Unveiling Vesna

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Experiment Station

Phillips preparators unwrap the first of several layers protecting the work. All photos: Amy Wike

Works for Vesna Pavlović‘s Intersections installation at the Phillips, Illuminated Archive, have just arrived at the museum. Here’s a first look at Untitled (Swiss Peasant art exhibition, 1957.4) (2014) as Phillips preparators open it up after arrival. See this and the rest of the works on the walls (and in the staircase!) starting May 22, and don’t miss Pavlović’s talk in the galleries Thursday evening.

Preparators put on gloves to handle the final layer of unwrapping as Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Vesela Sretenovic looks on.

Vesna Pavlovic’s work Untitled (Swiss Peasant art exhibition, 1957.4) is unwrapped and ready for the gallery walls.

Jean Meisel in Klee’s Room

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Experiment Station

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Once informally known as the Klee Room for the Paul Klee paintings that hung there in years past, a second-floor alcove in the Phillips house is now home to Washington artist Jean Meisel’s Intersections project, titled 50–65 Horizon Line. Meisel, who well recalls the space’s Klee period, has been visiting The Phillips Collection since the 1950s. The jewel-like alcove offers the perfect setting for more than 50 of the painter’s intimate, small-scale works, ranging from 1 1/2 inches to 6 inches. The landscape paintings are hung side by side so that their shared horizon line wraps around the room. The artist has produced hundreds of these serene watercolors since the 1970s.

Vivian Djen, Marketing Communications Editor

Exploring Transparency

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Sarah Osborne Bender

Vesna Pavlovic works on a light table in the archives viewing negatives (left) and shares a glimpse of her process (right). Photos: Sarah Osborne Bender (left), Vesna Pavlovic (right)

Photo: Sarah Osborne Bender

Upcoming 2014 Intersections artist Vesna Pavlovic, whose work will be on view in late May, spent last week in the museum’s library and archive, exploring not only the collection but also the space. Head librarian Karen Schneider guided her through the materials. Using installation photograph negatives from 1960s exhibitions by Alberto Giacometti and Mark Tobey, she observed the results of combining images. She also experimented with the transparency and light of our skylight from the courtyard above.