L I S A PA R K E R H YAT T: FOCUSING ON THE IRREDUCIBLE Museum of Art - DeLand April 13 - July 9, 2017
Acknowledgments It is a distinct pleasure to witness steady growth in an artist who is going her own way without concern for artistic fashion. Lisa Park-
er Hyatt’s best paintings, called into being by her own need to find order and significance through art, confront her feelings of unease and disorder and symbolically transform them into clear intimations of certainty and order. Hyatt’s art exists between the present and actual and the imminent and possible. Her images are in transition from one state to another from one dimension of reality to another. Reality for this artist is an eternally ongoing process of question and transformation, a dynamic, ever fluctuating series of overlapping images and appearances. Art to such a creative spirit is neither a feast for the eyes nor an arena of emotions. It is, rather, a launching pad for the spirit and a landing area for truths wishing to make themselves known. Lisa Parker Hyatt has been unfailingly generous and helpful in assisting the Museum to coordinate the complex details of this exhibition’s organization. Without the artist’s collaboration and guidance during our numerous telephone conversations and in her studio in Bethesda, it would not have been possible to accomplish this challenging and also pleasurable project. The following donors and businesses merit special appreciation for their support of this presentation and their commitment to this year’s exhibition schedule: Dennis Aylward, Dr. Bruce Bigman and Carolyn Bigman, Samuel and Donna Blatt, Bill and Terri Booth, Thomas and Loretta Chudy, Earl and Patti Colvard, Sal Cristofano and Laura Gosper, Manny De La Vega, Dr. Wayne Dickson and Jewel Dickson, Robert Dorian and Linda Colvard Dorian, Lee and Susan Downer, Dr. Susan Griffis, Christie G. Harris, John and Karen Horn, Ed Jackson and Pat Heller-Jackson, Betty Drees Johnson, Ray and Betty Johnson, Ed and Pauline Lacey, Barney and Linda Lane, Doni Lennon, Tim and Mary Jeanne Ludwig, Robin May, Greg and Beth Milliken, Linda Pinto, Dagny and Tommy Robertson, Stephen and Claudia Roth, Patricia Schwarze, Judith Thompson, Dr. Ian Williams and Dr. Nancy Hutson, Dr. John Wilton and Nancy Wilton, Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation, DeLand Breakfast Rotary, DeLand Fall Festival of the Arts, DeLand Rotary Club, Inc., Boulevard Tire Center, E.O. Painter Printing Company, Krewe Nouveau, Fleishel Financial Associates, Lane Insurance, Inc., Lacey Family Charitable Trust, Mainstreet Community Bank, Massey Services, Inc., Museum Guild, Publix Supermarket Charities, United Parachute Technologies, West Volusia Beacon, W. W. Gay Mechanical Contractor, Inc., State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and the County of Volusia. I would like to recognize our Museum’s Board of Trustees, led by Judy Thompson, President, for encouraging the staff to realize its ambitious, diverse and internationally respected exhibition program. Finally, I would like to applaud the unfailing assistance of my staff whose daily achievements are a constant source of pride. George S. Bolge Chief Executive Officer Museum of Art - DeLand
CROSS WITH BANANAS, 1985 Oil on canvas, 17 1/2” x 23”
Lisa Parker Hyatt: Focusing on the Irreduc i ble We identify an art through its craft, savor its character through its style, and gauge its significance through its form. Style expresses a point of view. It can be elegant, animated, turgid, lyrical, cramped, drab, etc. It tells us about the artist’s attitudes toward herself and toward the world, and reflects how she wants to be seen, how she postures, and how blatant or seductive she can be. Form, on the other hand, is the artist’s verdict on reality, her deepest and firmest decision on the meaning and nature of life. It represents her perception of the point of stability between the momentum of self and the realities of others, and reflects her insight into laws and circumstances beyond her own. It is an act of transcendence over passion, and her recognition of the need for resolutions and reconciliation.
CLOUDS IN A ROOM, 2012 Oil on canvas, 42” x 72”
One of today’s most dedicated advocates of art as form is the artist Lisa Parker Hyatt. She distills and compresses her vision of reality into the most compact of images, and is ruthless in the elimination of everything in her art that does not contribute to the most emphatic articulation of that vision. Hyatt’s imagery is puristic and absolute. She selects her architectural and environmental subjects and reduces them to the very minimum and divorces them from any association with the appearances of physical reality. The results of this process is the difference between seeing the sun as a perfect circle and seeing it as round and hot. Or the difference between seeing grass as green and seeing it as green and growing. To this artist, the way the world looks has nothing to do with art. She is willing to take chances in order to free painting from the tyranny of illusion. Lisa Parker Hyatt is an artist concerned about codifying reality, but not that involved in painting the skeleton of life not to see its flesh-and-blood humanity. Art has to do with man, for man shapes it, forges it and draws enjoyment and meaning from it. It is his cultural litmus paper, weather vane, compass, and lightening rod all rolled into one.
