Exhibition at Parrish Art Museum explores Alfonso Ossorio's artistic dialogue with Pollock and Dubuffet

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York presented "Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet" from July 21 to October 27, 2013. This exhibition positioned collector-artist Alfonso Ossorio as a peer to Jackson Pollock and Jean Dubuffet, examining artistic exchanges between the three figures. Ossorio, heir to a Philippines sugar fortune and a gay practicing Catholic living in East Hampton, New York, sought to synthesize Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Art Brut in his work. The exhibition included Pollock's masterpiece Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) alongside smaller paintings and works on paper, plus Dubuffet's Corps de dame (1950) and Paysage métapsychique (1952). Ossorio's paintings like Perpetual Sacrifice (1949), Crucifix: Seek & Ye Shall Find (1951), and Martyrs and Spectators (1951) demonstrate his experimentation with figurative elements in abstract fields. The exhibition had previously been reviewed at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC from February 9 to May 12, 2013. In the catalog essay, Alicia Longwell references Clement Greenberg's views about artistic single-mindedness. The review argues that while Ossorio was a skilled and well-connected artist, the exhibition inadvertently reveals his minor status compared to Pollock and Dubuffet.