The Curator’s View Gallery Talk To Explore Parrish Art Museum’s “John Graham: Maverick Modernist”

Here is your chance to get an intimate Hamptons gallery tour and to gain some insight into one of the most well- known artists!

On Friday, June 16th at 6 p.m., Alicia G. Longwell, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator, Art and Education at the Parrish Art Museum, will lead attendees through the critically-acclaimed exhibition John Graham: Maverick Modernist at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. During the program, Longwell will provide insights into significant themes in specific paintings and share information about the artist.

“I look forward to this opportunity to join our visitors in the galleries and to encourage a dialogue,” said Longwell. “Being right in front of the paintings always sparks a really lively conversation.”

John Graham: Maverick Modernist is on display through Sunday, July 30 and features 65 paintings and a selection of important works on paper from Graham’s influential four-decade career.

The exhibition explores how Graham became a significant figure in the development of an American approach to art making and in what ways his continues self-reinvention mirrored American artist attempts to define a new direction. The exhibition is organized chronologically and feature works from 1923 to 1959. John Graham: Maverick Modernist shows Graham’s development over time, his earlier works are more cubist-influenced still life’s and portraits as opposed to his later works that are more abstract and radical. This exhibit is the first comprehensive retrospective of Graham’s work in 30 years. Graham spent time in both Southampton and East Hampton in the 1950s and is credited for discovering Jackson Pollock, a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement.

Graham was a Russian born painter who immigrated to the US in 1920 and became a US citizen in 1927. Graham drew inspiration from Renaissance Art and did not develop a signature still until the last 20 years of his career.

John Graham: Maverick Modernist is organized by Alicia G. Longwell, with guest co-curator Karen Wilkin, consulting curator William C. Agee, Evelyn Kranes Kossak, and Sophie Egly. The exhibition is accompanied by a 176-page, fully illustrated catalogue distributed by DelMonico Books • Prestel, with interpretive essays by the curators.

Admission to the event is $12 for non-members and free for members, students and children.

Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information call 631-283-2118 or visit www.parrishart.org.