In the postwar years, Duncan Phillips earnestly sought out examples of contemporary British art for his museum, assembling a diverse group of neo-romantic artists who were committed to exploring the tension between abstract and objective imagery in a variety of manners and styles. Phillips began the tradition of an “English Room” at the museum after organizing an exhibition of the collection’s British paintings in 1960. In that spirit, the Phillips has put on view in the Main Gallery these past few months masterworks from its collection by the renowned British artists Francis Bacon, Anthony Caro, Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson, Graham Sutherland, Keith Vaughan, and Christopher Wood. In addition we have included one of Mondrian’s major canvases painted while the artist was living in London (1938-40), a time when the artist worked in the neighborhood of Hampstead and was especially close to Nicholson, who so admired his work.
These works will be on display in the museum’s Main Gallery through July 28.
Sue Frank, Associate Curator for Research