I imagine many folks, even Art folx, are still surprised to see Betty’s name mentioned as a practicing creative- isn’t she a gallerist? Y’all know we love “and” around here, and, Betty is an “and” for sure. I first learned about Betty’s painting practice in 2019 after Artforum published an announcement of an upcoming show featuring her work. I was so excited several months later, while in NYC for the Donal Judd retrospective at the newly renovated MOMA, to see several of them irl.
From the Artforum article, “Parsons is best known for her pioneering New York gallery, which launched the careers of many postwar American heavyweights: Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, Agnes Martin, and Ad Reinhardt, among others.” In addition to attracting the respect and partnership of so many important mid-century creatives, she is the gallerist credited with adopting the “four white walls” approach to displaying high Modernist painting.
Currently, Bard College is featuring Betty Parsons: An Expanded World, organized in part by another dually-talented creative, Amy Sillman, who paints and writes with virtuosity (and who created a site-specific painting for the show with which some of Betty’s works interact). From the first link above:
“Though Parsons launched the careers of many major Abstract Expressionists, including Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, and Jackson Pollock, many of these predominantly male artists left after growing frustrated by her minimal interest in the market and ceaseless search for the new and undiscovered. She remained devoted to artists who were excluded by galleries and major arts institutions at the time, including Agnes Martin, Forrest Bess, Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, Leon Polk Smith, Sonja Sekula, and Barbara Chase-Riboud.“
I also discovered in spinning up this post that Sarah McCraw Crow published a very thorough essay back in June on Betty to her Substack “An Unfunished Story” with many more biographical details than I will jump into here- interested parties should click through on the link for sure.
Betty has also caught the attention of John Yau in Hyperallergic (on the occasion of another posthumous exhibit of her work in 2017). The 2017 show was not the first exhibit of her work either posthumously, or in her lifetime- Wikipedia notes that “During her lifetime, Parsons received important solo exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (1968), the Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey (1974) and Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London (1980)“. Art in America published an interview by Artist Helène Aylon (b. 1931), who showed at Betty Parsons Gallery, as early as 1977 in which Parsons mentions her practice (although in fairness the majority of discussion is dishing on her quite interesting life).
Regular readers know that I used to blog about an individual abstract artist every day. I made a short post about Parsons in 2019 after reading the Artforum announcement mentioned and linked above, which is now replaced by this essay. I also made a Pinterest “gallery” of paintings at the time (although the work I saw in NYC shortly after were mostly her wood assemblages which are fantastic, no doubt why Sillman was drawn to them). There is also an online catalog of her work maintained by Alexandar Gray Associates which represents her estate.
BTW FWIW, I decided to write this blog recently when looking into the artist Lee Hall after encountering a piece of hers, I think for the first time, at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum. I learned that, in addition to painting, Lee wrote a “tell all” about Betty (and another about the de Koonings). Lee is also another artist that probably doesn’t get a ton of attention, especially outside of NC.
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Prior “Artists we should talk about more:”
Charles Seliger
Someone you think I should write about? “Yes” this “series” is going to be focused on non-figurative artists, and obviously ones that should be getting more (or any…) shine. I also plan to filter it for creatives whose work I’ve seen. I’d love to know someone you think I should on the lookout for in my travels!
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