Intersections, a contemporary art series
Embraces Collection’s Legacy as “An Intimate
Museum Combined with an Experiment Station”
1600 21st Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
Dupont Circle Metro (Q Street exit)
202-387-2151
Intersections invites artists to respond to artwork and spaces in the museum with projects of their own, revealing relationships between modern and contemporary art. Many Intersections projects riff on the intimate nature of the museum’s architecture, engaging spaces not typically considered exhibition areas, such as the museum’s stairwell, courtyard, and walkways between buildings, among others. By activating these unconventional spaces, Intersections challenges visitors’ expectations of how and where they experience art. These encounters create new relationships, with surprises of their own.
“Intersections invites the living artist to engage creatively with the rich modernist collection at The Phillips Collection. Collaborating with Vesela Sretenovic, our curator of modern and contemporary art, the artists respond to specific works of art as well as the idiosyncratic spaces of our intimate galleries,” says Dorothy Kosinski, director of The Phillips Collection. “Duncan Phillips was thrilled by contemporary art, and we are excited to embrace this aspect of the institution’s mission and personality.”
Museum founder Duncan Phillips, who referred to his museum as an experiment station welcoming new and startling manifestations of art, believed it to be a laboratory. His installations were radical, ignoring the considerations of nationality and chronology that traditionally shaped art museum displays. Intersections builds on this feature of the museum, as well as on Phillips’s legacy of active engagement with the artists of his time, reigniting relationships with artists both local and international, emerging and established.
ON VIEW
Barbara Liotta—Icarus
Through January 31, 2010
Conceived as a portrait of human energy and inner strength and as a symbol of flight and aspiration, this large-scale sculpture is made of strings and stones and suspended from the ceiling. Icarus is paired with portraits from the museum’s permanent collection, including Eugène Delacroix’s Paganini, Amedeo Modigliani’s Elena Povolozky, and Chaim Soutine’s Woman in Profile.
Tayo Heuser—Pulse
Through October 31, 2010
Heuser translates the luminosity of Mark Rothko’s paintings in the museum’s Rothko Room into three dimensions with a wall-mounted sculpture in the museum’s elliptical stairwell. These glowing, colored forms, crafted from handmade paper and drawn in ink, seem to float against the walls.
UPCOMING
Linn Meyers—Mandala
February 11-May 2, 2010
Meyers has drawn two geometric shapes on the walls of an arch, inspired by the brushwork and colors of Vincent Van Gogh’s Entrance to the Public Garden in Arles and The Road Menders. They intersect, creating visual vibrations of movement and color.
Kate Shepherd
June 10-September 5, 2010
Jae Ko
October 1, 2010-January 2, 2011
Museum Hours
Tuesday-Sunday: 10 am-5 pm
Sunday: 11 am-6 pm
Thursday extended hours: 5-8:30 pm
Mondays: closed
The Phillips Collection
1600 21st Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
Dupont Circle Metro (Q Street exit)
202-387-2151
www.phillipscollection.org