UNTITLED 120, 1983-85 Oil on canvas, 54” x 120”
But what does this artist’s images have to do with man and his realities? Can one feel uplifted by looking at them? Or delighted? Or comforted? Art should be vulnerable, should reflect something of man’s imperfections and questionings. Viewers are more than willing to give over to art, but first must feel that its formal resolutions are relevant to, and drawn from, man’s fears, loves, and expectations. Art’s beauty, wholeness, even its unique kind of perfection, come about within the sensiblities of the viewer, and not be spelled out too precisely on the canvas. A painting should suggest perfection, not attempt to paint, or the viewer is deprived of his chance to experience the formulation of such “perfection” in himself. A work of art, then, exists to trigger a response or a quality in the viewer. To attempt to paint that quality itself is to paint only its idea. Lisa Parker Hyatt invites everyone into her canvases and into her inner feelings. We know exactly where we stand with her. We recognize her anxieties, doubts, and hopes as our own, and so are respectful and impressed by the way her art gives them formal significance. Her pictorial form is the outward manifestation of her attitude toward life. It tells us that aloneness is the central human condition, and that man’s salvation and greatness can only come about by confronting and surmounting the pain of that loneliness. But it must be done with fortitude and equanimity. That vision of human reality and of human courage is the irreducible element in Hyatt’s art. Every shape, line, tone, and color in her work contributes to it. Even the quality of light has its roots in the desire to create an atmosphere of clarity. The wide windows, mysterious doorways, and empty expanses of buildings, and their sunlit surfaces all contribute to establish the haunting sense found in her paintings. But they also give dignity and serenity to the depictions by the sensitive way they have been fashioned and composed. By applying all her skills and sensibilities to the creation of an image that stabilizes and transcends human alientation, Hyatt permits us to share with her some of the elements of her personal dignity and courage. Every artist risks something - Lisa Parker Hyatt is an extremely good realistic painter - who charts new ground. The profound goal of her art seems to be to put us and to keep us on the track, to remind us of life’s wholeness, harmony, and design - and to help detach us from feelings of negation and insignificance. As an artist, she grapples symbolically with the basic questions of life. But she must also win that battle in some form or other, or what she produces will have little meaning or value. A work of art is always a victory, tiny or great, over those forces that erode our being or derail our sense of the quality of life. g.s.b.
WONDERFUL DREAM, 1999 Graphite on paper, 23” x 29”
UNTITLED: GIBRALTER, 2003 Graphic on paper, 29” x 23”
PORTRAIT OF A SON, 2008 Graphite on paper, 50 1/4” x 96”
Biography Education:
MFA BA
University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Selected Solo Exhibition: 2017 Lisa Parker Hyatt: Focusing on the Irreducible, Museum of Art - DeLand, DeLand, FL Lisa Parker Hyatt, Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA 2012 Open Text: New Work by Lisa Parker Hyatt, Beaux-arts des Amériques (Fine Art of the Americas), Montréal, QC (catalog) 2007 Lisa Parker Hyatt Ehrlich, Beaux-arts des Amériques, Montréal, QC (catalog) 2006 Lisa Parker Hyatt Ehrlich, Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA 1999 LIsa Parker Hyatt Ehrlich: Light, Recent Drawings, Barry University Library Gallery, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL 1985 Lisa Hyatt, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY Lisa Hyatt, Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Island, FL 1984 Lisa Hyatt: Paintings, Miami Dade College, Miami, FL 1983 Lisa Hyatt: Recent Paintings, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY Lisa Hyatt: Paintings, Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, FL Lisa Hyatt: Recent Paintings, Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Island, FL 1980 Lisa Hyatt: Recent Paintings, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY 1979 Lisa Hyatt: Recent Paintings, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL 1978 Lisa Hyatt: Recent Paintings, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY 1975 Lisa Parker Hyatt: Paintings and Drawings, Medici II Gallery, Bay Harbor Island, FL
