The Eye of Duncan Phillips: A Collection in the Making

This book is both a survey of the major European and American works in The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and a guide to the museum's holdings and significance. A study of the history of taste in twentieth-century America, it documents the evolution of modernism as well as the pivotal role played by Duncan Phillips (1886-1966) as a critic and collector.

Like the meandering edifice that houses the Phillips Collection, the book is meant to be dipped into and out of for pleasure and illumination. . . . [There are many] surprises in store for you at the comfortable as an old shoe but never shopworn Phillips, where, for those who have already fallen in love with the collection, Renoir to Rothko can feel both reassuringly familiar and radically fresh.

More than simply a catalog to the holdings of the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, this massive book offers a virtual tour of Modernism as observed by the museum's founder, Duncan Phillips (1886-1966). Introductory essays give an overview of the man behind the insitution. Phillips was an astute and opinionated critic as well as collector, and the analysis of his changing opinions on the art of his day are of considerably more significance than the sort of hagiographic stuff one usually finds in collectors' catalogs. At the end of the book are several appendixes offering a wealth of data for researchers on Phillips's writings and shows at the collection as well as copious notes. But the vast center of the book--nearly 600 pages--is filled with an inventively organized catalog of the collection, or at least several hundred important pieces from it. Eleven chapters open with topical essays (from "Sources of Modernism" to "Washington and Baltimore Artists"), which are followed by subchapters offering biographical history, pictorial analysis, and plates of works by artists relevant to the period and place in question. The writing throughout is scholarly but completely lucid. A model work, this is highly recommended for all but small public libraries.
-Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.