Betty Parsons's group exhibition, Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today at the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY, will be on view September 27, 2026–February 14, 2027.
The Parrish Art Museum's press release follows:
For centuries, Long Island’s East End has been a hub of artistic innovation and cultural exchange, where artists have found inspiration in the region’s landscape and thriving arts community. Abstract Expressionism, while a movement established and developed in New York, had immeasurable significance on the East End of Long Island—taking shape in the summer of 1945 with Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner establishing their home base in Springs, NY. Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today examines how the Abstract Expressionist movement flourished on the East End, highlighting the many voices who contributed to the genre.
Drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection, The East End, 1940 to Today begins in the mid-twentieth century, presenting the work of both the first- and second-generation Abstract Expressionists of the 1940s–60s. Featuring works by Mary Abbott, James Brooks, Elaine de Kooning, Perle Fine, Gertrude Greene, Lee Krasner, and Esteban Vicente, the presentation focuses on paintings made during the years in which the artists were living and working on the East End. This period also marks the growing relationships of the region, which saw Pollock and Krasner recommend Willem and Elaine de Kooning to stay with them at their house in Springs in the summer of 1948 and similarly, advocate for James Brooks and Charlotte Park to make the move from New York to the South Fork, which came to fruition in 1949.
The exhibition also spotlights the enduring influence of the Abstract Expressionist moment on the East End. Works by Willem de Kooning, John Opper, Betty Parsons, Joanna Pousette-Dart, and Syd Solomon highlight the moment after the rise of Abstract Expressionism, demonstrating a shifting style during the 1970s and 1980s. More recent works reveal how East End artists have continued to pursue and expand gestural painting from the 1990s to the present, including paintings by Claude Lawrence, Suzanne McClelland, Pat Steir, and Frank Wimberley among others.
