Harold Weston, Winds, Upper Ausable Lake, 1922. Oil on canvas, 16 1/8 x 22 3/16 in. Gift of Mrs. Harold Weston, 1981. The Phillips Collection, Washington DC.
This work by Harold Weston, part of the Made in the USA exhibition, captures the power of the wind in the pulsing ripples on the surface of the lake, bright morning sunlight glinting off each peak.
Charles Sheeler, Skyscrapers, 1922. Oil on canvas, 20 x 13 in. Acquired 1926. The Phillips Collection, Washington DC
Made in the USA, which opens tomorrow, shines a light on the strength of American artists in The Phillips Collection. 80% of our collection is by American artists. At the time of Duncan Phillips’s death in 1966, there were about 2,000 works in the collection; 1,400 were American. Many of them were by living artists and quite a few were at the beginning of their careers. The last time the museum devoted this much space to American art was in 1976, in honor of the country’s bicentennial. Through this survey of fifty years of Duncan Phillips’s collecting, we hope to illustrate how he defined the modern spirit of American Art.
Vesela Sretenović, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, installed dramatically lit sculpture in a darkly painted intimate gallery to play with light, dark, and shadow on the third floor of the house. Our collection of sculpture doesn’t get seen as often as other works and to have an entire room dedicated to these choice pieces is a treat.
Left: (behind) Auguste Rodin, Female Torso, Kneeling, Twisting Nude, not dated/cast 1984, Bronze overall: 23 3/4 x 12 5/8 x 13 3/4 in; Gift of Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 2009. Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Dog, 1914, Bronze 6 x 14 x 3 in. Gift of H.S. Ede, 1965. Center: Alexander Archipenko, Arabian, between 1930 and 1940, terra cotta 24 in. In Memory of Ellen Dupont Wheelright, 1992. Right: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Richard Guino, Mother and Child, 1916, Bronze 21 1/2 x 8 x 8 1/2 in. Acquired 1940. All: The Phillips Collection, Washington DC. Photos: Joshua Navarro
Left: (far left) Hans (Jean) Arp, Tête Heaume II (Helmeted Head II), 1959, Bronze overall: 22 in. Gift of John and Joy Safer, 2003. (left center) Moore, Henry, Family Group, 1946, Bronze 17 1/2 x 13 x 8 5/8 in. Acquired 1947. Center: View of gallery. Right: Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman, 1950, Bronze 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in. Acquired 1972. All: The Phillips Collection, Washington DC. Photos: Joshua Navarro
