WATER MILL, NY 8/17/2020—The Parrish Art Museum announces Field of Dreams—part of the new Art in the Meadow initiative created to activate the Museum’s extensive outdoor spaces, enlivening them with performances, projections, and an extensive sculpture exhibition that engages and responds to the Parrish’s architecture and landscape.
On August 20, 2020, the Parrish opens Field of Dreams, presenting work by 10 international, multi-generational artists working in a variety of genres. The inaugural exhibition features a new installation created for the Museum by interdisciplinary artist Theaster Gates (American, born 1973), a suite of four new sculptures by Jaume Plensa (Spanish, born 1955); and new works by Parrish collection artist Jim Dine (American, born 1935). Other collection artists include Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923-97), Joel Perlman (American, born 1943), and Joel Shapiro (American, born 1941); as well as sculpture by Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976) and Bernar Venet (French, born 1941). Two additional monumental works by Isa Genzken (German, born 1948) and Giuseppe Penone (Italian, born 1947) will be installed in the coming weeks.
“We are thrilled to provide visitors with rich art experiences during these times and meet our community where they are most comfortable: outdoors,” said Chris Siefert, Parrish Interim Director. “I think people will find inspiration and joy as they wander our grounds and discover these outstanding works of art.”
“In this inaugural installation of sculpture in the Parrish landscape, each work, while sited within its own sphere, engages in the continuing interplay among the architecture, nature, and art,” said Alicia G. Longwell, Ph.D., Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator, Art and Education. “Newly created paths invite the visitor to wander and experience this extraordinary assembly of the best in contemporary sculpture, inspiring wonder, laughter, and awe.”
“Our meadow has been patiently waiting for this opportunity to become a true extension of the Museum, allowing the Parrish to fulfill its responsibility to provide an opportunity to interact with art during the pandemic that is safe, socially distant, and rich with potent and timely meaning,” said Board President Mary E. Frank. “Field of Dreams is a space to conjure the carefree days of summers past or to dream of what the future might hold.”
The outdoor exhibition is presented throughout the 14-acre grounds originally designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron. Landscape architect Mary Margaret Jones, President of HargreavesJones, advised on the creation of three distinct Meadow spaces: the Entry Meadow on the north side of the building leading to the Museum’s entrance; the Terrace Meadow on the west side; and the Great Meadow, a six- acre expanse to the south of the Museum facing Montauk Highway.
The Great Meadow, which has been home to Roy Lichtenstein’s Tokyo Brushstrokes, on long-term loan from Glenn Fuhrman since 2014, is the site for the majority of works in the exhibition. An Untitled (Walking Man) bronze by Joel Shapiro anchors a new network of pathways through the Great Meadow. Jaume Plensa explores the connection between humanity and nature in his work. In Carlota (oak), Julia (oak), Laura Asia (oak), and Wilsis (oak), 2019—four bronze portraits originally carved from oak—Plensa captures a moment of quiet reflection, evoking silence and stillness in a bustling world. Theaster Gates’s Monument in Waiting, 2020, responds to the current national reckoning with monuments and historical figures upheld across public spaces and raises questions of why some narratives are celebrated over others—particularly as they relate to the preservation of Black cultural and social histories. Comprising repurposed stone plinths placed upon a large granite plaza, devoid of a figure, Monument in Waiting is a contemporary ruin that both deconstructs and preserves the concept of monument. Jim Dine’s The Wheatfield (Agincourt), 1989-2019, expands the scope of the artist’s work into a monumental assemblage comprising an extensive tractor axle fitted with the objects and icons that have populated his life’s work. For this new iteration at the Parrish, Dine extended the framework of the axle and added new found objects. Positioned on the far west border of the Great Meadow is the 13-foot Cor-ten steel 220.5° Arc x 15, 2006, by Bernar Venet, known for geometric sculptures that are at once mathematically precise yet spontaneous.
Two sculptures will be added to the exhibition in early fall. Isa Genzken’s Two Orchids, 2017, which will tower 34 feet above the center of the Great Meadow, is a reminder of how a once exotic flower has become a mundane object Giuseppe Penone’s Ideas of Stone, 2008, a 30-foot cast bronze tree situated among its living counterparts, examines the relationship between humans and nature.
Max Ernst’s Grande Grenouille, 1967, a whimsical bronze frog, sits next to the ramp to the Event Lawn. Anchoring the corner of the Terrace, Ernst strikes a more thoughtful note with Big Brother: Teaching Staff for a School of Murderers, 1967. The three bronze figures are a nod to George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, an anti-monument to false authority and corrupt political order.
The Entrance Meadow presents the second work in the exhibition by Jim Dine. The Hooligan, created in 2019 and on view for the first time, draws inspiration from the Venus de Milo—a characteristic trademark of the artist’s practice since the late 1970s. Joel Perlman is represented with East Gate, 1989, part of his Portal series in which a solid form swings through the steel frame, inviting the viewer to examine what lies beyond.
Field of Dreams outdoor sculpture exhibition is open and free to the public daily, from 11am to 5pm. Museum galleries are open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for timed visits through pre-registration and online ticketing on the Parrish website. Visitors are asked to observe social distancing practices and are required to wear masks on Museum property. Please review the COVID guidelines at parrishart.org/visit-parrish-art-museum/
The Field of Dreams exhibition was made possible by the participation of Gray Gallery; Galerie Lelong & Co.; Kasmin Gallery; Loretta Howard Gallery; Glenn Fuhrman and FLAG Art Foundation; and Hargreaves Jones, Landscape Architects.
The Museum’s exhibitions and programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the property taxpayers from the Southampton Union Free School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.
About the Parrish Art Museum
Inspired by the natural setting and artistic life of Long Island’s East End, the Parrish Art Museum illuminates the creative process and how art and artists transform our experiences and understanding of the world and how we live in it. The Museum fosters connections among individuals, art, and artists through care and interpretation of the collection, presentation of exhibitions, publications, educational initiatives, programs, and artists-in-residence. The Parrish is a center for cultural engagement, an inspiration and destination for the region, the nation, and the world.