Lawrence Fine Art will present a retrospective of the work of American modernist painter Rolph Scarlett at the Gallery beginning April 18th and running through May.

"Rolph Scarlett was there at every pivotal point in the development of Modernism in America," says Gallery Director Howard Shapiro.  "Yet his contribution to American modernism continues to be underestimated and too often limited to an appreciation of his geometric works."

Best known for his geometrics ala Kandinsky, Scarlett was a protean talent and an early modernist master on a par with Hartley, Marin or Stella. His ouevre encompasses superb early cubist works, biomorphics, abstract expressionist paintings, surrealism and drip paintings.  For years, his work was collected by a knowledgeable few and his estate closely held. His works, along with those of Klee and Kandinsky, composed the original collection that became the Guggenheim Museum.

"Scarlett was producing superb gestural works ala Kline in the early 1940s," says Shapiro, and "It is a little known fact that he painted along-side Pollock and that his drip paintings were exhibited at the Whitney in 1951. My favorites are his Miro-esque watercolor works in which he allows the paper to absorb the paint."

The Gallery exhibition will survey Scarlett's works from the early teens onward with superb examples from all eras. Many of the works come from the collection of Sam Esses, a noted collector of Scarlett's work.

Lawrence Fine Art is located at 37 Newtown Lane in East Hampton, NY.