A Wax Room for Anselm

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Klaus Ottmann

Last month I traveled from Paris to Barjac, a small town in the region of Languedoc-Roussillon northwest of Avignon, to attend the inauguration of a permanent installation by German artist Wolfgang Laib. Laib had been working for the last four years on an enormous beeswax room, not unlike the one he created at The Phillips Collection last year, but on a much larger scale—an underground chamber, about 40 meters (over 130 feet) long with many more lightbulbs but equally aromatic and meditative. Laib’s newest wax room, entitled From the Known to the Unknown—To Where Is Your Oracle Leading You (2014), is installed at La Ribaute, on the grounds of a former silk factory that is now the studio of the German artist Anselm Kiefer.

Wolfgang Laib in his wax room at La Ribaute. Photo: Klaus Ottmann

Kiefer began developing this complex in the mid-1990s. It spreads over 86 acres and includes three 19th-century stone buildings surrounded by fields and woods. Two of the residential buildings are now connected by a industrial-sized enclosed footbridge that Kiefer built for his two young children when he still lived on the grounds (he has since moved with his family to Paris). Kiefer’s Gesamtkunstwerk is now comprised of more than 50 separate buildings out of glass, steel, or concrete as well as a series of underground tunnels—all housing his mostly monumental paintings and sculptures.

La Ribaute, France. Photo: Klaus Ottmann

Laib’s wax room at La Ribaute is the first of a series of works by other artists Kiefer is planning to commission as he is starting to transform La Ribaute into a public exhibition site. The inauguration, which was attended by 300 guests including artists, collectors, and curators, took place on May 31 with a concert of music by Edgar Varese and Heinz Holliger, performed by the French Classical flutist Sophie Cherrier, a member of the renown Ensemble International, and an opulent dinner in Kiefer’s residential quarters.

One of the most impressive installations by Kiefer is an underground chamber that contains a small version of his work Les Femmes de la révolution (1992), which is comprised of lead beds, one photograph on lead, and wall texts. The work is inspired by The Women of the French Revolution, a chronicle by 19th-century historian Jules Michelet. A larger version of this installation is currently on view as part of Kiefer’s semi-permanent exhibition at Mass Moca in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Anselm Kiefer, Les Femmes del la révolution (Installation at La Ribaute). Photo: Klaus Ottmann

Whistler and Hopper, Graffiti-Style

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Experiment Station

Artist Kelly Towles and his dogs in his studio. All photos courtesy The Phillips Collection

Last week, DC-based artist and long-time Phillips fan Kelly Towles brought some of the masterworks from Made in the USA into the 21st century—and gave them some attitude. Best known for his vibrant murals all around DC (think Toki Underground, DC Brau, U Street Music Hall) often featuring fantastical masked figures, Towles used spray paint and ink to add his signature street art style to reproductions of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Miss Lillian Woakes (between 1890 and 1891) and Edward Hopper’s Approaching a City (1946). A limited number of t-shirts and totes with these images will be available in the museum shop in the coming weeks—stay tuned for more information.

We visited Towles’s studio to catch the artist at work:

Towles adding to Edward Hopper’s Approaching a City

Towles working on Whistler’s Miss Lillian Woakes

The final product by Kelly Towles

Spotlight on Sculpture: Alexander Calder

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Experiment Station

Installation view of Made in the USA. Photo courtesy The Phillips Collection

With the heat and patriotic spirit of early July upon us, now is a great time to check out Made in the USA before it comes down on August 31. As a new intern, I’ve enjoyed spending some time with this exhibition; especially a few works by some of my favorite artists, among them Alexander Calder, whose works Hollow Egg, Red Polygons, and Untitled are currently on view. The first time I wandered the galleries I was immediately drawn to the three sculptures for their distinct presence amidst the two-dimensional works that make up most of the show. In fact, the way Calder’s work is displayed makes it visible from three of the galleries; a curatorial decision I can’t help but think of as a strategy to emphasize the universal relationships these sculptures have with painting, and image-making in general. Next to Stuart Davis’s Egg Beater No. 4, it’s easy to recognize the parallels between Calder’s use of wire and strokes on a canvas.

Another hallmark of Calder’s work (seen in two of the three pieces on display) is his exploration of movement. The suspended metal shapes act like sails that catch the quiet breezes created by the motion of viewers in the gallery space, allowing the mobiles to rotate with currents of air. This delicate movement is to me what makes viewing the works a powerful experience; they depend on their audience in order to become mobile at all.

Elaine Budzinski, Marketing Intern