Viewing page 1 of 21

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

PHILLIPS MEMORIAL GALLERY
WASHINGTON, D. C.

GALLERY: 1600 TWENTY FIRST STREET
OFFICE: 1218 CONNECTICUT AVENUE  March 13, 1926

Mr. Arthur G. Dove,
c/o Mr. Alfred Stieglitz,
Room 303, 489 Park Avenue, New York.

Dear Mr. Dove:

We are getting a lot of pleasure out of the little "Waterfall" and the "Golden Storm". It is about the latter that I am writing this note. Although I particularly like the inspiration you had of combining the incandescence or gold, with the granulation of the wood to which the gold has been applied, nevertheless I am concerned about the permanence of the beautiful effect you have produced. In other words, I fear that the gold bronze which seems to be unprotected by varnish from the gasses in the air, will gradually darken to such an extent that the design will be seriously impaired. Of course a renewed application of the gold bronze would renew the lustre and iridescence but it should be done always by the artist himself and we would not care to trouble you often in the matter. I am writing to ask you if you have done anything to protect this fascinating picture. Of course I realize that varnish would ruin the effect but I wonder if you know of something which would give the bronze a protective coating without destroying the mat quality of the wood. I hope that you will always think of the future, of what you create in posterity and not fall into the error of your spiritual ancestor, Albert P. Ryder, who was too careless as to the impermanence of his paint. The great cracks and fissures through his magical surfaces trouble me very much. I hope also that you will pant many more cosmic things like the "Golden Storm" and the "Waterfall". Patterns are all very well and ingenious arrangements of different materials, but when there is a hint of great things going on in the mind of the artist, and of his consciousness of the rhythm of the universe, abstract art ceases to be an amusement for the aesthete and becomes a divine activity.

Sincerely yours
Duncan Phillips
DP.E