Glackens Survey Arrives at the Parrish | Hamptons Art HubHamptons Art Hub

A traveling survey of painting by William Glackens opens at the Parrish Art Museum on Sunday, July 20, 2014. The show features over 75 artworks on paper or canvas spanning from the 1890s through 1930s. It is the first comprehensive survey of Glacken's work since 1966. Curated by writer and art historian Avis Berman, the exhibition focuses on Glackens’s most distinctive and adventurous works. It will remain on view through October 13, 2014

To welcome visitors to the expansive show, a Curator's Talk by Berman will open the show at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Additional curator's talks and programming will be offered throughout the exhibition. A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue accompanies the show. Published by Skira Rizzoli, it was edited by Berman, who also contributed several essays.

"Cape Cod Pier" by William J. Glackens, 1908. Oil on canvas, 26 x 32 inches. Collection of Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Nova Southeastern University; gift of an anonymous donor, 85.74.

The survey introduces Glackens to a new generation of viewers to a "pivotal figure in the history of American art," according to The Parrish. The works in the show reveal Glackens’s matchless ability to capture people and their surroundings with spontaneity and spirit. Included are significant paintings such as Girl with Apple (1909–1910), Family Group (1910–1911), and The Green Car (1910).

“Girl with Apple” by William J. Glackens, 1909-1910. Oil on canvas, 39 7/16 x 56 3/16 inches. Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 56.70.

The show also presents key pieces from each decade of Glackens's career including La Villette (ca.1895), Cape Cod Pier (1908), and The Soda Fountain (1935).

"William Glackens" explores the wide range of motifs that run throughout the artist’s work. In addition to a fascination for the urban spectacle of New York City, a love for travel led him to sunny landscapes and shorelines, including the beaches of Cape Cod, Connecticut, and Bellport, Long Island. A gifted painter and draftsman, Glackens also successfully mastered portraits, figure studies and still lifes—all genres that are presented in the exhibition.

“Mahone Bay” by WIlliam J. Glackens, 1910. Oil on canvas, 26 1/8 x 31 7/8 inches. Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, UNL – Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Trust, H-193.

"William Glackens" began its three-museum tour in Fort Lauderdale, FL. It was presented at Nova Southeastern University Museum of Art from Feb. 23 through June 1, 2014. To read a review by Elisa Turner for Hamptons Art Hub, click here. Following the Parrish show, the exhibition will travel to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA. It will be exhibited there from Nov. 8, 2014 through Feb. 2, 2015.

“This exhibition allows the Parrish Art Museum the unique opportunity to collaborate with two like-minded institutions, sharing resources and scholarship to explore Glackens’s career and impact on art history,” said Parrish Art Museum Director Terrie Sultan. “With masterful work that resonates with our oceanside community, a profound attachment to our region, and a significant contribution to the story of American art, William Glackens reinforces and advances the mission of the Parrish.”

“Still Life with Three Glasses” by William J. Glackens, mid-1920′s. Oil on canvas, 20 x 29 inches. Collection of the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, Museum Purchase 1957, 957-O-111.

Born in Philadelphia in 1870, Glackens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. At the Academy and as an artist for the Philadelphia Press, he became friends with fellow artists Robert Henri, George Luks, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan, the core of the group that would later form The Eight as a reaction against the National Academy of Design’s hidebound exhibition policies. The Eight exhibited together only once, in 1908, creating a wedge in the struggle to democratize the process by which artists could show and sell their work.

Glackens was on the selection committee of the 1910 Exhibition of Independent Artists, the first large-scale invitational show of progressive artists, and was chairman of the American section of the epochal Armory Show, which introduced European vanguard art to this country in 1913. With these roles Glackens became a powerful advocate for landmark exhibitions of the American and European avant-garde.

Glackens is credited with influencing Albert C. Barnes, the Philadelphia chemist who became a self-made millionaire in the early twentieth century and wanted to collect great art. Glackens attended Philadelphia’s prestigious Central High School with Barnes, and when they renewed their friendship in 1911, Glackens became his first advisor and guided him toward an appreciation of modern French painting, according to an exhibition release. The artist traveled to Paris on a buying trip for Barnes in 1912 and returned with works by Paul Cézanne, Maurice Denis, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro and Pierre Auguste Renoir. These purchases became the nucleus of Barnes’s fabled collection, according to the Parrish.

“Far From the Fresh Air Farm: the Crowded City Street, with Its Dangers and Temptations, Is a Pitiful Makeshift Playground for Children” by William J. Glackens, 1911. Charcoal on paper, 24 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches. Collection of Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Nova Southeastern University; Bequest of Ira Glackens, 91.40.106.

BASIC INFO: "William Glackens" opens July 20 and remains on view through October 13. The Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill, NY 11976. www.parrishart.org.

PARRISH PROGRAMMING:

Sunday, July 20 at 11 a.m.: The Curator’s View: Talk by Avis Berman, independent curator.

Sunday, August 3 at 4 p.m.: Glackens in Bellport: Talk by Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator Alicia Longwell at the Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society on Glackens’s summers painting in Bellport from 1912 – 1915.

Thursday, August 7 at Noon: Brain Food: Conversations on Art: Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator Alicia Longwell on William Glackens.

Saturday, October 4 at 11 a.m.: William Glackens Lecture by Judith Dolkart, Director, Addison Gallery of American Art; former Deputy Director and Chief Curator, The Barnes Foundation.

Docent Tours of William Glackens will be held on Saturdays at 2 p.m. starting on July 26 and continue throughout the exhibition.

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