THREE PLANES THREE APERTURES, 2010-2012 Oil on linen, 52” x 95”
Awards 1983-84 1982-83 1980-81 1978 1974 1973
Florida Council for the Arts, Visual Artists Fellowship (painting) Roadworks, Barnett Bank, Jacksonville, FL (billboard commission) Florida Council for the Arts, Visual Artist Fellowship (painting) Art in Public Places (painting) Miami Springs Public Library, Miami Lakes, FL Florida Council on the Arts Grant (photography, offset lithography) Univesity of Miami, Coral Gables, FL Charles Cowles Fellowship, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
Public Collections Barry University, Miami Shores, FL Dade County Art in Public Places, Miami, FL Davidson College, Davidson, NC Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL Metropolitan Museum and Art Center, Coral Gables, FL Miami Dade Public Library, Miami, FL Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, FL Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA Museum of Art - DeLand, Deland, FL University of South Florida, Tampa, FL On the Cover, 1521, 2007 Oil on linen, 12” x 12”
Catalogue PALM ON 97th STREET UNTITLED: FIVE RESTING FROM A TO B AND BACK AGAIN (On loan from Dr. James Jordan) PORTRAIT OF PAINTING JUAN BANANAS UNTITLED: 1983 (On loan from Dr. Philip Holtsberg & Brian Mathewson) UNTITLED: FOUR APERTURES THREE FLAMINGOS UNTITLED: 120 CROSS PINK CROSS WITH BANANAS SOUTH BEACH WONDERFUL DREAM (On loan from Beryl Solla & James Yates) PURPLE MONUMENTS (On loan from Jamil E. Nasir Esq.) MIAMI SHORES 102 BARDO RED HIDING UNTITLED: GIBRALTAR PALMS (On loan from Kristen and Jacob Ehrlich) BOCOOR BLUE CRAWLING 102906 PINK 1521 ALLAN CARROT: TWO PORTRAIT OF A SON ONE RED, THREE WHITE UNTITLED: VANISHING FLOWERS 620 COMING AND GOING THIS IS WHAT I AM THINKING THOUGHTS OF GOETHE BONDAGE 9/14 2082 THREE, FOUR, ONE CLOUDS IN A ROOM FIFTEEN PLANES, 6 APERTURES ULTRA SEVEN APERTURES MOTHER NIGHT FOUR PLANES, 2 APERTURES THREE APERTURES NINE FLOWERS HERMAN MILLER THREE PLANES THREE APERTURES (Permanent Collection, Museum of Art - DeLand) Museum of Art - DeLand Staff
1977 1978 1979-1980 1980 1983 1983 1982-1983 1983-1985 1984 1985 1995 1999 1999 1999 2000-2007 2001 2001 2001 2003 2003 2006 2006 2006 2006 2007 2007 2007-2017 2008 2008 2008 2011-2012 2011 2011 2011 2011 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012-2016 2016 2017 2017 2012
All dimensions in inches Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Graphite on paper Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Graphite on paper Graphite on paper Oil pastel on paper Pastel on paper Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Pen on paper Graphite on paper Graphite on paper Oil on linen Graphite on paper Graphite on paper Oil on linen Oil on linen Oil on linen Pigment print Graphite on paper Oil on linen Graphite on paper Graphite on paper Pigment print Graphite on paper Graphite on paper Ink and graphite on paper Pigment print Pigment print Graphite on paper Oil on linen Oil on linen Oil on linen Oil on linen Oil on linen Oil on linen Oil on linen Oil on linen/canvas
Museum of Art - DeLand 100 N. & 600 N. Woodland Blvd. DeLand, FL 32720 386.734.4371
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22.5 x 30 42 x 60 23 x 29 48.5 x 86 60 x 60 47 x 95 71.5 x 96.5 54 x 120 11.5 x 16.75 17.5 x 28 23 x 29 23 x 29 29 x 23 22.5 x 30 47.75 x 81 48.5 x 92.25 17.75 x 24.25 10 x 7 29 x 23 29 x 23 47 x 80.5 14 x 11 14 x 11 47 x 80.375 12 x 12 46 x 70 17 x 22 50.25 x 96 58 x 70 31.5 x 50.25 23 x 29 17 x 22 10 x 7 10 x 7 10 x 7 17 x 22 17 x 22 30 x 40 42 x 72 36 x 72 32.75 x 44 36 x 72 42 x 60 72 x 96 72 x 96 52 x 95
Museum of Art - DeLand Board of Trustees Judy Thompson, President Gen. Lee Downer, (Ret.) Vice President Dr. John Wilton, Secretary Linda Colvard Dorian, Past President Mary Jeanne Ludwig, Treasurer Dr. Ian Williams, At Large Dennis Aylward Samuel Blatt Sal Cristofano Jewel Dickson John Horn Ray Johnson Suzanne Lonky
Robin May Greg Milliken Dagny Robertson Marty Suarez