“To Richard Segalman painting was like breathing,” wrote Richard Hoffman, in a July 2021 obituary for the much beloved artist. Few inspired such devotion in a community as did Segalman, whose oil paintings and monoprints are on display in his third exhibition at the James Cox Gallery in Willow, which is located six miles west of the Village Green in Woodstock. The exhibit is entitled Forever Remembered to pay tribute to the renowned artist who passed away on July 6, 2021. Cox recalled that he met with the artist shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer to discuss a summer exhibit at the gallery. “You can imagine how shocked and saddened I was to learn that we lost Richard just a few days later.”
A gallery release tells us that “though Segalman was a master of many mediums, Cox chose to concentrate on the artist’s oils and monoprints for the Forever Remembered exhibit. In commenting on the group of monoprints included in the show, Cox recalled that in the early 1990’s Segalman was struggling with a painter’s version of writer’s block. ‘He was looking for a new direction, but was having difficulty deciding where to take his art.’ Then, in 1993, the artist enrolled in a monoprint workshop taught by Kate McGloughlin at the Woodstock School of Art. ‘That opened up a whole new world for Richard!’ Cox said. He delved into the process and created scores of images, describing the approach to McGloughlin as a method that ‘requires more spontaneity and represents a new loss of control…a loss that feels more connected with the limitlessness of the elements.’”
In the July 2021 piece, Hoffman described Segalman’s art. “Working in oil, watercolor, pastel and later, monotype, he is best known for capturing the light and beauty of women, clothed in luminous dresses, in the lofts and on the rooftops and stoops of Manhattan, and on the beaches of Naples, Florida, and Coney Island. One of Segalman’s lifelong muses, dear friend and gallerist, Alice Hoffman, said, ‘Every great painter is a good draftsman. Richard was an exquisite draftsman. He loved to draw. That, and the light in them really gave his paintings their structure and strength.’”
Segalman’s monoprints were well received by his dealers and collectors, eventually leading to an exhibit in 2006 at New York’s esteemed Marlborough Gallery. His work has also been represented by Davis and Graham Galleries in New York and Meyer-Munson Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. He is represented in over 40 museum permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
When Segalman, who had never been hospitalized until his cancer diagnosis, died at the age of 87, he left behind hundreds of devoted friends, students and patrons. As his favorite model and friend of 35 years, Ayesha Ibrahim, noted, “To be with Richard was to share everything, verbally and visually, about art and life and how it works.”
Forever Remembered will be on view at the James Cox Gallery, 4666 Route 212, Willow, NY through September 4. The exhibition may be viewed at the gallery website www.jamescoxgallery.com. For more information email the gallery at info@jamescoxgallery.com or call 845-679-7608.
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