OUR REVOLUTIONARY STORY The weather cooperated as the community came out in droves for the 3rd annual Culper Spy Day on Sept. 16. Ticket holders were able to visit 15 locations in the Three Village and Port Jefferson area and learned how people lived during the Revolutionary War with blacksmithing and colonial cooking demonstrations, and about the infamous Culper Spy Ring which originated from Setauket. Historic churches and the oldest home in Brookhaven, the Brewster House, opened their doors to tours on this rare occasion.
From left, Neil Watson, Nicholas Frizalone, Donald Sadowsky, Kelynn Z. Alder, Neil Leinwohl and Paul Edelson
By Heidi Sutton
The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook kicked off its latest juried art competition, Animal Kingdom: From Tame to Wild, with an artist reception on Sept. 15. This year the museum invited amateur and professional artists from across Long Island to submit up to three pieces of art representing the Animal Kingdom, whether it be a favorite pet, a memorable adventure or a scene from nature.
Neil Watson, executive director of the LIM, congratulated the artists and thanked them for addressing the theme of the exhibit. “We are really thrilled with the quality of this exhibition. Humans have had a really complicated relationship with animals — friend, foe, food — so looking at the different aspects of animals and of wildlife is a really rich subject.”
‘Pecking Order’ by Jeanette Dick received an honorable mention at the juried art show.
“We wanted to pair an exhibition like this with the show up at the Art Museum that is about dogs; so we thought this is the perfect opportunity and you all embraced the subject so beautifully,” he said.
A panel of museum staff members selected 75 finalists from a pool of 300 submitted works. Two judges, Seung Lee, professor of art and director of Fine Arts & Graduate Studies at LIU Post, and Christina Mossaides Strassfield, museum director and chief curator at Guild Hall, selected a first-, second-, third- and fourth-place winner along with two honorable mentions.
“Just being in the show itself [selected] from hundreds of entries we had was really significant and you should all be very, very proud. Thank you for giving the museum a beautiful exhibition,” said Lisa Unander, director of eduction at the museum, before announcing the winners.
Facing stiff competition, Paul Edelson of Setauket captured first place with “Yellowstone Bison,” oil on canvas. According to the jurors’ notes, the abstracted theme caught both of them immediately. “The treatment of the material shows experience; well done; powerful brush strokes. You can feel the animal ready to jump out,” they wrote.
Neil Leinwohl of Rockville Centre garnered second place with “Animal Farm,” multimedia on print; Kelynn Z. Alder of St. James was the third-place winner with “Dog on Carpet, Osita,” oil on canvas; and Nicholas Frizalone of Lake Grove captured fourth place with his solar plate etching on paper, “Anticipation.” Honorable mentions were handed to Jeanette Dick of Port Jefferson for her pastel titled “Pecking Order” and Donald Sadowsky of Roslyn Heights for his movable plastic model, “King Kong.”
The exhibition will be on view at The Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook through Oct. 22 in the Visitors Center. For more information call 631-751-0066 or visit www.longislandmuseum.org.
Be inspired and create! On Thursday, September 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. the Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A in Stony Brook will welcome local artist Annemarie Waugh, who will host Sip and Create Art, an adult painting workshop with local fine wines. The work of women artists such as Joan Mitchell, Agnes Martin and Beatriz Milhazes will be the inspiration as participants create their own masterpieces will enjoying a selection of fine, local wine.
Annemarie Waugh
Annemarie Waugh is a painter from England who lives and works on Long Island. Waugh weaves perception into form by way of an interdisciplinary approach. Inspired by the intersection of art and science as well as the subtle structures of visual communication, the artist utilizes motifs found within the fringe of mainstream culture. Her representations of abstract and figurative forms elicit the close relationship that exists between line and color as well as illusion and fantasy, investigating research-based details and the disenchantment of fictitious desire. To see Annemarie’s work, visit annemariewaugh.com.
Fees for this fun-filled workshop are $30 per person, $25 members and include paints, supplies and wine. Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Anyone interested in participating may contact the museum’s Education Department at (631) 751-0066 x212.
