consultant, appraiser, lecturer and guest curator. “I’m always urging people to please go out and look,” she said in the oral history, “because there’s always something there.”

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Washington

Report: Arizona football to hire Washington’s Aaron Knotts as general manager

Published

5 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Report: Arizona football to hire Washington’s Aaron Knotts as general manager

Arizona is closing in on its next general manager.

The UA is set to hire Aaron Knotts as GM, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Knotts has spent the last 12 years at Washington, where he most recently served as Director of Internal Operations and Football Strategy. Knotts previously worked as Chief of Staff and Associate Athletic Director at UW.

As general manager, Knotts will be tasked with managing Arizona’s roster through player retention, the transfer portal and high school recruiting.

Arizona’s front office is undergoing a shakeup after former GM Gaizka Crowley left for the same position at Arkansas. Crowley and Director of Scouting Fletcher Kelly played a big role in building Arizona’s roster in the first two years under Brent Brennan. Kelly is expected to follow Crowley to Arkansas, according to Jason Scheer of Wildcat Authority.

Knotts began his coaching career as a tight ends coach at Division III Centre College (Ky.) before joining Chris Petersen’s staff at UW in the fall of 2014. Prior to working in operations and administration, Knotts served in various recruiting and personnel roles at UW.

Knotts was promoted to Associate Athletic Director/Chief of Staff in 2024. In his role as Associate Athletic Director, Knotts part of a three-person search committee for UW’s head football coach in 2024, which resulted in the Huskies hiring Jedd Fisch from Arizona.

Now Knotts in departing Fisch’s UW program to run Arizona’s front office.

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Washington

Washington Capitals 2025-26 W Magazine Now Available | Washington Capitals

Published

2 days ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Washington Capitals 2025-26 W Magazine Now Available | Washington Capitals

Arlington, Va. – W Magazine, a lifestyle publication produced by the Washington Capitals, is now available for purchase online at www.washcaps.com/wmagazine and at the Team Store at Capital One Arena and at the Team Store at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. The fan-favorite magazine, which features content surrounding every Capitals player along with hundreds of personal, never-before-seen family photos, is available for $8 plus shipping. In addition, season ticket members will receive a complimentary issue, with copies for season ticket members available at the Planholder Hub on the 100-level concourse during Capitals home games.

The cover story, written by Capitals senior writer Mike Vogel, goes in-depth with forward Pierre-Luc Dubois. Vogel speaks with Dubois, his teammates and family members for an extensive feature on the phone call that changed Dubois’ life and shaped his future with the Capitals franchise. Spanning more than 200 pages, W offers exclusive photography of Capitals players and their families, along with lifestyle content and interviews with every member of the 2025-26 roster. Highlights include:

John Carlson on fishing in Maryland with his sons
Brandon Duhaime on spearfishing and his related YouTube channel
Ryan Leonard on moving to D.C. and living with the Dubois family
Charlie Lindgren on his first offseason as a dad
Alex Ovechkin on celebrating back home after becoming the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer
Logan Thompson on his love of dogs
Trevor van Riemsdyk on pop-a-shot and pickleball

The magazine also features an in-depth look at the Capital One Arena transformation project, including exclusive photos, insights into future phases and Capitals player reactions to the new Capitals locker room complex. A special interview with Monumental Sports Network’s Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin reflects on the historic 50th anniversary season, while a day-in-the-life piece with Caps Radio’s John Walton and Katie Florio brings readers behind-the-scenes of a home game radio broadcast.

Additional features include a look at a regular day for former Capitals service dog in training Biscuit – now a facility dog at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center – and a photographic recap of Alex Ovechkin’s historic 2024-25 season. A new “Beyond the Boards” section spotlights community stories, while the fan-favorite “Short Shifts” section returns with Capitals players sharing thoughts on topics such as the best singer on the team, funniest teammate, personal goals beyond hockey, what everyone should try at least once, their ideal entrance theme song and more.

The magazine also profiles members of the Capitals Black Hockey Committee and introduces fans to the team driving the organization’s youth hockey initiatives.

W design services were provided by Matt Ryan. Player photography was provided by Greg Powers with assistance from Damon Banks. The cover featuring Pierre-Luc Dubois was photographed on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., with the assistance of captains and crew from City Cruises. Players were photographed for the publication at Origin in Arlington, Va.

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Washington

Ginger’s Journey: Walking from Washington State to Washington, D.C.

Published

2 days ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Ginger’s Journey: Walking from Washington State to Washington, D.C.

Imagine setting out, on foot, for a journey not knowing how long it would take. Now imagine doing it with two animals as traveling partners from Washington State to Washington, D.C.

“Now I’ve started this leg of the journey in Morton, Washington where I was spiritually requested to go to Washington, D.C. and sing the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon on the Capitol steps,” says Jacob Holiday.

Jacob Holiday is on his way across America so he can sing a song he says signifies peace in the hopes, he says, of ending violence everywhere.

“I want so much peace. Cops would no longer carry firearms. We’re going to send the militaries of every country, I don’t care which one you’re talking about but every country, home to go to sleep. I don’t care what they do. But I want all this violence, everything, all this violence to stop.”

He has two wagons and his traveling companions are a dog and a goat. Holiday started in Washington State in July and he’s not worried about how long his hike across America will take.

His multi-state trek has seen him encounter a lot along the way, including a run-in with a bear.

He carries food for himself and his dog and his goat on carts that he says weigh a couple hundred pounds. Besides necessities, Holiday has one thing he’d greatly appreciate receive being able to buy as he continues his mission.

Holiday says he knows his mission isn’t an easy one, and he uses it as a metaphor for life as a whole.

We caught up with Holiday in the early part of November on a 70-degree day in Cambridge, Nebraska then spoke to him again a few days later in the rain as he headed east on Highways 6 and 34, so no telling how far he’s gotten now.

After we met with Holiday, we did notify the local sheriff to perform a welfare check, but we’re told Holiday wanted to continue his walk with his Capitol Steps goal still ahead of him. We also offered him food for himself and his animals, which he declined saying he had enough food on his carts.

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