The Duncan Phillips Lectures are given by distinguished artists, historians, and critics, whose presentations cover a broad range of aesthetic concerns. The lecture series was started in 1987 by Laughlin Phillips (director of the museum from 1972 to 1992) in honor of his father, Duncan Phillips, the founder of The Phillips Collection.

November 2, 2012
Rick Moody
Keynote to the International Forum weekend

May 17, 2012
Gary Tinterow
“Private Collections, Public Institutions: A Case Study of the Metropolitan Museum of Art”

November 11, 2011
Penelope Curtis
Penelope Curtis on Tate Britain
Keynote to the International Forum weekend

March 17, 2011
Peter Doig
“Peter Doig on his work”
Special installation–One on One: Peter Doig/Georges Braque

October 3, 2010         
Alfredo Jaar
“Alfredo Jaar on his work”
Keynote to the International Forum weekend

October 9, 2009         
Adam Gopnik
“Van Gogh’s Ear and the World’s Attention”
Keynote to the International Forum weekend

July 16, 2009   
Eric Fischl
“The Death of Painting”

October 16, 2008       
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
“Over the River: Two Works in Progress”

May 15, 2008  
Kerry James Marshall   
“Kerry James Marshall on his work”

December 6, 2007      
Robert Storr
“The Modern Museum and the Challenge of ‘Post-modern’ Art”

April 11, 2007 
Ann Hamilton

February 21, 2007       
June Leaf

April 26, 2006 
Jed Perl
“Authority and Freedom: Toward a Theory of Artistic Experience”

February 22, 2006       
Richard Thomson
“Renegotiating Narrative in the 1890s: Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vallotton, Vuillard”

October 18, 2005       
Sean Scully      

March 9, 2005 
Terry Teachout           
“Multiple Modernisms: What a Novice Collector Learned From Duncan Phillips

October 20, 2004       
Raymond D. Nasher
“Modern Sculpture in an Urban Environment: The Nasher Sculpture Center”

May 19, 2004  
Simon Schama
“British Land Art”

March 31, 2004           
David Bates

March 6, 2002 
Ned Rifkin
“A Curatorial Work in Progress: Ten Years of Conceiving an Exhibition”

May 22, 2002  
Howard Hodgkin

November 7, 2001      
Douglas Druick
“Still Life, the Sunflower, and the Studio of the South”

May 16, 2001  
Elizabeth Murray

April 18, 2001 
Dorothy M. Kosinski
“Our Narratives of Modern Art”

November 15, 2000    
Hilton Kramer
“Minimalism as History”

May 3, 2000    
Malcolm Morley, artist 
“Paintings with Objects”

March 29, 2000           
Dore Ashton   
“Has the Center Held?”

November 17, 1999    
Arlette Sérullaz
“Chopin and Delacroix”

April 28, 1999 
Bill Viola, artist
“Viola on Viola”

March 17, 1999           
Adam Gopnik
“A Wild Exactitude:  The Continuity of American Art”

November 5, 1998      
George Shackelford
“The Mind and the Eye of Impressionism:  Edgar Degas and Claude Monet”

May 13, 1998  
Deborah Butterfield
“Butterfield: Horses”

February 11, 1998       
John Szarkowski
“Stieglitz at his Best”

November 13, 1997    
Wanda Corn
“Why Don’t We Laugh at Art?”

April 16, 1997 
Joel Meyerowitz
“Re: Vision; Tradition and Contemporary Photographic Values”

March 12, 1997           
Jack Flam
“Matisse and the Language of Signs”

November 20, 1996    
Richard R. Brettell
“The Seine: Its Image in French Writing and Painting in the Age of Impressionism (or Leisure and Lust along the Seine)”

May 8, 1996    
Martin Puryear

March 7, 1996 
Paul Goldberger
“Is There Still a Reason for Cities?”

November 6, 1995      
Eugenia Parry Janis
“Dark Object: A Crime Album and Its Stories”

May 10, 1995
Vicki Goldberg 
“Margaret Bourke-White, Modernism and the Modern Photographer”           

March 8, 1995
John Richardson  
“Seated Man, Seated Woman: Decoding Picasso’s work in World War I”                     

November 1, 1994
Susan Rothenberg 
“1974-95”                   

May 25, 1994  
Mark Helprin   
"Against the Dehumanization of Art"

March 16, 1994           
William Christenberry
"A Southern Perspective: 1961-1994"

October 20, 1993       
Nicholas Fox Weber   
"Patron Saints: Five Rebels Who Opened America to a New Art in the 1930s"

May 12, 1993  
Charles S. Moffett
"The Boating Party and Other Icons of Impressionism"

March 3, 1993 
Roger Shattuck
"The Fig Leaf and the Naked Eye: Traditions of Forbidden Knowledge in the Visual Arts"

October 20, 1992       
Wayne Thiebaud         
"A Personal View of Drawing and Painting"

May 13, 1992  
Helen Frankenthaler    
"Helen Frankenthaler: Slides with Q. and A."

March 4, 1992 
Michael Kimmelman
"The Modern Museum at a Time of Social Change"

October 31, 1991       
Christopher Green
"The Magician and the Child:Two Metaphors for the Artist in Modernism"

June 5, 1991    
Robert Herbert
"American Painting in the Belle Epoque"

February 20, 1991       
John Walsh
"Building a New Museum: An Approach for the 20th Century"

October 22, 1990       
Robert Hughes
"Rebellion and Tradition"

May 9, 1990    
Michael Graves
"Figurative Architecture: Problems with the Recent Past"

February 27, 1990       
Nancy Graves
"Recent Work: The Relationship Between Painting and Sculpture"

October 3, 1989                     
John Elderfield
"Abstraction/Representation"

May 25, 1989              
Marcia Tucker
"Hide and Seek: A Brief History of Vision, Representation, and Control in Contemporary Art"

October 4, 1988
Carlos Fuentes
"Art and Literature: The Spanish Image”

March 6, 1989             
Rand Castile    
"What They Sought: Japan, the West, and the Arts"

May 25, 1988
Kirk Varnedoe 
"Symbolism and Science: Redon, Seurat, Gauguin et al."

March 2, 1988 
Walter Hopps 
"Private Collecting and a Public Place: The Modern Pioneers in America"

October 20, 1987       
John Rewald    
"Visits with Artists in Europe"

May 13, 1987  
David Hockney
"Painting's Photography: Printing and Seeing"