5 Photos
Carl Scorza "Hudson River View WTC," 15" x 19," oil on canvas. COURTESY THE LUCORE ART
Carl Scorza "NYC Harbor Sunset," 10" x 20," oil on canvas. COURTESY THE LUCORE ART
Carl Scorza "East River WTC," 8" x12," oil on canvas. COURTESY THE LUCORE ART
Carl Scorza "Early Morning," 24" x 96," oil on canvas. COURTESY THE LUCORE ART
Carl Scorza "Sunset at the Inlet," 36" x48," oil on canvas. COURTESY THE LUCORE ART
The work of East Hampton artist Carl Scorza will be on display at The Lucore Art in Montauk from November 5 through November 30. The show, titled “Archipelago Anthology,” opens with a reception on Saturday, November 12, from 4 to 7 p.m. and features work spanning more than 30 years done in Lower Manhattan, Governors Island and eastern Long Island, the archipelago of Scorza’s career.
Scorza sought studio space in the World Trade Center in the early 1990s and later on Governors Island because he wanted to paint the city from life. He helped create a program, eventually known as World Views, that put artists in vacant commercial space in the twin towers. In the early 2000s, he established a program with the National Parks Service that brought artists to paint from Governors Island.
Working from the 92nd floor of the North Tower, Scorza had a long view of the city in all directions.
“That long view tended to soften the sharp edges of the urban landscape so my paintings done there present as recognizable cityscapes and also painterly abstractions,” he said.
On Governors Island the view was reversed so that he looked up and out at the looming skyscrapers. “My cityscapes became sharper and more monumental and reflected more of the geometry of the buildings and their harmonic intervals,” he said.
Scorza has repeatedly returned to the study of vertical geometry in motifs using bottles arranged on table tops and in bars. Some of those include iconic bars on the East End. In some bar paintings, his preoccupation with the bottle still life combines with East End sunsets that have long been a source of inspiration for some of his most vivid, painterly work.
“At first glance, the cityscapes with their straight edges and vertical geometry and the high key palette sunsets that dissolve into abstraction couldn’t be more different,” Scorza said. “But they are alike in their underlying dynamic of surface geometry and demonstrative mark.”
The Lucore Art is at 87 South Euclid Avenue in Montauk. For more information, visit thelucoreart.com.
Staff Writer on Oct 26, 2022