| About Us | Our Heritage | Maps | Plans | What's New | Feedback | Links |
In The News
ART REVIEW
Shedding Some Sunlight on North Fork Painters
The artists associated with Impressionism in France left a legacy so great that we are still unraveling all its effects and influences. In addition to inventing many new modes of artistic expression, they headed out into the countryside, recording the pristine beauty as European cities were rapidly industrializing. In part, they sought to capture and preserve remnants of a vanishing world.
Not too much later in America, artists pursued a similar ambition on the North Fork and South Fork of Long Island, where with oil paints, easels and brushes hauled from city studios, they painted the sea, marshes and dunes. By the end of the 19th century, a few artists had set up colonies in the Hamptons. Several bought properties there and increasingly began to call the area home.Although much has been written about the many artists drawn to the South Fork, especially those associated with Abstract Expressionism, comparatively little attention has been paid to the longstanding presence of artists on the North Fork. Here the art scene was quite different, as a lovely new exhibition at the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages demonstrates.
Organized in collaboration with the Southold Historical Society, “A Shared Aesthetic: Artists of Long Island’s North Fork” provides a chronological overview of the many artists who came to paint and live on the North Fork of Long Island from about the mid-19th century to the present. It is by no means exhaustive, and some of the works on view do not necessarily represent each artist’s very best. But combined with the scholarly catalog, it is a major contribution to the study of Long Island’s art history.
The catalog in particular will be of enduring significance, for it provides the first comprehensive study of North Fork artists, documenting their homes and studios and even their relationship to the community. In addition to essays by local history buffs and art historians, the catalog also contains biographies of more than 275 North Fork artists, most of them either forgotten or unknown. (Artists’ biographical details sometimes vary depending on the source; the information given here comes from the catalog.)
In some ways, the show is a scaled-down version of the catalog, with works divided in the gallery according to section headings from the book’s table of contents. We begin with “The Early Years,” a section including portraiture of prominent 19th-century citizens living and working on the North Fork, like Moses Conklin Cleveland of Southold, who commissioned his portrait from Orlando Hand Bears (1811-1854), who was based in Sag Harbor. There are also many charming landscapes by itinerant painter-illustrators.
Some of the most appealing works in this room are two small, little-known pencil sketches of Long Island landscapes by Alfred Rudolph Waud (1828-1891), a well-known Civil War artist whose drawings and illustrations appeared in magazines like Harper’s Weekly and The New York Illustrated News. He traveled all across eastern Long Island during the 1870s, sketching outdoor scenes of Greenport and Southold, among other places. He was one of the most talented early artists to work on the North Fork.
Two other works in this section are worth mentioning, beginning with “Montauk Point” (1885), a nicely composed landscape painting by Lemuel Maynard Wiles (1826-1905), a largely self-taught painter and the father of Irving Ramsey Wiles (1861-1948), who was a prominent portrait painter; together they taught painting in and around Peconic in the summers. Benjamin Rutherfurd Fitz (1855-1891), of Peconic, painted promising landscapes in the 1880s, including “Far From the Madding Crowd” (circa 1880-84), named for the Thomas Hardy novel.
The next section, “The Coming of the Academicians,” documents the many talented artists who visited, worked or moved to the North Fork and who were members of the then-prestigious National Academy of Design in New York. Among the earliest of these painters was Arthur Henry Prellwitz (1865-1940), who studied in New York before moving to Peconic, where in later years many artists congregated to live and work. He is represented here by three fine landscapes, including “The Peconic Tidal Mill” (circa 1910).
Friends and family were popular subjects among the Peconic group of painters. Edith Mitchill Prellwitz (1864-1944), the wife of Arthur Henry Prellwitz, was a gifted portraitist, though not of the caliber of Irving Ramsey Wiles, whose painting “My Mother-in-Law, Mary Lee” (1910) is the best portrait in the exhibition. Wiles also painted many landscapes, like “Still Life With Crabs,” undated, and did illustrations for periodicals and magazines, but his portraits are his greatest achievement.
