Image of “Quiet Lovers” by Richard Pousette-Dart, courtesy The Phillips Collection

Written by DCist contributor Pat Padua

Summer is a time for white linen and The Phillips Collection provides just that with an exhibit of Richard Pousette-Dart’s Predominantly White Paintings. The descriptive title comes from a 1955 exhibit which collected 25 of these paintings at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York. The Phillips has recreated this exhibit with 23 paintings and other works on paper, as well as sculptures that have not been on public view in more than fifty years.

Phillips director Dorothy Kosinski paints Poussette-Dart as one of the more uplifting of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists. A contemporary of Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning, Poussette-Dart may not be as celebrated as either, but you can see the common ground. The rough textures of Chavall (1951) is reminiscent of Pollock, but the clearly structured elements reveal an approach to composition nothing like the dynamic dripper.

Though predominantly white indeed, underpainted colors peek through. Radiance No. 5 is mottled in bright reds that, from a distance, look like bloody scrapes. The magenta base of White Garden Gate No. 6 works with its strong lines to give it an almost violent tone.

Many of these paintings feature heavy use of graphite, which bring to mind another of his contemporaries, Cy Twombly. Pousstte-Dart favors rough geometry in contrast to Twombly’s free-form lines. What must have been a scratchy, visceral process akin to graphomania results in a palpable tension, particularly with the more aggressive lines of White Stillness or The Serpent. But the approach can also evoke an airy, hairy grace, as in the stunning White Cathedral.