Building upon the strengths of The Phillips Collection�s (Washington, D.C.) permanent collection, In the American Grain: Dove, Hartley, Marin, O�Keeffe, and Stieglitz, will highlight the history of famed collector Duncan Phillips�s acquisition of works by the Stieglitz circle artists and the profound aesthetic unity of the selections he made. The exhibition, which will explore not only the work of these inventive artists, but also the relationship between them and museum founder Duncan Phillips, will open at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, on September 24, 2004 and will be on view through January 2, 2005. The exhibition is part of an important national tour that provides a wonderful opportunity to share these works with audiences across the country.

�A large part of our mission is to place Georgia O�Keeffe within a historical context, and to show her work alongside that of her contemporaries,� said George G. King, director of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. �This exhibition provides a perfect opportunity to highlight O�Keeffe in this manner and to exhibit some of the best works that were being created by artists of the Stieglitz circle.�

According to O�Keeffe Museum curator Barbara Buhler Lynes, �This is a terrific exhibition in that it not only reveals the innovative qualities of works by Dove, Hartley, Marin, O�Keeffe, but also how each artist successfully realized the goal they shared with Stieglitz�that of creating an American art whose significance would be considered equal in importance to that of their European contemporaries.� The exhibition also sheds lights on Stieglitz�s role in shaping the careers of these modernist artists as well as on the challenges each faced with respect to issues of aesthetics and patronage at the beginning of the 20th century.

Duncan Phillips first visited Stieglitz�s gallery in January 1926. He came to see an exhibition of the work of Dove and went away with three paintings: one by Dove and two by O�Keeffe. In the flurry of correspondence that finalized the arrangements for paying for the paintings and shipping them to Washington, Stieglitz wasted no time in underscoring the idea that would united them for the next 20 years: �What naturally interested me most is your growing interest in the gallant experiment of the living American modernists.�

From 1926�46, Phillips acquired the world�s largest and most representative group of works by Dove. He also collected characteristic examples of every aspect of Marin�s development, and signal works by O�Keeffe, Hartley and Steiglitz. Stieglitz and his artists shared an aesthetic impulse that led them to work from experiences in nature. At a time when European Modernism claimed the attention and patronage of most of the public, these artists attempted to define an independent American art form, invoking mentors from the American past, such as Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman and Ryder.

This exhibition has been organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

ABOUT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION

The Phillips Collection, founded in 1921, is America�s first museum of modern art. Its permanent collection contains over 2,400 works by Impressionist and 20th-century modern artists, as well as Europeans such as Renoir, Bonnard, Matisse, Monet, Degas, C�zanne, Picasso, Braque and Klee, and Americans such as O�Keeffe, Lawrence, Dove, Avery, Diebenkorn and Rothko. Housed in the unique setting of the founder�s 1897 Georgian Revival home in Washington�s Dupont Circle neighborhood, The Phillips Collection is known for providing visitors with an intimate and personal connection with some of the world�s finest paintings of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Guided by the vision of its founder--to bring people together with great works of art--The Phillips Collection is preparing to undergo an expansion that will add gallery space, improved visitor services, and a Center for Studies in Modern Art. Rather than remove its European Masterworks from public view during this time, The Phillips Collection is sharing them with audiences across the country. A traveling exhibition of 50 of these great works of art, including the beloved Luncheon of the Boating Party, has begun its tour to five American museums, where it is already enjoying great success and critical acclaim. While the new building is under construction, the main Phillips house will remain open, presenting a series of special exhibitions and selections from its permanent collection. The Phillips Collection organizes numerous traveling exhibitions that expand scholarship and, combined with an active lending program, make its works available to audiences throughout the world. The Phillips Collection is a privately supported, non-government institution.

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The exhibition will be discussed in three lectures presented by the Georgia O�Keeffe Museum:

Live and Learn: The Modernist Cause in 1920s America Sylvia Yount, Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia Sunday, September 26, 4:30 PM St. Francis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 107 West Palace Avenue $5, Members free. Reservations: 505.946.1039.

A Heart that Fights the World Elizabeth Hutton Turner, Senior Curator of The Phillips Collection Thursday, October 21, 7 PM St. Francis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 107 West Palace Avenue $5, Members free. Reservations: 505.946.1039.

Collectors� Roundtable Moderated by George G. King, Director of the Georgia O�Keeffe Museum. Sunday, November 21, 2 � 4 PM St. Francis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 107 West Palace Avenue. $10, Members $8. Reservations: 505.946.1039.

Special Event:

Book Reading and Signing Sep 29th, 2004, 6 pm Reading and Book Signing The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Free, at the Museum Reservations 505.946.1039

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Media Contact: Linda Milanesi +1 (505) 946 1050 lindam@okeeffemuseum.org