The Parrish Art Museum will open the doors of its new, 34,400-square-foot Herzog & de Meuron-designed home in Water Mill on Saturday, November 10, 2012. The new Parrish Art Museum will include 12,200 square feet of exhibition space—three times that of the Museum’s former home on Jobs Lane in Southampton. It is the first art museum built on the East End of Long Island in more than a century, and will be the cultural centerpiece and the most recognizable architectural landmark in the region.

For the first time in the Museum’s 115-year history, dedicated galleries will showcase masterworks of art from the permanent collection. Ranging from the nineteenth century to the present, the Parrish’s holdings include more than 2,600 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by many of America’s most influential artists, a selection of which will be on view year-round. The Museum will present as its inaugural special exhibition Malcolm Morley: Painting, Paper, Process, a career-spanning exhibition of more than 40 works by the British-born artist, who has maintained a house and studio on eastern Long Island since 1983.

“We are filled with excitement at what is certain to be a life-changing experience,” commented Parrish Director Terrie Sultan. “With the opportunity to permanently showcase our remarkable collection, along with our innovative temporary exhibitions, special projects, programs, and educational outreach, the Parrish will be the East End’s vital center for cultural engagement, a catalyst for creativity, a place you will want to visit over and over again.”

Seven skylit galleries, comprising 7,600 square feet, will be devoted to the Parrish’s collection. Each gallery will provide a narrative framework within which visitors can see and experience masterworks of art, organized to convey and celebrate the story of America’s most enduring and influential artists’ colony—Eastern Long Island.
Selected Recent Acquisitions: Building a Collection will showcase paintings and sculpture never before exhibited at the Parrish, including works by Louise Nevelson, Dorothea Rockburne, and Keith Sonnier. This gallery will reflect the exponential growth of the Parrish’s permanent collection and the vision and generosity of donors who have made it possible.

Look and Look Again: Contemporary Observation will include works by some of today’s most celebrated artists, among them Ross Bleckner, Chuck Close, April Gornik, Mary Heilmann, and Donald Sultan. American Views: Artists at Home and Abroad will feature a stellar collection of nineteenth-, twentieth-, and 
twenty-first-century works that chart the course of American landscape painting. Childe Hassam, Jane Freilicher, and Jane Wilson are among the artists included in this gallery.

Three galleries will focus on individual artists:

William Merritt Chase: A Life in Art will draw from the Parrish’s distinguished holdings of this foremost American Impressionist and founder of the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art. 
Fairfield Porter: Modern American Master will present selections from the preeminent collection of the work of this influential artist and critic who for three decades made his home on the East End.

Esteban Vicente: Portrait of the Artist will highlight works from the 1950s to the 1990s that bring into full focus the career of this Spanish-born luminary of the New York School who lived in Bridgehampton until his death in 2001.

Malcolm Morley: Painting, Paper, Process
For more than 40 years, the art of Malcolm Morley has heightened viewers’ perceptions and expanded the possibilities for ways of seeing. Little explored until now is the seminal role of paper in his art-making process, whether as watercolors that serve as sources for paintings, scale models made of paper and attached to the canvas, or in the dimensionality of free-standing paper sculpture. Organized by Alicia G. Longwell, Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator, Art and Education, Malcolm Morley: Painting, Paper, Process will illustrate the artist’s working method while underscoring the seamless transition among paper mediums, including watercolor, lithography, etching, and monotype, and the dazzling passages of these inventive forays. The exhibition will remain on view through January 13, 2013.

Finally, Collective Conversations will organize a dialogue among works of Abstract Expressionism, Figuration, and Pop that encourages close looking and nuanced readings, and will include works by Willem De Kooning, Dan Flavin, and Alfonso Ossorio, among other leading practitioners.

Platform Series
The Platform series, organized by Curator of Programs Andrea Grover, is an innovative artist-driven approach to programming within the building and grounds of the new Parrish Art Museum. In Genius Loci (the prevailing spirit of a place), inaugural Platform artist Hope Sandrow will respond to the opening of the new building by creating temporary installations that integrate art and cultural objects used in rituals and ceremonies that mark a beginning or rite of passage. Sandrow, whose practice often involves intensive historical research into site and place, will evoke symbols of new life and good fortune, corresponding to the many cultures that have enlivened the history of the East End.

Opening Events and Programs:

The November 10 grand opening will be free to the general public. Free admission continues throughout the long weekend—Sunday, November 11, and Monday, November 12, Veterans Day.

Preceding the public opening, a series of special events for all who have made the new building possible—donors, trustees, the many members of the design and building team, government officials, artists, members, and volunteers—will take place on November 3 and November 4. Museum members, donors, and residents of the Southampton and Tuckahoe Common School Districts will enjoy special access to the Museum from Monday, November 5 through Friday, November 9.

The opening weekend will feature three performances in the Lichtenstein Theater. The Joshua Light Show, founded by multimedia artist Joshua White, will perform on Friday, November 9, at 6 pm. The group, known for its groundbreaking liquid light shows, recently completed a series of performances at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts with such musicians as Lou Reed and John Zorn. At the Parrish, the group will perform to its own music. Tickets are $10 for Parrish members, $15 for nonmembers; the program is open to the general public.