The season will open with a screening of ‘An American Veteran’ on Sept. 11. Photo from PJDS
By Heidi Sutton
The ravages of war, arranged marriages, police corruption, high fashion — these topics and more will be explored in detail as the Port Jefferson Documentary Series kicks off its Fall 2017 season on Monday, Sept. 11.
The series, which is sponsored by the Greater Port Jefferson North Brookhaven Arts Council, the Suffolk County Office of Film and Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, will present eight award-winning documentaries through Oct. 30, with the first and last to be screened at the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook and the rest at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson. Each film will be followed by a Q&A with guest speakers.
The documentaries were hand-picked by a seven-member film board which includes co-directors Lyn Boland, Barbara Sverd and Wendy Feinberg along with Honey Katz, Phyllis Ross, Lorie Rothstein and Lynn Rein.
This season will mark the series’ 12th year which is just fine for the film ladies, as they are affectionately called. “I think after 10 years I started to become a believer that it was actually going to have some staying power,” said Boland in a recent phone interview. “I was always holding my breath hoping that we would be there the next year … now I believe that the show will go on.”
Boland said working with the group is “an absolute pleasure. I’m really dumbfounded that everyone sticks around every year,” she laughed. “It seems like the amount of work that has to get done just gets bigger each time because we add things every year — the audience award, surveys, sponsors, concerts. We want to add something ‘special’ to each season.”
This fall’s dynamic line-up was selected after the members attended the Stony Brook Film Festival, DOC NYC, the Hamptons Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.
The group as a whole is most excited about presenting “Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan,” a behind the scenes look at the New York City Ballet’s long-time principal dancer Wendy Whelan as she faces injury and retirement. “It just took everyone’s breath away,” gushed Boland. “The film just wins you over, plus if you love watching ballet, the ballet sequences are just the perfect length to see how great she was.” Whelan will appear in person at the screening.
Personally, Boland is looking forward to sharing “City of Ghosts” with the audience. “I think it is the most important film this season because it’s really an inside look at what is going on in Syria,” she said. “When you see it, it’s just so horrifying. We knew we had to get this story out — that people have to see this. What’s going on there is so devastating that you can’t believe it’s not on the news every night.”
Boland is also excited to share “House of Z” which traces dress designer Zac Posen’s career. “I think that the fashionistas and ‘Project Runway’ fans in the audience are going to love every minute of ‘House of Z’ because you really get to see behind the scenes [of the fashion industry],” she said.
One film that has garnered a lot of interest from music lovers, especially blues fans, is the series’ final film, “Sidemen: Long Road To Glory.” The documentary highlights the lives and legacies of Pinetop Perkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Hubert Sulin, all Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf sidemen and will be preceded by a special blues concert with Scott Sharrard, lead guitarist for the Gregg Allman Band, who makes an appearance in the film.
The film ladies are grateful for the support of the local venues that host their films. “Theatre Three is our home, that’s where we started. It’s a great size, 400 seats, and we have a wonderful relationship with Jeff Sanzel,” said Boland. With 129 seats, the Long Island Museum’s Gillespie Room in the Carriage Museum “provides for a more intimate experience and the films screened there tie in to one of the museum’s exhibits.”
Boland relishes the positive feedback she receives after each screening. “I love it when someone is really ‘woke’ by the film, but I also love it when they just love the film and the subject.” For her, the goal of the PJDS is to provide “insight into something and in a very, very small way, cause disruption of people’s previously held ideas and open up a discussion.”
The Port Jefferson Documentary Series will be held at 7 p.m. every Monday night from Sept. 11 to Oct. 30 at Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson or The Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook. Tickets, sold at the door, are $7 per person. (No credit cards please). If you would like to volunteer, please call 631-473-5200. For more information, visit www.portjeffdocumentaryseries.com.
