A Microsite for Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Experiment Station

If you’ve been to the Phillips, you’ve likely encountered Jacob Lawrence’s epic Migration Series, a sequence of 60 paintings of which the Phillips owns 30 (the rest live at the Museum of Modern Art in New York). Since their acquisition in 1942, these works have played a critical role at the heart of the museum’s collection, inspiring vast educational resources, performances, exhibitions, and community programs.

Visit the crowdfunding campaign to learn more.

We’re excited to announce plans to launch a Jacob Lawrence Microsite next summer, but we need your help to make it happen! Visit our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign through Dec. 10 to learn more about what the microsite will look like, the resources users will have access to, and where donations will go. This is a particularly critical moment as the launch of the microsite will coincide with the co-organized exhibition Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series that will be presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in spring 2015 and then at the Phillips in fall 2016.

Along with the Phillips’s treasure trove of knowledge and insights about Jacob Lawrence amassed over the years, the site will feature never-before-published video interviews with the artist, high-resolution images of all 60 panels in the series, biographical materials, an interactive map, archival photographs, and audio and video clips of musical, literary, and historical events of the time. The interactive site will engage visitors with the powerful history and contemporary context of migration through the lens of Lawrence’s striking visual masterwork.

In addition to a warm fuzzy feeling, your contribution comes with some other benefits. From stickers to curator-led tours, we have a few perks to say “thank you.”

Help us spread the word! Share the Jacob Lawrence Microsite Indiegogo campaign page with friends, family, and anyone you think might be interested using http://igg.me/at/jacob-lawrence. Watch #LawrenceLegacy for updates and progress!

The Choreographer’s Process: Dance and the Dream of Realities, Part 1

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Experiment Station

In this series of guest posts, Jason Garcia Ignacio, one of CityDance’s 2014–2015 OnStage Ignite Artists, talks about artwork that inspired him for the Dance and the Dream of Realities performance at the Phillips on Nov. 20.

When undertaking this project, I started by researching Neo-Impressionism and the painters themselves. It was important for me to get acquainted with them in order to understand the depth of their masterpieces. I was intrigued to know their struggles, their journeys and the differences between their philosophies and techniques.

I visited each piece at The Phillips Collection, sat with it, and thought about its resonance to me and to the 21st century. A lot of the structure of my work explores the artists’ insights about their own art juxtaposed by my insights. These contrasting viewpoints add dimension and depth to the dance.

In pointillism, the colors are meticulously separate on the palette, yet together they create a mesmerizing optical illusion to the observer. I can relate to this; I want the audience to view the dancers as separate but whole in their beauty.

Charles Angrand, The Good Samaritan, 1895. Conté crayon on paper, 33 x 24 in. Private Collection

Charles Angrand, The Good Samaritan (1895)

This powerful painting grabbed me. Based on the parable of the good samaritan in the bible’s new testament, it’s both haunting and poetic in its portrayal of the samaritan’s compassion. The duet between the two young dancers blends precision and rawness to convey a sense of vulnerability—an emotion that I feel is inextricably linked to compassion.

Jason Garcia Ignacio, one of CityDance’s 2014–2015 OnStage Ignite Artists

Coming Together in Signac’s L’Orgue

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Experiment Station

Paul Signac, L’Orgue, Cover design for the composition by Gabriel Fabre on a poem by Charles Cros, 1893. Lithograph with watercolor additions, 14 1/4 x 11 in. Gift of John Rewald. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

The recent panel discussion Neo-Impressionists and Symbolists: Allies and Rivals provided me with a better sense of how artists in the exhibition used poetry and music within their work, sometimes trying to create a synergy of the senses or synesthesia. Synesthesia involves the union of sensation from multiple art forms; for example, one could hear music and see color, or see a painting that evokes music. One of the artworks discussed during the panel, L’Orgue by Paul Signac, is illustrated here. The work combines poetry, music, and visual art.

Created in 1891, the piece is a cover design for a musical composition by Gabriel Fabre—which was inspired from a poem by Charles Cros. Little is known of Fabre other than that he fraternized with the Parisian Symbolist circles, including Signac and Cros. Cros a writer, inventor, and poet, aspired to create poetry that used evocative imagery and lyrical, rhythmic language.

Charles Saunier, a critic for the literary and art magazine La Plume, commented on Signac’s L’Orgue: “First a melancholy German ballad, a melodious rustle of wind, then the harmonies which…persist quietly sad while the voice dies down. Thus smoke from an altar candle rises blue in the abandoned cathedral. For this melody the painter Paul Signac composed a strange lithograph heightened with color; roses, stained glass, altar candles illuminating a coffin.”

I think this perfectly captures the combination and equality of the arts that Signac created in his cover design; a synesthetic experience that allows the viewer to experience poetry, music, and visual art simultaneously.

Kelley Daley, Graduate Intern for Lectures and Programs