Robert Harms: Paintings and Watercolors

From May 22 through June 22, 2009, The Drawing Room in East Hampton is pleased to present an exhibition of abstract oil paintings and related watercolors by longtime South Fork resident Robert Harms. Painted in the artist’s pond-front Southampton studio over the past year, each canvas evokes a distinct aspect of the shifting natural views and evanescent light that filters through the large plate glass windows. A series of small watercolor renderings of branches stretched over the water’s surface, tree trunks, and emerging foliage offer evidence of the artist’s reliance on close observation of his surroundings. Articulating Harms’ process in an introductory catalog essay, noted curator Henry Geldzahler wrote: “Robert looks hard at nature, ingests what he sees, contemplates it at length, squaring it in the process with his own temperament.”

Geldzahler also noted the resonance of the East End environment for Harms, who began painting here in the early 1980s. ”Born on Long Island, in Nassau County, it seems no accident that Harms has chosen to paint in the Hamptons where in the nineteenth century John Kensett, and more recently Fairfield Porter and Willem de Kooning, have continued their exploration of the continuum between nature and art.“

See below for full press release and selected works.