'Unfinished Business' Highlights A Friendship Built On Art

The Parrish Art Museum is showcasing three artists-turned-friends in the upcoming exhibition “Unfinished Business: Paintings from the 1970s and 1980s by Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, and David Salle” to continue its current theme of how friendship affects art.

The exhibition will open Sunday, August 7, at the museum in Water Mill with 41 paintings and works that show the evolution of the three artists’ styles from 1976 to 1987. Painting was considered an outdated and lesser art medium during this time, with other emerging forms such as photography, video and installations catching the attention of the art world instead, according to the museum, but these three friends decided to dedicate themselves primarily to painting and to reestablish it as a legitimate medium in which to create effective work.

“All of the work that [Parrish visitors] will see has a great range in terms of creativity,” North Haven resident Mr. Fischl explained. “David’s style is very different from mine, which is very different from Ross’s. It should be a very rich and fulfilling experience for people who want to spend time with the paintings.”

Mr. Fischl’s narrative and provocative style involves themes of domesticity, relationships, desire and disappointment, Mr. Salle’s humorous style focuses on relationships and the culture in which they are expressed and Mr. Bleckner’s abstract works depict deep tragedy and loss.

Terrie Sultan, the director of the museum, put together an exhibition in 2013 featuring Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet and Alfonso Ossorio and it inspired her to seek another group of artists whose friendship influenced each other’s work. When she learned of the traveling and long-lasting friendship of Mr. Fischl, Mr. Bleckner and Mr. Salle, she thought they were a great fit to continue her vision.

They attended the California Institute of the Arts together in the 1970s and were part of its first graduating class. By 1978, they had all moved to New York City and immersed themselves in the postmodernist, conceptual art scene to advance their careers.

Mr. Bleckner was the first to move—he left in 1974 to attend New York University—and the other two soon followed and joined him at the Mary Boone Gallery in SoHo.

The trio eventually established a presence on the East End. They found it to be an ideal environment to create new works as they escaped the city lifestyle and secluded themselves in a more natural setting.

“I was like a pebble. Wherever they went, I would sort of roll out there and land,” Mr. Salle admitted of his inseparable bond with Mr. Fischl and Mr. Bleckner during an interview last year with Ms. Sultan and exhibition curator David Pagel.

Although the three of them have been in group art shows together in the past and shared the Mary Boone Gallery space, this is the first show that focuses solely on them. It will examine their works, their development during the beginning stages of their artistic careers and how their long-standing friendship plays a role in such development.

“I treat it as an honor and I feel that it is a good affirmation of my career and how serious people take it,” Mr. Fischl admitted. “I’m very proud of that.”

“Unfinished Business” will be on view from August 7 through October 16 at the Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill. There will be a book signing for the exhibition catalogue on Friday, August 19, at 6 p.m. where guests can meet the artists and discuss their work. For more information, visit parrishart.org.