Life abounds with rhythm and motion. Artists tap into the beats of the natural and human-made world, some using expressive brushwork to convey wild places and feelings while others search for order and pattern through precision. Comingling abstract and figurative elements, artists in this gallery infuse recognizable subject matter with emotional tenor—essential for Duncan Phillips, who felt “the greatest thing art can suggest is the rhythm of life itself. Rhythm is life with its reservoirs of impulse and energy and its waves of emotion.” (1924)
Charles Sheeler
American, 1883–1965
Skyscrapers
1922
Oil paint on canvas
The Phillips Collection.
Acquired 1926
© Estate of Charles Sheeler
In Skyscrapers, Charles Sheeler used sharply defined contours, non-atmospheric planes of color, and intense frontal light to convey a sense of monumentality. His careful compositions, based on photographs, elicit beauty from the stark reality of New York’s office buildings and the utilitarian aspects of industrial America. By emphasizing the geometry of these modern structures, Sheeler captured the streamlined grandeur of New York.
Milton Avery
American, 1885–1965
Black Sea
1959
Oil paint on canvas
The Phillips Collection
Acquired 1965
© 2023 Milton Avery Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Black Sea is one of Milton Avery’s most abstract paintings. In the 1950s, he began painting on large canvases, which gave his simplified forms and reduced palette greater visual and emotional weight. In this beach scene, a ripple of surf marks the boundary between the expanse of golden sand and an endless black sea.
Robert Motherwell
American, 1915–1991
Chi Ama, Crede
1962
Oil paint on canvas
The Phillips Collection.
Purchased by The Phillips Collection through funds donated by Special Director’s Discretionary Grant from the Judith Rothschild Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Gifford Phillips, The Chisholm Foundation, The Whitehead Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Laughlin Phillips, Mr. and Mrs. Marc E. Leland, and the Honorable Ann Winkelman Brown and Donald A. Brown, 1998; © 2023 Dedalus Foundation Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
© 2023 Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Kenzo Okada
American, born in Japan, 1902–1982
Number 2
1954
Oil paint on canvas
The Phillips Collection.
Acquired 1955
© Estate of Kenzo Okada
Kenzo Okada was already an accomplished painter and teacher in Japan before moving to New York in 1950, where he became the first Japanese American artist working in the abstract expressionist style to receive international acclaim. In the US, Okada’s artistic style changed from a representational mode to lyrical color abstractions that fused Western and Eastern aesthetics. His abstractions feature soft veils of color and the careful balancing of void against condensed weight. In works like Number 2, Okada’s soft earthy colors evoke the feeling of landscape, while his balance of ambiguous shapes and implied voids hints at rocks or other natural forms floating in an undefined space.
All Stars: American Artists from The Phillips Collection is organized by The Phillips Collection in collaboration with the Denver Art Museum.
Support is provided by the Tom Taplin Jr. and Ted Taplin Endowment, the Birnbaum Social Discourse Project, Ellen and Morris Susman, Lisë Gander and Andy Main, Mike Leprino Family Foundation, the Kristin and Charles Lohmiller Exhibitions Fund, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.
