Parrish to display hidden treasures in new home

The opening of the new Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill this fall marks the first time that treasures from the museum's vault -- major works by Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, William Merritt Chase, Fairfield Porter and Cindy Sherman -- will be seen on an everyday basis.

The $26.2-million museum -- the first built on Long Island in nearly 40 years -- opens Nov. 10 with a special exhibition of works on paper by Malcolm Morley, who has lived and worked in Bellport since 1983.

That show will complement what museum director Terrie Sultan sees as a transformative future: Highlighting the creativity and influence of East End artists from the 19th century to the present.

"What really turns me on," Sultan said, "is the opportunity we have . . . to show how important this museum is."

The new Parrish -- you can't miss it from Montauk Highway -- nearly doubles the space for art, from 4,000 square feet at the existing Southampton Village space to 7,500 spread over 10 galleries. Stretching longer than two football fields, the airy structure designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron includes an indoor/outdoor cafe. The museum -- under construction since July 2010 -- sits on a 14-acre site planted with native trees, shrubbery and grasses. A series of north-facing skylights provides natural light.

Ninety-five percent of the cost has been raised from individual and corporate donors, according to board treasurer Norman Peck.

"The galleries are the heart and soul of the new museum," said Parrish chief curator Alicia Longwell. Previously any special exhibits, such as the Morley, forced all 2,600 artworks in the Parrish collection to the vault.

The dual anchors to the collection are Chase, the American Impressionist who opened a summer plein air school in Shinnecock Hills in the 1890s, and Porter, the post-World War II realist who moved to Southampton in 1949. Abstract Expressionist works by de Kooning, Pollock and Lee Krasner are well-represented in the collection, plus those of Robert Motherwell, Esteban Vicente, Larry Rivers and Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. The Parrish has remained current with contemporary artists Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, Ross Bleckner, Jane Freilicher, April Gornik, Dorothea Rockburne, Sherman and more.

The Parrish loans important works to museums across the country. Sultan recalled instances when people have seen art exhibited in other museums and didn't realize it was from the Parrish: "That's because they haven't been able to see it," Sultan said. "In the new museum [Chase's] 'Bayberry Bush' will always be on display. And [Charles] Burchfield's 'Glory of Spring' and probably several Porters. I could go on."

Recent acquisitions going on display for the first time in November include Bleckner's "Architecture of the Sky" (1990), Keith Sonnier's "Palm: Saw Tooth Blatt" (2004) and an untitled Louise Nevelson from the '70s.

Before the new building offered the possibility that these works could be shown on a regular basis, Sultan said they may not have come the Parrish's way. "No one wants to see their art sit in a vault. We expect to have about 10 percent of our collection on display at any one time."

Christina Mossaides Strassfield, museum director at Guild Hall, describes the Parrish's Water Mill space as "a great opportunity. Our collection is strictly East End," she said, "but they have a little wider range."

The last art museum built on Long Island was at the Museums at Stony Brook (now the Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages) in 1974.

Sultan says she's not worried about leaving the center of a teeming summer-season village in favor of a drive-to location. "We see the new Parrish as a destination museum," she said, citing the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif., and Copenhagen's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

"We think people will say, 'Let's meet at the Parrish,' " said Anke Jackson, Parrish's deputy director.

Besides seeing the art, visitors can stop by the cafe for a glass of wine and/or light fare. They might catch a film or lecture, or just sit outside on concrete benches that line either side of the building, which evokes a Long Island potato barn. The grounds eventually will be dotted with sculptures, Sultan said, emphasizing "eventually."

Inside, "the sky will be a major player," Sultan said. "Artists who come out to the East End always talk about how the light inspires them. The changing sky will be reflected in each gallery."

A short history of LI art museums

The new Parrish is the first Long Island art museum built from the ground up since the Art Museum of the Museums at Stony Brook (now the Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages) in 1974.

Huntington's Heckscher Museum of Art was erected in the 1920s and the Nassau County Museum of Art took over the onetime residence of Childs Frick, son of U.S. Steel co-founder Henry Clay Frick. The Emily Lowe Gallery of the Hofstra University Museum was built in 1963. The Islip Art Museum occupies part of the Town of Islip's Brookwood Hall.

The Parrish's current building on Jobs Lane in Southampton opened in 1898 -- a year after the museum organized. Before the new Water Mill construction, it was the last art museum built on the East End. Guild Hall, a multipurpose visual art and performing arts center, opened in 1931.

The final Jobs Lane exhibit, "The Landmarks of New York," a photography show, opens June 24 and runs through Sept. 4.

"We're in the process of hiring an architect to rehab the space," Southampton village administrator Stephen Funsch said. "But we have no new tenant in mind yet."

-- Steve Parks