In early 2013, German artist Wolfgang Laib (whose Milkstone nourished us briefly back in March 2011) will create a wax room in a little upstairs space of the original Phillips house. Up the stairs from the parlors, through intimate galleries (where works by Lee Gatch, Leo Villareal, and Paul Klee currently hang), up a few more stairs to a landing, you will discover the entrance to a small chamber just before the Main Gallery. Step inside, and you will be enveloped by the comforting scent of beeswax in a room just for you (and maybe one companion), illuminated by the glow of a single bare light bulb. The Laib Wax Room will be the artist’s first site-specific wax room for a museum and the Phillips’s first permanent installation since the Rothko Room (1960). Read more about our news on this major commission in today’s New York Times and Washington Post.
I first saw Laib’s work at the Hirshhorn (a terrific show). This is so gutsy of the Phillips, and, I think, marvelous.
Klaus Ottmann, curator at large (and fellow blog contributor), organized that retrospective at the Hirshhorn in 2001. They have a wonderful history of working together. I also have great memories of that show, Maureen!
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I look forward to another marvelous experience at my favorite museum