The final sections of the exhibition are devoted to mostly lesser-known artists, a lot of them women, who nonetheless contributed to the area’s rich artistic heritage. Julia M. Wickham (1866-1952), born in Cutchogue, was one of the more talented and best known, but others like Caroline Bell (1874-1970), who lived in Mattituck, Agnes Mothersele (1898-1977) of Cutchogue and Arabella McKee (1866-1959), who lived in Peconic, painted some wonderful pictures and deserve to be better known. This show is to be applauded for bringing them to greater prominence.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 29, 2009, on page LI8 of the New York edition.
Town Approves NS Heritage Management Plan
North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman announced that the North Hempstead Town Board has approved, by a unanimous vote of 7-0, the Long Island North Shore Heritage Management Plan. The town board approved the town's participation in the plan at its meeting held on Tuesday, July 18.
Supervisor Kaiman said: "I'm pleased the town board has chosen to participate in the Long Island North Shore Heritage Management Plan."
"Participation will not impact our town's local autonomy," Kaiman continued, "but it will make us eligible to receive a variety of benefits."
"Through participation," Supervisor Kaiman added, "North Hempstead can strengthen its cultural and historical identity; qualify for increased funding --- including funding available solely for projects within the Heritage Area; and collaborate in projects between and among municipalities within the Heritage Area with the potential for additional funding."
A Heritage Area is a designation by New York State recognizing an area's common heritage based on cultural, historic and geographic criteria. The Heritage Area Program was established in 1982, is administered by the New York State Parks Department, and is designed to preserve, protect and promote an area's unique cultural and historic identity.
The North Shore Heritage Area was established in 1998 through legislation introduced by Assemblyman Steve Engelbright (Suffolk) and then-Senator (former North Hempstead Supervisor) Michael Tully. The boundaries of this Heritage area run from Great Neck in the west to Orient Point in the east, and extends south to the Long Island Expressway or Jericho Turnpike (whichever is furthest south) and north to the New York/Connecticut border on the Long Island Sound. There are 65 towns, villages and a city located with the boundaries of the North Shore Heritage Area.
There are currently 18 state-designated Heritage Areas, including Long Island, throughout New York State. Final boundaries of the North Shore Heritage Area are expected to be established in the fall of 2006. Participating municipalities are not subject to any governmental mandates.
"This is clearly a win-win situation for the Town of North Hempstead," Supervisor Kaiman concluded, "and I urge all of our local municipalities to join with us in this endeavor."
New help for LI Sound
With a bit of welcome bipartisanship, Congress offers funds for preservation
October 3, 2006 Even in the too-often hostile environment of the nation's capital, sometimes the right thing can get done, with a dash of bipartisanship and a recognition of common interests. That's how Congress was able to pass the Long Island Sound Stewardship Act, a long-overdue federal commitment to land preservation on the Sound. As a body of water shared by two states, it's a natural for a national investment.
On Long Island, the agents of preservation up to now have been primarily Suffolk County, the towns and the state. Now the two co-chairmen of the Congressional Long Island Sound Caucus, Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) and Rep. Rob Simmons, a Connecticut Republican, have been working hard to get the federal government more involved. They introduced the bill in 2004, and last week, they got it passed.
In the Senate, New York's two Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, co-sponsored legislation along the same lines. Once the House bill passed, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) helped get it to the Senate floor, where it too passed last week, by unanimous consent. Once President George W. Bush signs it, as we hope he will, the legislation will make available up to $25 million a year for four years to preserve environmentally important land on both sides of the Sound. Some cautionary notes:
First, this is an authorization bill, not an appropriation. So the delegations in both houses, on both sides of the pond, will have to remain vigilant to get the funds appropriated.
Second, the Long Island Sound Stewardship Advisory Committee, a new entity that the act creates, must not reinvent the wheel. Long Island governments and advisory groups have done a lot of work identifying crucial parcels. To save the most important land, it's vital that the committee move quickly, and that means gathering information fast. So the Environmental Protection Agency should be sure that those appointed to serve on the committee include people who know these issues, from town and county governments and from local environmental groups.
The Long Island Sound Study, created by Congress to examine water pollution issues, already has turned up a lot of information. So has the Long Island North Shore Heritage Area Planning Commission, which focuses on historic value as well as on environmental quality.
So, in assembling the new committee, the EPA must pick its members wisely and move fast. Every acre lost to development means more storm water runoff pouring into the Sound, endangering a body of water so central to the life of our whole region.
