May 1-31, 2024

One wonders if, when Shakespeare penned the line indicating that The Past is Prologue, he could have predicted the relevance of his words time and time again as they have passed through history.

For Richmond Burton, they started early, in fact on the day of his birth, when then Senator John F. Kennedy referenced them in a campaign speech at Phoenix, Arizona. Today, they reflect on the work for this exhibition in which Burton has taken earlier paintings and reworked them, thus using the past to reinterpret the present and perhaps the future.

Long known as a fixture in the New York School of abstract painting, Richmond first entered the art wold working as an architect in the offices of I. M. Pei where, among other projects, he was instrumental in the production of the now legendary pyramids outside the Louvre in Paris.

Richmond’s painting career has had many highlights. Shown early by Mario Diacono and Postmasters Gallery, he became the first one-person exhibition at the nascent Matthew Marks Gallery and for years showed prominently at legendary Cheim and Read Gallery. His work is included in most major New York museum collections and in important private collections around the world.

The Past is Prologue opens with a public reception on Thursday May 2, 2024 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at BravinLee Programs, #211, 505-526 W. 26th Street, New York and continues through Friday May 31st.