FIRE ISLAND PINES Tom Bianchi Polaroids 1975-1983

THROCKMORTON FINE ART presents…

TOM BIANCHI’s

“FIRE ISLAND PINES:  Polaroids 1975-1983”

June 29 – Sept 16, 2017

Every emerging minority needs not only a record of its grievances but also an idealized image of its expectations.  Tom Bianchi has given us one version of gay happiness – an earthly paradise where handsome men love one another on white sands under an eternally cloudless sky.  These photographs are at once formal and intimate, for they bring both rigor and tenderness to glimpses of real people. – Edmund White

 

NEW YORK May 18, 2017 — THROCKMORTON FINE ART in New York (www.throckmorton-nyc.com) will present an unusual show of Polaroid images as its summer presentation, from June 29 through September 16.

FIRE ISLAND PINES: Polaroids 1975-1983, by the celebrated lawyer-turned-artist Tom Bianchi, contains dozens of exuberantly playful and homoerotic SX-70 Polaroid images taken between 1975 and 1983. Bianchi documented the gay community at play in one of the few places where they then could openly be gay men — Fire Island Pines.

The images in the exhibition are color, limited edition, enlarged prints of the Polaroids.  The photographs are whimsical and playful.  Yet they also harken to the long tradition in art of celebrating the male physique.

The Pines is a mile-long sliver of some 600 modest and grand houses on a 36-mile long barrier island 60 miles east of Manhattan along the Long Island coast. FIRE ISLAND PINES: Polaroids 1975-1983 is an homage to the free-spirited community that was Fire Island Pines in what is often called the “golden” age in the 1970s.

The Pines was a refuge for as many as 10,000 gay men each weekend who pulled their little red wagons from the harbor to their homes and reveled at afternoon “Tea Dances” and legendary bacchanals.  For many it was their first chance to openly walk hand to hand on the beach with a romantic partner.

Kraige Block, Executive Director and Director of Photography at Throckmorton Fine Art says, “It is nearly impossible for younger generations to understand today just how circumspect gay men had to be back in those days.  There were laws against homosexual activity and men risked their reputations, livelihoods, and very lives if discovered.  In the cities, police decoys trolled for arrests, and blackmail threats caused many men to bottle up their desires for emotional and physical intimacy.”

Spencer Throckmorton adds “We are fortunate that Tom Bianchi earned the trust of enough gay men to allow him to record their lives in the rare place where they could feel safe and accepted. Many were wary of having their pictures taken. But by sharing the Polaroids with them, the men he shot could see that Bianchi was celebrating them.”

It has taken over thirty years for us to see his book of Polaroids in print. Publishers long found the book “too queer” to be commercial: “the public” did not want to see homosexuals.  Despite impressive endorsements from those in the art world, including Sam Wagstaff, Duane Michals and Andy Warhol, Bianchi put the book on hold as the AIDS pandemic devastated the gay community. The box he used to store the images became a mausoleum.

Yet Bianchi still views those years, 1975-1983, as “magical.”

“The blazing sun, the naked bodies in the surf, and the dance music attracted a mix of world class celebrities, models, designers, artists – the best and the brightest.”  They gave Bianchi his creative voice.  “In the Pines, my dreams of being an out gay man and artist became possible.”

Fortunately, Bianchi’s weekend artwork came to the attention of Betty Parsons and Carol Dreyfuss who gave him his first one-man show of paintings in 1980.  Betty Parsons is the legendary dealer who introduced abstract modern art through masters such as Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Clifford Still, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.  That show gave Bianchi the courage to discard his law degree and become a full-time artist.

When his lover died of AIDS in 1988, Bianchi turned his focus to photography, employing the camera to heal psychic, sexual and social shame. He has exhibited at galleries and museums in the United States and beyond. His works are held in many private and public collections. Bianchi has produced twenty-one books exploring sexual identity.

The moving memoir Bianchi wrote for FIRE ISLAND PINES: POLAROIDS 1975-1983, together with the photographs, recorded the birth and development of a new culture at a critical time in America’s political and aesthetic life.  Much of the good we see accomplished today for gay civil liberties and queer consciousness began on the beach at Fire Island. Bianchi was there, ensuring that the beauty of the moment would live on.

Throckmorton Fine Art has been a leader among New York dealers in showing the most important contemporary Latin American photographers at its New York gallery at 145 East 57th Street. Gallery founder Spencer Throckmorton has also pursued a long-held interest in Pre-Columbian art and Chinese jades and the gallery has continually staged important exhibitions and published numerous catalogs on those subjects.

The gallery’s commitment to connoisseurship is underscored by its sales to such major museums as The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Getty and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, along with the Reina Sofia in Madrid. Portions of collections the gallery was instrumental in forming have been donated to the Louvre.  The gallery loans examples on a regular basis to such significant institutions as the National Gallery in London.

As the premier dealer offering vintage and contemporary Latin American photography, Pre-Columbian art, Chinese jades and Tribal art, Throckmorton Fine Art participates in internationally acclaimed fairs, including The Winter Antiques Show in New York each January, AIPAD and during March offers Chinese Jades during ASIA WEEK.

 

If you attend:

Throckmorton Fine Art presents……

Tom Bianchi’s

FIRE ISLAND PINES: Polaroids 1975-1983

June 29 – Sept 16, 2017  Book available for $50.