Film schedule
The season will open with a screening of ‘An American Veteran’ on Sept. 11. Photo from PJDS
▶ The fall season will kick off with a screening of “American Veteran” at The Long Island Museum on Sept. 11. Filmed over a five year period, the documentary follows Army Sergeant Nick Mendes, paralyzed from the neck down by an explosive device in Afghanistan, from the V.A. hospital bed where he spent 7 months, to the fully accessible home where he now lives with his wife Wendy. Winner of the Panavision Showcase at the Syracuse International Film Festival, the film is co-sponsored by Jim and Theresa Tsunis and The Northwind Group of Hauppauge. Guest speaker will be director Julie Cohen.
‘House of Z’
▶ “House of Z,” which will be screened at Theatre Three on Sept. 18, chronicles the meteoric rise of fashion designer Zac Posen at the age of 21, his brand’s falling out of favor several years later and his challenge to rebuild his company and his reputation. The documentary peeks past the glamour of the runway and the red carpet to show audiences a true portrait of Posen as both an artist and businessman. Guest speaker, via Skype, will be director Sandy Chronopoulos.
‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’
▶ Theatre Three will screen “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” on Sept. 25. Produced by Susan Sarandon, this illuminating documentary explores Lamarr’s career as a 1940s Hollywood actress (Snow White was created in her image) and later as the secret inventor of secure wifi, bluetooth and GPS communications. The screening is co-sponsored by the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University. Director Alexandra Dean will be the guest speaker for the evening.
‘A Suitable Girl’
▶ The fourth film, titled “A Suitable Girl,” will be screened on Oct. 2 at Theatre Three and tackles the subject of arranged marriages, an issue which has become increasingly controversial to the Western world as women have rightfully embraced their independence. Winner of the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, “A Suitable Girl” follows several young, modern women in India looking to get married over the course of four years and intimately capturing their thoughts on arranged marriage, giving them a voice, and offering a unique perspective into the nuances of this institution. Guest speaker will be director Sarita Khurana.
‘Frank Serpico’
▶ The series continues on Oct. 9 with a screening of “Frank Serpico” at Theatre Three. As an NYPD officer in the hippie era, Frank Serpico blew the whistle on the corruption and payoffs running rampant in the department. He was shot in the face during a drug arrest that was rumored to be a setup and most famously became the subject of Sidney Lumet’s classic film, “Serpico.” Forty-plus years later, Serpico talks about his Southern Italian roots, his time as an undercover officer, and his post-NYPD life. The documentary gives a powerful portrait of an always-committed public servant who still walks the walk in his very own unique way. Guest speaker will be director Antonino D’Ambrosio.
‘Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan’
▶ “Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan,” to be screened at Theatre Three on Oct. 16, offers an intimate portrait of prima ballerina Wendy Whelan as she prepares to leave the New York City Ballet after a record-setting three decades. One of the modern era’s most acclaimed dancers, Whelan danced ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins as well as new works by modern standout choreographers with many roles made specifically for her. Co-sponsored by the Law Offices of Michael S. Ross, P.C. in Hauppauge; Backstage Studio of Dance in Port Jefferson Station; and Amy Tyler School of Dance in Port Jefferson. Guest speaker will be Prima Ballerina Wendy Whelan.
‘City of Ghosts’
▶ “City of Ghosts,” which will be screened at Theatre Three on Oct. 23, follows the efforts of “Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently” (RBSS), a handful of anonymous activists who banded together after their homeland was taken over by ISIS in 2014. With deeply personal access, this is the story of a brave group of citizen journalists as they face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile, risking their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today. Directed by Matthew Heineman, “City of Ghosts” was the winner of the Grand Jury Award at the Sheffield Documentary Festival. Guest speaker TBD.
‘Sidemen: Long Road to Glory’
▶ The final film for the Fall 2017 season, “Sidemen: Long Road to Glory,” will be screened at the Long Island Museum on Oct. 30. An intimate look at the incredible lives and legacies of piano player Pinetop Perkins, drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and guitarist Hubert Sumlin, all Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf sidemen, the film captures some of the last interviews and their final live performances together before their deaths in 2011. Co-sponsored by the Long Island Music Hall of Fame and the Long Island Blues Society. A Q&A will be conducted by Tom Needham of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame and WUSB with guest speakers director Scott Rosenbaum and lead guitarist for the Gregg Allman Band, Scott Sharrard. A pre-film blues concert will be held at 6 p.m. featuring Scott Sharrard. Tickets for both the concert and film are $14.
