Matt Phillips, Untitled, 1992, collage
monotype, 30 x 22 in., Gift of the artist, 2002.9. Photo credit:
Charles Barry
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Matt Phillips
Untitled, 1992
Nationally recognized artist Matt Phillips is widely respected as one of the most important innovators in the medium of monotype. Writing in ArtNews in 1979, Barry Walker lauded, “Phillips has been responsible, perhaps more than anyone else, for the prominence of monotype today.” Essentially a self-trained artist, Phillips created his first monotypes in 1959 after seeing a Maurice Prendergast monotype at the Barnes Foundation in Marion, Pennsylvania. Inspired, he started producing monotypes by painting on glass and then transferring his images onto paper by rubbing over their surface with the back of a spoon. From this period, Phillips has continued to be an important force in the revival of the medium of the monotype: both through his own work and through the exhibitions on the medium he has organized.
Phillips’ most recent work involves a unique combination of collage and monotype. For works like this one, he has created a collage with boldly colored paper and then printed directly on it. The resulting works are richly textured and formally complex. This fine example of Phillip’s collage monotypes joins nine other Phillips works on paper already in the de Saisset Museum’s permanent collection.
Matt Phillips was educated at the Barnes Foundation and received his M.A. from the University of Chicago. His work has been featured in one-person exhibitions at Vassar College and the Princeton Gallery of Fine Art and group exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Phillips’ work is included in numerous important museum collections around the country, including the Smithsonian Institution, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The de Saisset Museum is proud to be presenting a solo exhibition of his work in the Fall of 2004.
Karen Kienzle
Curator of Exhibits and Collections