Lawrence Fine Art will celebrate work by three artists in their 90s and two in their 80s in a series of presentations and exhibitions over the course of Summer 2016. The artists are: Stan Brodsky, 92; Paul Resika, 89; Knox Martin, 92; Athos Zacharias, 90; and Harriette Joffe, 82.

Gallery Director Howard Shapiro explained the genesis of the series this way:  "The art market is so hyper-contemporary today, and people tend to equate contemporary with young. These artists have been creating works of superb excellence for decades--and continue to do so. If you haven't heard of them before, you should definitely get to know them now. They remain completely relevant."

The gallery will open its summer season with "Stan Brodsky at 92" over Memorial Day Weekend. Brodsky is considered to be Long Island's greatest living artist. Brodsky is known for his  landscapes composed in a loose abstracted style. Artistic style and interior life go hand-in-hand: his are not action paintings but, often, explorations of his mood at any given time or over the course of time.

Brodsky's last retrospective was at the Hecksher Museum in 2013. He shows often with June Kelly Gallery in NYC. In addition to the Hecksher, his work may be found in the collections of Guild Hall, East Hampton; the Parrish Museum; the Baltimore Museum of Fine Art; the Neuberger Museum; the Farnsworth; and many others.

The gallery will next offer "Paul Resika: Boats and Sails." Resika first studied in Provincetown with the legendary Hans Hofmann. "As a colorist – a painter who draws in color with a loaded brush – (Resika) is now without peer in his own generation, a generation that has often made color its most important pictorial interest," Hilton Kramer stated in The New York Times. His latest work has taken on a hard-edge, geometric quality.

The artist has had one-man exhibitions at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College; Graham Modern Gallery, Joan Washburn Gallery, Century Association, Artists Choice Museum, Lori Bookstein, and Salander-O'Reilly Galleries in New York City; Hackett-Freedman Gallery in San Francisco; Lizan Tops in East Hampton, NY; Long Point Gallery, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown.

He has participated in group shows at the National Academy of Design; American Federation of Arts; Hirschl & Adler in New York; Zabriskie Gallery, School of Visual Arts, Museum of Modern Art in New York; Swarthmore College; Smithsonian Institute; American Academy of Arts and Letters; Art Institute of Chicago; Artists Choice Museum; Graham Gallery; Graham Modern, and many others. He has received numerous grants and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and election to the National Academy of Design. 

Next up will be "Works on Paper" by Harriette Joffe. This will be Joffe's third solo show at the gallery. She came to the Hamptons as a young woman in the 1960s and was befriended by all the greats of the first generation of abstract expressionism, including DeKooning, John Little, Ibrim Lassow, Philip Pavia and others. Her knew work is watercolor on yupo paper, a combination which gives the paintings an evanescent feel.

Finally, the gallery will present work by Athos Zacharias and Knox Martin.  "Zach," as Zacharias is called, is a Hamptons legend.  He was DeKooning's very first gallery assistant in 1957 and worked for Elaine DeKooning, Lee Krasner and Alfonso Ossorio. A half-generation younger, nevertheless, DeKooning called him "one of us."

Knox Martin was discovered by DeKooning in the early 1950s, lauded by the critic Meyer Schapiro and given his first solo in his early 20s at thelegendary Charles Egan Gallery.

Knox Martin is a towering figure in the world of American contemporary art. Martin is known both as a great artist and as a teacher of great artists. Robert Rauschenberg wrote of Martin: "You are my mentor. For years, I always asked, what would Knox think of my painting?" He continues to teach master's classes at the Art Students League as he has done for more than 40 years.

He has been known throughout his career for his treatment of the female form, often incorporating elements of cubism and pop in a flat pictoral space.

A member of the National Academy, Martin is the recipient of several Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grants. His work is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran, the Hirschorn, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney, among others.

"One subtext for these shows is pedigree," said Shapiro.  "All of these artists have studied with some of the great painters of the last century. They in turn continue not just to paint but to teach and mentor.  Knox Martin once told me that it is impossible to be a great painter--or a great collector--without some knowledge of art history.  Well, here is 300 years of art history compressed into one summer!"