The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill presents a landmark exhibition of artist James Howell (American, 1935–2014) from September 13 through February 8. “Endless Limits: The Work of James Howell, 1962–2014” is the first career retrospective of the artist and the first time his work will be shown on Long Island, a region that profoundly shaped his practice.
“James Howell’s work offers a quiet intensity that rewards close looking,” said Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Executive Director of the Parrish Art Museum. “His disciplined, tonal investigations speak deeply to the artistic and natural environment of the East End and the timeless pursuit of the infinite and the transcendental in art. I am excited for our visitors to learn more about this complex and inspiring artist.”
This retrospective will be the first to explore Howell’s gradual path to his later body of work, revealing the artist’s lifelong inquiry into the effects of color, light, and compositional balance. “We wanted to be able to show the evolution of Howell’s approach over the course of his fifty-year career, from figurative painting into formless abstraction,” explained Scout Hutchinson, Associate Curator of Exhibitions. As Howell’s interests in mathematics, spiritual philosophies, and the nuances of shadow intensified, his palette reduced, and the defined edges of his compositions began to dissolve, giving way to subtle gradations that characterize Series 10, Howell’s most ambitious and refined body of work. Encompassing paintings, prints, and drawings, Series 10 explores the subtlety and scope of the neutral shade of gray.
“Endless Limits: The Work of James Howell, 1962–2014” will be in dialogue with the permanent collection installation, “Time Exposed: Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Seascapes.” Howell discovered Sugimoto’s work in the 1990s and felt a strong kinship with the artist’s meditative approach. It was Sugimoto’s Seascapes, ethereal black-and-white photographs of the ocean’s horizon line, that particularly resonated with Howell. Their mutual interests include a fascination with the phenomena of light and water, a methodical and precise approach to ongoing, serial projects, and a contemplation of the nature of human consciousness.
“While their approaches are distinct — Sugimoto through photography and Howell through paintings and prints — their practices converge in a definitive and personal meditation on infinity and the natural world. We hope that by showing these works together, visitors will experience how two artists, working in different media, pursued parallel investigations into the intangible and the eternal,” said Kaitlin Halloran, Associate Curator and Publications Manager.
Howell’s process involved calculated pigment formulas and precise measurements, yet he also embraced the unpredictable elements of existence. “Reality is holistic and synchronistic,” he once explained. “Everything is interrelated — nothing is isolated.”
Laura Bardier, Executive Director of the James Howell Foundation, added, “It has been a pleasure to collaborate with the Parrish Art Museum in presenting James Howell’s singular vision — rooted in decades of methodical inquiry, a deep commitment to balance, and an acute sensitivity to subtle change. This exhibition brings to light not only his extraordinary legacy as an artist but also his deep connection to Montauk and the surrounding landscape, a crucial source of inspiration at the core of his practice.”
The East End of Long Island book-ended Howell’s career. His early work was shaped by visits to East Hampton in the 1960s, where he met American artist Fairfield Porter (1907–1975). Howell credited their friendship as a turning point in his artistic development. Porter, who encouraged the young artist to work with acrylic paint, believed that “the right use of color can make any composition work,” which resonated deeply with Howell. From 2006 until his death, Howell worked out of his home and studio in Montauk, where the natural phenomena of fog, water, and sky inspired his work. This exhibition will particularly demonstrate how the mutable atmospheric conditions of Long Island informed his decades-long fascination with the subtle variations of the color gray.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue co-published with Hatje Cantz, featuring new scholarship on Howell’s art and working methods with contributions by Kaitlin Halloran, Scout Hutchinson, Jason Rosenfeld, PhD, and Hiroshi Sugimoto. A feature-length documentary, Thoughts of Infinity (2024), by acclaimed filmmaker Halina Dyrschka, will also be screened at the Museum during the exhibition’s run, offering further insight into Howell’s artistic and philosophical world.
An exhibition opening talk will be held on September 12 from 7 to 8 PM with Laura Bardier, Executive Director of the James Howell Foundation, and Parrish Associate Curators Kaitlin Halloran and Scout Hutchinson.