A Series of New Exhibitions at the Parrish

The Parrish Art Museum has opened four new exhibitions in its gallery spaces. All of the exhibitions opened October 14, and will remain on view into the new year.

“A New Subjectivity 1979/2024,” which runs through April 6, pays tribute to the original exhibition “Nouvelle Subjectivité” in Brussels in 1979, which highlighted figurative and expressionist painting as a retort to the prevailing minimalist and conceptual trends at the time. Featured artists include Jordan Casteel, Rackstraw Downes, Jane Freilicher, Jenna Gribbon, David Hockney, Howard Kanovitz, and Phillipe Roman, among others.

“Nouvelle Subjectivité” was organized by the essayist and art historian Jean Clair in Brussels at the Palais des Beaux Arts in 1979. “A New Subjectivity 1979/2024” at the Parrish presents a selection of works from several of the artists included in the original exhibition — Robert Guinan, David Hockney, Raymond Mason, Philippe Roman and Sam Szafran as well as R.B. Kitaj from the Parrish’s collection — and works by artists whose work has continued the figurative traditions celebrated in “Nouvelle Subjectivité,” some also drawn from the collection of the Parrish, such as Rackstraw Downes, Jane Freilicher, and Howard Kanovitz. It also includes artists working today who are not in the collection, including Martí Cormand, Jordan Casteel, Peter Doig, Jenna Gribbon, and Arcmanoro Niles.

“Nouvelle Subjectivité” preceded “A New Spirit in Painting,” the legendary 1981 exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, by two years. Like the 1981 exhibition, “Nouvelle Subjectivité” was an early tribute to new currents of figurative and expressionist painting in the mid- to late-1970s as a retort to the prevailing minimalist and conceptual trends in the art of the 1960s and 1970s.

Both exhibitions made a case for painting returning to the “subjectivist passion” of painters like Pierre Bonnard or Balthus, long considered outdated. Unlike “A New Spirit in Painting,” which focused on the figurative traditions of the School of London and the resurgence of neo-expressionist painting in Germany, “Nouvelle Subjectivité,” in particular, paid tribute to artists in the tradition of the Balthus (one of his paintings will be included in the Parrish’s exhibition) whose paintings of disquieting narrative scenes were out of step with the prevalent art movements of his time but had a profound influence on French figurative painting that came to prominence after World War II, such as the figurative and poetic-iconic approach of Sam Szafran whose paintings and drawings of interior spaces challenge the viewer’s gaze with their distorting and deconstructing perspectives, or Philippe Roman’s equally disquieting landscapes evocative of the Engadin region, where he spent summers with the writer Pierre Jean Jouve and his wife, the psychoanalyst Blanche Reverchon.

This “subjectivist passion” Jean Clair spoke of is very much apparent in an increasing number of artists working today, such as Jordan Casteel, Peter Doig, Jenna Gribbon and Arcmanoro Niles, all included in the exhibition.

As Jean Clair wrote in the publication that accompanied the exhibition:

“Nothing unites [these artists] other than a common refusal to consider the artistic field as a battlefield, with its watchwords, its theorists, and its strategists, its avant-gardes and its front lines … For them, to use the language of war, it is more a question of for joining the rearguard and of consolidating and renewing the broken links with a certain tradition, which was also, perhaps, a certain joy for painting.”

“A New Subjectivity 1979/2024” is curated by Klaus Ottmann, Robert Lehman Curator, with additional support from Kaitlin Halloran, associate curator and publications manager.

“Audrey Flack: Mid-Century to Post-Pop Baroque,” is a career-spanning exhibition at the Parrish celebrating the artist who died in Southampton this past June at the age of 93. The show remains on view through April 6 and it blends Flack’s iconic photorealist painting techniques with her early background in Abstract Expressionism and newest “Post-Pop Baroque” series. From paintings and drawings to prints and sculptures, the exhibition will include new and recent works as well as works from the 1940s and 1950s.

“Audrey Flack: Mid-Century to Post-Pop Baroque” is organized by Parrish Art Museum Executive Director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, with additional support from Kaitlin Halloran, associate curator and publications manager, and Brianna L. Hernández, former assistant curator.

“Beyond Reality: Paintings and Drawings by Bertrand Meniel” is a survey of paintings and drawings at the Parrish by French photorealist Bertrand Meniel, who has been creating paintings of unprecedented detail since 1996. Using a variety of photographs of his chosen subject and advanced digital technologies, Meniel (French, b. 1961) manipulates each image to perfection, focusing simultaneously on the foreground and background by combing hundreds of shots on a computer screen before painting them onto canvas.

Most of Meniel’s paintings feature panoramic views much wider than what the human eye can perceive, whether they are recorded from a street-level position or from above. Meniel has said he looks for “that magic moment”: “a combination of good light, architectural interest, a perspective that gives depth, and bit of luck.”

“Beyond Reality: Paintings and Drawings by Bertrand Meniel” remains on view through April 6 and is curated by Klaus Ottmann, Robert Lehman, curator, with additional support from Kaitlin Halloran, associate curator and publications manager.

Finally, this fall, the Parrish Art Museum continues its groundbreaking collaboration with The FLAG Art Foundation with the latest installation of “Fresh Paint,” featuring a powerful new work by Derrick Adams, which will be on view through January 5. Fresh Paint” spotlights the latest works by both emerging and established artists, fostering a direct response to contemporary issues and cultural movements. The rotating series of single-artwork exhibitions housed in the Creativity Lounge at the Parrish features a colorful piece with bold symbols by Derrick Adams finished within the last few months.

Each new “Fresh Paint” artwork is accompanied by two sets of interpretative texts: One is a commissioned piece of writing, creating focused and thoughtful conversations between the visual arts and authors, critics, poets, scholars and beyond; and the other is created in collaboration with members of the Parrish Teen Council ARTscope and other museum youth groups. For the second installment of “Fresh Paint” the museum and FLAG have invited Brooklyn-born writer and multidisciplinary artist Folasade Ologundudu to contribute a long-form interpretive text providing visitors with an in-depth take on Derrick Adams and his artistic style.

The Creativity Lounge is open to the public at no charge during regular museum hours. The Parrish Art Museum is at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. Visit parrishart.org for details.