FALL EXHIBITION: SYD SOLOMON, SARA M. KRIENDLER, & SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
October 20-December 16, 2018
Opening: October 20, 5-7pm
Syd Solomon
Moran Gallery
The art of Syd Solomon has usually been associated with Romanticism. Most of the writing on the artist describes how Solomon infused the spirit of it into the processes, scale and concepts of Abstract Expressionism. The artist once called himself an “Abstract Impressionist”. This would seem
to confirm most of what has been written about him as a painter inspired by natural forces. Now that Solomon’s Archives are being organized there are new findings about the artist, as well as his milieu. New Information gives us a better understanding about the how artist transformed life experiences into art, which serve to deepen our appreciation of what he achieved. For example, it’s not that there were no previous allusions to his work as a camoufluer during WWII, but what was not understood before was just how expert Solomon was in this field and more significantly, how his particular area of expertise came to inform the development of his painting and the achievement of techniques with which he created his art. The Archive help enlightens us with materials about this. Much less has been known about Solomon’s early training and skill in lettering. He received “technical arts” training in high school and worked for his early years in advertising, doing signs and promotions for stores, ads for newspapers, magazines and brochures and also for political campaigns. The archivists uncovered many materials that show his experience and prowess in this area. Like his close colleague James Brooks, the influence of lettering, (today we might call it graffiti) becomes a significant factor in the latter brushwork, calligraphy or handwriting of the gestural aspects of his paintings.
As the organization of the artist’s archive provides us with new material proofs on these two aspects of the artist’s work, the Estate along with the assistance of its representative, the Berry Campbell Gallery, is sponsoring an exhibition with investigation by esteemed scholars using the new information on camouflage and lettering. These aspects allow us to see Solomon’s achievements in a new and more accurate way, leading us to understand the “density” of his work not previously or totally appreciated.
Please Send To: Ray Johnson
Woodhouse Gallery
The exhibition, Please Send To: Ray Johnson, will feature over 30 works by the artist from Guild Hall’s Permanent Collection. The majority of these works are classified Mail Art, a movement defined by Johnson’s New York Correspondence School in the 1950’s. The school was a network of artists to whom Johnson sent drawings, poems and collages in the post, instructing them to perform an action related to the work, such as forwarding materials on to another member.
The works selected by Associate Curator of Guild Hall’s Permanent Collection, Jess Frost, feature personal notes, doodles, rubber stamped “moticos” and collage. They offer a rare glimpse into the mind of an artist embedded in the art world while Pop Art was in its embryonic stages.
Almost any article you read about the artist quotes Grace Glueck of the New York Times calling Johnson “New York’s most famous unknown artist.” Johnson remained relatively obscure until his death in January of 1995. At the age of 67, he dove off the Sag Harbor Bridge and was last seen backstroking out to sea. His home in Locust Valley contained hundreds of carefully arranged collages, and has been since the subject of major museum exhibitions, including Ray Johnson: Correspondences at the Whitney Museum in 1999.
SARA MEJIA KRIENDLER
Spiga Gallery
October 20 - December 16
Curator of the Exhibition: Casey Dalene - Registrar/Curatorial Assistant/Lewis B. Cullman Associate for Museum Education
Opening Reception: October 20, 5-7pm
Sara Mejia Kriendler’s solo exhibition in the Spiga Gallery was awarded in 2016 when she received the Top Honors Award in Guild Hall Museum’s 78th Annual Artist Members Exhibition. Kriendler’s work was chosen out of 424 artists by the guest awards judge Jia Jia Fei, Director of Digital at the Jewish Museum in New York.
Kriendler’s installation at Guild Hall will consist of all new works, variations on her current body of work, exhibited for the first time at the Museo de Arte de Pereira (The Museum of Fine Arts of Pereira) this past Spring. This body of work investigates her maternal Colombian roots inspired by pre-Columbian gold, the history of the Spanish conquest of the new world, and the legend of the el dorado.
Museum Hours: Fri, Sat and Mon 11am–5pm and Sun 12–5pm. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton, New York 11937, 631-324-0806, GuildHall.org
FREE MUSEUM ADMISSION GENEROUSLY FUNDED BY BRIDGEHAMPTON NATIONAL BANK AND LANDSCAPE DETAILS.