Newton Haydn Stubbing (1921-83)
Paintings and works on paper by the late Sagaponack artist Newton Haydn Stubbing were featured in several exhibits at the Nabi Gallery's previous space in Sag Harbor, as well as in Swimming in Light, the show that inaugurated the new Chelsea gallery in January, 2004. The images on these and the three following pages are from an exhibit that took place in the fall of 2000, and some of these pieces are still in the gallery's inventory, available for viewing by appointment. The next exhibit featuring them, a solo show, opens on November 6, 2008..
The Sag Harbor show included 35 watercolors and drawings dating from 1953 through 1982, as well as 14 oil paintings. Among them were impressions of landscape scenes on Long Island and in England, still lifes, sketches of birds, fish, and animals, a self-portrait, and several of the semi-abstract compositions the artist called ceremonials.
Findhorn Finnock, watercolor & pencil on paper, 8x12, 1979
Tony Stubbing, as he was known to his many friends here, was born in England, spent his formative years in Spain and France and, in his later years, divided his time between London and Sagaponack. He is best known for the serene, luminous paintings of his late period, but he also produced many spontaneous sketches from nature on his walks through the woods and fields near his studio, and some of these are seen for the first time at the Nabi show.
The Osprey's Nest, Jessup's Neck, oil on board, 8x7, 1982
Although the exhibit concentrated on small works on paper, it also included a selection of the artists work in oil on canvas, among them two large paintings of the Findhorn River in Scotland, which the artist often visited as a Fellow of the Lindisfarne Foundation, a cultural think tank based there. Other landscapes in the show express the spirit of particular places and seasons on Shelter Island, in Amagansett, and in the English countryside.
Findhorn River Legend, oil on canvas, 56x62, 1980
The Nabi is one of two galleries where work by Stubbing can be found; the other is England & Co in London, which recently mounted a major retrospective that emphasized the handprint, ritualistic paintings of his earlier period. His paintings are also in the collections of many public institutions, among them the Tate Gallery in London, the Museums of Modern art in New York, Paris, and Madrid, Guild Hall in East Hampton, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.
Untitled (Crayfish), watercolor & pencil on paper, 13x16, 1982
Valley Smoke (First "Surromantic" Painting), oil on canvas, 33x63, 1980
More Information on N.H. Stubbing
Review of Stubbing Exhibit in The Southampton Press
