Then and Now in Balance

Close view of Xavier Veilhan's Pendule Dripping series (2012). Acrylic paint, cardboard, wood frame, 26 3/4 x 26 3/4 x 2 in. Photo: Kate Boone

Close view of Xavier Veilhan’s Pendule Dripping series (2012). Acrylic paint, cardboard, wood frame, 26 3/4 x 26 3/4 x 2 in. Photo: Kate Boone

Have you seen the red bear? That is the first question I ask visitors when beginning a Then and Now tour. Grinning and nodding are the usual reactions. I then point to the Xavier Veilhan installation inside the museum, and say that it is by the same artist who created The Bear (2010). The grins flatten and eyes express puzzlement. These contrasting reactions offer the perfect segue into a discussion about what makes The Phillips Collection different. Museum founder Duncan Phillips felt this museum should be about experiencing art in new ways and making connections to the past and present in an intimate place. It is why we can choose to display a lipstick red (or Ferrari red, as the artist prefers) bear outside and indoors show paintings that the same artist made without using his hands. In the Pendule-Dripping series, Veilhan sets a pendulum vial filled with paint in motion to describe liquid circles. Voila–a painting untouched by the hand of the artist!–yet it reminds us of Foucault’s great pendulum, which dramatically described the earth’s rotation in 1851.

The exhibition is called (IN)balance. It is about interconnectivity and opposites such as: indoor and outdoor, representation of man and abstraction of woman, sculpture and painting, to name a few.

Lisa Leinberger, Volunteer Coordinator

View upon entering Xavier Veilhan: (IN)balance. Photo: Kate Boone

View upon entering Xavier Veilhan: (IN)balance. Photo: Kate Boone

Photo: Joshua Navarro

Photo: Joshua Navarro

A Collective Poem for a Painting

On Friday, Meagan Estep, graduate intern in Education, led a large group of visitors on a special edition of our daily Spotlight tours. This Personal Response tour had the group enthusiastically exchanging observations and ideas in a series of activities focused on a few permanent collection favorites. In one activity, we split into groups, each writing a sentence about a selected painting and then combining our sentences to form a poem about the work. Here are two of our creations:

 

Marc Chagall’s The Dream

Marc Chagall, The Dream, 1939. Gouache on paper, 20 9/16 x 26 3/4 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1942.

Marc Chagall, The Dream, 1939. Gouache on paper, 20 9/16 x 26 3/4 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1942.

 

A dark night of the Russian soul
Love in poverty
Tenderness amidst uncertainty
A feathery softness
Brings light to the darkness

 

 

 

 

 

Vincent van Gogh’s Entrance to the Public Gardens in Arles

Vincent van Gogh, Entrance to the Public Gardens in Arles, 1888. Oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 35 3/4 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1930.

Vincent van Gogh, Entrance to the Public Gardens in Arles, 1888. Oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 35 3/4 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1930.

 

I reach inward and consider my thoughts
To and fro
To and fro
Green and gold surround me
In a warm place
Sculpted Sky
Blue feelings rise up
Days go by, life unfolds