The Parrish Art Museum

From 27 June – 1 November 2026, Tony Bechara: An Artist of Many Worlds is the first-ever comprehensive survey of this Puerto Rican artist, including works from his later years and exploring his career-long dedication to color theory and abstraction. Born in Puerto Rico and based in New York City, Bechara (1942–2025) drew on his bilingual and bicultural upbringing, his studies in law and international relations, his long stays in Europe and the Hamptons, and his characteristic, enduring curiosity to become a man of many worlds—seeking light and illumination in far corners of the globe and across its diverse cultures.

Eliciting a dialogue with the Declaration of Independence’s assertion of “the pursuit of happiness” as one of our inalienable rights, An Artist of Many Worlds proposes that Bechara’s contributions as a Latino/Hispanic artist to American culture—and his own “pursuit of happiness”—have yielded a language of both self-determination and inclusion. Bechara’s unifying pictorial strategy understood as an expression of the pursuit of happiness, offers a personal yet prophetic visual model for inclusion and collective possibility—one that strengthens the broader fabric of American art and culture.