“Degas to Diebenkorn: The Phillips Collects,” is a monument to the many-headed beast that is Modern art. The exhibit, which is open until May 25th at the Phillips Collection, is a stunning tour through the museum’s acquisitions from the past decade. The incredible variety of media, movements and artists seems daunting at first, but the entire experience has an unexpected cohesion and leaves the visitor with a better understanding of Modern art.
It seems as though the exhibit was designed to convince the haters among us that there’s more to Modern art than infuriating blotches of paint and hulking metal atrocities. While there are a fair number of pieces that look like the scribblings of a three-year-old (cough, David Smith, cough), there are also pieces that take one’s breath away with their vitality, expressiveness and insight in a way that only Modern art can.
Because the exhibit isn’t organized around a theme other than “look at our stuff!” the curators were able to play around with the directions in which they send viewers. In the first room, styles and media are linked by color and form, with a pastel, geometric Diebenkorn painting giving way to a bright, kinetic Elizabeth Murray installation. Interesting juxtapositions of tone also emerge. It’s comforting to know that there’s no hidden link between Wayne Thiebaud’s whimsical “Five Rows of Sunglasses” and Jack B. Yeats’ inky painting of an Irish peasant other than the Phillips owning both paintings and wanting you to know it.
The collection has an abundance of abstract impressionism, but the decision to include several different media makes the exhibition particularly interesting. While abstract impressionism is thought of as a school of painting, the exhibit includes instances in which abstract impressionists experimented with photography and printmaking. A striking example of such deviation is the Robert Motherwell print, “Australia,” an incredible yellow and black opus that consumes its viewer.
Part of the exhibit’s agenda is to highlight developments in photography and the museum’s avowed interest in the medium. While the room devoted to the versatility of the black and white photograph brings home the medium’s importance, the impressive collection of Ansel Adams is what convinces the visitor of photography’s rightful place in the upper echelons of the Modern art world. However, less homage is paid to the color photograph, with just one luminous William Eggleston image making its way into the mix.
One quiet room takes a small step back in time to the 19th century, and offers a window into the kind of painting that preceded and influenced most of the other art on display. The visitor is treated to a precious Degas (ballerinas, of course) and “The Bridal Chamber,” Édouard Vuillard’s domestic interior whose vibrant, saturated red hues leave the viewer aching for another look.
The exhibit is impressively expansive, but becomes slightly overwhelming, so it’s a bit difficult to really appreciate the Paul Klee pieces tucked in at the end. Overall, however, the exhibit is a triumph that has the power to excite the most hardened veterans of the art scene and elicit at least some degree of appreciation in the hostile philistine.
“Degas to Diebenkorn: The Phillips Collects” is at the Phillips until May 25th.
