Intimate Museum of Modern Art · From Renoir to Rothko

The Phillips Collection in Washington brings together impressionist, post-impressionist and modern masterpieces in a presentation designed as a direct encounter with the works.

Opened to the public in 1921 in Washington, the Phillips Collection is often presented as the first American museum dedicated to modern art. Duncan Phillips defends a non-linear reading where works interact beyond schools. Turner gives A Scene on the English Coast a moving atmosphere of sky, sea and light. Degas observes The Rehearsal at the Foyer of Dance with framing that transforms the exercise into a study of the body and space. THE Renoir Boaters' Lunch brings together collective portrait, outdoors and modern life in a luminous composition that has become emblematic of the museum. Van Gogh, with Wheat Field in Auvers with house, intensifies the landscape with color and rhythm of the touch. The whole favors sensitive continuity between the artists. The "Phillips Collection" selection notably compares A Scene on the English Coast - JMW Turner and La Répétition au foyer de la danse - Edgar Degas. His reading favors drawing.

The Phillips Collection shows that art history can be understood less as a series of boxes than as a conversation between colors, shapes and sensitivities.