From October 3, Seattle's Frederick Holmes and Company, in cooperation with the Weinstein Collection-San Francisco, will present a comprehensive survey of Modernist painter, Rolph Scarlett (1889-1984), featuring over 40 original paintings and works on paper - non-objective, abstract, and figurative - dating from the 1930’s through the early 1960’s; the largest gallery exhibition ever presented in the Pacific Northwest. 

Any presentation on the legacy of Scarlett has to include the history of the Guggenheim Museum’s founding, which was the peak of Scarlett’s career. Along with Russian Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and the German Rudolf Bauer (1889-1953), Canadian-born Ralph Scarlett was one of the founding artists of Solomon Guggenheim’s original museum which opened in 1938: THE MUSEUM OF NON- OBJECTIVE PAINTING. He became the third most highly collected artist among Guggenheim’s vast holdings which comprised the museum’s permanent collection.

Through the museum’s founding curator and director, Baroness Hilla Rebay’s zealous leadership and advocacy of this radical avant-garde genre of painting and philosophy, the museum became a groundbreaking institution in New York, attracting collectors, critics, and artists. Rolph Scarlett - painter, stage and set designer, industrial designer, and jeweler - was introduced to non-objective in 1923 through a chance meeting in Geneva with Paul Klee. In 1938, after submitting a portfolio of gouaches one paper to Baroness Rebay, he was awarded a Guggenheim Grant which was enough to allow him to paint full-time. Described by Rebay as her “greatest find”, Scarlett became one of the premier exhibiting artists as well as a featured lecturer at the museum on the principles of non-objective painting.

The museum and Scarlett thrived for over ten years until Solomon Guggenheim’s death in 1949 after which the Guggenheim family altered the direction of the museum from its exclusive focus on non-objective to a more general presentation of Modern Art. Hilla Rebay was asked to resign her position and never stepped inside the museum again. (The current Frank Lloyd Wright designed building didn’t open until 1959 - ten years after Solomon’s passing.) Much of Guggenheim’s collection of non-objective that had been so carefully selected and curated by the Baroness Hilla Rebay and Guggenheim - including all of Scarlett’s - were placed in storage and remained largely unseen again until the early 2000’s. 

Scarlett’s work was featured in several other museum shows, including the Whitney Museum of American Art’s juried annuals in 1951 and 1952. But with the bitter experience of seeing much of his best work placed into storage and remaining unseen, Scarlett turned his back on New York and moved north to the Woodstock region. There he painted, made jewelry, had the occasional regional show and accepted residential teaching positions in Florida and Portugal. Scarlett died at his home in Woodstock in 1984.

Today, Ralph Scarlett is increasingly praised as one of the important contributors to the canon of American Modern. The December-January 2017 issue of Art And Antiques Magazine featured an eight-page article contributed by Editor-in-Chief, John Dorfman on Scarlett titled “OBJECTIVE: NON-OBJECTIVITY”.  His paintings are in the permanent collections of multiple prestigious museums including The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Smithsonian Museum of American Art; and Carnegie Museum of Art.  

ROLPH SCARLETT: LEGACY LOST AND FOUND continues the gallery’s ongoing dedication to presenting historic Modern Art to a growing group of collectors, both regional and nationally, who recognize the critical importance and visionary brilliance of this pioneering era of American art.

ROLPH SCARLETT: LEGACY LOST AND FOUND

October 3 - November 30, 2019 (*Preview and Lecture, Oct. 2, 2019)

Frederick Holmes And Company - Gallery of Modern & Contemporary Art

309 Occidental Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98104  (206) 682-0166

*A special preview and lecture on this period in New York - the characters and events that shaped art in America today - will be held at the gallery, Wednesday October 2, 6:30-8:00. (RSVP Only)