Watercolors, a musical tribute to the painter Charles Burchfield by composer and Sag Harbor native Nell Shaw Cohen, will be presented on Saturday, November 10 at 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm, free to the public. Composed for a wind quintet, the music will be accompanied by images of the paintings that inspired its creation. Gray, an experimental acoustic-electronic music band founded in 1979 by artists Michael Holman and Jean-Michel Basquiat and reformed in 2010, will play on Saturday, November 10, at 6 pm. Titled A False Sense of Darkness, their composition is a surreal tribute to the silent-film era and will be performed to a film made especially for this event. Tickets are $10 for Parrish members, $15 for nonmembers.

The annual Fall Family Festival will take place Sunday, November 11, from 1 to 5 pm. Bubblemania, a high-energy program loaded with visual comedy, quick wit, big band swing music, and the untamed, often unbelievable qualities and beauty of spherical liquids, will kick off the afternoon’s activities. Also on the menu are art activities, Transformation Face Painting by Agostino Arts, stilt-walkers, caricature portraits, and balloon art. The festival is free and will take place rain or shine. No advance registration is required.

About the New Building:
Designed by internationally acclaimed architects Herzog & de Meuron, the new Parrish references the vernacular architecture of the East End and emphasizes the relationship of art to nature. In addition to the galleries, the 2,400 square foot Lichtenstein Theater can be configured for a range of uses, including film, lectures, live performances, seminars, dinners, and receptions. The Art of Eating will manage a café that will offer salads, sandwiches, desserts, as well as beer and wine. Weather permitting, the café can expand onto a spacious covered terrace for outdoor dining.

The terrace will also be used for receptions, festivals, performances, and workshops. In addition to the terrace, a cast-concrete bench and covered walkway surround the Museum and allow for contemplation of the landscape. State-of-the-art administrative and support spaces include the climate-controlled loading dock, administration offices, conservation, and storage.

Designed by renowned landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand Associates, the landscape itself is an important aspect of the Museum experience. Consisting entirely of native plants, the design evokes the iconic features of the East End—meadow, wetland, scrub woodland, and long views of expansive sky and horizon. Large window walls to the north and south of both the lobby and offices allow views through the building into the surrounding landscape. Members of the community can join in supporting the Museum’s efforts by purchasing trees through the ongoing Landscape Campaign. Individual trees are available for as little as $30.

The new building has a budget of $26.2 million, 95% of which has been raised to date.

The Building Team:
In addition to Herzog & de Meuron and Reed Hilderbrand, the Parrish is working with ARUP London and ARUP New York for lighting design; Buro Happold Consulting Engineers for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing; Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design for furniture and fixture design; Shen Milsom Wilke for audio visual, acoustical, and technology; Ducibella, Venter, and Santore for security; S. L. Maresca & Associates for structural engineering; Reginald D. Hough for concrete; LaPlaca Cohen for signage; Martin Perrin for graphic design; Nelson, Pope & Voorhis for civil and environmental engineering; and DB Bennett, consulting engineer. Douglas Moyer Architect serves as the Executive Architect partner for Herzog & de Meuron, and Ben Krupinski Builder is general contractor for the project.

The new Parrish Art Museum could not have been realized without the support of: Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller, Norman and Liliane Peck with The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, the Carroll Petrie Foundation, Mildred C. Brinn, Century Arts Foundation, Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, Dorothy Lichtenstein, The Robert Lehman Foundation, Lynne and Richard Pasculano, Fred and Robin Seegal, The Harriet and Esteban Vicente Foundation, Susan Weber, and many others honored, with gratitude, on the major donor lobby wall of the new Museum.

The Parrish Art Museum is grateful to the Ralph and Ricky Lauren Family Foundation for their generous support of the Grand Opening Events. Additional support has been provided by Sunrise Jets. Wines generously provided by Niche Import Co.

The presentation of Malcolm Morley: Painting, Paper, Process is made possible in part by The Broad Art Foundation, Gael Neeson and Stefan Edlis, The Stanley Family Fund, Charles-Antoine Van Campenhout and Risteard Keating, Angela Westwater / Sperone Westwater,  Xavier Hufkens, Andrea Krantz and Harvey Sawikin, James Cottrell and Joe Lovett. The Fall Family Festival is made possible, in part, with the generous support of Elisabeth and Peter Haveles.

About the Parrish Art Museum:
The Parrish Art Museum is the oldest cultural institution on the East End of Long Island, uniquely situated within one of the most concentrated creative communities in the United States. The Parrish is dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of modern and contemporary with a particular focus on honoring the rich creative legacy on the East End, celebrating the region’s enduring heritage as a vibrant art colony, telling the story of our area, our “sense of place,” and its national—even global—impact on the world of art. The Parrish is committed to educational outreach, to serving as a dynamic cultural resource for its diverse community, and to celebrating artistic innovation for generations to come.