The Phillips Collection’s newest exhibition features 90 plus works from its permanent collection by its biggest and brightest stars to mix the old with the new in “Breaking It Down: Conversations from the Vault.”
The museum says its mission is to emphasize dedication to and connection of living artists with classic stars like Georges Braque, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne, Arthur Dove, John Marin and Richard Diebenkorn, to name a few who are in the show.
For example, the “Vault” pairs nine works by Washington’s own Sam Gilliam with Lucy T. Pettway from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, a quilter. Works by Diebenkorn and Kate Shepherd are shown with Matisse and Piet Mondrian.
The Phillips was founded in 1921 by Duncan and Marjorie Acker Phillips and prides itself on being America’s first museum of modern art “where the intimate and experimental meet,” according to its website.
The newest show certainly answers the call with versatility, color and splash.
In one gallery are works by Dove, Marin, O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz and one by Sadakichi Hartmann, while in another hall, Sylvia Snowden, Karel Appel, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Toko Shinoda and Aaron Siskind are grouped.
A separate gallery finds the quartet of Braque, Cezanne, Sharon Core and Joel Meyerowitz, and there are more, like the duo of Augustus Vincent Tack and Albert Pinkham Ryder.
It’s a debut at the Phillips of some works by William Christenberry, Walker Evans, Gilliam, Meyerowitz, Sean Scully, Siskind, Snowden, Renee Stout, and Joyce Wellman.
Hidden in the labels, one can find surprises, like the description of “Marinitis” which photographer and collector Stieglitz, claimed was the condition of founder Phillips after Phillips bought nine watercolors by John Marin.
Stieglitz’s wife was the famed Georgia O’Keeffe who, after her husband died, gave the museum 19 of Stieglitz’s photographs to honor his friendship with Phillips. (Only one Stieglitz is on display here though: “Equivalent.”)
Several O’Keeffe paintings are included like “Red Hills, Lake George” from 1927 which she said was “a memory of an autumn sunset” she recalled from the couple’s vacation home.
One gallery features works by Braque whom Phillips honored in 1939 with the first Braque solo exhibition in the U.S. In 1927 Phillips bought Braque’s 1926 “Plums, Pears, Nuts, and Knife” for $2,000 (on display) which was the first painting by Braque to enter a U.S museum collection. (About 100 years later, Braque’s 1907 “Paysage à la Ciotat” sold for close to $16 million, a record then.)
Fascinating photographs, programs and original correspondence between the artists and the Phillips are displayed in glass cases.
The Phillips has more than the “Vault” to satisfy your art cravings like the “artist of the people,” the first exhibition in Washington dedicated to William Gropper (1897-1977), “a social realist artist” whose parents were immigrants from Romania and Ukraine.
Gropper focused on social issues and 30 of his works are presented with a warning that they may be too extreme for some visitors. It closes January 5, 2025.
The Phillips is also proud to host until February 2, 2025, “Creative Aging” devoted to the many benefits art has for older adults, a program which is coordinated with local senior centers.
Like Diebenkorn was inspired by his visits to the Phillips when he was stationed at Quantico, Virginia during World War II, Phillips’s director Jonathan P. Binstock wrote in a statement that the museum hopes this exhibition has the same effect on others “by offering a space for discovery, learning, and joy.” It closes Jan. 19, 2025.
The Phillips is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with members only permitted 10 — 11 a.m. on Sundays. Admission is $20, adults; $15, seniors (age 62+); $10, students and educators (with I.D.); $12, active and retired military; and free for members and those under age 18.
Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year’s, and other days. Free admission from 4 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month with extended hours until 8 p.m.and “pay-what-you-wish” every day from 4 p.m. Reservations, recommended. 1600 21st St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20009. Ph. 202-387-2151.
