William Phillips

William Phillips painted the 1960s American landscape like it was a quiet joke, think pink roads that vanish into nowhere and telephone wires that hum in the heat. He once told a friend he’d rather stare at a blank canvas than rush a painting, and you can see it; his edges melt and his colors stay just this side of real. If you like the way Hopper flirts with emptiness or Diebenkorn’s slanted light, try his “Landscape with pink,” a road that doesn’t go anywhere but feels like it should.