In the American Grain: Dove, Hartley, O'Keeffe, and Stieglitz
September 24, 2004 - January 02, 2005
"I feel that you will not only have to have a large group of Marins but
undoubtedly groups of Dove and O’Keeffe, maybe Hartley even, not to speak
of my own photographs if you really want your gallery to reflect a growth of
something which is typically American and not a reflection of France or Europe."
— Alfred Stieglitz to Duncan Phillips, Dec. 11, 1926
Building upon the strengths of The Phillips Collection’s permanent collection,
this exhibition highlights the history of Duncan Phillips’s acquisition
of works by the Stieglitz circle and the profound aesthetic unity of the selections
he made. It also explores Stieglitz’s role in the careers of Arthur Dove,
Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Emerging from the
shadow of European modernism, each developed an independent vision and mature
style in America—something few of their generation were able to accomplish.
This exhibition lookd at the ideas and subjects they shared. Moreover, it examined
a significant aspect of 20th-century American landscape painting in light of
the issues of aesthetics and patronage facing America’s modernists at
the beginning of this century.
From 1926 to 1946, the Stieglitz circle claimed the lion’s share of Phillips’ commitment
to living American artists. Phillips acquired the world’s largest and
most representative group of works by Arthur Dove. He also collected representative
examples of every aspect of John Marin’s oeuvre, as well as signal works
by Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and photographs by Alfred Stieglitz
himself. Together the works comprise an aesthetically cohesive unit—paintings,
drawings, and photographs, almost 100 in all. Adding to the richness of these
holdings is the commentary between Phillips, Stieglitz, and his artists recounted
in over 300 hundred letters contained in Duncan Phillips’ papers and
preserved in The Phillips Collection’s Archives and the Archives of American
Art, some of which will be on view in the exhibition.