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RIFFS and RELATIONS African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition FEBRUARY 29, 2020-JANUARY 3, 2021

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RIFFS and RELATIONS African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition FEBRUARY 29, 2020-JANUARY 3, 2021 RIFFS AND RELATIONS African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition FEBRUARY 29, 2020-JANUARY 3, 2021 PRESS RELEASE PRESS IMAGES CHECKLIST WALL TEXT PUBLIC PROGRAMS UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS OCTOBER 26, 2019-January 26, 2020 21st and Q, NW PhillipsCollection.org UPDATED RELEASE Media Contacts: October 8, 2020 Hayley Barton, 202.387.2151 x235 [email protected] Third Eye Tyler Mahowald, 212.355.9099 x311 [email protected] Online Press Room: www.phillipscollection.org/press THE PHILLIPS PRESENTS RIFFS AND RELATIONS: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition WASHINGTON—The Phillips Collection is pleased to announce Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, a pioneering exhibition expanding the narrative of modern art in America by exploring the rich and complex history of 20th– and 21st–century African American artists and their responses to European modernism. Organized by guest curator Dr. Adrienne L. Childs and The Phillips Collection, Riffs and Relations will be on view exclusively at The Phillips Collection from February 29, 2020–January 3, 2021. “We are proud to feature this groundbreaking exhibition at The Phillips Collection, the first museum of modern art in America. Through his support of living artists, our founder Duncan Phillips helped to broaden and shape discussions on modern art by displaying works from various times and places to tell a more comprehensive story,” says Dr. Dorothy Kosinski, Vradenburg Director and CEO of The Phillips Collection. Page 2—Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, February 29, 2020–January 3, 2021 Modern European art has served as a guidepost for many African American artists. Riffs and Relations will explore how blackness has often been conceived through the lens of international connections and complex dialogues. The contributions of 53 artists will be on view including Romare Bearden, Robert Colescott, Renee Cox, Leonardo Drew, Hank Willis Thomas, Wangechi Mutu, and more, shown alongside pieces by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and other European modernists. The 72 works include paintings, photographs, prints, mixed media, and sculpture drawn from private and public collections in the US and Europe. This assembly of compelling objects addresses themes including representations of the female body, modernist “primitivism,” cubism, landscape, and abstraction. In their efforts to represent African American life and history, artists like Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, and Hale Woodroff drew inspiration from European traditions and iconography. Others, including Romare Bearden and Robert Colescott, used imagery to question and challenge the supposed authority of European art. Emma Amos and Faith Ringgold have addressed the female form as a site of contention in the history of art, particularly at the hands of Matisse and Picasso. Felrath Hines, Norman Lewis, Martin Puryear, Barbara Chase-Riboud, and Alma Thomas forged new territories as they interrogated abstraction. Many of these artists sought out aesthetics and ideological approaches that were not limited by the restrictive politics of both whiteness and blackness in America. “This exhibition shows the ways in which many African American artists draw on the substance of European art history to tell their own stories. By exploring this terrain, we hope to enhance the narrative of modern and contemporary art in America by presenting the compelling works born of these riffs and relations,” says Dr. Adrienne L. Childs, guest curator. The continued relevance of these exchanges between African American artists and European modernism resides in the critical and popular reception of contemporary artists, and the exhibition will debut three new engagements. Baltimore painter Mequitta Ahuja responds to Picasso's pivotal Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), Los Angeles collage artist Janet Taylor Pickett refashions Matisse's Interior with Egyptian Curtain (1948) from the Phillips's permanent collection, and internationally acclaimed photographer Ayana V. Jackson riffs on a source for Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass (1863). These artworks and others by Titus Kaphar, Mickalene Thomas, and John Edmonds are emblematic of contemporary practice in American art and will influence generations to find new ways of representing the complexities of black identities. CATALOGUE The Phillips Collection has published a 