‘Getting Old Is Not for Sissies’

NARROWSBURG, NY — “Getting Old is Not for Sissies,” an exhibition of paintings loosely based on the subject of aging by Jules Perlmutter, opens at the Alliance Gallery at 37 Main Street on Friday, October 2, with an artist’s reception from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The exhibit will be on view through October 31.

Painter Jules Perlmutter’s exhibition “Getting Old is Not For Sissies” is based on the artist’s experiences conducting a workshop in painting with senior citizens. “Mostly older women over the age of 70 were the attendees. Many were my peers. They were of limited life experiences and resistant to new activities. Painting, as an activity, was totally foreign to them,” Perlmutter explains. “With controlled frustration I came to see that population representing what I myself never wanted to become as I aged. The paintings were my responses in both subject matter and choice of technical approach.”

Perlmutter graduated from Yale University School of Design with a BFA in painting, where he studied with Josef Albers, formerly with the Bauhaus in Germany; Albers’ color theories strongly influenced Perlmutter’s use and manipulation of color in his work.

He was awarded a U.S. government Fulbright grant for painting and study in France in 1962. He remained there for three years, and returned again years later. His work became increasingly expressionist in approach. Perlmutter began using layered paint and papers to probe and reveal inner states of mind.

In 2002 Perlmutter settled in upstate New York, where he continues to exhibit.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, the Arts Council for Sullivan County, and is made possible in part with funding from the Visual Arts Program of the New York State Council on the Arts. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information visit ArtsAllianceSite.org or call 845/252-7576.