A Modern Vision: European Masterworks from The Phillips Collection

A message from MAM: The health and safety of the Milwaukee community is our highest priority. Out of respect for the heightened concern around the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Museum has decided to close to the public, with a tentative open date of April 7. Museum events through Tuesday, April 14, are canceled. 

press release: Iconic paintings by some of the most famous modern European artists—including Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso—will be showcased in a new exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. 

Opening Nov. 15, 2019, A Modern Vision: European Masterworks from The Phillips Collection will feature 50 paintings by towering figures of modernism like Édouard Manet, Gustave Caillebotte, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Pierre Bonnard, Wassily Kandinsky, Amedeo Modigliani, and Pablo Picasso. The collection of paintings reflects the vision of Duncan Phillips, the founder of The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., America’s first museum of modern art. 

“The Phillips Collection is one of those unique institutions, with a collection that was groundbreaking in its day, and is full of singular paintings that exemplify the very best of each artist that Duncan Phillips collected,” said Tanya Paul, Isabel and Alfred Bader Curator of European Art, Milwaukee Art Museum. “At the same time, the collection is deeply personal, not only because it is Phillips’s own vision of modernism, but also because it retains an intimacy that derives from its presentation in the childhood home of its collector.”

Upon starting the institution, Phillips set for himself the task of defining modern art and its origins, starting with 19th-century sources and collecting across its developments through the years. He fostered close relationships with young artists and was one of the earliest figures to introduce modern art to the United States. 

“Art offers two great gifts of emotion—the emotion of recognition and the emotion of escape. Both take us out of the boundaries of self,” said Duncan Phillips. 

The Phillips Collection, along with other notable collections formed by individuals—including the Milwaukee Art Museum’s own Bradley Collection—has helped shape how Americans view and understand the development of modernism. Additional materials will allow visitors to explore the connections between The Phillips Collection and the collection of Peg Bradley, an influential local collector, whose gifts helped form the backbone of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s modern art collection. 

“Whether someone has already fallen in love with The Phillips Collection or is excited to see paintings by van Gogh and Cézanne, as well as additional works in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s collection by Kandinsky, Picasso and Monet, this exhibition’s visit is a gift to Milwaukee’s art lovers,” said Amanda C. Peterson, Senior Director, Audience Engagement, Milwaukee Art Museum. “With the paintings, the artists, the events around the exhibition, and the stories around the collectors, we know this is an exhibition our visitors will love.”

An accompanying catalogue, Master Paintings from The Phillips Collection, will be available for purchase from the Museum Store.

A Modern Vision: European Masterworks from The Phillips Collection is organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.

This exhibition is also supported by Presenting Sponsor Johnson Financial Group; Leadership Sponsor Wendy Sleight; Supporting Sponsors Kenneth R. Treis and Four-Four Foundation; and Contributing Sponsors Sotheby’s and Suzy B. Ettinger Foundation. 

Exhibitions are made possible by the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Visionaries Debbie and Mark Attanasio, Donna and Donald Baumgartner, John and Murph Burke, Sheldon and Marianne Lubar, Joel and Caran Quadracci, Sue and Bud Selig and Jeff Yabuki and the Yabuki Family Foundation.