Tag Archives: Gifford Beal

New York State of Mind

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Photo: Piper Grosswendt

A fresh suite of artworks quietly debuted earlier this month in a small gallery, on the second floor of the House. As hallmark pieces of the museum’s American art collection shipped off to Tokyo for To See as Artists See: American Art from The Phillips Collection, and with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in mind, Installations Manager Bill Koberg thought to fill the space with a few choice pieces of New York abstraction from the 1930s-50s.

Gandy Brodie’s undated painting Fragment of a City (1957) anchors the East side of the room, opposite Loren MacIver’s New York (1952). A subtler MacIver, The Window Shade (1948) and Berenice Abbott’s modern consideration of the city as landscape Canyon: Broadway and Exchange Place (1936) hang on the North wall across from Aaron Siskind’s photograph New York 6 (1951) and Ralph Flint’s undated colored pencil drawing Metropolis (undated), acquired by the Collection in 1931. The Flint work brings with it some mystery — unframed prior to its recent hanging, Koberg is uncertain if it’s ever graced the walls of the Phillips. Continue reading →

Summer Menu: The Fish Bucket

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As part of D.C. Eats: Summer of Food, we’ve invited foodies and chefs from around the city to guest blog about their favorite food-focused work of art in The Phillips Collection. John Critchley is executive chef at Urbana Restaurant and Wine Bar. Read more posts in the Summer Menu series here. 

Gifford Beal, The Fish Bucket, 1924. Oil on canvas; 24 1/8 x 24 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1925.

I chose Gifford Beal’s The Fish Bucket because it reminds me of two important places in my life. My hometown of Scituate, Massachusetts on Cape Cod bay. The painting also reminds me of a ten month stint I spent from October 2007 to May 2008 harvesting and growing oysters on the coast of Massachusetts with some of the most passionate growers I have ever met — the owners at the Island Creek Oysters Company. I loved the long, cold days and learning all there is about harvesting and growing oysters. We built a floating house on a dock so that the oysters wouldn’t freeze. It was a very memorable experience.

Every turn in my life has been connected to the sea in some way, from my days as a dishwasher at the Red Lion Inn in Scituate, to my days as a sous chef at Uni Sashimi Bar in Boston to my days as the executive chef at Area 31, named after Miami’s ecologically sound fishing region encompassing the Western Atlantic Ocean. Now, as the executive chef at Urbana, I enjoy using all that the Chesapeake and Eastern Atlantic has to offer to create a sustainable, fresh, and locally-sourced menu. Some of my favorites include golden tilefish, black bass, Maryland blue crabs, and Rhode Island calamari.

-John Critchley, Urbana

Phillips Flashback: May 1921

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Marjorie recalls that this painting hung in the library during her first visit to Duncan's home. Julian Alden Weir, Woodland Rocks, 1910-1919. The Phillips Collection

Marjorie Acker and the Gifford Beals visit the Phillips’s house in Washington, D.C. and see the Main Gallery and North Library hung with paintings.

According to Duncan Phillips and his Collection (1970) by Marjorie Phillips, née Acker, Duncan wrote to her on May 14, 1921, about four months after they met in New York. He invited her and her “Uncle Giff’s” family to Washington “to see the collection installed.” She recollects the pleasure of waking in the morning and seeing Arthur B. Davies’s painting, Children, Dogs, and Pony, hanging by the bed. “Paintings everywhere!” she exclaims. Her impression of the neighborhood that would become her home, Dupont Circle, is of “a leisurely, almost southern village atmosphere, with hurdy-gurdies playing and men pushing their carts of fresh flowers or fruits, crying ‘Stra-a-berries’ in loud melodious voices.” Duncan and Marjorie were married in October of 1921, opening the collection to the public soon after.