Southampton - Julião Sarmento: Artists and Writers/House and Home, an exhibition of more than 40 paintings and works on paper by the Portuguese artist, will be on view from through June 11, 2011, at the Parrish Art Museum. Organized by Parrish Director Terrie Sultan, the exhibition will focus on the artist's longstanding engagement with the themes of language, writing, and a sense of place. Artists and Writers/House and Home will be the artist's first solo exhibition in an American museum since the 1999 exhibition Fundamental Accuracy, presented at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

Throughout his career, Sarmento has incorporated influences from visual art, architecture, literature, psychology, philosophy, music, and film into powerful visual statements about social and psychological tensions and relationships. Recurrent motifs - such as the silhouette of the female figure, photographs that show only a partial view, or excerpts of text - suggest something hidden, unfulfilled, or taboo.

According to Sultan, "He is a master of the fragmented narrative, breaking apart and reassembling images to create the contemporary equivalent of ancient word-pictures. His paintings and drawings are dramatic scenes, composed almost exclusively in black and white, expressed through seemingly simple yet elegantly rendered images that describe the fleeting nature of human experience. The female form functions as both the compositional focal point and intellectual backdrop against which sensuality, passion, voyeurism, and transgression play out, forming the core of Sarmento's reflections on the central themes of life: love, desire, and death."

Author James Salter. (Courtesy Photo: Lana Rys)

Works in Sarmento's "What Makes a Writer Great" series (2000-2001) combine pictures and brief catch-phrases such as "his back" or "arrogant gait" to suggest clues to the question. "I function as a writer, not in the classic sense, but simply in the sense of writing with images," Sarmento has said. Another series, from 2009, combines portraits of the female form, faceless and wearing a black dress, with images taken from popular culture, among them the covers of Paul Auster's novel "The Book of Illusions" and Salter's "A Sport and a Pastime."

Other works combine images, often the familiar woman in black, with floor plans of buildings. The titles of these works list the components and colors - Woman, House, Black and White; House, Book, Silver Grey and White; House, Plant, Black and Cream - but the meanings and relationships of the elements are suggestive yet elusive.

Sarmento was born in Lisbon in 1948 and studied painting and architecture at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes, where he earned a Masters Degree in 1976. He has exhibited widely for more than 30 years, having twice represented Portugal in the Venice Biennale and participated in two Documentas. His work is included in such distinguished collections as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Musée National d'Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland; and the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.

Salter is the author of the novels "Solo Faces," "Light Years," "A Sport and a Pastime," "The Arm of Flesh" (revised as "Cassada"),and "The Hunters;" the memoirs "Gods of Tin" and "Burning the Days;" the screenplays "Downhill Racer," "The Appointment," "Three," and "Threshold;" and the collection, "Dusk and Other Stories" which won the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award. He lives in Colorado and Bridgehampton.

Anderson is one of America's most renowned - and daring - artists. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 30 years. She has numerous major works to her credit, along with countless collaborations with an array of artists, from Jonathan Demme and Brian Eno to Bill T. Jones and Peter Gabriel. She lives in New York and East Hampton.