The New York–based mostly FLAG Artwork Basis and the Parrish Artwork Museum in Water Mill, New York, have introduced a brand new partnership that may see the 2 organizations collaborate on three exhibitions yearly starting subsequent yr and increasing till 2030.
The exhibitions will probably be collectively organized by the Parrish’s curatorial staff and that of the FLAG Basis and will probably be staged in two adjoining galleries on the Hamptons museum. The inaugural exhibition, a solo exhibition for Ellsworth Kelly that includes work from throughout his eight-decade profession, will open in March 2026.
The partnership builds on an current one which launched final yr when the Parrish and FLAG launched an exhibition collection, titled “FRESH PAINT,” that includes a beforehand unshown work by a up to date artist. That collaboration was so fruitful that the 2 establishments have determined to develop it additional.
“Teamwork and dealing collectively is one thing that I’ve all the time cherished, and far of my enterprise profession has been pushed by partnerships,” FLAG Artwork Basis founder Glenn Fuhrman advised ARTnews in a latest Zoom interview. “FLAG is definitely constructed on the character of partnerships. We’re all bringing collectively various things.”
“It’s labored very properly, which is why we’re increasing,” mentioned Parrish government director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut.
Moreover, the museum’s Affiliate Curator of Exhibitions on the Parrish will now be formally referred to as The FLAG Artwork Basis Affiliate Curator of Up to date Artwork. Ramírez-Montagut mentioned she had prompt the named place as a “expertise retention” device, including that “as a regional museum hitting above its weight, with very gifted curators doing great work, we have to be sure that we proceed to be engaging to museum professionals and preserve them working at a regional degree.”
Reggie Burrows Hodges, Labor: Sound Bathtub, 2022, set up view on the Parrish Artwork Museum as a part of “Contemporary Paint,” 2025.
Photograph Gary Mamay/©Reggie Burrows Hodges/Courtesy the artist and Karma
That place will probably be held by Scout Hutchinson, who joined the Parrish in October 2024. Hutchinson has labored with FLAG on a number of “Contemporary Paint” exhibitions. Hutchinson has regularly performed studio visits with FLAG’s director Jonathan Rider as a part of the group of the collection, lots of which the 2 have co-curated.
“That is one other mind-set about learn how to assist inventive follow past our brick-and-mortar area,” Rider mentioned. “Our mission is all about learn how to assist up to date follow in all kinds, and the concept of having the ability to do three extra museum-caliber exhibitions per yr is extremely thrilling for us right now.”
“The teamwork has been a beautiful partnership for us,” Hutchinson mentioned. “With the ability to accomplice with different small however mighty groups like [the one] on the FLAG Artwork Basis is a approach to bounce concepts round collectively and develop our curatorial expertise right here on the Parrish.”
The Kelly present, produced with the artist’s property and his gallery, Matthew Marks, is “one thing actually particular,” Fuhrman mentioned. “Ellsworth spent a variety of time within the Hamptons. He knew and cherished the neighborhood very properly.”
Ramírez-Montagut mentioned they selected Kelly as the primary present partially due to his ties to the East Finish, because the museum typically highlights artists with connections to this a part of Lengthy Island.
Roy Lichtenstein, Tokyo Brushstroke I and II, 1994 (fabricated 2008/2009).
©2014 Property of Roy Lichtenstein/Courtesy Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman and The Fuhrman Household Basis
Fuhrman, who has a household house within the Hamptons, has been visiting the East Finish for many years, since he graduated faculty, and over time, he started visiting the area’s museums, together with the Parrish. He quickly befriended the museum’s earlier director, Terrie Sultan, and their bond finally led Fuhrman to conform to a long-term mortgage of two sculptures by Roy Lichtenstein, Tokyo Brushstroke I & II (1994), which have stood outdoors the museum since 2014. Over time, he would mortgage different works like Isa Genzken’s Two Orchids (2015/16).
