The Art Scene: 08.02.12
“Men of Fire” Opens
Today the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs opens “Men of Fire: Jose Clemente Orozco and Jackson Pollock,” an exhibition organized by Helen Harrison and Sarah Powers that examines how Orozco’s art influenced a young Pollock.
The artist was only 24 when he saw Orozco’s mural cycle “The Epic of American Civilization” at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Its themes became part of Pollock’s engagement with Surrealism. Myth, sacrifice, and the force of fire may not seem all that pertinent to Pollock’s best-known drip style, but they were critical to his art both before and after that period.
On view are paintings, drawings, and prints made by Pollock after he saw the mural between 1938 and 1941 as well as studies Orozco did to prepare for painting it. The show includes works from the Pollock-Krasner House and Dartmouth’s Hood Museum, which is joining with the center for this show, and loans from the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among other prominent institutions.
A reception and gallery talk with the curators and Michael Taylor, the director of the Hood Museum, will take place on Sunday at 5 p.m. The show will remain on view through Oct. 27.
Modern Civil War
Beginning on Saturday, Davenport and Shapiro Fine Art in East Hampton will present new work from Linda Newman Boughton’s “Civil War” series. Ms. Boughton makes pen drawings inspired by Matthew Brady’s Civil War photographs. The works employ a bit of trompe l’oeil, appearing to have portions of photography, etching, and pop art. Unlike the intimate size of the old photographs, these works are large, usually about five feet high.
Ms. Boughton was a set and mural painter for movies but emphasizes portraiture in this series, including likenesses of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Chestnut. The work is on view through Aug. 24.
Marder Adds New Work
The exhibition “Past and Present” at the Silas Marder Gallery in Bridgehampton has been reconfigured to include a work by John Carpenter called “Dandelion Clock.” A reception will be held on Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. The theme of the show is the passing of time. It has art by Grayson Perry, Ernesto Caivano, Robert Olsen, and Lee Ufan.
“Dandelion Clock” is a video piece that is driven by motion in the gallery and shows action through time as a dandelion head appears to lose its seeds and then reassembles them to start again.
Found Objects
The East End Arts Gallery in Riverhead is showing “Found Objects” through Aug. 24. The juried exhibition features the work of several South Fork artists, among them Jim Gemake of Water Mill and Ruth Nasca of East Hampton.
Photographer Debuts
Patrizia Genovesi is showing her work for the first time in this country at the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor. It is on view throughout the summer. Her series “Painters” features photos of several gallery artists and their work, including Ben Fenske, Nelson H. White, Hege Elizabeth Haugen, Ramiro, and Melissa Franklin Sanchez.
According to the artist, she “aimed at obtaining pictures in which the painters would merge with their working environments into one, consistent, well-defined atmosphere.” She has studied photography with Leonard Freed and Richard Kalvar of the Magnum Photos Agency, among others.
Springs Invitational
Beginning tomorrow, the 45th annual “Artists of the Springs Invitational Exhibition” will be on view at Ashawagh Hall. The show, which opens with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m., brings together a cross section of East Hampton artists old and new in a sometimes contentious but respected community event.
Christina Mossaides Strassfield, museum director and chief curator at Guild Hall, is this year’s guest curator and has selected 125 artists. The show will be on view through Aug. 19, involving a number of events, some that will benefit the Springs Improvement Society and its scholarship fund for Springs School students.
Tonight, Ashawagh Honors, a benefit preview and wine reception, will take place from 5 to 7. This year’s honorees are Rae Ferren, Connie Fox, and Bill King. A $25 donation will be requested at the door. On Aug. 11, the Fisherman’s Fair will showcase a number of Springs traditions and folkways. On Aug. 19 at 4:30 p.m., Ms. Strassfield will lead a free tour of the show. All events take place at Ashawagh Hall. A percentage of the sale of the artwork will also go to the improvement society and its scholarship fund.
