The Art Scene
By Elizabeth Fasolino
 Elizabeth Fasolino
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Cover Story
The painting “Pears and Apples” that illustrates this week’s East Hampton Star “A La Carte Dining Guide” was painted by Elsie Manville, an artist who lives in Amagansett and New York City.
Ms. Manville and her twin sister, Evelyn, were born outside of Philadelphia in 1922. Both began their artistic careers by copying movie stars from Modern Screen magazine. The sisters received scholarships to attend the Stella Elkins Tyler School of Fine Arts at Temple University and graduated with fine arts and teaching degrees. “I wanted to paint,” Ms. Manville said. “My sister wanted to carve wood.”
After graduating, Ms. Manville worked in an advertising agency and got married to a marine. They divorced after World War II. “My brother-in-law used to say you should get married very young,” Ms. Manville said, “so you have time to make another try if it doesn’t work out.”
In 1952, Ms. Manville’s friends convinced her to take a trip to the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts. “If the men are dull,” she told her friends, “the music will be good — it’s all Mozart.”
While at Tanglewood, Ms. Manville was rowing in a small muddy pond when a swimmer, Steve Manville, appeared and held on to the side of her boat, refused to let go, and asked for permission to “come aboard.” Six months later they were married.
Ms. Manville moved into his apartment at 31st and Lexington Avenue, where she still spends her winters. Mr. Manville worked on his photography and Ms. Manville sketched and painted. In the late 1960s, they bought their house in Amagansett — “a handyman’s special” — for $2,600. Mr. Manville died in 2002.
“Steve gave me a scholarship,” said Ms. Manville. “He let me paint, and by the 1980s, I was earning a lot of money. I did my own framing, or Steve did it, and one year I made $36,000.”
Ms. Manville gave The Star permission to use “Pears and Apples,” but couldn’t recall when she’d painted it. “Just make up a date,” she said, “it’s fine with me.”
Forever Summer
Those who consider themselves East End old-timers because they’ve been spending weekends here since the late 1990s might find a sobering dose of reality at the Clinton Academy’s latest exhibit, “East Hampton’s Summer Colony: 1880-1940,” at the museum on Main Street in East Hampton.
Visitors will get a glimpse of clothes, photographs, sporting equipment, bicycles, postcards, and other ephemera from an era before cellphones, kite surfing, Crocs, and $100-a-pound lobster salad.
The exhibit opens on Saturday and runs through Oct. 12. The curator will give a free tour on July 26 and Aug.23 at 10 a.m.
Transitional Elements
James DeMartis, Bill Kiriazis, and Dennis Leri will present an exhibit, “Metal at Ashawagh,” on Saturday and Sunday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. A reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.
Mr. DeMartis is known for his meticulous craftsmanship and sense of irony in his metalwork designs, sculptures, and mixed-media compositions. Mr. Kiriazis makes aluminum sculptures that resemble futuristic creatures with surfaces that appear to have been burnished or scrubbed with a stiff brush. Mr. Leri’s welded steel sculptures resemble spiny sea creatures or phasmatodes — insects that resemble sticks.
Northern Invasion
Through Sunday, work by 10 East End artists will be displayed in various venues throughout the historic downtown area at the debut Gettysburg Festival in Virginia.
Julie Keyes, the show’s curator, has a house in Sag Harbor. She chose work by the illustrators Paul Davis and Hilary Knight of Sag Harbor; sculpture by Elaine Grove of Springs, Nathan Joseph of Bridgehampton, Hans Van de Bovenkamp of Sagaponack, and Bill King and Michael Rosch of East Hampton, and paintings by John Pomianowski of Montauk and the late Larry Rivers of Southampton. The show also includes photographs by Josh Lehrer, who has a house in Sagaponack.
Many of the artists have traveled to the exhibit to speak about their work at events scheduled throughout the festival, which began on June 19.
Déja Vu
The former Elaine Benson Gallery of Bridgehampton, which closed in 2002, has been reincarnated and will reopen under the aegis of Ms. Benson’s daughter Kimberly Goff at the Southampton Inn on Hill Street through July 31.
Ms. Benson and her husband, Emanuel, opened the gallery in 1965 and showed work by many of the best-known artists living on the East End at the time including Larry Rivers, Bill King, Lee Krasner, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Howard Kanovitz, Syd Solomon, Jimmy Ernst, Herman Cherry, Paul Davis, Alfonso Ossorio and Milton Glaser.
Mr. Benson died in 1971 and Ms. Benson died in 1998. Ms. Goff took over the day-to-day operations until the gallery finally closed its doors in 2002.
Beginning Saturday, Ms. Goff’s inaugural show, which pays homage to her parents, is called “Legacy,” and will feature watercolors by Bertram Alper and his son, Leland Alper. A reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Vintage Bee
The Bridgehampton Historical Society is kicking off summer by putting 10 antique quilts on display throughout its permanent collection at the Corwith homestead on Main Street. Among the examples of the craft will be a red and white “Rocky Road to Dublin” quilt from the late 18th century and a pink, green, and cream “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” quilt of more recent vintage.
Mannequins in turn-of-the-century dress, posed as if taking part in a quilting bee, will be on hand, too. The quilts (and the dummies) remain on display through Nov. 14.
Personal Realities
Two new shows by contemporary artists will open at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton on Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.
“Matthew Cusick: From What I’ve Read,” an assemblage of collage, painting, and video that reveal fragments of the artist’s personal history, will be in the downstairs gallery space.
