Take a #breakforart with the Phillips

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The Phillips Collection is constantly changing. You never know what will be on view from one day to the next.

Imagine my surprise when I entered into the newly-opened exhibition History in the Making: 100 Years after the Armory Show. There, hanging ever-so-gracefully, is Maurice Prendergast’s On the Beach (ca. 1907-1909). I’ve never seen this work of art in person before, having only worked at the Phillips for one year. And — as if by magic — we just featured Prendergast’s effervescent watercolor in one of the education department’s pilot Twitter chats, #breakforart.

Maurice Prendergast, On the Beach, ca. 1907-1909. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 14 1/2 x 21 1/2 in. (36.83 x 54.61 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C., Acquired 1926.

Maurice Prendergast, On the Beach, ca. 1907-1909. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 14 1/2 x 21 1/2 in. (36.83 x 54.61 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C., Acquired 1926.

These Twitter chats are meant for you, our public. When the museum is closed, the works of art still live. We’re opening up the museum, virtually of course, on Mondays for you to comment, question, provoke, laugh, and be inspired. Be a part of our Twitter chat experiments by joining us each Monday through September 30 from 12-1pm EST. Follow the Phillips on Twitter as we #breakforart!

And in the meantime, you can catch up with the rich conversation on that Prendergast painting, here.

New to Twitter? Want to join our chat? Just search @PhillipsMuseum or the hashtag #breakforart each Monday at 12 EST to join. 

 

Meagan Estep, Teacher Programs Coordinator

Georges Braque: A Closer Look

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In conjunction with the exhibition Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life, 1928-1945, colleagues from digital media, audio visual support, curatorial, and communications departments created a collection of short videos based on the technical examinations of four Braque paintings in our collection. These studies revealed new discoveries about Braque’s working methods, his palette, pigments, and the layering structure and composition of his materials. The videos are organized into chapters and feature associate conservator Patricia Favero narrating her findings. She examines paintings in visible, raking, and ultraviolet light and with a stereo-microscope and an infrared camera.

The Power of Design Through the Lens of Ellsworth Kelly

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Ellsworth Kelly, Red Relief, 2009. Private collection. Photo: Jerry L. Thompson, courtesy the artist. © Ellsworth Kelly.

As an educator, I find lessons of modern-day simplicity to be a great starting point for fine arts students. The field of design revolves around how art interacts with the tasks and perceptions of everyday life. Design isn’t just aesthetically pleasing; it also serves an everyday purpose. I believe art should be people-focused and design should serve as a platform for which dialogue and discussion is facilitated. Perceptions of light, color, and space aid in constructing a design and in developing visual literacy. In addition to written/verbal literacy, I think visual literacy is an integral skill one should possess.

The work of Ellsworth Kelly, currently on view in the Panel Paintings 2004-2009  is interesting to consider in relation to the subject of design and human interaction. Kelly, whose works I see as brushing between minimalism and post-painterly abstraction, has a clear and calibrated eye for design. Having formerly been a graphic designer, and currently an art educator, I see elements of two-dimensional and three-dimensional design as imperative when understanding Kelly’s artistic process. Design in itself best communicates with the viewer when clarity is achieved, an element Kelly has mastered. Formations of line, symmetry, and composition aid in developing a clear message within his pieces–these messages, however simple in design, evoke a tapestry of complexity within their meaning and interpretation.

It is this eye for simplicity in design that I hope future learners adapt and refer to throughout their art making process. Artistic intelligence lies in being able to condense such rich information into its purest, simplest form–to capture it, and still be able to communicate it to the audience.

Who are some other artists you believe share Kelly’s approach to aesthetic simplicity?

Is visual literacy an important skill for all learners to possess, not solely art students?

 

Fatima Elgarch, K12 Education Intern