This is How We Do It
Thursday, September 13, 2012 – Saturday, October 27, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 13, 2012
– A survey of nearly 250 years of American masterpieces – from works by John Singleton Copley and Thomas Eakins to Andy Warhol, Jules Olitski and current contemporary masters –
New York’s oldest art gallery will become Chelsea’s newest art destination when Babcock Galleries reopens at 525 West 25th Street under the new name: Driscoll Babcock Galleries.
Prominent for its scholarship of American masterworks, the Galleries’ inaugural Chelsea exhibition, This is How We Do It, heralds both the inspired visions of important classic artists of the past and its commitment to presenting internationally pertinent contemporary art with a historical context. The focus remains on the symbiotic interface of classic and contemporary art and the significant relevance in contemporary experience.
“Classic historical art always has currency in contemporary cultures and great contemporary art informs not only our own moment, but our perspective on Classic art. When speaking of great works of art, Classic equals Contemporary, and Contemporary equals Classic.” comments John Driscoll, President.
This is How We Do It features masterworks that date from 1763 to 2012, surveying 249 years of American art drawn from the Galleries’ inventory within the venerable gallery’s 160-year legacy. The exhibition will include significant works by 25 artists, including masters such as John Singleton Copley, Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, Marsden Hartley, and Stuart Davis; to modern greats Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jules Olitski and Andy Warhol; and contemporary artists Margaret Bowland, Marylyn Dintenfass and Jenny Morgan; amongst others.
Driscoll Babcock Galleries represents historic and current artists who have proven instrumental in extending visual and intellectual culture, and whose creative visions have resonance and pertinence beyond the time in which they were created. Accompanying the new location will be a renewed stable of international and contemporary artists who will join the likes of Winslow Homer, John Frederick Kensett, Alfred Maurer, Arshile Gorky, Alan Gussow and David Smith.
Driscoll Babcock’s new ground floor space merges classical Palladian proportions within 5,000 square feet of Chelsea’s predominant industrial architecture of brick and concrete.
ABOUT JOHN DRISCOLL
John Driscoll, PH.D, is a scholar, collector, and art dealer based in New York City. He has owned Driscoll Babcock Galleries since 1987, and has previously held professional appointments at the Palmer Museum of Art, William H. Lane Foundation, Worcester Art Museum, Yale University and New York University. Driscoll has written extensively on American art, is directing the John F. Kensett Catalogue Raisonné Project, and has been the curator, co-curator or a contributor to exhibitions that have traveled to more than twenty leading museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Academy of Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art. He has championed the careers of John Kensett, Marsden Hartley, Ambrose Webster, Charles Sheeler, Edwin Dickinson, Don Nice and Alan Gussow. Driscoll serves on the Advisory Board of the Palmer Museum of Art, the board of the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art and on the Visiting Committee, Department of Drawings and Prints, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
ABOUT DRISCOLL BABCOCK GALLERIES
Driscoll Babcock Galleries, founded in 1852 by John Snedecor, is the oldest gallery in New York City, and the nation’s oldest gallery, which from its inception, has focused on American art. During Dr. Driscoll’s tenure, the gallery has helped to secure numerous prized works for major private collectors and museums across the country including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, all in Washington, D.C.; The Cleveland Museum, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina; Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville Arkansas; The Kemper in Kansas City, The Museum of Fine Arts-Houston and dozens of other museums.
Driscoll Babcock Galleries
525 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
Tuesday – Saturday: 10:00am – 6:00pm
T. 212 767 1852
