William Christenberry, Green Warehouse (Distance View), Newbern, Alabama, 1981/printed 1995. Ektacolor print, 17 1/2 x 22 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Gift of Lee and Maria Friedlander, 2002
Sam Gilliam, Koa, 1965. Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Gift of Robert B. and Mercedes H. Eichholz, 1991
Ernest Lawson, Spring, ca. 1913. Oil on canvas mounted on panel, 16 1/8 x 20 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1915
Made in the USA curator Susan Behrends Frank discusses some of the recent additions to the exhibition galleries, from Duncan Phillips’s first personal acquisition (Ernest Lawson’s High Bridge—Early Moon) to one of his final purchases before his death (Loren MacIver’s Printemps).
Sam Gilliam, Red Petals, 1967. Acrylic on canvas, 88 x 93 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1967
Read in the context of today’s holiday, the description of this piece on our website struck me as especially poignant:
“Red Petals is among the first paintings in which Gilliam poured paint onto an unprimed and unstretched canvas, folded the canvas onto itself, suspended it, and left the paint to settle overnight. The next day he sponged, daubed, splattered, folded, rolled, and then restretched the canvas. Gilliam describes this delicate balance between improvisation and discipline as ‘a sort of accident, a part that I controlled, and then a part that I didn’t control, a part that I set into motion.’ The emotional intensity and expressionistic force of Red Petals partly derives from this careful manipulation and the tension between chance and control.”
Amy Wike, Marketing Manager
