Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton has announced that “Kevin Teare: Upon This Rock” will open on Saturday, December 5, in the museum’s Woodhouse Gallery.
Mr. Teare was named best in show of Part II of the 69th Annual Guild Hall Artist Members Exhibition, representing the second half of the alphabet, held in 2007. The exhibition juror was Faye Hirsch, senior editor, Art in America magazine.
The “Upon This Rock” exhibition features a series of oil on Mylar and vellum prints that have functioned as palettes for paintings Mr. Teare has, for the most part, long since discarded. He has now found expression in the tension and synergy formed by the residual drips, spills, dabbles and strokes of preparation.
The Mylar and vellum prints are actual reproductions of different documents, some political, others denoting music or referencing The Beatles. As palettes, the printed sheets serve as “hosts” for incubating expression, according to curatorial notes on the exhibition. The final work depicts the organic energy of the artist before he actually engages with the canvas, capturing the raw fecund moment of possibility when the colors are mixed, squeezed, poured and massaged in preparation of the application of paint to canvas. This is the invisible spark of inspiration behind an outcome that is as yet unseen and undefined, but filled with purpose, intent and hope.
Mr. Teare is inspired by obsession, and has nurtured an obsession that is itself about obsessive behavior as it applies to The Beatles, covert American history, uniform and symbol design, family systems, and pop-psych that serve as archetypes in his work. The exhibition will feature several pieces from his Beatles series, titled “The Most High.” For Mr. Teare, the fulcrum of the last century was November 22, 1963, the day when John F. Kennedy was assassinated; Aldous Huxley died; and “With the Beatles” was released in England: all events that changed the world. The Mylar and vellum prints reflect key aspects of these times, and the show also includes collages and water colors, as well as oil on linen paintings.
Born in Indiana to a creative family, Mr. Teare vividly recalls the smell of linseed oil and the sounds of jazz constantly playing at home. In his family, most everyone, including his grandmother, painted. He moved to New York City to pursue art, and at the age of 25 he was awarded a National Endowment Fellowship for Painting.
He first ventured out to the East End to curate “JFK, Myth & Denial” with the gallery owner Renée Fotouhi. The show included the works of Mary Boochever, Larry Clark, Sue Williams, Kiki Smith and Andy Warhol, among others.
Mr. Teare is a 2006 recipient of a Joan Mitchell Fellowship Award for painting. His first exhibition was at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1975. Since then he has exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. He lives with his wife, the artist Mary Boochever, in Southampton.
A “Kevin Teare in Conversation” program will be offered on Saturday, December 5, from 3 to 4 p.m. with Mr. Teare speaking with Pauline Sutcliffe, author of “The Beatles Shadow,” and Dr. Christine Feldman, author of “We Are The Mods.”
The opening reception for “Kevin Teare: Upon this Rock” is open to Guild Hall members only from 4 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, following the “In Conversation” program. The reception is open to the public from 5 to 6 p.m. The Museum at Guild Hall is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Suggested admission fee is $7; Guild Hall members admitted free.