David Parrish

{{Short description|American artist (1939–2021)}} {{Infobox artist | name = David Buchanan Parrish | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 19 June 1939 | birth_place = Birmingham, Alabama | death_date = 5 December 2021 | death_place = Huntsville, Alabama | resting_place = Elmwood Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama | resting_place_coordinates = | education = | alma_mater = | movement = {{ubl|Photorealism|Hyperrealism<ref>{{cite web |title=Hyperrealism: 50 Years of Painting |url=https://www.kunsthal.nl/en/plan-your-visit/exhibitions/hyperrealisme/ |website=Kunsthal |access-date=23 June 2024 |location=Rotterdam, Netherlands |language=en |date=2017}}</ref>}} | spouse = }}

'''David Buchanan Parrish''' (1939–2021) was an American artist who was a part of the photorealism movement. He is most known for his paintings of motorcycles.

== Biography ==

David Parrish was born on Jun 19, 1939 in Birmingham, Alabama. His father was A. Leonard Parrish and his mother was Jemima Buchanan Parrish.<ref name="obituary"/> Before David Parrish was born, his father worked as a circus performer, where he played a tuba-like instrument in the circus band and rode motorcycles with David's mother-to-be. During David's childhood, his father worked as a banker in Birmingham.<ref name="Tara2007"/> David Parrish was interested in art from a young age and was encourage by his mother, who was also a painter.<ref name="Bundy1983"/>

Parrish attended Phillips High School in Birmingham and graduated in 1957.<ref name="obituary"/> He attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia from 1957 to 1958. After a trip to New York City, he transferred to University of Alabama. He graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in 1961.<ref name="Simpson2003"/><ref name="Severens1995"/> After graduating, he moved to Huntsville, Alabama.<ref name="obituary"/>

Parrish initially aspired to be a magazine illustrator. When he was unable to establish such a career, he gained employment in the Aerospace industry. For almost a decade, he worked making technical drawings in the Aerospace industry, including for NASA.<ref name="Simpson2003"/><ref name="Severens1995"/> Parrish's work in technical design seems to have helped himhone his skills for his work in photorealist painting.<ref name="Severens1995"/>

Parrish died on December 5, 2021 at his home in Huntsville at the age of 82. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama.<ref name="obituary"/>

== Art ==

Parrish's first photorealistic work was a drawing based on a photo of jazz musician Miles Davis that he had found in Esquire magazine. His professors, who were telling him that he should be emulating the non-objective works of Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston, and Willem de Kooning, were angered by the drawing. Despite them telling him that he should make his art more abstract and expressive, he continued to pursue photorealism.<ref name="Tara2007"/>

Parrish is known for his paintings of motorcycles.<ref name="Severens1995"/> His fixation on motorcycles comes from his relationship with his father. Parrish's father never wanted him to ever ride a motorcycle, and so Parrish became fascinated with his father's former "hidden and forbidden" former carnival lifestyle.<ref name="Tara2007"/> Later in his career, Parrish also became somewhat known for his paintings of kitsch porcelain figurines.<ref name="Severens1995"/>

Some of Parrish's paintings lack a clear focal point, which when combined with the rich color and refracted light, give these paintings an abstract quality.<ref name="Severens1995"/>

== Exhibitions == * 1971: (First solo show), Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lindey |first1=Christine |title=Superrealist Painting & Sculpture |date=1980 |publisher=William Morrow and Company, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=978-0-688-03686-7 |page=148 |url=https://archive.org/details/superrealistpain0000lind/page/148/ |access-date=23 June 2024}}</ref> * 2014: ''Photorealism: The Everyday Illuminated'', Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California<ref>{{Cite web |title=Photorealism - Exhibition at Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art |url=https://novakart.com/exhibitions/photorealism-the-everyday-illuminated/ |access-date=2026-05-23 |website=Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art |language=en-US}}</ref> * 2019: '' David Parrish: High Gloss'', Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY.<ref>{{cite web |title=David Parrish – High Gloss |url=https://www.meiselgallery.com/exhibition/david-parrish-high-gloss/ |website=Louis K. Meisel Gallery |access-date=16 June 2024 |date=2019}}</ref> * 2024: ''Chrome: David Parish'', Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama.<ref name="HMA-Chrome">{{cite web |last1=Ward |first1=Justin |title=Chrome : David Parrish |url=https://hsvmuseum.org/chrome-david-parrish/ |website=Huntsville Museum of Art |access-date=15 June 2024 |date=29 December 2023}}</ref>

== References ==  <references>

<ref name="obituary">{{cite web |title=David Parrish Obituary (1939–2021) |url=https://obits.al.com/us/obituaries/huntsville/name/david-parrish-obituary?id=32111209 |website=AL.com |access-date=15 June 2024 |location=Huntsville |date=4 January 2022}}</ref> <ref name="Bundy1983">{{cite book |last1=Bundy |first1=David S. |title=Painting in the South: 1564–1980 |section=David Buchanan Parish |date=1983 |publisher=Virginia Museum |location=Richmond |isbn=978-0-917046-14-8 |pages=342–343 |url=https://archive.org/details/paintinginsouth10000unse/page/342/ |access-date=22 June 2024 }}</ref> <ref name="Simpson2003">{{cite book |editor1-last=Simpson |editor1-first=Fronia |title=American Art at the Flint Institute of Arts |date=2003 |publisher=Flint Institute of Arts, in association with Hudson Hills Press |location=New York and Manchester |isbn=978-1-55595-219-8 |pages=216–217 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americanartatfli0000unse/page/216/ |access-date=22 June 2024 |chapter=David Buchanan Parrish}}</ref> <ref name="Severens1995">{{cite book |last1=Severens |first1=Martha R. |title=Greenville County Museum of Art: The Southern Collection |section=David Buchanan Parrish |date=1995 |publisher=Hudson Hills Press |location=New York |isbn=978-1-55595-102-3 |pages=246–247 |url=https://archive.org/details/greenvillecounty0000gree/page/246/ |access-date=19 June 2024 |language=en}}</ref> <ref name="Tara2007">{{cite journal |last1=Tara |first1=Cady Sartorius |title=Tune Up |journal=Arts and Activities |date=April 2007 |volume=141 |issue=3 |pages=31–32 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/216902802 |access-date=14 July 2024|id={{ProQuest|216902802}} }}</ref>

</references>

== Further reading == * {{cite book |last1=Kahan |first1=Mitchell Douglas |title=David Parrish: An Exhibition |date=1981 |publisher=Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts |isbn=978-0-89280-017-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iIBLAQAAIAAJ |language=en}} * {{cite journal |last1=Preble |first1=Michael |title=Profile: David Parrish |journal=Art Papers |date=June 1981 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=8–9 |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asu&AN=49139119&site=eds-live&scope=site |via=EBSCOhost |access-date=14 July 2024}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parrish, David}} Category:Photorealist artists Category:Hyperrealist artists Category:University of Alabama alumni Category:1939 births Category:2021 deaths Category:20th-century American painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:Painters from Alabama