Art Lovers discussion

This is one of my favorite smaller collections. Their Degas exhibit is about to close, but the permanent collection is pretty wonderful and if you're ever in D.C. you should try to take a look at it. There's a Rothko room and a Klee room. A really strong Arthur Dove collection.


Charles DeMuth, Red Chimneys


Arthur Dove, Rain or Snow


Lyonel Feininger, Waterfront


Philip Guston, The Lesson


Rockwell Kent, The Road Roller


George Inness, Moonlight, Tarpon Springs


Mark Rothko, Ochre and Red on Red


Theodoros Stamos, Mosses


Ben Shahn, Still Music


Julian Alden Weir, New England Barnyard


Harold Weston, Snow Squall


Paul Klee, Small Picture of a Regatta

http://www.phillipscollection.org/hom...

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing.

Makes me want to get my butt over there - it's been too long!

I love the works you posted, Lobstergirl! In reading the captions, I feel the title of the piece fits that particular picture.

Red Chimneys of course, is fairly a given. I do like that work.

Arthur Dove Rain or Snow does give the painting life, I can almost feel the falling of the elements!

I like the shadowing in Rockwell Kent The Road Roller and the particular position of the animal in front seems to give it movement.

George Inness Moonlight, Tarpon Springs . The cloud cover over the moon is magnificent!

Really not a big Rothko fan.

The title by Ben Shahn, Still Music is perfect. I would love to see that one. Actually I would love to see any or all of them!

I am now going to show my ignorance but, is there a word describing when one can see the outlines of the forms as in Harold Weston, Snow Squall? I kind of like that.

I've always liked Klee.

Thank you again, Lobstergirl!

You're welcome. I like the way Harold Weston uses outline, too. Here's another example - not at the Phillips.


March Thaw, 1921


Duncan Phillips began collecting works by Weston in the late 1920s, and in his writings, Phillips compared Weston to Van Gogh. Phillips wrote: "[Weston’s art] is something earthy and rugged and at the same time of a lyric poignancy, something unguardedly and tactlessly frank yet tenderly humane.” Duncan and Marjorie Phillips became close friends of the artist, who had four solo exhibitions at the museum. (museum website)

Love the paintings -- especially DeMuth, Dove, Rothko and Thaw.

I'm just curious, Carol. Not demeaning anyone's work, but what do you see in the Rothko? How does it make you feel?

Have you seen one in person? It's all about color and form -- I love the vibrancy and how huge his canvases are.

Size is definitely part of it. They're huge. Many people speak of the spiritual or meditative mood they inspire.

No, I haven't seen one in person. I did see Simon Schama's Rothko presentation. I really liked the way he presented the various paintings. He actually made me think. I can see how size could definitely be part of it. It would incite awe anyway, if nothing else.

I work in DC, and on an occasional slow day, will go off for an extended lunch hour and visit the Phillips Collection. I agree that it's a wonderful small museum -- often I will have a better experience at a smaller museum than at a super-hyped destination museum. (For example, the MOMA in NYC. After they doubled the size of the MOMA a few years ago, they also quadrupled the attendance, so now you have to wait in line to buy a ticket, wait in line to enter with your ticket, join a crowd going up and down the escalators. Yes, the MOMA does have many great works on display, but the crowds gather around them ...)
On the other hand, the Phillips is quiet and cheerful. There are masterpieces from American and European art of 19th and 20th century, with some older pictures mixed in, such as a fine El Greco. Many people are drawn to the the Renoir masterpiece, Luncheon at the Boating Party, but there is much more. Special exhibitions, and rotating selections from the permanent collection.

(Of course, if you are in DC and you are an art addict, you could spend a week going to all the great museums -- National Gallery, SAAM/NPG, Hirschorn, Freer/Sackler, Renwick, Corcoran ...)

Only a week?

James, that Barry Flanagan sculpture in your photo, is that at the Hirschorn?

Lobstergirl,
Yes, you are right. In that photo I'm standing in the sculpture garden at the Hirschorn. Good catch. I like that rabbit a lot.

(More than a week would be nice -- so many good museums, most of them (Smithsonian ones) free.)

As someone mentioned in another thread, this is a great time to go to the Phillips as the NGA and all the Smithsonian museums are shut down. I wonder how big the crowds at the Phillips are right now!