Above, Beverly C. Tyler, Lindsey Steward and Donna Smith stand next to the Samuel H. West Blacksmith Shop on the grounds of The Long Island Museum, which will be open for blacksmith demonstrations on Culper Spy Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Photo by Heidi Sutton
Organizations team up for island-wide event
On Saturday, Sept. 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., The Long Island Museum and the Ward Melville Heritage Organization in Stony Brook and the Three Village Historical Society and Tri-Spy Tours in Setauket will host a day of spy-related tours and activities for the third annual Culper Spy Day, named for the Culper Spy Ring founded by Benjamin Tallmadge, George Washington’s chief intelligence officer during the Revolutionary War.
The Three Village area, which includes Stony Brook, Setauket and Old Field, is full of hidden intrigue and stories of how America’s first spy ring came together secretly to provide General George Washington the information he needed to turn the tide of the American Revolution.
The 3rd New York Regiment demonstrates musket firing on the Village Green in Setauket at last year’s event.
This year’s event has expanded to include other areas that played key roles in the Culper Spy Ring. Fans of the AMC hit series “Turn,” which has completed its final season, are familiar with Hollywood’s version of the Long Island-based spy group. On Sept. 16 visitors can learn what really happened while enjoying tours, Colonial cooking demonstrations, reenactments and many more family-friendly activities in the Three Villages and across Long Island.
The Long Island Museum will host a lecture at 2 p.m. with John Staudt, adjunct assistant professor of history at Hofstra University. Staudt will present “The Terrible Force of War: Eastern Long Island in the American Revolution.” In addition, blacksmith demonstrations will be ongoing from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and a special display of Revolutionary War artifacts will be on display.
Among other Culper Spy Day activities, the Three Village Historical Society hosts an interactive Culper SPIES! exhibit and a book signing with award-winning novelist and nonfiction author Selene Castrovilla. Visitors will also enjoy invisible ink demonstrations and Anna Strong’s famed clothesline, used for sending signals to Culper spies working off Long Island’s shores.
Above, living historian Diane Fish will give a Colonial cooking demonstration at the Brewster House during the event. Photo by Heidi Sutton
Ward Melville Heritage Organization will host Colonial cooking demonstrations and tours of historic structures that served as home bases for several spy ring members. Stony Brook University’s Special Collections department will display original letters written to Benjamin Tallmadge from George Washington, and the 3rd New York Regiment will demonstrate musket firing and marching drills on Setauket’s Village Green. The Country House Restaurant will offer a spy-themed lunch and the Ketcham Inn of the Moriches will host a guided tour and dinner at the home of noted spy Benjamin Havens.
Organizations participating in the Culper Spy Day event include The Long Island Museum, the Three Village Historical Society, the Ward Melville Heritage Organization, Tri-Spy Tours, Stony Brook University Special Collections, Emma S. Clark Memorial Library, Frank Melville Memorial Park, Three Village Community Trust, Caroline Church of Brookhaven, Setauket Presbyterian Church, Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson (Drowned Meadow Cottage), History Close at Hand, the Country House Restaurant, Times Beacon Record News Media, Raynham Hall, the Smithtown Historical Society, Discover Long Island, Ketcham Inn of the Moriches, and Sagtikos Manor in Bay Shore.
Tickets, which are available at www.tvhs.org, are $25 for adults and $5 for children ages 6 to 12. Children under the age of 6 and veterans will receive free admission. Tickets may be picked up at the Three Village Historical Society, 93 North Country Road, Setauket from Sept. 11 to 15. At that time, visitors will receive a bracelet and a copy of the Culper Spy Day map with all event listings. Tickets are good for admission to participating organizations for Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 16 and 17. Additional fees may apply for meals. For a full list of Culper Spy Day activities please visit www.culperspyday.com.
Above, a portrait of Leonard A. Zierden, age 4, March 1900, with his Jack Russell Terrier (Star Studio, Johnsonburg, PA) will be on view at The LIM through Dec. 31.
