Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill presents “Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today.” The exhibit will be on view from September 27 through February 14.
For centuries, Long Island’s East End has been a hub of artistic innovation and cultural exchange, inspiring generations of artists drawn to its landscape and creative community. This was especially true in the mid-twentieth century when Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner established their home in Springs. Their move to the South Fork inspired many New York School painters — like Elaine and Willem de Kooning and James Brooks and Charlotte Park — to spend time on the East End since the 1940s, with some eventually making the region their home and studio year-round. “Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today” traces how the movement flourished on the East End and celebrates the many voices who shaped it.
Drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection, along with prominent private loans, the exhibition begins in the mid-twentieth century with first- and second-generation Abstract Expressionists of the 1940s–60s. This section features works by Mary Abbott, James Brooks, Elaine de Kooning, Perle Fine, Gertrude Greene, Lee Krasner, and Esteban Vicente, examining works of this pivotal period that the artists produced while living and working on the East End. Paintings and sculpture by Willem de Kooning, John Opper, Betty Parsons, Joanna Pousette-Dart, and Syd Solomon trace stylistic shifts of the 1970s and 1980s. The exhibition also highlights the movement’s lasting influence on the East End, with works that demonstrate how artists have continued to expand gestural painting from the 1990s to today, including Claude Lawrence, Suzanne McClelland, Pat Steir, and Frank Wimberley.
“Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today” is organized by Kaitlin Halloran, Associate Curator and Publications Manager. Visit parrishart.org for more info.