Société Anonyme

Yesterday, I went to The Phillips Collection with my mother to see their exhibit on the Société Anonyme. Since many of you may not be familiar with the Société Anonyme, here's some information form the exhibition program: "The Société Anonyme, Inc. was an organization founded in 1920 by the artists Katherine Dreier, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray as America's first 'experimental museum' for contemporary art. While diverse in their goals, the founders agreed that there was a dire need to counter the lack of appreciation of modern art in America and to nuture opportunities for its presentation through innovative exhibitions and related educational programs. They also believed it was important that the history of art be chronicaled not by historians or academics but by artists. The original gallery of the Société Anonyme at 19 East 47th Street in New York City was the site of scholarly porgrams and lighthearted Dada pranks, as well as the first one-person exhibitions in America of artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, and Paul Klee."

The exhibition included works by Drier, Duchamp, Man Ray, Kandinsky, Léger, Paul Klee, Brancusi, Joseph Stella, Mondrian, Kurt Schwitters and others, which had been exhibited at the Société Anonyme. It was a very nice exhibit, and the installation was quite good. It was set up in phases, which corresponded to the phases that the gallery went through before it closed in 1950. In the first room about the early days of the gallery, the frames are covered in doily paper. When I first saw it, I thought Ewww, that is in poor taste. And then I saw the board explaining that Marcel Duchamp did just that to the works in the first exhibition. I laughed at myself for being a tad elitest and then laughed because of course Duchamp would do that, it made perfect sense.

I think my favorite works exhibited were a set of three photograms (images made on photgraphic paper without the use of a camera) by Man Ray. He referred to them as Rayographs. They were all nice, but one of them featured the silohuete of a miniature wooden posable artist's model. Those of you who saw my final photo project last year will know how excited I was to see that. They also were very different from anything else on display, which set them apart for me. There were a number of lovely pieces by Kandinsky as well, which I really enjoyed.

We also got a chance to peak around the permanent collection for awhile before we got kicked out at 5. It was great since as many times as I've been to the Phillips, I haven't been in years and so much has changed. I believe the collection has grown, but there has also been a major rennovation, and the installation has changed a great deal. There is a very nice, although small Rothko room now that I really enjoyed.

And a tad on my obsession with Morris Louis: They only had one work by him, but it was quite different from any other I had seen, which made it exciting. It was simple, but beautiful. I would say it was like a toned down version of the veils. One large vertical field of blue, but in varying shades, with little distinction between different shades. I also found out recently that during the artDC festival next spring, there is going to be a collaborative exhibition across a number of DC galleries on the Washington Colorfield movement, called Colorfield.remix . I am obviously really looking forward to it, since I'm a tad obsessed with Colorfield right now, and Morris Louis was one of the movers and shakers (as it were) of the movement in DC. (Depending on who you talk to Colorfield is sometimes seen as a movement exclusive to Washington. It really depends on whether they include Frankenthaler or not.) So I'm sure come April, you will get to here much more about Morris Louis and Colorfield, but until then (or at least for now) art time is over my friends.