By Jill Webb
As the dog days of summer are brought in with the August heat, The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook will also put dogs in the spotlight. Starting Aug. 11, the Art Museum on the hill will feature an exhibit titled Dog Days: Portraits of Man’s Best Friend. The exhibit’s collection will focus on works from the 1840s to the 1960s featuring dogs.
Ernest BJ Zierden, age 7, March 1900, with his Jack Russell Terrier (JYL Photo Studio, Johnsonburg, PA)
“This gallery tends to be devoted to changing exhibits drawn from our permanent collection,” Assistant Curator Jonathan Olly said of the room currently preparing for the Dog Days exhibit. The exhibit will open tomorrow, Aug. 11, and run through Dec. 31.
Beneath the gallery resides the vault storing the museum’s art collection. “It’s kind of a continuing challenge of coming up with new ways to look at the collection and put together themes,” Olly said.
Olly got the idea to draw together works highlighting dogs after gaining inspiration from a cat-centric exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. Realizing the fact that Long Islanders love their dogs led him to curate the Dog Days exhibit. “When most people were living on a farm, farms had dogs because they were pets but they’re also practical. They could catch pests, they could guard the homestead from intruders,” he said.
There are about 20 major works in the gallery, from watercolor and oil painting to photographs. There will also be a display case featuring smaller objects such as dog show tags, ribbons from the North Shore Kennel Club in St. James, postcards that have advertising containing dogs, ornaments that were pinned on horse wagons leather straps and even a pair of slippers with dog’s faces embroidered on them.
William Sidney Mount’s Esqimaux Dog, 1859
Famous artists William Sidney Mount and William Moore Davis have pieces on display. Mount was a 19th-century genre and portrait painter who lived in Setauket and Stony Brook. The museum has the largest collection of his works. Davis, a friend of Mount’s, resided in Port Jefferson and is known for his landscape paintings.
“They are the two artists that are most strongly represented in the show. That’s because they were local people and they both depicted scenes of regular people on Long Island at work, at play, at rest — and often dogs were part of the scene,” Olly said.
The interesting part of the gallery is that in most of the works the dogs are not the most prominent part of the piece. Often, they were just another component in the scene, which draws a comparison to how they were (and are) just another part of Long Islander’s lives.
“A lot of the things that we’re working with in here tend to be things that have come into the collection not because they’re dog-related, but the fact they have dogs is almost accidental,” Olly said.
This is the case in Alexander Kruse’s 1969 painting “Bicycle Parking Fire Island,” which is the most current piece in the exhibit. “He didn’t paint it because of the dog, but he just happened to include a dog,” Olly said.
One of the most interesting pieces featured, according to Olly, is a painting illustrating a scene of the Meadow Brook Hounds. Fox hunting was a popular sport for Long Island’s elite in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There were three main fox hunting organizations on Long Island during this time: The Meadow Brook Hounds (1881-1971), Suffolk Hounds (1902-1942) and Smithtown Hunt (1900-present).
The painting of the Meadow Brook Hounds is particularly interesting because it’s one of the few where the dogs are a major part of the scene. The painting is accompanied by a label that not only names important figures portrayed in the piece, like Theodore Roosevelt, but also credits the dog’s names. “The dogs are actually getting equal billing with the people,” Olly said.
In conjunction with the Dog Days exhibition, The Long Island Museum will present its third Summer Thursday event on Aug. 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. with a concert by the Cuomo Family Band. Visitors are encouraged to pack a picnic dinner and bring chairs or blankets. Admission to the grounds and exhibit is free.
Shelter dogs from Last Chance Animal Rescue will be available for adoption and The Middle Country Public Library’s Mutt Club, which partners with animal rescue organizations, will be collecting donations for shelter pets including pet food, toys, treats, collars, cat litter, toys, cleaning supplies and peanut butter.
Dog Days: Portraits of Man’s Best Friend is a chance for North Shore residents to see the beloved pets in an artistic light. Stop by the gallery to see just how man’s best friend has been captured over the past centuries on Long Island.
