Curator at Large Klaus Ottmann demonstrates the participatory qualities of a Franz Erhard Walther sculpture, Roter Gesang (Red Song), at an Arts Committee meeting this week. Walther (born in Fulda, Germany in 1939) produces minimalist sculptures, often in brilliant primary colors, out of ordinary heavy canvas, that seem like soft versions of minimalist compositions. This will look brilliant near our Rothko Room. It also harmonizes with another new acquisition, Wolfgang Laib’s wax room, in which the visitor enters to appreciate the beautiful aroma, the rich surface, and the embracing small space. Our acquisitions meeting was a heady affair with the approval of many new works from photographs by Eugène Atget, to a painting by Al Held, a painting by Walter Dahn, and works by Helen Torr, to mention only a few.
Tag Archives: acquisitions
Congenial Spirits: Mpane and Lawrence
We have been eager to see Aimé Mpane’s Mapasa (Twins) hanging in the galleries ever since bringing it home from (e)merge art fair this fall. Mpane’s brilliantly hued diptych is now on view upstairs in the original Phillips house, where it sparks a complex dialogue with Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series.
A Surprise Around Every Corner
A new permanent collection installation greeted visitors to the Phillips last week right when they walked through the double glass doors into the galleries. What’s on view? A 1960 sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, a 1952 painting by Francis Bacon, a 2001 photograph by James Casebere, and a 1988 sculpture by Juan Hamilton. This group of works will remain on view throughout the winter.