Patrons Gather at Guild Hall to Preview Motherwell Show

Photo: Brent Glass and Ruth Appelhof, the executive director of Guild Hall

On Friday, Guild Hall’s annual summer gala took place with a preview of “Robert Motherwell: The East Hampton Years, 1944-1952” from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibition brings together the pioneering Abstract Expressionist’s work from the early years of his career.

The show was curated by Phyllis Tuchman, and it coincides with the publication of her book “Robert Motherwell: The East Hampton Years, 1944-1954.” She has noted that the East Hampton works “were lionized years before colleagues such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still rose to prominence. Once Motherwell became identified with his series of elegies to the Spanish Republic, the paintings garnered less attention and are now no longer as well known.

In an interview conducted by The New York Times in 1985 Motherwell said he did some of his best work while living in East Hampton.

Motherwell lived in a house at the corner of Georgica and Jericho Roads according to Steven Gaines’ history of the East End “Philistines at the Hedgerow.” The house was razed in 1985, but there is an extensive gallery of photos of the unique structure included in the show. Motherwell bought the property in 1945 and paid about $1,200 for the four-acre lot. He then spent $27,000 to build his house and a small military-surplus Quonset hut on the property.

The modest compound near Georgica Beach became an nexus of the postwar artists migration to the Hamptons. Jackson Pollock, Alfonso Ossario, Roberto Matta and Mark Rothko were all visitors.

Robert Motherwell studied at Stanford, Harvard and Columbia as well as with Matta in Mexico. He was married to the artist Helen Frankenthaler. Included in the exhibition are rarely seen works lent by the Motherwell family, the Frankenthaler Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art and other private and public collections. The exhibition will be on view through October 13.

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