Experience this glorious gathering of more than fifty European masterpieces from The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is the only venue in the Northeast United States and Great Lakes region for the exhibition, which includes works by some of the world’s most beloved artists, including Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.

BACKGROUND

Duncan Phillips, one of the world’s foremost art collectors, founded this collection in 1921, and today, it holds a unique position among American art museums. His most earnest purpose was to share his pleasure in the life-enhancing power of art. He sought to create a "joy-giving, life-enhancing influence, assisting people to see beautifully as true artists see."

The centerpiece of The Phillips Collection, particularly noted for its Impressionist and Postimpressionist art, is Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81. This breathtaking masterpiece is perhaps the best-loved painting in the collection, which rarely travels outside Washington, D.C. In fact, the exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery marks only the second time that this monumental painting has traveled in fifteen years. It depicts some of life’s greatest pleasures, and while it commemorates no particular event, it reflects and celebrates modern life and the new social realities of the late nineteenth century.

In developing his collection, Phillips wished to include the work of old masters who anticipated modern ideas. He strongly believed in the continuums of art and artists influencing their successors through the centuries. Phillips' goal was to assemble works that would resonate with one another, revealing visual harmonies that connected the historical masterworks with the art of his own time. In this regard, one can draw similarities between Duncan Phillips and the Gallery’s patron Seymour H. Knox.

THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION AT THE ALBRIGHT_KNOX ART GALLERY: TWO COLLECTIONS BUILT BY PASSIONATE COLLECTORS

While Duncan Phillips was building his own art collection in Washington, D.C., A. Conger Goodyear was amassing a collection of works that would ultimately come to be a significant part of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s permanent collection. Among other similarities, both collectors were instrumental in the establishment and Ärst years of The Museum of Modern Art and collected masterworks by the same artists only months apart.

Hosting an outstanding exhibition from The Phillips Collection has presented a wonderful opportunity to draw out some of the fascinating connections between two great collections of modern art. Gallery Curator Kenneth Wayne has selected and highlighted works throughout the Gallery’s permanent collection, which relate to works exhibited in Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. These works are highlighted with color and extended wall texts to make this additional information
available to visitors.

Among the many illuminating comparisons between works is one between Picasso’s La Toilette and The Blue Room, which were purchased only a year apart. La Toilette splendidly represents Picasso’s famous Rose period (1905-06), a more joyous and optimistic time in his life relative to his previous Blue Period (1901 – 04), when the artist focused on poor, socially marginalized people, which he painted in somber shades of blue. Drawn to the emotional intimacy of the work, Duncan Phillips purchased The Blue Room in 1927, ignoring Picasso’s later, more radical, Cubist works. Phillips wrote, "Ours is a succulent, sumptuous little picture. Enjoying its strange, heady color we cannot resist a sharp regret that he [Picasso] could not have worked for at least ten years in so rich a vein." This painting is one of the best examples in North America of Picasso’s Blue period.

Director Louis Grachos insists, "This is the finest exhibition to travel to the Gallery in its 141-year history, making a visit this summer to see The Phillips Collection and our permanent collection an incredible art-viewing experience."

This exhibition is organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Made possible, in Buffalo, through the generous support of .