Basking in the Hamptons Glow
The Parrish Museum Midsummer benefit honored light artist Keith Sonnier and trustee Chad Leat, while at the Hamptons Happening, Ramy Brook Sharp was one of three honorees at the annual cancer fund-raiser.
BY LEIGH NORDSTROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEXIE MORELAND
“The Hamptons is all about art,” said Chad Leat on Saturday evening from the halls of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, N.Y. “It always has been, from the late
19th century. And that's carried through today.”
Leat, a trustee of the museum, was being honored alongside artist Keith Sonnier at the annual benefit, which featured an elegant outdoor dinner and after party, for the younger art enthusiasts — and, yes, those Hamptons scenesters already tired of the Surf Lodge scene this summer season.
Leat, who lives between New York, Bridgehampton and Paris, stressed the importance of city folk coming out for the museum's benefit. “We New Yorkers are also Hamptonites, and this is our community as well, so we have to support this community,” he said.
Sonnier's show on display had been in the works for some three years, so the prospect of being honored at the annual midsummer benefit was always on the horizon. A longtime Hamptons part-time resident, Sonnier has recently moved out full time, turning his home in Sagaponack into both a studio and living space.
The artist sat taking in congratulations from fans and friends, one of whom came by for an update on their search for a chinaberry tree.
“We both grew up in south Louisiana,” Sonnier explained as his friend walked away. “And as young people we always had growing in our yard chinaberry trees. And they really resemble a tree from Africa. As children, our fondest memories are of the chinaberry trees I would stare at in the brilliant sun. And I had several dreams based on these trees, that I loved. I dreamt that there were two egrets in the tree — it was totally sexual. But it was the image of the tree that I first began my research on different animals and bones.”
The evening's late-night crowd was courted by Larry Milstein, who served as the party's chair.
“It's almost pioneering this concept in the Hamptons,” Milstein said, while milling through the gallery rooms in search of a good Instagram opp. “In New York, you have the Whitney studio party, you have the Frick young fellows ball, but there hasn't been a similar thing for the Hamptons. So that's what we're doing.”
By the time Milstein and company took over the musuem later in the night, much of the artist contingency had disappeared, including the photorealist artist Audrey Flack, a longtime resident and working artist in the community.
“I came out with Jackson [Pollock] and all the Abstract Expressionists were here,” said Flack, whose major work “Wheel of Fortune” is housed at the museum. “The light is so magnificent.”
“I bought my house from — you ever hear of Max Ernst? He was before Dali — he was the original Surrealist. He had a son named Jimmy, and I bought Jimmy's house several years ago,” she continued. “But I also dated Jackson Pollock — when I was very young. That's all I can tell you.”
Further east in Bridgehampton, country music and carnival fun lured a crowd to the 14th annual Hamptons Happening, which took over the backyard of Maria and Kenneth Fishel's home Saturday evening, to once again raise money for the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation.
The event honors someone in business, fashion and food each summer. This year's honorees were Hamptons architect Joe Farrell, designer Ramy Brook Sharp of Ramy Brook, and chef Matt Lambert of The Musket Room.
Sharp spends her summers out east at her home in Water
Mill. “I've been coming since the early Nineties,” she said. “I used to do a share house out of college, and then my husband and I met out here actually. We met at a party-slash-bar; it was called the Hansom House in Southampton. I don't know what it's called now but it's by the train station. We love it out here. After we got married we knew we wanted to get a house out here. And actually Joe Farrell, the other guy who is being honored, built our house.”
The fund-raiser has long been attached to the fashion community.
“Originally the seed money for the foundation came from the fashion industry, 42 years ago,” said Marjorie Waxman, wife of Dr. Samuel Waxman. “It's enabled us to raise $100 million to give away. Everybody who gets a grant must collaborate and share their information. And that's what makes us unique.”