Updated: December 5, 2009, 4:33 pm

Two Brilliant Shows Grace The Galleries Of Guild Hall

By Douglas Harrington

"Corazon" (2009), metal, rags, gesso, oil paint, by artist Priscilla Heine on view at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Photos by Douglas Harrington

"Bag of Blue" (2007), oil on linen, by artist Priscilla Heine.

East Hampton - Founded more than 75 years ago, Guild Hall has a long and storied East End reputation regarding the performing arts. The John Drew theatre hosts full stage productions, staged readings, film screenings and musical and dance performances. It is not uncommon to find some of the world's greatest performers gracing the stage of Guild Hall, with just as many often sitting in the audience.

Equally as impressive and influential is Guild Hall's museum galleries, which have hosted some of America's greatest visual artists and sculptors, including works by Childe Hassam, Jackson Pollack, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Chuck Close and Andy Warhol to name but a very few. That legacy continues with two spectacular installations presently on display.

First there is the Priscilla Heine show, "Bloom," that will only be running through November 29, so hurry! Heine is an abstract expressionist painter and sculpture who, like de Kooning, paints in the present. Her strokes are bold in both rich earth tones and subtle pastels. There is an intense energy and visual life to her forms and shapes, as if each painting had a living, breathing existence bursting forth from the canvas. There is indeed movement within her large, both compositions.

Two of Priscilla Heine's large and richly colored paintings.

I was particularly fond of "Bag of Blue" (2007) with its deep blues and energetic line work. I was also taken with "Lady's Swamp" (2008), a painting which seems to have both horizontal and vertical movement of violet and slate, as if reaching out from the center of the work to the edges. My favorite in her use of brighter colors and shading was "Mr. Sweetlove" (2009). All three paintings mentioned where oil on linen, but Heine also works by joining oil with charcoal in the case of "High Seat" (2007) and "Brunch" (2007).

Heine's work as a sculptor is equally as heralded as her brushwork. In 2007 she was the winner of Top Honors at the 69th Annual Guild Hall Artist Exhibition by distinguished juror and art critic Faye Hirsh for her multi-media sculpture "Pick Me a Place" (2007). This exhibition includes several of Heine's sculptures, often formed from rags, plastic gloves, discarded products, cardboard and glassine.

Pieces from the recently acquired works in the permanent collection of Guild Hall.

The other installation at Guild Hall is called "ac-qui-si-tions." This show celebrates recently acquired works in the permanent collection of the museum. The museum has had a long tradition of acquiring works of artists who have lived and worked in Eastern Long Island, many of whom represent some of the nation's greatest painters, sculptors and photographers. The over 60 pieces on exhibition reflect an incredible range of work that is brilliantly installed and breathtaking in its scope.

From "Rome" (1932), a watercolor by Fairfield Porter to "Sunset and Autumn Dunes" (1958), an oil on canvas by Kyle Morris to the 1996 "Chuck Close Portrait" by photographer Linda Alpern, this show has something for every taste in every medium. The collection will remain on view in Guild Hall's main gallery through January 17.

For more information go to www.guildhall.org