Two Exhibits At Guild Hall

Two exhibitions will grace the walls of Guild Hall in East Hampton from Saturday, October 26 through December 30: “Abstract Expressionism Revisited” and “Joyce Kubat, My People.”

“Abstract Expressionism Revisited: Selections from the Permanent Collection” is curated by guest Joan Marter, Ph.D. in the Moran and Woodhouse galleries.

The theme comes from the avant-garde movement of the 1950s. Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, and others, were active participants in a movement that created an artists’ colony of the area. In conjunction with the exhibit, a catalogue of color illustrations and an illuminating essay will be published to highlight the critical role these East End artists played in the movement.

Marter received her doctorate from the University of Delaware in 1974 and has since lent her expertise as an art critic, author of “Women of Abstract Expressionism,” co-editor of the Woman’s Art Journal, a distinguished professor of art history at Rutgers University, and other projects and works.

A reception will be held on Sunday, October 27, from 2 to 4 PM, following a gallery discussion from 1 to 2 PM. The exhibit is set to include works on paper, paintings, and sculpture, all to celebrate the abstract art of Guild Hall’s collection. Guests will be shown works that have been dormant from view in recent years, as well as some notable loans mixed in.

In Guild Hall’s Spiga Gallery, curatorial assistant Casey Dalene organized “Joyce Kubat: My People.” A members’ reception will take place Sunday, October 27, from 2 to 4 PM with a gallery talk on November 16 at 2 PM.

Kubat received top honors at the 79th Artist Members Exhibition in 2017, carefully selected by guest awards juror Ruba Katrib, who curated the Sculpture Center and currently holds a position as curator at MoMA PS1. In her current exhibit, Kubat displays works that have been in development since 2002. Psychological figurative works with pastels on damp paper create works of velvet pigments, pink inks with a fleshy transparency, all to elicit an emotional connection to human anatomy.

“The figure has always been my focus, and over the years, it’s become a psychological focus, a not-always-easy-to-view focus. Art with only surface excitement seems empty. For me, it has to have a serious and profound underpinning, always poignant, often humorous, relating in some way to the universal humanity common to all of us,” Kubat said.

Guild Hall is located at 158 Main Street in East Hampton. Learn more at www.guildhall.org.

nicole@indyeastend.com