“Degas to Diebenkorn: The Phillips Collects”

By Susan Davidson

Phillips Collection

1600 21st Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202.387.2151

Nearby Metro Stops:

Dupont Circle

Wheelchair Accessible:

Yes

Kid Friendly:

Yes

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This exhibition is an eclectic array of art acquired by the museum over the last decade under outgoing director Jay Gates. The theme of the show, closing May 25, is that adding to the collection is ongoing. Rather than a thematic display of art, such as the recent Phillips show “Impressionists by the Sea,” the works assembled here fill in blanks—paintings the curators wanted to add to the Phillips’s permanent collection.

Like all gifts from friends, not all hit the mark. Most welcome are Gustave Caillebotte’s “Small Branch of the Seine,” showing the effects of light on the river’s greens and blues; Lyonel Feininger’s geometric, earth-colored cityscapes; Paul Klee’s “The Witch With the Comb,” a painting of a sorceress dressed as a flapper with arrows for hands; and Howard Hodgkin’s “Torso,” painted with vibrant reds, greens, blues, and oranges that go beyond the canvas to cover the frame. There’s bold color, too, in Jacob Lawrence’s moving “Going Home,” a view through a train window of African-American laborers heading north to seek work. It’s a kind of promo for an upcoming Phillips show in May devoted to Lawrence.