The Artist Sees Differently: Rolf Rykken

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Paul Ruther

In this special edition of The Artist Sees Differently, contributor Paul Ruther turns the tables on the column’s creator Rolf Rykken, who is himself an artist on staff.

Rolf Rykken, Museum Assistant

Rolf with Sammie, his "doggie daughter" and muse. Photo: Sarah Osborne Bender

Where did you get the idea to interview Phillips Collection employees about their artistic practice and ideas?

It was Sarah’s [Osborne Bender] idea. I liked it and thought it was both fun and funny. It was my idea to ask everyone what their favorite Marjorie Phillips painting is. Not everyone knows who she is.

Do you feel you are inspired by the Phillips art?

Yes. When I was in the MFA program at University of Maryland, one of the professors said I was “Too much under the influence of The Phillips Collection,” as if that was a bad thing. Also being here influenced me to take art classes, and I eventually got into the Corcoran College of Art and Design, graduating with a BFA in 1997.

I remember when I first came here in junior high school, I was amazed and impressed by the place. It was just the house then. But it’s the first museum I remember visiting.

What do you listen to as you create?

Mixes from my iPod touch, mostly alt-rock from the ’90s. I like female rock bands. Lately I’ve been listening to a band named Screaming Females, which is funny because it’s only one woman, Marissa Paternoster, but she makes enough noise for a whole band. I saw her and the band at the Black Cat recently.

Who’s your favorite artist in the collection?

Oh it’s Bonnard, and my favorite work of his is Open Window. I also like The Palm because someone once made me a present of the painting with my dog Shelby transposed over the lady in the painting. Bonnard’s model for this work was his wife Marthe.

Rolf Rykken, Family in the Park, 1998. Oil on wood, 24" x 24 1/2"

Do you collect other artwork – or anything?

I have works by Jake Muirhead, who used to work here, now teaches at Montgomery College. I want a Suzanne Koch and I own some works by Ianthe Gergel.

And do you have a favorite Marjorie Phillips painting?

Nuns on the Roof. I also did a version called Dogs on the Roof once.

Art Madness!

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Paul Ruther

Every year around this time March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament involving 68 teams, sweeps the nation. In workplaces all over America, the office betting pool is organized and people gather around the actual or virtual water coolers and compare how they did in their brackets.

I’ve noticed an unsurprising lack of interest in this over-commercialized, hyperbolic expression of American sports here at the Phillips, bastion of high culture that we are. But despite my nerdy love of art history and long time as a museum professional, I am still a huge college basketball fan. In fact my first year on the job here, I won the great respect of our former director, deputy director, and CFO (all men) by winning the college basketball pool organized by the CFO. After the CFO left the museum, it fell to me to organize the college basketball betting pool.

A few years ago, I thought of a way to make the event slightly more interesting to those who had little or no interest in March Madness. What if I associated each team participating in the tournament with artists prominent in the museum’s collection? It could be ART MADNESS. Those who did not know a Duke Blue Devil from a North Carolina Tar Heel might be able to see that if this year’s #1 seed Kentucky was associated with Cézanne, they could defeat a #16 team paired with Arthur B. Davies. The higher seeds would be paired with the most prominent artists, for example van Gogh, Klee, and Picasso are #1 seeds.

There were other fun possibilities. I could pair Georgia O’Keeffe with New Mexico and William Christenberry with Alabama. Some teams were paired with artists with whom I could not imagine the relationship–what does Notre Dame have to do with Delacroix or Xavier with Ingres (aside from Catholicism)? The teams play one another in the first round, and the two artists were long time rivals. And of course, Alfred Stieglitz was paired with a team slated to take on Georgia O’Keeffe/New Mexico.

Naturally, I made mistakes. I left Edward Hopper out of the first version of ART MADNESS and did not make a place for Thomas Eakins in the final version. One participant noted that it seems unfair to give Marjorie Phillips (our founder’s wife and an accomplished painter) only a 16th seed. Not to mention that I made Renoir a #2 seed because his style of painting seems to me a perfect match for Duke. As arguable as they may be, all of my choices are based on some criteria.

Did ART MADNESS increase participation by Phillips staff, you ask? Well this year’s pool has 22 participants. Not much maybe, but that’s the largest number in my eight years at the museum. Although as the person who keeps track of the brackets, I must admit that everyone who participated picked teams not artists, and all the selections are plausible. No one seems to have made any arbitrary or artist-based selections. Hmm . . . maybe people at the museum are more interested in college basketball than I thought?

Click the image to enlarge and discover Paul's artist/team pairings for Art Madness 2012.

Inspired!

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Paul Ruther

Photo: Sue Ahn

Museum educator Donna Jonte with students in the gallery. Photo: Sue Ahn

First graders from the Inspired Teaching Public Charter School visited the museum last week as part of their year-long partnership with The Phillips Collection. The newly opened Inspired Teaching school is in its first year and is creating arts integration projects that will be exhibited in the museum as part of the Phillips’s Art Links to Literacy Program. On this visit students viewed Elizabeth Murray’s Sun and Moon, Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series, and then created Lawrence-inspired collages in the museum’s art workshop.