Made in the U.S.A.: American Art from The Phillips Collection, 1850–1970

I have been going to the Phillips Gallery since I arrived in Washington in 1962. Am a huge fan of the place. Yet I had never seen all its American collection before. Book fills that in marvelously and reminds me why I love the Phillips so.

a great book to explain how and what American Realism started!

This is an outstanding catalog comprising an impressive celebration of the most exceptional, inspirational, and definitive works of the masters of American modernism. With 160 works of art and refreshing biographical summaries of the artists shown in this exhibit, this catalog is uniquely concise and complete in its presentation without being overwhelming.After a highly successful international and national tour, this popular and organized exhibit returns for yet another current showing in Washington D.C. (Feb.22-Aug.31, 2014).Its vivid and highly informative companion catalog, "Made in the U.S.A.: American Masters from the Phillips Collection, 1850-1970", gives optimal credit and renewed attention to the generosity and focused agenda of Duncan Phillips (1886-1966).Phillips was the museum's founder, art critic, writer, publisher, and advocate for artistic renewal and art appreciation in the United States. He was among the first and most determined collectors of American art. His decision to champion both well known as well as rising talent in American artistic circles was truly unique. His insistence on remaining close to the living artists of his time period and his staunch support of women artists, underprivileged artists, and racially diverse artists helped him to transcend controversial and stereotypical gender, ethnic, and economic boundaries. In choosing to embrace the prime importance of celebrating "unity in difference" throughout the most creative period in American culture, Phillips was the most experienced enforcer of the liberating harmony and success of self-identity and national pride in America.He genuinely and enthusiastically embraced the modernist impulse in American culture. Modern thought and modern aesthetics he viewed as the defining and necessary spirit of an independent and enlightened nation. He boldly defended, encouraged, and supported all freethinking, talented experimenters.Beginning in 1921, Philips began acquiring and appreciating the work of late 19th century innovators often accused of their harsh realism (such as Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, and George Bellows), mystical romanticists (like Albert Pynkham Ryder), artists influenced by French Impressionism's broken brushstrokes, quick sketches, and bright outdoor color schemes (like William Merritt Chase, Theodore Robinson, and Childe Hassam) and intentionally shocking "expressionists" (like Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffee, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Charles Sheeler, Milton Avery, Wilem De Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others).It is important to note that Phillips's support of "modern" and "contemporary" artists allowed this unique group to pursue their own path to dignified and recognizable self-fulfillment. They accomplished goals of challenging established conventions, affirming their multi-talented methods to wider and appreciative audiences, and expanding their repertoire beyond that of their influential teachers (Leger, Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Van Gogh, Gaugin, and others). In so doing, American modernists blossomed past a culturally confined set of stylistic definitions and creative expectations.The goal of this exhibit and catalog is organized under this important premise. American modern art defies specific categorization in terms and in structure, in that of the natural world and in "its separation from it." Industrialized "modern life" perspectives possess a vitality but also a "roughness" "boredom" and "poverty" that has lead artists on a quest for an exotic and rejuvenating paradise to lands unknown. Viewpoints are constantly shifting when cultivating "observant powers", artistic realizations, as well as crucial differences of color, line, form, pattern, space, symmetry, and proportion. In figural and non-figural compositions, a variety of media and working choices have been encouraged in order to complete the desired artistic experiment to fullest expression. Even still life imagery is "alive" with "variations".The Phillips Collection is a prime example of American modern art that rests on a commitment to experimentation and individuality. Modern artists embraced bold individualism and the benefits of communal ties. These artists continuously influenced and educated each other. They experienced the shared joys, lessons, and adventuresome longings for the "unsentimental" and the "utopian" in their lives. They also turned to the inspired uniqueness and vastness of the American landscape.This important exhibit of the Phillips Collection displays the gratitude and renewed energy of American modernists. They valued the tremendous opportunity to recreate and transform a diversity of "color fields" and complex and carefully constructed dreams and visions of space into an artistic and personalized reality. These resulting creations were truly impressive, meaningful, emotionally and patriotically charged, powerful, and lasting masterpieces enhanced by a caring advocate and mentor of creative freedom and action.The dedication of Duncan Philips and his world-renowned collection should be recognized as life-long work that has contributed to the expansion of interpretation, encouraged and displayed boundless imagination, reinvigorated personal and visual potentials, and distinctly generated the pride of an emblematic American heritage, representation, and legacy.

This book accompanied the exhibition, "Made in the U. S. A.: American Masters from The Phillips Collection, 1850-1970," held at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Feb. 22 - Aug. 31, 2014. According to Dorothy Kosinski in the Director's Foreword, this was "the largest & most in-depth installation of the American collection ever undertaken by the museum." (p. vi)The essay titles, in shortened form, are 1. "Duncan Phillips, Visionary Champion of American Art" by Susan Behrends Frank, & 2. "The Rothko Room at The Phillips Collection" by Eliza E. Rathbone.The story of The Phillips Collection (founded 1921) & Duncan Phillips as a collector is told by Frank in her essay & her fact-filled, illustrated Chronology at the back of the book, p. 252ff. Both Duncan & his older brother James enjoyed collecting art. After James died in the influenza epidemic in 1918, Duncan & his mother decided to open the museum as a memorial to James & his father.Most of the book consists of 159 color plates of "featured" American works of art, divided into 12 thematic groupings. An informative 2-page text written by Frank precedes each group. (For each group, I looked at the pictures first; then, I read the text for that group.)I appreciated all parts of this book: the Checklist, where I went to find out the sizes of paintings; and the illustrated Biographies of the Artists, where I read about artists that were unfamiliar to me, like Andree Ruellan & Marjorie Acker Phillips.

Bel ouvrage consacré à la peinture américaine de la très riche collection Phillips à Washington, en anglais mais de lecture aisée.