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Peter Bradley, Stonehouse #1, 2019, acrylic, pumice, corrugated aluminum, on canvas, 74 × 77 inches; 188 × 195.6 cm

A new work by color field abstract artist and Saugerties resident Peter Bradley is currently on display at Emerge Gallery, 228 Main St., Saugerties.

This work serves as a preview to a solo exhibition of new work by the artist scheduled for next June at the gallery.

Bradley is widely noted for curating the first major show in the United State to comprehensively integrate white modernists with their black contemporaries. Originally invited to partici- pate in the Whitney’s “Contemporary Black Artists In America” exhibition, Bradley declined because of their reduction of him and others to just black artists.

Instead, with the support of art collector John de Menil, he curated “The DeLuxe Show” in 1971 in Houston. He exhibited famous artists of the time, such as Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski and Larry Poons, alongside abstract black artists, and in doing so, created a mile- stone in art and civil rights history.

Bradley’s abstract work with the newly developed acrylic gel paint by Sam Golden is known to have had a direct influence on many abstract artists, notably the New New Painters of the late 1970s. He is also known to be one of New York’s original black art dealers — he was as- sociate director at the prestigious Perls Gallery on Madison Avenue, where he sold Calders, Picassos and other 20th century modern masters; he spent time in South Africa in the 1980s responding to apartheid through his sculpture; and immersed himself in the jazz world by touring with musician Art Blakey and befriending jazz luminaries such as Miles Davis.

Bradley’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of galleries and museums, in- cluding The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Art in Houston, The New York City Museum of Arts, African American Museum in Dallas, The Fogg Museum at Harvard University and Johannesburg Art Foundation in South Africa. In 2017, Bradley completed an artist in residence at the Squire Foundation.

Bradley continues to create at his home studio in his historic 19th century stone house in Saugerties, NY. Many in the Hudson Valley may not be aware of this valuable resource right in their own backyard, and this new work is a highlight of “Shout Out Saugerties” — a month- long celebration of art and culture throughout October. Bradley’s work will be exhibited at Emerge Gallery alongside the group exhibition “Tell me a Story: An Exhibition of Narrative Art” in October and “Petit: An Exhibition of Small Work” in November until Monday, Nov. 26.