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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Affinities for Abstraction: Women Artists on Eastern Long Island, 1950–2020

May 2 – July 18, 2021
279 Montauk Hwy, Water Mill, NY 11976, United States

The Hamptons bring to mind tony manicured lawns and main streets lined with designer shops, but it once offered escape to a less monied set. In the early twentieth century, secluded beaches and inexpensive studios lured a postwar generation of starving artists, particularly abstract expressionists, to the area. On Springs Fireplace Road, Jackson Pollock’s home still stands as a Museum, and Willem de Kooning’s former studio, also in the Springs hamlet, is now an artist in residency retreat. This exhibition highlights the area’s rich history of Abstract Expressionism by shining a light on artists who are too often ignored in survey’s of the movement—the female artists who honed their style on the East End, some of whom have been overshadowed by their artist husbands. Pollock’s wife, Lee Krasner, is on view, as well as Elaine de Kooning, as is the painter Helen Frankenthaler and abstract artists from successive generations, such as Mary Heilmann and Amy Sillman. —C.J.F.

Elaine de Kooning, “Sun Wall,” 1986-1987. Courtesy of Parrish Art Museum.