Staff Show 2017: Ann Lipscombe

Posted on August 17, 2017 by Experiment Station

In this series, Manager of Visitor and Family Engagement Emily Bray highlights participants in the 2017 James McLaughlin Memorial Staff Show, on view through September 17, 2017.

Ann Lipscombe, Pure Looking At (2017)

Ann Lipscombe

Ann Lipscombe

What do you do at The Phillips Collection? Are there any unique or interesting parts about your job that most people might not know about?

I’m the Digital Associate! I do a lot of videography and graphic design, but my job mostly consists of producing motion graphics for our social media.

Who is your favorite artist in the collection?

Piet Mondrian, Phillip Guston and Alex Katz.

What is your favorite space within The Phillips Collection?

My favorite spot in the Phillips is the main stairway in the museum. I think the curators are always really clever with what they do in such a tiny and often overlooked space. Sometimes they have our small works by Calder there, which is my favorite spot for them.

What would you like people to know about your artwork on view in the 2017 Staff Show (or your work in general)?

My work is exploring the relationship between Western and alternative medicine. The drawing itself conflates medical and natural imagery to form an almost ouroboros shape. I’m encouraging the piece to be interpreted through the Hegelian Method, which is referenced in the title of the work.

The 2017 James McLaughlin Memorial Staff Show is on view August 3 through September 17, 2017.

Art and Emotion

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Experiment Station

Piet Mondrian, Composition No. III, c. 1921/repainted 1925. Oil on canvas, 19 3/8 x 19 3/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1946

When I first saw a Mondrian painting, I got angry. Hands-curled-up-into-fists, eyes-bulging, frowny-faced angry. “What even is this!?,” I mentally shouted to nobody in particular. “Give me some graph paper and I could do it.” (Full disclaimer: I am a terrible artist. Even if I did have graph paper, I could not come close to emulating the precision of one of Mondrian’s works.) I wandered—stomped—away from the painting, seeking some other work of art that could cool me down.

This reaction was probably about ten years ago. I don’t remember where I was, or the precise details of the painting itself, but I do remember my bodily reaction to it. I’ve created a memory of myself as reactor more than passive observer, and that is the memory which has stuck with me through the years. A painting by Mondrian is currently on display at the Phillips, and when I walk by it, the memory of my initial and totally irrational rage floods in—despite the fact that intellectually, I understand the artistry of the painting in front of me.

Why did a piece of canvas on a wall inspire such an emotional and physical reaction? What is it about certain works of art that makes us actively respond rather than merely see? This is one of the questions on hand in art theorist Fré Ilgen’s latest book, ARTIST? The Hypothesis of Bodiness, which investigates “the involvement of the (mind/)body in everything we do, think or experience.” Ilgen will discuss his book in a panel moderated by Phillips Director Dorothy Kosinski on October 15 at American University.

Have you ever experienced a reaction like this to a work of art, positive or negative? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Emily Hurwitz, Marketing and Communications Intern

One Collection to Another: Exploring The Kreeger Museum

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Experiment Station

Compilation of images from paintings and sculpture from the Kreeger Museum's collection

Sculptures, paintings, architecture, and members of the Phillips’s communications staff at The Kreeger Museum. Photos: Amy Wike

To take advantage of the dwindling sunny days and for a little inspiration, the Phillips communications and marketing department recently took a field trip to the nearby Kreeger Museum. It was a treat to see some of the stars from our own collection—Braque, Bonnard, Monet, and Picasso, to name a few—in a new light, and I could spend days in the Dan Steinhilber: Marlin Underground exhibition (on view through Dec. 29, 2012). The image at lower left in the collage above is just a corner of the gargantuan inflatable sculpture Steinhilber has created for visitors to run around in.

Of particular note was this incredible watercolor by Piet Mondrian. After a lifetime of associating the name “Mondrian” with flat, grid paintings in primary colors, I had to do a triple-take of the artist name.

Located on Foxhall Road, the Kreeger is just down the street from the house Duncan and Marjorie Phillips built in 1929, affectionately named “Dunmarlin” after Duncan (father), Marjorie (mother), and Laughlin (son). The building no longer stands, but it housed the family after their residence at 21st and Q Streets was fully converted to a museum.

Amy Wike, Publicity and Marketing Coordinator