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Now Representing: The Phillips Collection

Now representing the collection of Duncan Phillips, who desired to create a museum of modern art and its sources.

(Detail) Interior with View of the Ocean, 1957 by Richard Diebenkorn (1922-93) The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. USA
(Detail) Interior with View of the Ocean, 1957 by Richard Diebenkorn (1922-93) The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. USA

 

Celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2011, The Phillips Collection in Washington was America’s first museum dedicated to modern art. Established by Duncan Phillips and his mother, Eliza, to be a museum about modern art and its sources, the collection was a memorial to his father and older brother. Quite possibly the most significant piece in the collection, is Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. Phillips purchased the painting in 1923, believing that it would inspire visitors to come to the museum, saying “Such a picture creates a sensation wherever it goes.”

Today, the collection includes over 3,000 works, ranging from masterpieces of French Impressionism and American modernism to contemporary art.  In addition to the sensational Renoir, other highlights include:

 A chapel-like Mark Rothko room, created by Duncan Phillips in 1960 with input by the artist.

The world's largest and most significant collection of works by Arthur Dove—and the largest American collection of works by Pierre Bonnard.

Works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Georges Braque, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin and many others.

 

Interior with Egyptian Curtain, 1948 by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., USA
Interior with Egyptian Curtain, 1948 by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., USA

 

 

(detail) The Migration Series, Panel No. 1 (detail), 1940-41 by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
(detail) The Migration Series, Panel No. 1 (detail), 1940-41 by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

 

Acquired in 1942, Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series is a major holding by the museum that narrates and comments on the period of American history that saw African Americans moving to Northern cities from the rural South between the wars. 

An epic work in 60 panels, each small panel was painstakingly researched and storyboarded by Lawrence, who painted in one color at a time on all the panels as an entire canvas. The Phillips shares the Migration Series with MoMA, which owns the even-numbered panels while Phillips holds the odd.

View more Bridgeman images from the Phillips Collection, click here.

 

 

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