Art on the Line
Guild Hall will hold its 66th Annual Clothesline Art Sale on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. The sale features original oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings as well as prints, collages, photography, and small sculptures by many East End artists. The cost of the pieces ranges from $50 to $2,000, and the proceeds are split with Guild Hall.
Some 350 artists take part each year, typically drawing roughly 1,000 potential buyers who purchase from 500 to 800 pieces. An army of 225 volunteers helps with the sale.
Artists who want to participate can call Guild Hall for registration materials and the entry fee. Admission is free for the public. All galleries will be open on Saturday. The museum will offer free parking and a shuttle at the corner of James and Maidstone Lanes.
New at the Drawing Room
Sculpture by Costantino Nivola and photographs by Mary Ellen Bartley will be on view at the Drawing Gallery in East Hampton beginning today and running through Sept. 3. Nivola, who lived in Springs and died in 1988, was born in Sardinia. He studied in Europe and came to New York in 1939. As a sculptor he favored technical innovation and abstraction in materials such as bronze, marble, terra-cotta, cement, and travertine. In his work with architects, he was known for his sand-cast and carved cement low-relief sculptures.
Ms. Bartley, who lives in Wainscott, is a photographer with a minimal and enigmatic style with still-lifes, often drawing on the work of Giorgio Morandi and Rachel Whiteread, among others. She will show examples from her “Paperbacks,” “Blue Books,” and “Standing Open” series.
Functional Grouping
Neoteric Fine Art in Amagansett is showing “Design + Function,” a group show, through Friday, Aug. 10. On view are driftwood and reclaimed wood furniture, handcrafted surfboards, limited-edition silk-screened T-shirts, prints, textile designs, jewelry, hand-painted skateboards, and functional design objects.
The participating artists are Ethan Abramson, Scott Bluedorn, Joshua Borsack, Ryan Bollman, Jaqueline Clint, Josh Cohen, Casey Dalene, Peter Dayton, Leah Horowitz, Stephen and Melissa Jumper, Jesse Joeckel, Charles Ly, Jody Gambino, Kristin Miller, Tin Ojeda, Mark Wilson, and Stephanie Uribe.
McGinness at Horowitz
Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton will show “Women: Sun-Stained Symbols,” new work by Ryan McGinness, beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibition will consist of “process drawings” and cyanotypes with a focus on the female nude.
The process drawings follow a contemporary Cubist exercise in which a drawing is reduced from life into a flattened form through a number of steps and translated across a number of mediums, including photography and digital imaging. In his recording of the process, the artist manages to compress time into a unified visual field.
The cyanotypes are blue-and-white photographic prints made by exposing specially emulsified paper to sunlight for several hours. The artist takes his images from the process drawings but uses the low-tech medium of cyanotype to introduce heat, chance, a deliberate pace, and the vagaries of weather, according to the gallery. The show will be on view through Sept. 3.
“Inside/Outside”
In Bridgehampton, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts will show “Inside/Outside,” work by Sydney Licht and Stephen Pentak, beginning tomorrow and closing on Aug. 22. Ms. Licht paints store boxes and bags, giving the castaways a dramatic architecture and scale. “This monumentality contrasts not only with the surprising small scale of the paintings but also with the rich creaminess of the paint surfaces,” a release from the gallery said. Ms. Licht lives and works in New York and has exhibited in galleries around the country. She has recently completed a Yadoo residency and was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome.
Mr. Pentak paints abstracted and psychological landscapes drawn from his memories of various places. Among the images he uses are a bend in a river, a point of land, an island, and always a broad expanse of reflective water to allow viewers to recall their own experiences while at the same time reminding them that what they are looking at are artificial constructs.
Deadline Extended
The Retreat Art Show has extended its deadline for entries to Sept. 1. This year’s show will be judged by Christina Mossaides Strassfield and Kathryn Markel. The winner will receive a solo show at the Richard J. Demato gallery in Sag Harbor. Entry information is available at hamptonsjuriedartshow. com.