Curator Peter Barberie has tied together core artistic themes in their ‘utterly different’ work.
By Adam Schrader
Larry Fink, the late photojournalist and art photographer whose work often depicted the glamour of the rich and famous, will have his photographs shown alongside the sculptures and paintings of his wife, Martha Posner, for the first time.
Fink, who died in November 2023 at the age of 82, had been in talks to have a solo show of his work at the Sarasota Art Museum. As his health continued to deteriorate, the exhibition evolved into one, guest-curated by Peter Barberie, that would put Fink’s and Posner’s work in conversation with each other.
“Larry was really hoping to be able to participate in the event itself,” Posner said in an interview. “But clearly that wasn’t going to happen. I don’t know how Peter Barberie did this. He made my work have this wonderful communication and interaction with Larry’s work that made perfect sense.”
Barberie, a Philadelphia Museum of Art curator, admitted in an essay that their art “seems utterly different,” contrasting Fink’s glossy photos of human behavior and desires to Posner’s waxy, rough and hairy sculptures.
But Barberie wrote that Posner and Fink share “core artistic themes” including desire, vulnerability, and brutality, which were often shaped by life on their Pennsylvania farm.
Virginia Shearer, the director of the museum, said in an interview that the couple “really admired each other,” with their mutual influence highlighted by Barberie’s curation.
“Larry could get into a pond and really embed himself with a group of frogs,” Shearer said. “The beginning of the exhibition pairs those photographs with Martha’s beautiful watercolor drawings of animals and insects.”
Posner is best known for large sculptural works using raw materials, like figures made from honeysuckle retrieved from the woods around their farm in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, on walks with her dog, Grizzly, who would carry back vines to use. She’s also used fleece from the sheep and llamas they raised, and feathers clipped from the wings of dead peacocks.
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Images:
Larry Fink. George Plimpton and Models, Elaine’s, New York, NY (1999). Photo by Larry Fink/MUUS Collection.
Larry Fink, Lilith, Sculpture by Martha Posner (1993). Courtesy Larry Fink/MUUS Collection.
Larry Fink. A Sabatine Christmas, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania (1983). Photo courtesy of Larry Fink/MUUS Collection.
