A Break for Sunlight and Warmth

It was with great pleasure yesterday that many of us attended a brown bag lunch talk from guest curator Cornelia Homburg who previewed her upcoming exhibition at the Phillips opening September 27th, 2014. Images, such as those below, quickly transported us from the unwelcome snow of DC to warm, sunny southern France.

(Left) Henri-Edmond Cross,  Plage de la Vignasse, les Iles d'Or, 1891-1892, huile sur toile. 65,5 x 92,2 cm. © MuMa Le Havre / David Fogel

(Left) Henri-Edmond Cross, Plage de la Vignasse, les Iles d’Or, 1891-1892, huile sur toile. 65,5 x 92,2 cm. © MuMa Le Havre / David Fogel (Right) Paul Signac, Setting Sun. Sardine Fishing. Adagio. Opus 221 from the series The Sea, The Boats, Concarneau, 1891. Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 31 7/8″ (65 x 81 cm). Mrs. John Hay Whitney Bequest. 585.1998 © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Made in the USA: E Pluribus Unum

Charles Sheeler, Skyscrapers, 1922. Oil on canvas, 20 x 13 in. Acquired 1926. The Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Made in the USA, which opens tomorrow, shines a light on the strength of American artists in The Phillips Collection. 80% of our collection is by American artists. At the time of Duncan Phillips’s death in 1966, there were about 2,000 works in the collection; 1,400 were American. Many of them were by living artists and quite a few were at the beginning of their careers. The last time the museum devoted this much space to American art was in 1976, in honor of the country’s bicentennial. Through this survey of fifty years of Duncan Phillips’s collecting, we hope to illustrate how he defined the modern spirit of American Art.