Beginning in the late 1880s, when Claude Monet was still creating the kind of dreamy landscapes that would forever appoint the walls of college dormitories, a new generation of artists influenced by the Impressionists began experimenting with color and form. Called the Neo-Impressionists, they’re the subject of a new exhibition at the Phillips Collection that emphasizes the artists’ emotional connection to the subjects they painted as well as their formal innovations. Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and Theo van Rysselberghe created works using a pointillist technique, painting small dots of different colors that, when looked at from a distance, created a vibrant effect. Their take on Impressionism could be pretty subjective—brown tree trunks might become blue—leaving the feeling of a parallel universe, almost but not quite our own. After you exit the show, allow the plants in Dupont Circle to change shades in your mind. Sept. 27 to Jan. 11 at the Phillips Collection. $10–$12.