208-page illustrated exhibition catalogue authored by Adrienne L. Childs (Associate of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University) and with contributions by Renée Maurer (Associate Curator, The Phillips Collection) and Valerie Cassel Oliver (Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts). The catalogue, published by Rizzoli Electra, also includes several artist’s statements. EXHIBITION CREDITS The exhibition is organized by The Phillips Collection with guest curator Dr. Adrienne L. Childs. With lead support provided by The Frauke and Willem de Looper Charitable Fund, Altria Group, and The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts. Page 3—Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, February 29, 2020–January 3, 2021 Brought to you by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, The Robert Lehman Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Eric Richter and Charles Schoener Amanda and Earl W. Stafford, and George Vradenburg and the Vradenburg Foundation. In-kind contributions provided by IMAGE GALLERY High-resolution press images are available upon request. Please contact [email protected] or 202.387.2151 x235. ABOUT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art, was founded in 1921. The museum houses one of the world’s most distinguished Impressionist and American modern art collections, and continues to grow its collection with important contemporary voices. Its distinctive building combines extensive new galleries with the former home of its founder, Duncan Phillips. The Phillips’s impact spreads nationally and internationally through its diverse and experimental special exhibitions and events, including its award-winning education programs for educators, students, and adults; dynamic Phillips Music series; and popular meditation and Phillips after 5 events. The museum contributes to global dialogues with events like Conversations with Artists and Artists of Conscience. The Phillips Collection values its community partnerships with the University of Maryland—the museum’s nexus for scholarly exchange and interdisciplinary collaborations—and THEARC—the museum’s satellite campus in Southeast DC. The Phillips Collection is a private, non-government museum, supported primarily by donations. IMAGE: Hank Willis Thomas, Icarus, 2016, Quilt, 56 1/2 x 85 1/4 X 2 in. © Hank Willis Thomas. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York List of Artists Included: Mequitta Ahuja Charles Alston Emma Amos Romare Bearden Sanford Biggers Georges Braque Moe Brooker Henri Cartier-Bresson Elizabeth Catlett Barbara Chase-Riboud Robert Colescott Harold Cousins Renee Cox Beauford Delaney Aaron Douglas Page 4—Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, February 29, 2020–January 3, 2021 Leonardo Drew David C. Driskell John Edmonds Ellen Gallager Felrath Hines Ayana V. Jackson Jennie C. Jones Loïs Mailou Jones William H. Johnson Wassily Kandisky Titus Kaphar Wifredo Lam Jacob Lawrence Norman Lewis Henri Matisse Sam Middleton Piet Mondrian Claude Monet Wangechi Mutu Pablo Picasso Janet Taylor Pickett Martin Puryear Winold Reiss Faith Ringgold Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Chaïm Soutine Frank Stewart Henry Ossawa Tanner Alma Thomas Hank Willis Thomas Mickalene Thomas Bob Thompson Maurice Utrillo Vincent van Gogh Carrie Mae Weems James Lesesne Wells Hale Woodruff Ossip Zadkine # # # PRESS IMAGES Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition February 29, 2020–January 3, 2021 To request access to images: please call 202.387.2151 x235 or e-mail [email protected]. Please note: Permission to reproduce these images is granted only for publicity in connection with this exhibition. With all reproductions, please include the full credit information for each image. Images may not be cropped, printed over, or altered. Mequitta Ahuja Xpect 2018 Oil on canvas 84 x 72 in. Collection of the artist Sanford Biggers Negerplastik 2016 Repurposed antique quilt, cotton fabric fragments, tar, and glitter 81 × 76 3/4 in. Courtesy of Massimo De Carlo, Milan/London/Hong Kong, Photo: Todd-White Art Photography Georges Braque Still Life with Grapes and Clarinet 1927 Oil on canvas 21 1/4 x 28 3/4 in. © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1929 Moe Brooker The Eyes have it 1991 Pastel, watercolor, and spray paint on paper 41 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, The Harold A. and Ann R. Sorgenti Collection of Contemporary African American Art Page 2—Press Images: Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition Elizabeth Catlett Ife 2002 Mahogany 19 1/2 x 18 x 38 in. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., by exchange, in honor of Andrew S. Fine in recognition of his outstanding service as a Museum Trustee and as Board
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