At 80, Parsons still believes in creative approach to art
By Helen L. Kohen
Special to The Herald
The Miami Herald
Art Review
Friday, March 13th, 1980
Though the snobs may have it otherwise, living long—and actively—is surely “the best revenge.” Longevity counts in the saving and making of reputations, especially, it would seem, in the art world. For examples we have Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel, Barbara Morgan and Betty Parsons: All women, all in their eighties, all stubbornly strong-willed, all now some kind of heroes. It is doubtful whether these artists care to be lumped together (they are very different artists), but they are mentioned together because they have at least one more thing in common. All have visited South Florida this past year, Parsons most recently, having attended a reception last weekend in conjunction with an exhibition of her works at Virginia Miller Galleries.
Parsons is different. Unlike her aforementioned contemporaries, who struggled for recognition solely as creative artists, she is versatile. A born collector, an art dealer and a sometime poet, her struggles took many forms. She persisted in pushing paintings by Pollock, Newman and Rothko when no one wanted to look at them. She purchased things for her own pleasure and then had to sell them when business got bad. At the same time, she “embarrassed” other dealers, trying to find the proper outlet for her own, then unsalable, works. Though well established for some time in all her roles, Parsons is still very unfashionable in believing that art is now too expensive, well over the budgets of young collectors.
She hates that. Wishing art on everyone, and seeing art in everything, Parsons stakes her energies on being “madly interested in the creative approach.” In her current show, made up largely of wood constructions, there is one painting that illustrates the practice she preaches. “The sun did it,” she explained, “by casting circles of light on a blank canvas set up outdoors.” Parsons traced the irregular circles in yellows, adding the blue sky later, thus building a creation in concert with nature. She calls it Alphabet of the Sun.
Betty Parsons’ wooden disc ‘Oglala’
at Virginia Miller Galleries.
Betty Parsons
Betty Parsons
The wooden works also have their origin in nature. Along with the help of some friends, Parsons gathers “carpenter throwaways,” bits of worked wood and boards already weathered by the seasons. The disparate shapes and sizes are painted first (“according to the colors they seem to specify”), then cut up, sawed into pieces and reassembled. It is no surprise that the resulting forms suggest fun, and that the direction that many of their elements suggest is up. Parsons sees in their character “the dance of life,” art made on “natural impulse,” by a person imbued with the spirit of a “sophisticated primitive.”
Parsons is urbane, a heavyweight in the art world, though certainly less heavy an artist than those she helped to make famous. She gentles her artistic statements, accentuating the positive and going for the joy. In fact, she is tough and savvy. Her parting wisdom came out of that dual sensibility: “Life is madly exciting, but the world stinks.” At 80, still involved with making and doing and dealing, she knows.
BETTY PARSONS: RECENT CONSTRUCTIONS AND PAINTINGS, on view through March 31, can be seen Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Virginia Miller Galleries, 3112 Commodore Plaza, Coconut Grove. For information call 444-4493.