On the second floor, “Kevin Teare: Bumpology, the Clinton Years,” a show of paintings, alludes to John Updike’s novel about life during the Ford administration, the pull of nostalgia, and a fascination with political conspiracy theories.
Mr. Teare lives and works in Sag Harbor and was a 2006 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship award for painting. An exhibit of his work, “The Most High,” is planned at Guild Hall in East Hampton for the fall of 2009.
Hoodie Here, Hoodie There
Harper’s Books in East Hampton will present the work of Hans Eijkelboom, a Dutch conceptual artist and photographer. Mr. Eijkelboom, whose photography book, “Paris, New York, Shanghai,” was published last year by Aperture, is best known for “Photo Notes,” a series of urban street scenes that he shot around the world between 1992 and 2004. A selection of 40 or so pieces from the series, which is curated by the artist, will focus on New York City.
An artist’s reception will be held Saturday from 6 to 8, and the exhibit can be seen through Aug.16.
Bella Uffizi
The Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor continues its tradition of presenting American Neo-Realism and Neo-Impressionism with the debut solo show of Ben Fenske, a young painter trained in the classical style at the Florence Academy of Art.
The Minnesota-born Mr. Fenske, who divides his time between Florence and Sag Harbor, cuts a wide swath in his work, which comprises landscapes, street scenes, still lifes, and portraits. And, though rooted firmly in realism, his pieces evoke a variety of traditions.
The show opens on Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 and continues through July 27.
Barrel of Artists
The Crazy Monkey gallery, an artists’ cooperative in Amagansett, is taking its act on the road with a midweek exhibit at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. Curated by the gallery’s director, Andrea McCafferty, the group show features pieces by several Crazy Monkey artists working in a variety of mediums, with photography by Daniel Schoeheimer and Joel Lefkowitz, painting by Sally Breen, Marcia Tucker, Bob Savage, Wilhelmina Howe, Daveen Herley and Cynthia Sobel, and mixed media by Joyce Silver.
The show runs from Tuesday to next Thursday and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. A reception for the artists is being held on Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m.
From One Beach to Another
Water Mill gets a new gallery this weekend, as the Snitzer Arregui Project, a self-described “contemporary exhibition space,” opens at 720 Montauk Highway. A satellite of Miami’s Frederic Snitzer gallery, the Snitzer Arregui Project (Richard Arregui is the co-director) kicks off on Friday with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. and a group show of Miami-based artists, among them Michael Vasquez, Bert Rodriguez, Alex Sweet, and Timothy Buwalda. The South Beach-centric exhibit has not announced a closing date.
Shrink Wrapped
“Dreams and Memories,” paintings done in oil on canvas by Jill Morris of Water Mill, opens today at the Romany Kramoris Gallery on Main Street in Sag Harbor. A reception will be held on Saturday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Ms. Morris, who is also a therapist and author, said that even in her painting there is a strong element of the psychological. “I have a deep interest in people,” she wrote, which comes through in her work. Her books, “The Dream Workbook,” and “Creative Breakthrough,” will be on sale and available for the author to sign during the reception. The show can be seen through July 10.
Altered States
A group show featuring seven artists, “Dimension,” will open at the Surface Library Gallery in Springs on Saturday and remain on view through July 20.
Curated by James Kennedy, one of the gallery’s founders, the show explores how artists use different materials, colors, and techniques to create spatial illusions.
Chosen for the show are canvas constructions by Sydney Butchkes, functional sculpture by Gary Gutterman, and mixed-media compositions and paintings by Lisa Kiss, Michael Yurick, David Geiser, Jim Hayden, and Gary Gutterman.
The show will open with a reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
Vantage Point
The Levitas Center for the Arts at the Southampton Cultural Center presents photographs by Kenneth Van Sickle, a veteran film and still photographer whose interest in the medium began with the gift of a photogram set in the mid-1930s. A reception for the artist, who lives in New York City, will be held today from 4 to 7 p.m., and the show can be seen through July 6.
Following World War II, Mr. Van Sickle traveled to Paris and immersed himself in the study of art with help from the G.I. Bill. When he returned to New York City he joined the American Society of Magazine Photographers, before learning to film live-action sequences and working on commercials, dramas, and documentaries, including “Marjo,” a film about a child evangelist, which won a best documentary Oscar in 1973, and “Close Harmony,” which won for best documentary short in 1982.
In the 1990s, Mr. Van Sickle retired from working on films and renewed his interest in still photography. His photos have been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in many private collections, including the Edward Steichen collection.
Hail, Present and Past
Beginning tomorrow, landscapes, portraits, and figurative compositions by Paige Peterson, who lives in East Hampton, can be seen at the Spanierman Gallery in East Hampton through July 21.
The paintings, which have a strong graphic quality, and yet are abstracted and simplified versions of salt marshes, sailboats bleached by the sun, and women in a conga-line formation wrapped in zebra stripes, are evocative of the stylized paintings and illustrations of the early 1970s.
Her work has appeared in numerous group shows, and she is the co-author and illustrator of “Blackie, The Horse Who Stood Still” with Christopher Cerf, currently in its fifth printing.
On view at the Spanierman Gallery in New York City through next Thursday is “American Masters of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” which includes two paintings by two late masters from the East End, Thomas Moran and Willem de Kooning.
Correction
In the issue of June 12, a review of “Shanghai Moon” at the Bay Street Theatre incorrectly attributed the maker of Mr. Busch’s wigs. They were done by Katherine Carr.