Bermuda No.2

Although the early 20^th century paintings of Picasso and Braque are cited as seminal in abstract art it was not until the 1930’s that the movement found its full swing as an avant garde movement in America.  And by 1950, Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists pushed their visions to yet another limit and established New York as the epicenter of the art world.

Since then, abstraction has been entrenched internationally as one of the most dominant forms of visual expression.  But the problem is that while many thousands of artists have tried their hand at abstraction the great majority have failed.  Although many artists have been sincere and passionate in their pursuit, the fact remains that too many abstract painters have fallen far short of what the British art critic Clive Bell, called “significant form” way back in 1913. He referred to that special orchestration of lines, shapes, and colors into certain combinations and relationships so that the completed work evokes an aesthetic ecstasy.  They move us.  It’s just that simple . . . yet so immensely difficult to pull off.

Eugene Healy ranks among those abstract painters who have clearly grasped Bell’s concept of “significant form.” For this artist, collage is a melody first heard as a thirteen-year-old growing up in Brooklyn, New York, where he was born in 1948. Among his early primary influences were Matisse, Vermeer, Diebenkorn, Rauschenberg, Hoffman, and the Fauve painters. He pursued his painting at New York Institute of Technology, earning his B.F.A. in 1972.

Starting in 1967, he began a long exhibition record with galleries and art museums throughout the country. He has also served as a curator, beginning in the late 1970’s, when he conceived and organized the popular traveling exhibition, American Vision, which was launched at New York University. Later, he served as Director of the National Artists’ Alliance, and as Exhibition Designer for the Yale Center for British Art. Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO of General Electric, is among the most enthusiastic collectors of Healy’s collages.

Many of Healy’s collage-paintings are abstractions of shore scenes, being places that have evoked particular moods and feelings in the artist.  And it is those feelings that he so effectively materializes by mixing mediums ranging from oil, watercolor, encaustic, oil crayon, lacquers, and colored pencil applied to fragments of canvas, boards, and paper. Often, one delights in the subtle addition of beach sand, fragments of printed fabrics, and even pieces of window screens. These are musical arrangements. Yet what is generally not known about the artist is that in the process of capturing those feelings just right he returns to each work, over and over, almost obsessively making changes until he is certain his expressions sing. 

-- Peter Hastings Falk

Gene Healy

Since 1967, Eugene Healy has pursued abstraction with collage visualized as shorescapes. He has effectively materialized his feelings about living near the water, being places that have evoked in him particular moods.  He obsessively makes many changes in his collages, utilizing a great variety of mediums until he is certain his expressions sing to the tune of Clive Bell’s concept of “significant form.” Healy has also served as a curator and exhibition designer. Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO of General Electric, is among the most enthusiastic collectors of his collages.

Select Solo Exhibitions

1972          New York Institute of Technology (Library Mural)

1974          Fairfield Public Library Gallery, Fairfield, Conn.

1974          John Slade Ely House, New Haven, Conn.

1980          Parsons School of Design, New York

1980          New School for Social Research, New York

1998          Yale University, School of Medicine

2000          Peter Hastings Falk Gallery, Madison, Conn. (solo exhibition)

2000          University of Connecticut (solo exhibition)

2000          Hastings Art Management Services, Inc, Madison, Conn.

2001          Opus 71 Galleries, Key West, Florida (solo exhibition)

2001-on    Art Cabinet, Nantucket, Mass.

2004          Kiesendahl+Calhoun Fine Art, Ltd.,  Beacon, New York

2006          Nevin Kelly Gallery, Washington DC (solo exhibition)

2008          Cate Charles Gallery, Stonington, Conn.

2010-on    Summer House Gallery, Madison, Conn.

Select Group Exhibitions

1967          University of Tennessee

1968          Northeast Louisiana State College

1968          Louisiana State University

1972          C.W. Post College, New York

1974          John Slade Ely House, New Haven, Conn.

1976          John Slade Ely House, New Haven, Conn (Munson Gallery Award)

1976          Munson Gallery, New Haven, Conn.

1978          Educational Center for the Arts, New Haven, Conn.

1979          American Vision Exhibition, NYU

1980          American Vision Exhibition, NYU

1981          American Vision Exhibition, NYU

1981          New York University (“Small Works” exhibition)

1988          Dumont Landis Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey

1992          Chapel Street Gallery, New Haven, Conn.

2000          The Painting Center, New York

2003          Nevin Kelly Gallery, Washington, DC

2010          Cate Charles Gallery, Stonington, Conn.

2011          Gallery 125, Bellport, New York

2011          Madelyn Jordan Fine Art, Scarsdale, New York

Curatorial Projects

Exhibition Designer, Yale University, Yale Center for British Art

1979-81     Creator and Curator of American Vision traveling exhibition: New York University; Montclair State College, NJ; Parsons School of Design, New York; New School for Social Research, New York