Tuesday Tunes: A Playlist for Theodoros Stamos

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Theodoros Stamos, The Sacrifice of Kronos, No. 2, 1948, Oil on hardboard, 48 x 36 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1949 © Estate of Theodoros Stamos, New York

Taking inspiration from the major theme of music in Ten Americans: After Paul Klee, we paired 11 staff members with 11 works from the exhibition and asked them to respond to create a playlist in response to their individual artwork. Remy Kauffmann, Stewardship Manager for Corporate Relations and Partnerships, created this playlist in response to Theodoros Stamos’s “The Sacrifice of Kronos.”

When I looked at this artwork, I immediately saw the Earth and a person below it, seemingly crushed by the weight of the world, and I wanted my playlist to reflect that sense of helplessness. It definitely isn’t the most uplifting, but with everything going on in the world today and how divided it seems to be on most issues, I felt that this painting perfectly depicts how overwhelming life can be sometimes. The last two songs are more hopeful, because I always want to believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if we can’t always see it at the time.

Remy Kauffmann, Stewardship Manager, Corporate Relations and Partnerships

Feeling inspired? Create your own playlist based around works in the exhibition and send it to us at communications@phillipscollection.org and we may feature it on our blog and social media.

Calligraphy as an Artistic Style

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Mark Tobey, After the Imprint, 1961. Gouache on illustration board, 39 1/4 x 27 3/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1962 © 2015 Mark Tobey / Seattle Art Museum, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tobey saw the potential of his calligraphic style to reconcile the rational and irrational forces of humankind and arrive at a “unified world,” one that mirrored the union of the polarizing yin-yang principles in Asian calligraphy. In this mature work, Tobey layered strokes of white, black, and beige in an all-over pattern suggestive of the unseen energies of the cosmos.

In 1947, American critic Clement Greenberg deemed Tobey a product of the “School of Klee”—a classification that Tobey wore proudly, later professing to his dealer his “kinship to Klee.” Late in life, while living in Basel, Tobey acquired a drawing by Klee.

This work is on view in Ten Americans: After Paul Klee through May 6, 2018.

The “Moe” Behind Paul Klee’s “Young Moe”

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Paul Klee, Young Moe, 1938. Colored paste on newspaper on burlap, 20 7/8 x 27 5/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1948

Young Moe is one of the few abstract portraits in Paul Klee’s oeuvre. Its title alludes to Albert Moeschinger (known as “Moe”), a professor of music theory with whom Klee had studied at the conservatory of Bern. In 1935, Moeschinger dedicated three compositions for violin and piano (Humoresken) to Klee, who gave him two paintings in return.

Following his late style, Klee applied heavy black lines onto flat fields of color, filling his surface in all directions. The subtly modulating colors—from yellow to ocher, brown-yellow, and purplish-gray—have the emotional impact of a melody that supports the rhythmic linear notations above.

One of the last Klee works acquired by Duncan Phillips, Young Moe was regularly displayed in the “Klee room” at the Phillips, inspiring artists such as Kenneth Noland and Gene Davis.

This work is on view in Ten Americans: After Paul Klee through May 6, 2018.