#Phillips95 Soutine Caption Contest Winners

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Experiment Station

For this month’s #Phillips95 challenge, we asked you to caption Chaim Soutine’s Woman in Profile. Congrats to these three winners!

“I wonder if I should listen to this entire performance or go to the bathroom now.” —Gail F.

“1:15 pm – Message Read
6:20 pm – Chaim Soutine is online
3:00 am – Soutine is typing…
3:01 am – …hey you, what are you up to?
3:02 am – ‘woman in profile’ face”
—Luis Q.

“She’s thinking, ‘How did I get to look so much like Judy Garland?'” —Travel Gal

And bragging rights to these Honorable Mentions:

“I so hope Chaim doesn’t give me fish lips.” —Kristin J.

“Chaim…I’m really tired of sitting here for you every day, it better be better than a Rembrandt!” —Margot K.

“I’m snowed in and there’s no chocolate in the house.” —Sharon M.

Kurtis Minder (February 16 at 2:39pm): She is irritated that she just bought an apple watch and a newer, improved model is already out.” —Kurtis M.

Interestingly, a number of people were reminded of celebrities or friends when they saw Soutine’s female sitter, including Coco Chanel, Liza Minnelli, and Judy Garland. Does this woman remind you of anyone?

Thanks to everyone who participated in February’s challenge! Check back each month in 2016 for new challenges in celebration of the Phillips’s 95th anniversary and chances to win prizes.

February #Phillips95 Challenge: Penny for Your Thoughts

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Experiment Station

Portraits play an important role at The Phillips Collection. For our second monthly #Phillips95 social media challenge (celebrating the museum’s 95th anniversary), we consider Chaim Soutine’s Woman in Profile (c. 1937). The Russian artist renders his subject with an expressive face, characteristic of his portrait style. We want to know what could have her lost so deeply in thought.

YOUR CHALLENGE: What is the woman in Soutine’s Woman in Profile thinking? Respond in the comments section here, or to our social media posts on Facebook, Twitter (@PhillipsMuseum), or Instagram (@PhillipsCollection) with #Phillips95 for a chance to win four tickets the Phillips.

We’ll announce winners Tuesday, February 23. Don’t be afraid to get creative and humorous with your answer!

Need inspiration? During our Made in the USA exhibition in 2014, we asked visitors what Thomas Eakins’s Miss Amelia Van Buren was thinking. See these previous blog posts for some of the responses we received to get your ideas flowing.

Marc Chagall’s Powerful Portraits: Part 3

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Experiment Station

Marc Chagall, Jew in Red, 1914. Oil on cardboard laid down on canvas, 39 3/4 x 31 7/8 in. Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Marc Chagall’s three monumental portraits from 1914, Jew in Red, Jew in Black and White, and Jew in Green, are on view in Gauguin to Picasso: Masterworks from Switzerland. Read more about Jew in Black and White here, and Jew in Green here.

Chagall’s Jew in Red is a bearded man holding a cane and a bag of belongings. He has been interpreted as Ahasver, the eternal Wandering Jew, or perhaps even Chagall, the displaced artist—a foreigner in his homeland. On the white curtain at left, in Hebrew, Latin, and Cyrillic, are names of artists that Chagall admired in Paris: Paul Cézanne, Gustave Courbet, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, El Greco, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Jean Fouquet, Vincent van Gogh, Cimabue, Giotto, and Tintoretto.