Circle of Friendship

[caption id="attachment_45377" align="aligncenter" width="559"] Jane Freilicher and Jane Wilson[/caption]

On Saturday, November 7, at 11a.m., the Parrish Art Museum will present Circles of Friendship: Freilicher and Wilson, a multi-media program celebrating the close-knit group of colleagues in diverse creative disciplines surrounding artists Jane Freilicher and Jane Wilson. The program will feature the first screening in more than 60 years of John Latouche and Harrison Starr’s 1952 film “Presenting Jane,” along with a live reading of the script written by poet James Schuyler; a screening of Andy Warhol’s 1964 Screen Test of Jane Wilson; and a conversation between the Museum’s Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator Alicia G. Longwell and writer Sam Swasey.

“Both Jane Freilicher and Jane Wilson forged friendships in the worlds of art, literature, music, and dance, throughout their illustrious painting careers,” says Longwell. “The Museum is thrilled to be able to organize this program that highlights but a few of these connections and celebrates these artists’ enduring legacies.”

The short film “Presenting Jane” was conceived as a tribute to Ms. Freilicher by friends and poets John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and James Schulyer. Shot at locations on Long Island’s East End, including Georgica Pond, the film was shown only once—at the Theatre de Lys in Greenwich Village in 1953. Presumed lost after its initial screening, “Presenting Jane” was recovered in 2013 by Ashbery biographer Karin Roffman, and will be shown for the first time in over six decades at the Parrish with a live reading of the script. The screening at the Parrish will also include a series of outtakes from the original 1952 shoot.

Andy Warhol’s 4-minute Screen Test of Jane Wilson is one of almost 500 such films created between 1964 and 1966 by the artist, using a stationary, silent Bolex camera loaded with 100-foot rolls of black and white 16mm film. Warhol’s subjects were famous and anonymous visitors to his studio, The Factory. Ms. Wilson’s screen test was later used in Warhol’s 1969-1970 film The Thirteen Most Beautiful Women. Screen Test will be followed by a conversation between Ms. Longwell and Sam Swasey about Ms. Wilson’s friendships and connections in the worlds of art, music, and dance.

The program will be followed by a book signing in the museum lobby with John Gruen of his most recent title, “Jane Wilson: Photographs” by John Jonas Gruen, created in collaboration with Swasey. Copies of the book will be available for purchase through the museum shop.