THROCKMORTON FINE ART

145 East 57th Street, third floor, New York, NY 10022

Tel: 212 223 1059. Fax: 212 223 1937 [email protected]

www.throckmorton-nyc.com 10-5 Monday – Saturday











When: Thu., Jun. 29, 2017 - Sat., Sep. 16, 2017 at 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

THROCKMORTON FINE ART presents…

TOM BIANCHI’s

“FIRE ISLAND PINES:  Polaroids 1975-1983”

June 29 – Sept 16, 2017

Every emerging minority needs not only a record of its grievances but also an idealized image of its expectations.  Tom Bianchi has given us one version of gay happiness – an earthly paradise where handsome men love one another on white sands under an eternally cloudless sky.  These photographs are at once formal and intimate, for they bring both rigor and tenderness to glimpses of real people. – Edmund White

 

NEW YORK May 18, 2017 — THROCKMORTON FINE ART in New York (www.throckmorton-nyc.com) will present an unusual show of Polaroid images as its summer presentation, from June 29 through September 16.

FIRE ISLAND PINES: Polaroids 1975-1983, by the celebrated lawyer-turned-artist Tom Bianchi, contains dozens of exuberantly playful and homoerotic SX-70 Polaroid images taken between 1975 and 1983. Bianchi documented the gay community at play in one of the few places where they then could openly be gay men — Fire Island Pines.

The images in the exhibition are color, limited edition, enlarged prints of the Polaroids.  The photographs are whimsical and playful.  Yet they also harken to the long tradition in art of celebrating the male physique.

The Pines is a mile-long sliver of some 600 modest and grand houses on a 36-mile long barrier island 60 miles east of Manhattan along the Long Island coast. FIRE ISLAND PINES: Polaroids 1975-1983 is an homage to the free-spirited community that was Fire Island Pines in what is often called the “golden” age in the 1970s.

The Pines was a refuge for as many as 10,000 gay men each weekend who pulled their little red wagons from the harbor to their homes and reveled at afternoon “Tea Dances” and legendary bacchanals.  For many it was their first chance to openly walk hand to hand on the beach with a romantic partner.

Kraige Block, Executive Director and Director of Photography at Throckmorton Fine Art says, “It is nearly impossible for younger generations to understand today just how circumspect gay men had to be back in those days.  There were laws against homosexual activity and men risked their reputations, livelihoods, and very lives if discovered.  In the cities, police decoys trolled for arrests, and blackmail threats caused many men to bottle up their desires for emotional and physical intimacy.”

Spencer Throckmorton adds “We are fortunate that Tom Bianchi earned the trust of enough gay men to allow him to record their lives in the rare place where they could feel safe and accepted. Many were wary of having their pictures taken. But by sharing the Polaroids with them, the men he shot could see that Bianchi was celebrating them.”

It has taken over thirty years for us to see his book of Polaroids in print. Publishers long found the book “too queer” to be commercial: “the public” did not want to see homosexuals.  Despite impressive endorsements from those in the art world, including Sam Wagstaff, Duane Michals and Andy Warhol, Bianchi put the book on hold as the AIDS pandemic devastated the gay community. The box he used to store the images became a mausoleum.

Yet Bianchi still views those years, 1975-1983, as “magical.”

“The blazing sun, the naked bodies in the surf, and the dance music attracted a mix of world class celebrities, models, designers, artists – the best and the brightest.”  They gave Bianchi his creative voice.  “In the Pines, my dreams of being an out gay man and artist became possible.”

Fortunately, Bianchi’s weekend artwork came to the attention of Betty Parsons and Carol Dreyfuss who gave him his first one-man show of paintings in 1980.  Betty Parsons is the legendary dealer who introduced abstract modern art through masters such as Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Clifford Still, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.  That show gave Bianchi the courage to discard his law degree and become a full-time artist.

When his lover died of AIDS in 1988, Bianchi turned his focus to photography, employing the camera to heal psychic, sexual and social shame. He has exhibited at galleries and museums in the United States and beyond. His works are held in many private and public collections. Bianchi has produced twenty-one books exploring sexual identity.

The moving memoir Bianchi wrote for FIRE ISLAND PINES: POLAROIDS 1975-1983, together with the photographs, recorded the birth and development of a new culture at a critical time in America’s political and aesthetic life.  Much of the good we see accomplished today for gay civil liberties and queer consciousness began on the beach at Fire Island. Bianchi was there, ensuring that the beauty of the moment would live on.

Throckmorton Fine Art has been a leader among New York dealers in showing the most important contemporary Latin American photographers at its New York gallery at 145 East 57th Street. Gallery founder Spencer Throckmorton has also pursued a long-held interest in Pre-Columbian art and Chinese jades and the gallery has continually staged important exhibitions and published numerous catalogs on those subjects.

The gallery’s commitment to connoisseurship is underscored by its sales to such major museums as The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Getty and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, along with the Reina Sofia in Madrid. Portions of collections the gallery was instrumental in forming have been donated to the Louvre.  The gallery loans examples on a regular basis to such significant institutions as the National Gallery in London.

As the premier dealer offering vintage and contemporary Latin American photography, Pre-Columbian art, Chinese jades and Tribal art, Throckmorton Fine Art participates in internationally acclaimed fairs, including The Winter Antiques Show in New York each January, AIPAD and during March offers Chinese Jades during ASIA WEEK.

 

If you attend:

Throckmorton Fine Art presents……

Tom Bianchi’s

FIRE ISLAND PINES: Polaroids 1975-1983

June 29 – Sept 16, 2017  Book available for $50.

THROCKMORTON FINE ART

145 East 57th Street, third floor, New York, NY 10022

Tel: 212 223 1059. Fax: 212 223 1937 [email protected]

www.throckmorton-nyc.com 10-5 Monday – Saturday

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