The Women Who Built the Hamptons Art Scene
In a way, it all started with a railroad. In another way there were too many forces to count that made the East End of Long Island—familiarly known as the Hamptons, or “out East” to locals—a globally recognized arts scene, but women were essential. In a changing society, women had choices and mobility they’d never had before; many turned toward the arts.
In 1870, the Long Island Railroad ran a line that expanded service from New York all the way eastwards to the farming and seafaring towns of Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor. In 1884, Mary and Thomas Moran were among the first artists to set up easels in East Hampton. Others followed. The pristine landscape with wide, flat fields of green and never-ending skies surrounded by waterways creates the kind of light that inspired the Dutch masters.
“It’s the power of the beauty of the landscape out here. It tends to make people notice it and work with it,” April Gornik, a contemporary painter and one of the women who keeps the Hamptons arts scene vibrant, told Observer. “It’s the light, but the light results from the fact of it being the end of an island that jumps out into the Atlantic. And then the way that everything spreads out. To me, it’s like an exhalation.”
After living and working out East for some 40 years, Gornik and her husband, artist Eric Fischl, founded The Church, a nonprofit multidisciplinary arts venue in Sag Harbor. Her curatorial work has deepened her sense of the history of women artists in the area, from contemporaries like Vija Celmins, Cindy Sherman and Nanette Carter to historical figures like Moran, Evelina Mount and Annie Cooper Boyd. In The Church’s current exhibition, “This Land: Considering the American Landscape,” she noted, “There’s an etching by Mary Nimmo Moran which is just—gobsmacking. It’s brilliant.”
With easy access, more artists traveled from New York. In 1891, The Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art was founded by Janet Ralston Chase Hoyt, a philanthropist and artist who summered in Southampton. She knew that William Merritt Chase wanted to bring about a new kind of American art, and Hoyt chose him to establish the first plein air school of painting in the country. A respected teacher, Chase had stated “I recognize no sex in art,” and welcomed women students and instructors. The Shinnecock Summer School of Art was key in the establishment of American Impressionism, which itself is notable for its number of prominent women artists.
Artists gravitate toward other artists, so the creative community continued to grow. In 1931, Mary Woodhouse donated the land and funds to found Guild Hall, an arts center in East Hampton that houses a theater and museum. In 1949, their controversial “17 Artists of Eastern Long Island” presented works by Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock and other Abstract Expressionists, announcing a new cultural shift.
The idea of affordable housing and the Hamptons hardly go together now, but in the 1950s and ’60s, New York office workers, firemen and policemen could buy summer homes and bungalows out East. Once Krasner and Pollock had settled, Lee encouraged other artists to look for places. Before long, Abstract Expressionism had two addresses—downtown Manhattan and the Hamptons.
Elaine De Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Perle Fine, Mercedes Matter and Joan Mitchell all called the Hamptons home at one time. (Fun fact: Joan Mitchell played in the inaugural East Hampton Artists & Writers softball game in 1948 along with teammates Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline.)
“It was affordable at that time,” Christina Mossaides Strassfield, executive director of the Southampton Arts Center told Observer. “Even if there wasn’t heat, it was a great opportunity.”
Strassfield, herself, has been shaping the Hamptons art scene since 1987 when she started as an associate curator and registrar at Guild Hall’s museum. After ascending to museum director, she moved to the Southampton Arts Center as executive director in 2023.
Though the quality of work is always foremost to her, in her years in the Hamptons she’s championed so many women artists that the Guerrilla Girls took note when they visited. “They looked at a number of the institutions on Long Island, and we got an A+ because we had done so many one-person women’s shows. I was really very proud of that,” recalled Strassfield. The list stretches from Post-War era artists like Connie Fox, Jane Wilson, Jane Freilicher, Audrey Flack and Miriam Schapiro to a younger generation that includes Gornik, Barbara Kruger, Pat Steir and Laurie Anderson.
Strassfield also pointed out the importance of women in developing exhibitions, back to the days of the Abstract Expressionists. “They would meet on the beach every day after they had painted. They would have their break and all hang out together, men and women, and talk about art,” she said. The annual artist-organized exhibition at East Hampton’s Ashawagh Hall played a big part. “A lot of the women, especially Elaine de Kooning, were active in doing the ‘Springs Invitational’ and including artists, both their spouses and themselves, curating and organizing these exhibitions.”
She added, “John Little’s wife, Josephine Little, was an artist and actually ran the Signa Gallery, which was one of the first art galleries in the Hamptons… When I came out, years ago in ’87, Arlene Bujese was one of the major galleries. Ruth Vered was a major gallerist and Elaine Benson. Those were the three strong footholds of galleries in the Hamptons.”
On Long Island right now, all the art museums have women as directors. That’s a major step. The Parrish Art Museum in
While Gornik expressed discomfort with the term “woman artist” and Strassfield stressed, “If it’s done by a woman but it’s not good art, then it’s not worth showing,” both agreed that they try to lift up women artists. “It’s like having a cause, like being part of a resistance group, where you’re always like trying to bolster the other people in your group,” Gornik said. “There’s a massive sorority of understanding that buoys women up as we’re trying to navigate this entrenched prejudice.”
Strassfield stressed, “You have to show good art whether it’s made by a woman or a man,” adding, “I believe at a certain point we’re not going to be thinking about this anymore.”
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