richard phillips in conversation
with executive director peter doroshenko
What are you currently working on and how did this current focus come about?
I'm working on a group of paintings focused on images of the physical self isolated, paired with itself, and competing for attention. Unclothed, disengaged, and incongruently scaled from one another, the dynamic sets a strong corporeal realism against an intimate surreality. Erotic, solipsistic, and cut off from reason, the self is condemned to reproduce the indifference bound to the exposition of showing and display. The final contradiction is the painting itself, as it enlivens that which is inert and gives personhood to apparent emptiness.
Your work has many layers, it's just not figurative or abstract, has it always critiqued current visual information?
With my painting critique is as much an intrinsic material in the conception and staging of my work as the materials of their making. The conflating of subjects and genres continues to provide the opportunities to challenge and comment on the condition and reach of contemporary art.
Tintoretto, The Origin of the Milky Way c. 1577/1579, oil on canvas, The National Gallery, London
Tintoretto, Tarquin and Lucretia, c. 1578 /1580, oil on canvas,The Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute Purchase Fund, 1949
Tintoretto, The Wedding of Ariadne and Bacchus, 1578, oil on canvas, Sala dell’ Anticollegio Palazzo Ducale, Venice
How much do historical issues influence your thinking?
Historical issues influence my work both in the technical manifestation of my painting and the sourcing of imagery for specific works. For the current body of work I traveled to Venice in early January of 2019 to see the Tintoretto exhibition at the Doges Palace. It was important for me to stand in front of the many great works to experience their physical making which is plainly evident and so exciting. Most inspiring were the paintings of mythologies and conflict. Beginning with a long favorite of mine The Origin of the Milky Way moving toward Tarquinius and Lucretia and on to The Wedding of Ariadne and Bacchus each of these paintings surprise with compositional dynamics, deep chiaroscuro, and brilliant color. The magic of myth made real through the power of paint to carry multiple connotations simultaneously, amidst supernatural lighting effects creates an experience far beyond imagination.
Specific to these paintings I chose imagery from 1973-1975 a time of sexual awakening and liberation in society and early on in myself. By using painting methods far out of time (Venetian school) and applying them to imagery of my youth, and putting them into a contemporary critical dialogue, history, technique, and imagery are deployed to disrupt narratives and assumptions. What starts as pornographic, distorts and transgresses into secrecy and expression through the paintings' ability to be seen and felt simultaneously. The absorption of time, touch and sensitivity, breaks the realism of the Self Same.
What have you been reading or watching recently?
The most influential book I've read recently was recommended to me by a friend of mine, the curator Elisa R. Lynn. Agony of Eros by Byung-Chul Han published by MIT press. The author philosophically comes to grips with our present condition in such a stark way it's astonishing. In answer to the clarity of his diagnosis Byung-Chul Han writes: "To be able to think, one must first have been a friend, a lover. Without eros, thinking loses all vitality and turmoil, and becomes repetitive and reactive.”
Richard Phillips, To be titled, 2020, oil on linen.
Richard Phillips, To be titled, 2020, oil on linen.
Richard Phillips, Untitled (Self Beside), 2020, oil on linen
Richard Phillips, To be titled, 2020, oil on linen.
about richard phillips
Richard Phillips was born in 1962 in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He received his B.F.A. in 1984 from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and his M.F.A. in 1986 from Yale University of Art, Connecticut. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2000); Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany (2002); Paintings and Drawings, Le Consortium, Dijon (2004); Lindsay Lohan, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2012); and Negation of the Universe, Dallas Contemporary, Texas (2014). Public collections include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; Tate Modern, London; and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
His films Lindsay Lohan and Sasha Grey premiered at the 54th Biennale di Venezia in 2011. First Point premiered at Art Unlimited at Art Basel, Switzerland in June 2012.
Phillips currently lives and works in New York City.