Art Springs Eternal

The East End hamlet of Springs has attracted artists for more than a century. Today, the neighborhood is home to international art stars Cindy Sherman, Ross Bleckner and Laurie Anderson as well as local stalwarts like trompe l’oeil master Randall Rosenthal and painter Connie Fox, widow of sculptor Bill King, who’ve held the creative fort for decades. “The neighborhood is still relatively affordable (or less expensive that other parts of the Hamptons), and the fact that there’s a large and active creative community is a powerful attraction,” says Helen Harrison, director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in the Springs and author of Hamptons Bohemia: Two Centuries of Writers and Artists on the Beach. “And it’s still a beautiful place to live.”

The hamlet’s beauty is one reason creative types flock here. Lush greenery, coves that abut Gardiners Bay and the famous Hamptons light that dances across the flat landscape have attracted artists for hundreds of years. Hudson River School painter Thomas Moran and his wife and fellow artist Mary Nimmo Moran moved into a Queen Anne-style home in East Hampton in 1884. Theirs were the first artist studios built in East Hampton. During the 20th century, the East End was a magnet for dozens of boldface names in art: Childe Hassam, Fairfield Porter, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Costantino Nivola, Roy Lichtenstein, Saul Steinberg and Robert Motherwell all lived in the Hamptons at some point.