After Sultan departed the museum in 2021, Fuhrman thought his involvement with the Parrish—past the Lichtenstein mortgage—may fizzle out as can occur throughout a management change. However Ramírez-Montagut contacted him quickly after beginning in 2022.
“From the very starting, I walked out of that first assembly saying, ‘That is an thrilling second for the museum. That is going to be a brand new imaginative and prescient, a brand new eye towards the long run,’” Fuhrman recalled. “I used to be excited to see if I might simply even be slightly bit supportive.”
That preliminary dialog in the end led to the launch, with Fuhrman’s FLAG Artwork Basis, of the “Contemporary Paint” collection in 2024. Staged within the foyer and open to the general public freed from cost, the exhibits are based mostly on ones held by FLAG’s “Highlight” initiative. “Contemporary Paint” has seen the 2 organizations accomplice on single-work exhibits for artists like Lauren Halsey, Derrick Adams, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Raven Halfmoon, and Rudolf Stingel.
Derrick Adams’s Getting the Bag (2024) was the topic of the artist’s 2024–25 “Contemporary Paint” exhibition on the Parrish.
Courtesy the artist
Ramírez-Montagut mentioned the collection her as a result of it runs counter to how museums often function. Most establishments plan exhibitions years upfront, not solely to appropriately analysis a given artist or topic, but in addition to fundraise for them. “We had been lacking having that finger on the heart beat, being there with the nationwide discourse, and having the ability to be conscious of what’s occurring with extra immediacy,” she mentioned.
When she arrived, Ramírez-Montagut was enthusiastic about considering by what the Parrish would contribute to its audiences, each the local people that lives on the East Finish year-round and the rich summer season crowd, which frequently contains members of the worldwide artwork world. Ramírez-Montagut famous that the Parrish serves a 50-mile radius and works with 5 faculty districts.
“We’re the main regional museum,” she mentioned. “The Parrish is an establishment with two arms: the left arm is the year-round neighborhood that we’re there to serve, and the proper arm is programming artwork of the best caliber doable to have the ability to meet the expectations of artwork consultants, lots of whom come to the Hamptons in the summertime.”
She added, “The best way that we’ve been programming the museum is by embracing that dichotomy.”
The continued concentrate on year-round programming is one facet of the brand new exhibition collaboration with Flag, which is able to stage three exhibitions yearly. The primary will usually run from February/March to June, the second from July to October/November, and the third across the vacation season. The partnership, Ramírez-Montagut, permits “us to begin constructing that high-caliber program by the entire yr.”
Lauren Halsey, pleasure n progress thang, 2024, set up view as a part of the artist’s “Contemporary Paint” exhibition, on the Parrish Artwork Museum.
Photograph Gary Mamay/©Lauren Halsey/Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
This isn’t the primary time that FLAG has collaborated with an establishment with the intention to assist up to date artwork. Since 2018, Fuhrman has partnered with fellow collector Suzanne Deal Sales space on the Suzanne Deal Sales space / FLAG Artwork Basis Prize, which she had launched in 2016. That prize is awarded biannually and comes with $200,000 in addition to a solo exhibition on the Up to date Austin, which co-organizes the prize, and FLAG in New York.
Fuhrman, who likened his involvement to being on the “35,000-foot degree,” mentioned that he sees the partnership with Parrish as a possible mannequin for different museums. He likened it to the assist he and his spouse, Amanda, gave to the Institute of Up to date Artwork Philadelphia a number of years in the past that allowed it to go admission free.
“If this results in 5 different partnerships with between personal foundations and 5 different museums across the nation, extra energy to it,” Fuhrman mentioned. “That simply results in higher exhibitions, higher assist for museums, higher assist for artists. That will be an excellent victory for us.”
Ramírez-Montagut added, “It not solely checks a variety of packing containers, nevertheless it does it differently that maybe museums will not be so used to working. That opens the chances for different museums to see that there are alternative ways of working.”
