Parrish Art Museum Announces Remarkable New Additions to Its Collection
The new acquisitions include works by Suzanne McClelland, Bernard Meniel, Cornelia Thomsen, and others
WATER MILL, NY | AUGUST 26, 2024 — The Parrish Art Museum is delighted to announce the addition of significant artworks to the Museum’s permanent collection. The acquisitions cover a diverse range of artistic styles and eras and further solidify the Museum’s commitment to presenting a comprehensive range of contemporary and historical art.
Among the notable acquisitions are Suzanne McClelland’s (American, b. 1959) recent works, CUTS (For Never) and CUTS (AWAY) (2023). Most recently, McClelland was included in the Parrish’s 125th Anniversary exhibition, Artists Choose Parrish. The Museum currently holds four works by McClelland’s Plot (1999), a mixed media portfolio containing photographs, drawings, and prints, documenting a project where she asked friends from all over the country, including East Hampton, to bury four of her drawings; she exhumed them a year later to examine the effects of climate change. McClelland has generously gifted these new works to the Museum, adding to the collection’s robust holdings renown East End artists. McClelland’s work was included in the 1993 and 2014 Whitney Biennials, and she has been included in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY. McClelland is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019, an Anonymous Was A Woman Award, and a Nancy Graves Foundation Grant.
Cornelia Thomsen (German, b. 1970). Silver Ratio, 2024, 8 Aquatint prints on Hahnemühle paper, edition 2/12, paper size: 23 x 26 in. each; plate size: 15 x 18 in. each. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, Museum purchase with funds provided by Arthur and Diane Abbey.
Raised in East Germany and trained at an early age as a painter at the prestigious school of the Meissen Porcelain Factory, Cornelia Thomsen’s practice ranges from painting and drawing to print-making. She settled in New York in 2006. Over the years, Thomsen’s work gradually moved from artisanal representation toward fully realized abstraction. In 2023, she began a series of eight aquatints based on the golden ratio—which applies if the ratio of two quantities is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. In 2024, she created a second series of aquatints, based on the silver ratio or silver mean, which applies if the ratio of the smaller of two quantities is the same as the ratio of the larger quantity to the sum of the smaller quantity and twice the larger quantity. This set of eight aquatints marks the artist’s first work in the Museum’s permanent collection. Her work is included in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Tucson Museum of Art, and the Froebel Museum in Bad Blankenburg, Germany. This series is an important work to be acquired as it adds to the Museum’s collection of contemporary artists living and working on the East End.
Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Executive Director of the Parrish Art Museum said, “The Museum’s latest acquisitions underscore the Parrish’s dedication to providing our community with engaging works of art that continue to solidify our role as the premier arts education institution in the region. We deeply appreciate the unwavering support of our friends and donors, whose generosity has enriched and expanded our permanent collection for generations to come.”
Louis K. and Susan Meisel have generously donated 20 works to the Museum’s permanent collection as part of the Parrish Art Museum’ s most recent set of June acquisitions. Included in this selection are works by Bertrand Meniel, Raphaella Spence, Joyce Stillman-Myers, Clive Head, Robert Gniewek, Richard Mclean, Yigal Ozeri, Jack Lembeck, Theodoros Stamos, Tom Wesselmann, and Alexander Archipenko among others. Notably, the two works by Bertrand Meniel come just before the Parrish is set to open Beyond Reality: Paintings and Drawings by Bertrand Meniel. This selection of work marks the first by some in the collection while others build upon their presence in the Museum’s holdings.
About the Parrish Art Museum
The Parrish Art Museum is a place to discover and connect with artists and art with a focus on the rich creative legacy of the East End and its global impact on the art world. Inspired by the natural setting and historical artistic community of Long Island’s East End, the Parrish Art Museum celebrates its legacy through a distinctive contemporary lens and socially conscious global context. The Parrish illuminates the creative process and how art, architecture, and design transform our experiences and our communities, and how we relate to the world. Access to relevant cultural engagement, artistic inspiration, a natural environment, and architectural ingenuity characterizes the Museum experience as a unique destination for the region, the nation, and the world.
Contact:
Melanie Tolan | tolanm@parrishart.org
Top (Left to Right): Suzanne McClelland (American, b. 1959). CUTS (For Never), 2023, polymer and oil on linen, 84 x 72 inches. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, Gift of the Artist. Suzanne McClelland (American, b. 1959). CUTS (AWAY), 2023, polymer and oil on linen, 84 x 72 inches. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, Gift of the Artist. Bertrand Meniel (French, b. 1961). Chevy’s, 2018, acrylic on linen 59 x 83 in. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, Promised Gift of Louis K. and Susan Meisel.
Bottom (Left to Right): Cornelia Thomsen (German, b. 1970). Silver Ratio, 2024, 8 Aquatint prints on Hahnemühle paper, edition 2/12, paper size: 23 x 26 in. each; plate size: 15 x 18 in. each. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, Museum purchase with funds provided by Arthur and Diane Abbey. Clive Head (British, b. 1965). Aberystwyth, 1990, oil on paper, 12 x 18 in. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, Promised gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel.