The Long Island Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is located at 1200 Route 25A in Stony Brook. Regular museum hours are Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, call 631-751-0066 or visit www.longislandmuseum.org.
Above, seated from left, LIM Executive Director Neil Watson, Jennifer Lawrence and Paul Lamb; standing from left, Christopher A. Miano and Michael J. Opisso. Photo above from LIM
Passengers traveling through Stony Brook past The Long Island Museum on Route 25A might have noticed a new bit of landscape recently. The Long Island Museum unveiled the Betty and William F. Howind Memorial Garden, funded by the North Suffolk Garden Club, at a ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony on June 29. The event celebrated the Howinds as longtime supporters of the museum and Betty as a devoted member of the garden club.
A view of the new memorial garden with the sculpture, ‘Three Sheets to the Wind,’ by Drew Klotz in the foreground. Photo by Michael J. Opisso
“Betty and Bill Howind were longtime supporters of LIM and Betty enjoyed working in The LIM’s Emma Lee Blackford Rockwell Herb Garden, designed and maintained by North Suffolk Garden Club. The garden club wanted to honor Betty and Bill for their generosity and for Betty’s devoted service to the club. So NSGC felt The LIM campus was a perfect place to create a lasting memorial to the Howinds and LIM agreed!” commented Jennifer Lawrence, NSGC president, who was instrumental in the project.
The North Suffolk Garden Club has been maintaining the Emma Lee Blackford Rockwell Herb Garden on the grounds of The Long Island Museum since 1993. The Howind garden is the most recent highlight of this long-standing partnership. Together, The LIM and the garden club selected Michael J. Opisso to design the garden.
A key feature of the space is a beautifully designed black walnut bench by Christopher A. Miano. When LIM Executive Director Neil Watson proposed Miano’s design to Lawrence, he mentioned that Miano works only in black walnut. It happened that Lawrence and her husband Brewster had 600 board feet of black walnut from trees on their Nissequogue property and Miano was able to use some of the wood for the bench. “It really is a local product,” said Lawrence.
The Betty and William F. Howind Memorial Garden provides several key elements to the museum property including delineated walkways, a resting spot for visitors on their way into Stony Brook Village and a beautiful focal point to celebrate the new vision of LIM as a community destination. The new garden will enhance the museum grounds for years to come and will be enjoyed by thousands of Long Islanders throughout the seasons.
Watercolor study of “Steeds of Apollo” for the Apollo XIII insignia. Photo courtesy of Alex Katlan
New exhibit at The LIM showcases a modern-day Renaissance man
‘I always thought I was born under a certain star because I’ve been lucky my whole life.’
– Lumen Martin Winter
By Heidi Sutton
Lumen Martin Winter (1908 —1982) was an American public muralist, sculptor, painter and mosaic artist for more than 50 years. His most famous works are displayed at the U.S. Air Force Academy Chapels in Colorado Springs, at the AFL-CIO Headquarters and the National Bank in Washington, D.C., and at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Lincoln Center and the United Nations in New York City.
Through Sept. 17, The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook will present an exciting new exhibit titled Lumen Martin Winter: An Artist Rediscovered in the Art Museum on the hill. The exhibit, which includes 90 of Winter’s works of art along with photographs, letters and audio tapes, was made possible through a major donation by Alexander Katlan, a conservator for the museum, who began to collect artwork from the Winter family estate in 2015. Additional items are on loan from private collections and other museums.
“This is the first [solo] exhibition on this artist in a museum setting,” said Director of Collections and Chief Curator, Joshua Ruff. “Winter had been featured in other museums in small ways as parts of other projects; but this is the first time there has been a full-scale retrospective study of this artist in any museum anywhere.”
‘Mission’ by Lumen Martin Winter
Divided into several galleries, the diverse exhibit explores Winter’s art and career from his early works as a cartoonist at a newspaper and as a student in art school, his years spent in Europe, time spent out West in the 1960s and his final years in New Rochelle. Display cases further showcase Winter’s work as an illustrator of books and magazines, stamps and medallions, including one for the Apollo XIII lunar mission.
