He was born to privilege and sought the world of art. She lived at the
center of that world-a working artist encouraged by the famous artists
in her extended family. Together, Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker
Phillips founded The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the first
museum of modern art in America. It opened in the grand Phillips family
home in 1921, eight years before New York City's Museum of Modern Art
and only a few weeks after they wed.
Duncan took the lead in developing the collection and showcasing it.
Marjorie kept space and time to paint. Duncan considered Marjorie a
partner in the museum even though she was not directly involved in all
purchasing and presentation decisions. To him, her influence was
omnipresent. Although Duncan's writings on artists and art history were
widely published, he chose not to provide much instruction for visitors
to the museum. Instead, he combined signature methods of displaying art
which live on at The Phillips Collection. Phillips had viewers in mind
when he hung American art with European art-or art of the past with
modern art, and he frequently rearranged works to stimulate fresh
encounters.
With unfettered access to archival material, author Pamela Carter-Birken
argues that The Phillips Collection's relevancy comes from Duncan
Phillips's commitment to providing optimal conditions for personal
exploration of art. In-depth collecting of certain artists was one of
Phillips's methods of encouraging independent thinking in viewers.
Paintings by Pierre Bonnard, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Marin,
Jacob Lawrence, and Mark Rothko provide testament to the power of
America's first museum of modern art.
