Unstill Life Selz releaseFINAL

PARRISH ART MUSEUM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Susan Galardi
631-283-2118 x122
[email protected]
PARRISH ART MUSEUM HOSTS THE PREMIERE READING AND BOOK SIGNING BY AUTHOR GABRIELLE SELZ ON MAY 2, 2014 Daughter of former MoMA Curator Peter Selz Unveils Unstill Life: A Daughter’s Memoir of Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction WATER MILL, NY 4/14/2014—The Parrish Art Museum is thrilled to announce that it will host the first stop on Long Island of author Gabrielle Selz’s national book tour for Unstill Life: A Daughter’s Memoir of Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction, on Friday, May 2, 2014 at 6pm at the Museum. The evening consists of a short film, written and produced by Gabrielle Selz, and a reading and book signing with the author, who lives in Southampton, and a Q&A with special guest Peter Selz. Unstill Life, to be published in May 5, 2014 by W.W. Norton & Company, is the story of Selz’s growing up in New York in the 1960s and 70s, in a home filled with the most celebrated artists of the day: Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Jean Tinguely, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Dubuffet, and Christo, among others. Selz’s family moved to New York in 1958, shortly after she was born, when her father Peter Selz began his seven-­‐year tenure as Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (1958-­‐1965). Gabrielle Selz offers a unique window into the glamour and destruction of that exciting time: the gallery openings, wild parties and affairs that defined one of the most celebrated periods in American art history, and what proved to be a seminal era at MoMA with Peter Selz, the youngest curator to ever hold that position at the Museum. In 1960, Peter Selz staged an exhibition in the MoMA sculpture garden of Jean Tinguely’s Homage to New York, a kinetic sculpture that burst into flames, unbeknownst to Selz. The next morning, Selz was dubbed “Mr. Modern Art” by The New York Times. “I had certain ideas of what I wanted to do,” says Peter Selz in the short film, also titled Unstill Life. “These ideas were not at all traditional.” “My dad always was interested in change and movement. He was a restless man,” says Gabrielle Selz in the film. “There was always a sense of possibility with my father.” Rooted in both personal history and the cultural history of modern art, Selz’s book incorporates over 25 art images that intersect the lives of the Selz family with many of the great art masterpieces of the time. The book also includes personal photographs of art world figures and of the Selz family. Gabrielle Selz was born in Pomona, California, and grew up in New York, living in an apartment on Central Park West from which the Selz family could watch the construction of the Guggenheim Museum. Selz’s family spent their summers on the East End of Long Island; in 1964, her parents rented the Loveridge Cottage in Sag Harbor. After her parents’ divorce, Selz lived in the artist housing project, Westbeth, in Manhattan. Selz earned a BA in art history from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an MFA in writing from City College of New York. A recipient of a fellowship in nonfiction Literature from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a The Moth StorySlam winner, Selz has been published in The New York Times, More magazine, Fiction, Newsday, and Art Papers. She currently lives in Southampton, and writes art reviews for The Huffington Post and Hamptons Art Hub. Unstill Life: A Daughter’s Memoir of Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction is her first book. Unstill Life: Book Release Event with author Gabrielle Selz; Q & A with Peter Selz Friday, May 2, 2014 -­‐ 6:00pm $10 | Free for Members, Children, and Students. Includes Museum admission. Space is limited; advance reservations recommended Friday Nights are made possible, in part, by the generous support of The Corcoran Group. Public Funding provided by Suffolk County. Hamptons Magazine is the media sponsor of Friday Night Programs.
About the Parrish Art Museum
The Parrish Art Museum is the oldest cultural institution on the East End of Long Island, uniquely situated within one of the most concentrated creative communities in the United States. The Parrish is dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of art from the nineteenth century to the present, with a particular focus on honoring the rich creative legacy of the East End, celebrating the region’s enduring heritage as a vibrant art colony, telling the story of our area, our “sense of place,” and its national—even global—impact on the world of art. The Parrish is committed to educational outreach, to serving as a dynamic cultural resource for its diverse community, and to celebrating artistic innovation for generations to come