ARTHAMPTONS
Surprises From the Second String
By Jennifer Landes
(July 11, 2009) The ArtHamptons fair rolled into town on Thursday evening for a weekend run at the Bridgehampton Historical Society grounds.
 Morgan McGivern photos |
At a collector's preview benefit Thursday, a large well-heeled crowd attired in art-world festive strolled through the galleries, making inquiries and being solicited by the dealers from some 50 galleries. Included are work by Fairfield Porter, William Merit Chase, Stuart Davis, Andrew Wyeth, Robert Rauschenberg, Doug and Mike Starn, Andy Warhol, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, and others with an international reputation.
Dealers also made an attempt to show artists that had, or continue to, have some presence here. While that can be expected, it is compelling to see them also in the context of their peers "from away." Work by artists living part-time and full-time on the South Fork is also on view, including by Jane Wilson and Elliott Erwitt, who were honored by the fair
Fay Lansner, Jane Wilson, whose work is in the show, and Gabrielle Lansner.
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organizers, and Jane Freilicher, and Cornelia Foss. There are also late artists such as Saul Steinberg, Larry Rivers.
HackelBury Fine Art, a London photography gallery that represents Mr. Erwitt, had big-name show stoppers and examples from names less well known on this side of the Atlantic such as Stephen Inggs, an artist from Cape Town, and Edward Dimsdale, an English artist.
Peter Fetterman from Santa Monica, Calif., brought Lillian Bassman, another fair honoree, and a host of other fashion and old Hollywood glamour shots from Burt Glinn and Horst P. Horst.
The surprises came from artists who may not have had as high profiles as their mid-20th century peers but whose work is of higher quality than similarly priced output by better-known artists. A sculpture by Dorothy Dehner at Conner Rosenkrantz from New York City was one such delight. Known
Vered, at left, brought an Andy Warhol painting of Michael Jackson to ArtHamptons.
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primarily for being married to David Smith in the 1940s, Ms. Dehner was a student at Hans Hoffman's studio school, but didn't necessarily travel in the same social circles as the artists from that club and the Cedar Tavern in New York City. Lee Krasner, who was another woman painter working in the time of the male-centric Abstract Expressionist period and an Springs artist married to Jackson Pollock, also was represented by work of note in the show.
Given this year's absence of the SCOPE Hamptons fair of contemporary art, there were some galleries present they may not have been the fair's original targets, but their contributions were often stronger than the more conservative booths.
David Findlay Jr., a New York art dealer, spoke with Ruth Kyle.
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Eli Klein from New York, which was familiar from last year's SCOPE fair, brought a number of contemporary Asian artists that had a very fresh, unique, and iconoclastic perspective and some of the few works that actually provoked an acquisitive feeling. Stephan Keszler, who runs a Southampton gallery, showed some of Russell Young's "Diamond Dust" silk-screens in a small booth.
In addition to Cornelia Foss, who is still creating beautiful, show-stopping landscapes and nature studies, as well as deep, atmospheric interiors and portraits, DFN Gallery of Chelsea brought pastel and charcoal works by Susan Grossman. Ms. Grossman is a San Francisco-based artist whose charcoal and pastel drawings depict a city and countryside that always seem to be in rain, fog, or at nightfall. She succeeds in taking a very predictable medium and transforming it into something so much more personal and original.
Many galleries representing contemporary artists brought hyper-real work, a conservative choice. Of those, the one whose work stood out as both skillful and ironic was Eric Forstmann, who was shown by Eckert Fine Art of Kent, Conn. His "Everything/Nothing" a painting of crumpled, brown wrapping paper was accomplished and witty.
With so much that was conservative, the more outré galleries were able to provide maximum impact. Waterhouse & Dodd, a contemporary art space in London was on the more conservative side, but had solid artists. Cynthia Corbett Gallery also from London, took things a bit further with a Klari Reis's "Hypochondriac Mini" a circular installation of Petri dishes painted with the artist's depictions of microscopic images of viruses and drugs interacting with them in a kaleidoscope of explosive colors.
Villa del Arte from Barcelona could make you want to fly to the city just to check out its art scene. The presentation was as wacky and disjointed as an Almodavar film, but the exuberance was infectious.
A variety of other South Fork galleries and dealers were also showing this year including Peter Marcelle, the Grenning Gallery, McNeil Art Group, Mark Borghi, Bernard Goldberg, the Ark Project, Spanierman, and Vered.
The overall mood of the crowd was subdued, and it did not appear as though much buying was going on even as red dots slowly began to pop up here and there. It was the sellers who seemed a bit more energetic and, if one were to be uncharitable, anxious.
ArtHamptons is open through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Historical Society, on the corner of Corwith Avenue and Montauk Highway, in Bridgehampton. Admission is $20.