Re-Viewinig Nature:
Long Island Landscape Painting Today

At the close of the nineteenth century, many prosperous New York City artists began to establish summer studios on Long Island-some even took up year-round residency. Summer colonies such as the one in East Hampton, and summer art schools, like the one founded by William Merritt Chase in Southampton, soon developed. As more and more city residents were attracted to the area, the Island's landscape began to change, but artists still continued to find boundless inspiration in its natural beauty, particularly in its easternmost regions.

With the passing of the years, prevalent styles changed, and abstract expressionist painters like Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner found inexpensive housing just beyond the borders of the fashionable resorts of the Hamptons. By the 1950s and 1960s, artists such as Fairfield Porter, who lived in Southampton, reintroduced representational painting to the area.

The work being produced today spans stylistically from photographic realism to nearly pure abstraction. While some painters focus on the remaining farms and fields, or the Island's relatively pristine waterways, others concentrate on more limited views of their own backyards, local streets, or railways stations. All are affected, to some degree, by the special light, the broad, flat terrain, and the expansive skies characteristic of this region.

This show features the work of twenty painters who have made the Long Island landscape their principal subject. Selected by guest curator Ronald G. Pisano, the exhibition provides a broad overview of images and styles, ranging from intimate views of Glen Cove, in Nassau County, to remote creeks on Shelter Island. All who have visited Long Island will find something recognizable; those who have not will want to make the trip.

© 1999 Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College