Across the Way

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Sarah Osborne Bender

Andrea Way, Rogue, 1991. Black ink and felt tip pen on prepared paper, 25 3/4 x 40 1/2 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Gift of Dr.and Mrs. Harvey Sherber, 1993.

Both of the works in the Phillips by Washington, D.C., artist Andrea Way traveled just three miles up Massachusetts Avenue to be a part of her retrospective now on view at American University’s Katzen Arts Center. Michael O’Sullivan writes in the Washington Post:

“Way’s art is layered, and it is compounded by secondary rules, by accident and by what the artist calls the introduction of ‘points of departure’ to her rules.”

Light Therapy

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Sarah Osborne Bender

Leo Villareal, Scramble, 2011, Light-emitting diodes, Mac mini, custom software, circuitry, wood, Plexiglas; 60 x 60 in.; 152.4 x 152.4 cm. The Dreier Fund for Acquisitions, 2012. Photo: Sarah Osborne Bender

The cure for winter blues is a good dose of beautiful light. The museums of D.C. are here for you! Find Leo Villareal’s Scramble (2011) on view in our house and his Multiverse (2005-2008) installed in the National Gallery of Art Concourse. The Hirshhorn’s Cube Light (2008) is on display with their Ai Weiwei: According to What? exhibition. 40 under 40: Craft Futures at the Renwick Gallery includes the private light experience that is Nick Dong’s Enlightenment Room (2008). And if neon is what you crave, Nam Jun Paik’s Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii (1995) is a buzzing presence in Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Paik exhibition. Have a seat and gaze forth.

Meet Me in Montauk

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Sarah Osborne Bender

(Left) Reynolds Beal, In the Rips off Montauk, 1928, Drypoint on paper; 8 3/4 x 12 7/8 in. (22.2 x 32.7 cm). Acquisition date unknown. (Right) Rattner, Abraham, Window at Montauk Point, 1943, Oil on canvas; 25 5/8 x 32 in.; 65.0875 x 81.28 cm.. Acquired 1943.

Seems that we have three paintings in the collection that capture Montauk. Reynolds Beal puts us out at sea in the choppy waters. Abraham Rattner keeps us safe inside, looking out at the lighthouse through a window. In Marjorie Phillips’s painting, which was recently hung in the stairwell by the Music Room (often home to her painting, Night Baseball, 1951), we’re high above a natural beach without a structure or another person in sight.

Marjorie Phillips, Montauk Point, circa 1922, Oil on canvas, 18 7/8 x 30 3/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Bequest of Elmira Bier, 1976. Photo: Sarah Osborne Bender