hamptons Archives » Page 6 of 12

Lucien Smith Finds Poetic Justice In ‘Southampton Suite’

Blog September 29, 2020

When abstract painter Lucien Smith manipulated a repurposed fire extinguisher and turned it loose onto a series of 9-foot-by-7-foot unprimed canvases — and, in 2014, sold one at auction for $372,000, nearly six times its estimate — the art world collectively lost its mind.

His rise through what he called his “Rain Paintings” series would be simultaneously meteoric and disruptive. The New York Times and Vogue named him the “art world wunderkind,” while ruthless critics attempted to tear him down. For a time, it worked.

After Artsy estimated that his work generated $3.7 million that year, Smith took a step back from the New York spotlight in 2015 by retreating to his home and studio in Montauk — disenchanted by dealer and gallery politics, and eager to reconnect with himself.

Five years later, he has done just that, and with poetic justice. Ten of the very same large-scale, controversial “Rain Paintings” are now on view for the first time as a group at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill through January. He waited for the right moment to place the paintings, he said, knowing that when they did reappear, they might look radically different to him.

And they do.

Roadside Attraction: Hans Van de Bovenkamp Headlines Sculptural Driving Tour

Blog September 23, 2020

At age 82, Hans Van de Bovenkamp has a twinkle in his eye. Shades of gray tease at the sides of his full, shaggy hair, but it holds its color. His sense of adventure is sharp, his laughter contagious, his creative mind vibrant.

Even still, “Now, I’m the old guy,” the sculptor said with a laugh from his longtime home and studio in Sagaponack.

He is referring to the once abundant cohort of abstract expressionists who established the East End as an art center in the mid-20th century. Despite their 20- to 30-year age gap, they were his friends — Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb and Conrad Marca-Rellito, to name a few — and an artistic home far from his native Holland.

Through his own property, he keeps their legacy alive — its 7½ acres dotted with 50 of his large pieces in what has become known as the Sagaponack Sculpture Farm, the last of nine stops along “A Hamptons Sculpture Tour,” presented by Louis K. Meisel Gallery through Labor Day 2021.

Two Stony Brook Hospitals Named National Leaders in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality

Blog September 19, 2020

Any time Robert Chaloner sees a new doctor, he walks into the medical office with trepidation, often thinking to himself, “I wonder how they’re going to react when I tell them I’m gay.”

It is an experience shared by many members of the LGBTQ+ community, the chief administrative officer of Stony Brook Southampton Hospital explained. And for the past decade, he and his team have made it their mission to end it.

Former Flanders Fire Chief, Wife Remembered for ‘Big Hearts’

Blog September 10, 2020

Ronald Worthington can’t count the number of times he has reached for his phone to call his big brother over the last three weeks — to tell him a story, to share a laugh, to say hello.

But every time, he stops himself. And reality hits.

“What’s Up, Doc?” Bugs Bunny Gets His Close-up, Courtesy of Peter Browngardt

Blog September 9, 2020

Peter Browngardt is closer to his cartoon childhood heroes than most have ever gotten. Perhaps most notably known as the creator of Cartoon Network’s “Uncle Grandpa,” his 20-year animation career now includes “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” which premiered this past May as part of the HBO Max launch.

Composed of 80 11-minute episodes, the animated shorts present adapted storylines for a more modern audience, explained the series executive producer and showrunner — a pair of roles that cast Browngardt as the prime candidate to supervise an adjacent project that marks one of the greatest moments of his career.

In a collaboration between the U.S. Postal Service and Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Browngardt and his team of designers and painters recently created a series of commemorative Forever stamps celebrating Bugs Bunny’s 80th anniversary. Now available for purchase, the 20-stamp pane — which features 10 designs of Bugs Bunny in his most memorable getups — comes at a time when the USPS is not only at risk, Browngardt noted, but is also poised to play a crucial role in the upcoming presidential election.

“It’s one of the highlights of my career, for sure, to be involved with this postage stamp,” he said. “The Postal Service is part of our history as a country and, right now, it’s a big deal what’s going on politically with the postal service, so it’s kind of cool and important, and it was awesome.”

The Dragon’s In The Details: Origami Masters Achieve Guinness World Record At SAC

Blog August 26, 2020

With an end goal of submitting the build to the Guinness World Records, the two-day endeavor to get there was not only physically challenging, but also artistically, mathematically and logistically complicated, explained origami master Shrikant Iyer from his home in Southampton, where the completed dragon currently lives and looms over his head, despite standing 6-feet-2-inches tall himself.

“It’s a very, very difficult thing, what we did. It truly is,” he said. “It’s not ordinary to fold that big, and then also, the dragon is not a simple model. It’s not a crane, it’s not a jumping frog. It’s a western dragon with wings. It’s hard enough getting it looking nice with 10-inch paper, so with 24 feet, we really had our work cut out for us — and we only had two people. It was really tough.”

25 Years Later: A Look Back At the Sunrise Wildfire

Award-Winning Blog August 22, 2020

It came like a great storm.

The skies darkened, smoke filled the air, the noise almost deafening. When he saw the flames, Dean Culver dropped to the pavement, too far from his car to seek proper shelter.

And then, in an unexpected move, the flames jumped.

In an instant, the wall of fire leapt from treetop to treetop, skipping over the 400-foot-wide asphalt span that is Sunrise Highway — its 200-foot-tall flames unable to burn the road, or even lick the army of firefighters flattened up against it.

The Classically Social American Hotel

Blog July 30, 2020

When Ted Conklin first walked through the front door, he saw a canvas.

The year was 1971, but inside the neglected brick building, it might as well have been the turn of the 20th century — between the gas lamps, rusted coal stove, outhouses in the back and an all-pervasive layer of dust that he could scoop with a snow shovel.

Still, he wanted it.

Conklin envisioned what the place would become, both the establishment itself — now, famously, The American Hotel — and Sag Harbor, then a depressed village following back-to-back economic downturns, first as a whaling port and then as an industrial hub.

“It hadn’t really been touched since a renovation they might have done in the 1870s — 1900 maybe,” Conklin said of the building. “So I started in on the rebuilding of it, as something that would be functional. I was just in a survival mode for the first 20 years, and now I’m back in survival mode. It’s like being a kid again.”

Southampton Native John Betts To Retire from McDonald’s Canada Helm

Blog July 28, 2020

Every time John Betts finds himself in Southampton, he can’t help but stop by the North Sea Road McDonald’s.

And he never tells anyone who he is.

With the exception of the dining room and drive-thru window, the restaurant — with its signature yellow double arch, retro interior and familiar scent of salty French fries — remains virtually unchanged, a step back in time to 1970, when Mr. Betts first got his start there toasting burger buns, not far from his family home in North Sea.

“I remember the first day, I burned 24 buns twice in a row. I thought that was it,” he said. “But I survived, they looked past it. I think I got 24 of them out of the way before they saw it.”

New York City Galleries Find a Home on the East End

Blog July 23, 2020

Despite a legacy that includes contemporary giants such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, Lee Krasner and Robert Rauschenberg — who all famously lived and worked here — high-end New York galleries have largely shunned the East End as a serious year-round art destination, until an international pandemic buoyed it to the surface.

Gone are the days of summertime pop-up galleries, many of the converted newcomers agree. Now, they’re finally here to stay.

“I’d like to say this was one big strategic decision,” said Gordon VeneKlasen, managing partner of Michael Werner Gallery, three days after opening the new East Hampton space. “But in fact, it was sort of an instinctual thing. It seems so obvious now.”