Maxfield Parrish: Master of Make-Believe
I had a chance to go to the opening of Maxfield Parrish: Master of Make-Believe at the Nevada Museum of Art. This is the largest exhibit ever of Parrish’s work. The highlights of the exhibit were his rarely seen murals and the remarkable Du Pont Mural, painstakingly restored and on exhibit for the first time ever here in Northern Nevada.
Like most people, I have seen tons of Parrish’s prints – but this show has the real thing – the paintings! I learned something very interesting about his legendary use of the color blue: Parrish would grind up the semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli, and mix it into his blue paint before applying it to the canvases. No wonder those blues are so bizarrely intense and luminous.
The museum was rockin’! There were more than 1,500 people at the opening! They had a fabulous martini bar and a great band. The museum shop has all these great Parrish catalogs so I bought the one specific for the show. I just started reading it and it I’m learning so much about Parrish. I can’t wait to go back and really take time to savor the paintings!
Here are my pics from the grand opening:
July 14th, 2005 at 10:04 am
Thanks for the interesting review of the show. I’m writing an article on Parrish. Are you sure about the ground-up lapiz thing? Is that mentioned in the catalog you bought or did someone just say it was true. It’s a lovely fact if it’s true!