Graydon Parrish is a contemporary realist painter (and you all thought they didn’t exist anymore – pah!) who is trained in the atelier method in painting, modeled after the art schools of the 15th-19th centuries, and whose work is a combination of classical and contemporary realism. He was exposed to art at a young age, as his parents collected 19th-century art. He studied at the New York Academy of Art where he earned his MFA in painting. He also earned an additional BA at Amherst College, where his thesis painting “Remorse, Despondence and the Acceptance of an Early Death” earned him summa cum laude honors. In his early stages, most of his paintings were allegorical or of nudes. Parrish created an allegorical tribute to the events of 9/11 in 2002, entitled “The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy,” which has been compared to Picasso’s “Guernica” in its impact and comment on a calamitous event. The piece is currently on tour and previously hung in the New Britain Museum of Art.
I find Parrish’s work to be very beautiful and admire his skill, especially in a contemporary art world which has shed virtually any notion of the importance of skill in artmaking. I think he communicates something vital that was once held in high esteem in the art world and is now an afterthought in the face of contemporary conceptual art. I look forward to seeing more brilliant paintings from this artist.
Representative works:
"The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy"
"Study of a New York Woman"
"Remorse, Despondence and Acceptance of an Early Death"
Boodleheimer 