This Thursday: Sartorial Experimentation Encouraged!

Personally, I’m pretty excited about tomorrow night’s Experiment Station-themed Phillips after 5. This theme is drawn from the writings of museum founder Duncan Phillips in which he envisioned his museum as an experiment station, and we have dedicated the entire evening (as we have this blog) to the concept. Not only will the event include magic by area illusionist David London, but we’re debuting artist (and blog illustrator) Elizabeth Graeber’s illustrated self-guide to the collection. I’d also like to encourage some experimental fashion, such as the inventive D.I.Y. drink ticket necktie that Phillips Installations Manager Bill Koberg sported at last month’s Phillips after 5 with The Washington Ballet. See you tomorrow night! Amanda Jiron-Murphy, In-Gallery Interpretation and Public Programs Coordinator

Phillips Flashback: April 1927

Brochure for "An Exhibition of Expressionist Painters from the Experiment Station of the Phillips Memorial Gallery", The Baltimore Museum of Art, April 8-May 1, 1927. From The Phillips Collection Archives.

Two loan exhibitions open in Baltimore, Maryland: An Exhibition of Expressionist Painters from the Experiment Station of the Phillips Memorial Gallery (April 8–May 1, 1927) at The Baltimore Museum of Art, W. Mount Vernon Place, and American Themes by American Painters (April 12–May 3, 1927) at the Friends of Art, 8 East Pleasant Street.

In the first sentence of his essay for the catalogue of American Themes by American Painters, Duncan Phillips makes clear the argument behind his passionate collecting of American art: “This Exhibition […] is an answer to the charge that our painting is an imitation of the French.” The show contains works by truly American painters such as Charles Sheeler, John Sloan, and Charles Burchfield, among others.