Matt Phillips (1928–2017)
“He often described himself as a ‘painter-poet,’” said his youngest daughter Miriam Phillips. “He was also a magician and a world traveler. He loved color and markets and would always carry sketchbooks and pencils with him.” When he returned from a trip, he’d fill in these sketches in watercolor. Then he would use a sketch as a study to paint a picture on a copper plate. Finally, the image was pressed onto rice paper to create the finished artwork.
“My one concession to a mechanical tool is an etching press,” he told The Chronicle in 2002. “I don't have a computer or email. I stand by the No. 2 pencil. It has served me well.”
For 20 years, Phillips has shown his work at Meyerovich Gallery in San Francisco’s Union Square. The most recent exhibition of his work was “Matt Phillips: I Am Not Done With My Changes,” in the fall of 2012.
He is survived by three of his children, Kate Phillips, a realtor and musician in Oakland, California; Miriam Phillips, a dance professor at the University of Maryland; and Joshua Phillips, a journalist in New York City. He is also survived by his longtime partner, Elizabeth Chapman, a poet in Palo Alto. His third daughter, Elizabeth Phillips, a renowned dealer of avant-garde artist books, passed away in 2015.
We understand that a memorial service date is pending. Friends, colleagues, and former students who would like to contact a member of Matt's family may be in touch with the Office of Alumni/ae Affairs. Or they can contact Kate Phillips directly at [email protected].
REMEMBRANCES
Stuart Stritzler-Levine, Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Dean of the CollegeSome very few will recall and even fewer will have had direct contact and experience with the now mainly departed and even gone faculty of the studio art department. They worked and taught over in the now greatly expanded and renovated and person renewed Fisher Art Center. It was once called the Procter Art Center and some may recall when there was a lecture space in the building that contained I would think a hundred seats and faculty meetings were held there. The passing of Matt Phillips brought back very many memories of past days and one must admit that very soon after thinking about writing about the past one comes to understand that balanced memory and judgment must always rule the domain of recall. Anecdote and particulars of the past require fair minded balance. I should like to write about Matt P{hillips with whom I shared many days and events and times of great loft and not so easy as well.
I believe that Matt preceded me by very few months at Bard. He was hired by President Kline to build on the promise of dean Tewksbury to fully establish an art department that connected itself to our liberal arts college in asubstantial manner. Not as an appendage but well integrated into academic life. Matt joined the likes of William Driver our resident drama teacher/director and Bill Sleeper and a few others in what was then called the division of AMDD. To which was added F and P - Film and Photography and Adolfas Mekas and Doug Baz. Matt would then bring five or six or so strong and forceful members to our resultant art faculty. When I became the dean in 1979 all were in place. Matt was the chair of this group and they worked to be at or very close to the center of our artistic and academic life. I suppose in retrospect it was for him like riding a complicated stallion. The vibrancy of artistic production emanated from the group and Matt was forever the controlling or hoped for controlling force that tempered a never quiescent cadre. Ideas of artistic production along with associated temperament was never much quiet. Ideas flourished with some tempest often the accompaniment. But beyond all this Matt was with out doubt a consummate artist who loved his labors and his studio and his place among us. The monotype was his painterly method and as President Botstein pointed out in his recent note to our community Matt was widely recognized as a master in this printmaking technique. I recall learning that this was not a simplex matter as one could not easily control the final image and such could not easily be reproduced with ordinary printing technique.
Matt brought special and particular individuals to his and our faculty and he never ceased in his wish for more recognition of the group. And he went very much further and I recall to this day his and his colleagues investment of time and will to bring a series of Avery professors to campus. They represented the currency of the Art Scene of the day and were luminaries. He did not fear the comparisons which they brought with them. Matt retired at an age appropriate time to continue, from all we heard about over the years, an active and productive life in California.
Decanal life between 1980 and 87 was never simple when one wandered down the hill to old Procter nor even when one just allowed the sound of tempest to invade the second floor of Ludlow. But complexity also brought affection and attachment. I could and would say in honest retrospect that I loved the time and experience of it all in my life at Bard. Few members of the originals group remain in now retirement but I for one recall well them all.
Michael Patrick Hearn '72
Although I never studied with him, I remember Matt Phillips vividly from my days at Bard when I took Bernard Greenwald's Printmaking Course. Sunday mornings I left open for my class work and Mr. Phillips was always there in the Print Room. It was usually just the two of us working away on our monotypes. He often came over to see what I was doing and to offer advice and criticism—and even praise. I am sure he hadn't a clue who I was as I was not an Art Major. Yet he was always encouraging and generous with his expertise. For that I will always be grateful.
By strange coincidence I got to know his daughter Elizabeth long after I had left Bard. She quickly became one of the most admired dealers in livres d'artist in the country. We knew many of the same people and I eventually cataloged some of her stock and worked the book fairs with her. We shared especially our love of the Russian avant garde that baffled so many of our colleagues. She always kept me informed of what her father was doing. She was thoroughly knowledgeable in her field and had a lovely sense of humor that came in handy through the ups and downs of the business. I cannot comprehend how hard it must be for the family to lose a sister and now their father so soon after.
James Sullivan
One April day, Matt Phillips showed up at my studio to interview me for a job at Bard College. That was fifty-one years ago and the beginning of a friendship with the man who would change my life. It started with a card trick, some arm wrestling and an introduction to Peugeots, pipes and his beloved monotypes. In the following years Matt hired my colleagues, all serious artists who cared about teaching, the result being the formation of one of the leading art departments in the country. Many graduates went on to top graduate schools and successful careers as artists. Matt was the sole progenitor of this sometimes fractious group of pointedly individual artists as the driver of a propulsive, excitable engine of impulses and ideas and had at times to tap the brakes or stomp on the clutch to get everything moving together.
I spoke with Matt a week before he died to set up his annual trip to New York in May to see art shows. I so wish I could keep that date. The brevity of my words does not represent a poverty in my esteem for Matt. I would like to say to Kate, Miriam and Josh that your father, the artist, the magician and my good friend was a vital part of my life and I will never forget him. I would want somehow for him to know that his life was a fine success.
Post Date: 03-01-2017