New Season, New Work at LongHouse

One of the most reliable harbingers of spring and the high season on the South Fork is the opening of the 16-acre LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton every April in the heart of daffodil and tulip season.

Each year, Jack Lenor Larsen’s art center and garden holds a Rites of Spring event to introduce new sculptures and gallery pieces that join its regular works by Buckminster Fuller, Yoko Ono, Willem de Kooning, and many others. Saturday will be this year’s kickoff, with the gardens offering flowering trees and other spring blooms in addition to the “hundreds of thousands” of daffodils LongHouse promised in a press release. 

The artists debuting work on the grounds and gallery this week include Wendell Castle, Jun Kaneko, Joseph Walsh, Young Jae Lee, and Will Ryman.

Mr. Ryman’s site-specific installation is a continuation of his 2011 exhibition “The Roses,” which was installed on Park Avenue in Manhattan. “LongHouse 6, 2019” is a colossal red sculpture depicting the top stems of blooming flowers with some stray petals assembled on the ground. Like any other traditional still life, it hints at fading beauty, the passage of time, and mortality.

Mr. Kaneko’s “Dango,” a gift to LongHouse from the Judith and Gerson Leiber Foundation, will be installed in the amphitheater. Its large spherical shape has the look of gray and black ribbon woven like a ball of twine, but it is actually ceramic. A bronze bench by Mr. Castle will offer a place of rest in the gardens.

In the gallery, Ms. Lee’s “Vessels,” an exhibition of ceramics, will be on view. Mr. Walsh, an Irish furniture designer, used LongHouse as the inspiration for a site-specific wall shelf of curvilinear form.

LongHouse is offering 15 percent off new renewal and gift memberships, which start at $95 for individuals, until Saturday. Regular spring hours will continue to be Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m., and by appointment. The site is closed on Sundays. Regular admission is $15