Hamptons gem: a creative legacy lives on in Elaine de Kooning’s house
Over on Alewive Brook Road in East Hampton, there is a simple saltbox structure and studio with a provenance steeped in art. Artist Elaine de Kooning purchased the home in 1975 while she was reconciling with her husband Willem de Kooning. She added a sunroom and studio that would end up being the location where she would paint her last series of works, Bacchus and Cave Walls. When de Kooning passed away at age 70 in 1989, sculptor John Chamberlain purchased the house and lived there for around five years in the 1990s, creating his crushed car metal sculptures in the driveway.
The bucolic seaside location of the Hamptons has always been a place conducive for producing art; Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol all made work there, and when Chris Byrne, an art advisor and co-founder of the Dallas Art Fair, saw that the home was on the market in 2011, he envisioned a future where its new owners would forget its association with the art world, so he bought it. 'I was motivated by the house's history,' says Byrne. Since purchasing the house in 2010, he has made renovations, painstakingly preserving each of the modifications its former owners added.
'You get the feeling that anywhere in the house could be used to set up a portrait or make painting,' he says, noting that Willem also worked out of the house. Thus, Byrne turned the home into the location for an unofficial artist’s residency, inviting artists he knows to create work there.
Lizzi Bougatsos, Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, Liz Markus, Scott and Tyson Reeder, John Riepenhoff, and Michael Williams are among the artists who have turned the de Kooning house into a temporary home and work space since 2011. There’s no formal application process for artists who are interested in participating in the residency there. 'The process has been completely organic; visiting artists and friends have recommended artists as well as proposed specific installations and projects for the space,' Byrne explains.
Byrne plans to keep de Kooning’s work as a mentor and teacher to young artists alive by continuing to cultivate creativity within the home. 'I’ve come to really respect her range of activities and generosity,' he says. 'My hope is to continue to make the space available to artists, curators and writers.'
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Ann Binlot is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer who covers art, fashion, design, architecture, food, and travel for publications like Wallpaper*, the Wall Street Journal, and Monocle. She is also editor-at-large at Document Journal and Family Style magazines.
-
Ikea meets Japan in this new pattern-filled collection
New Ikea Sötrönn collection by Japanese artist Hiroko Takahashi brings Japan and Scandinavia together in a pattern-filled, joyful range for the home
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Coming soon: a curated collection of all the new EVs and hybrids that matter
We've rounded up new and updated offerings from Audi, Porsche, Ineos, Mini and more to keep tabs on the shifting sands of the mainstream car market
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Southern Arizona sets the scene for a corking vineyard experience at Los Milics
Los Milics winery, designed by Chen + Suchart Studio, is set among vines at the foothills of the Mustang Mountains
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Surreal, uncanny, seductive: step into Graham Little’s world
Scottish artist Graham Little presents his first US retrospective at The FLAG Art Foundation in New York
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The cosmos meets art history in Vivian Greven’s New York exhibition
Vivian Greven’s ‘When the Sun Hits the Moon’, at Perrotin in New York City, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the USA
By Emily McDermott Published
-
The Met’s ‘The Real Thing: Unpacking Product Photography’ dissects the avant-garde in early advertising
A new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores the role of product photography and advertising in shaping the visual language of modernism
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Tony Notarberardino’s Chelsea Hotel Portraits preserve a slice of bygone New York life
‘Tony Notarberardino: Chelsea Hotel Portraits, 1994-2010’, on show at New York’s ACA Galleries, is the photographer’s ode to the storied hotel he calls home and its eclectic clientele
By Hannah Silver Published
-
‘LA Gun Club’: artist Jane Hilton on who’s shooting who
‘LA Gun Club’, an exhibition by Jane Hilton at New York’s Palo Gallery, explores American gun culture through a study of targets and shooters
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Black cinema
‘Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971’ at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brings lost or forgotten films, filmmakers and performers to a contemporary audience
By Anne Soward Published
-
BLUM marks 30 years of Japanese contemporary art in America
BLUM will take ‘Thirty Years: Written with a Splash of Blood’ to its New York space in September 2024, continuing its celebration of Japanese contemporary art in America
By Timothy Anscombe-Bell Published
-
Todd Gray’s sculptural photography collages defy dimension, linearity and narrative
In Todd Gray’s New York exhibition, he revisits his 40-year archive, fragmented into elaborated frames that open doors for new readings
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published