Indian Acorn

Betty Parsons' career as gallerist and advocate for art and artists is legendary. Less well known is her own work which has notable affinities with the "primitive" art that she and her artists, such as Jackson Pollock and Alfonso Ossorio, embraced. In 1946, Parsons inaugurated a new gallery space with an exhibition of Northwest Coast Indian painting, organized by Barnett Newman and Tony Smith. Newman wrote in the catalogue, "It is becoming more and more apparent that to understand Modern art, one must have an appreciation of the primitive arts..."� This work from 1966, a superlative example of Parsons's approach, is the first painting by this artist to enter the collection and joins four assemblages and two works on paper. The gift was made possible by her nephew Billy Rayner, a former trustee of the Parrish.