Two Artists and Master Strokes

“Master Strokes,” an exhibition featuring the sculpture and painting work of William Harrington and John MacWhinnie, opens at Keyes Art in Sag Harbor with a reception on Saturday, March 11, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The show runs through April 8.

William Harrington is complicated. His collages have meaning style and weight, all expressing his PTSD: His point of view. John MacWhinnie is the polar opposite, working to minimize the story in order to tell it all. His career has the typical turmoil of great artistic genius. Every piece is furthering his investigation into space subject and color.

Both achieve their goals with master strokes.

Harrington, who died in July 2020, was an American painter, sculptor and collage artist whose muscular, potent and often soaring work embodies myriad contradictions, ironies and perennial hopefulness of life in the modern world.

A Vietnam-era army veteran having served in the renowned Combat Artist Team, Harrington witnessed first-hand the horror and tragedy of war, and upon his return as a young man to the United States dedicated his life to challenging and illuminating the raw pursuit of political power and money, through his art.

Using structures of wood, iron steel and found objects, Harrington’s sometimes massive sculptures elicit the skeletons of gigantic unknown beasts or winged seraphim that capture a sense of awe and uneasiness and a strictly American quality of wildness and unpredictability.

John MacWhinnie’s career has the typical turmoil of great artistic genius. Every piece is furthering his investigation into space, subject and color. MacWhinnie grew up in Southampton, where he resides and works.

“My current works were first inspired by a visit to my studio in Southampton by Willem de Kooning and Mimi Kilgore during the 1970s, when he saw an example of a work akin to my current style and excitedly encouraged my continuation of it,” noted MacWhinnie. “Upon reflection, I see the works as having a number of art historical connections, including Italian fresco, Egyptian Fayum portraits, Asian scrolls, the isolated existential subjects of Giacometti, as well as minimal color field works such as that of Mark Rothko and Brice Marden among others; a successful synthesis of seemingly disparate styles. Having been mentored by Fairfield Porter, Willem de Kooning and Larry Rivers for many years, I have absorbed a deep love and appreciation for the physical matter and language of paint.”

Keyes Art is located at 45 Main Street at The American Hotel in Sag Harbor. For details, visit juliekeyesart.com.