“Lumen Winter was a name that I didn’t know a few years ago,” said Ruff during a recent guided tour. “This is a guy that made his bread and butter on public art commissions. These were projects that were done all around the United States — a lot of them were centrally located around the New York Metropolitan area.”
According to Ruff, “many of Winter’s biggest commissions and biggest projects were large-scale murals.” As a result, much of the artwork on view at the museum are preparatory works. For example, the large colorful mural that greets visitors at the entranceway to the exhibit is a preliminary corner panel for “The Fisherman,” a 14- by 28-foot mural on view at the HSBC bank in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, at the corner of Avenue U and 17th Street.
Winter’s favorite artist was Leonardo da Vinci and his mural replica of Leonardo’s “Last Supper,” which is the same size as “The Fisherman,” still hangs in the South Dining Hall at the University of Notre Dame. In the exhibit, a recurring video plays next to a colored print of “The Last Supper” in which Lumen describes his process in re-creating the famous work.
Ruff spent many hours researching and planning the exhibit in chronological order, visiting many of Winter’s murals in areas in and around New York, Washington, D.C., and even interviewing members of Winter’s family. “Many of Winter’s works were untitled, often not dated, so there was a lot of detective work” that needed to be done, said the curator.
Lumen Martin Winter in front of ‘Venus of the Lakes’ at the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago, 1961. Photo courtesy of The LIM
According to Ruff, Winter started his academic career at the Cleveland Academy of Art and trained at the National Academy of Design and Grand Central Art Academy. He lived in New Rochelle from the late 1950s until his death in 1982 and had a studio in lower midtown Manhattan as well as out in Taos, New Mexico, for many years. “As a New York area artist, he was connected to the New York and Long Island artists that we have in our [museum] collection and knew them well.”
Winter did 13 different public commissions for public schools in New York City including “Voice of the Bell” a reference to the Verrazano Bridge, which was commissioned for a school on Staten Island. Some were marble sculptures but most of them were mosaic murals for the entranceway of the schools, said Ruff. Winter was also commissioned to do a lot of lobby work for the Sheraton Hotels across the country.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog that documents Winter’s works including what still exists and what is gone. Said Ruff, “We documented in the catalog all the projects that [the museum] had good details on. Unfortunately there are many that are gone or were moved elsewhere.”
For Ruff, creating an exhibit on an artist where most of his large significant commissions are gone or are in places that are hard to get to and see was a challenge. “What we have is the design work, the reference work, but then also what we really have is paintings that show his skill as a watercolorist and as an oil painter that he was doing for the love and joy of doing the art — without a profit motive.”
Winter once said that he had an intrinsic feeling that he could do anything. Scanning the exhibit, it is incredible how that statement rings true. It seems as if whatever medium Winter tried he mastered, including watercolor, red conte, gouache, graphite, oil, ink, charcoal, bronze and marble. There are incredible landscapes on one wall, abstract art on another and portraits on yet another.
Preparatory works for massive sculptures are also on view including sketches and designs for the Kansas State Historical Society’s “White Buffalo” marble sculpture, which depicts a Navajo Indian on horseback with a buffalo. This was Winter’s final commissioned piece and he passed away before finishing it. His son William, working from the designs of his father, saw the statue to its completion in 1983.
“I don’t think that people even realized in Winter’s lifetime how much he had really accomplished,” said Ruff, adding “Hopefully this exhibition and the catalog we’ve reproduced is a start and I’m hoping that continuously going forward this museum and other museums will be able to do more about him in the future, make more discoveries and that we’ll be able to connect him to other artists. It’s been a great journey so far …”
The Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook will present Lumen Martin Winter: An Artist Rediscovered through Sept. 17. For more information, call 631-751-0066 or visit www.longislandmuseum.org.
The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook will welcome food historian Sarah Lohman, on Sunday, July 30 at 2 p.m. Lohman will discuss her latest book, “Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine,” in conjunction with the museum’s Edible Eden exhibition. A self-proclaimed historic gastronomist, Lohman will take an in-depth look at locally grown crops and their origins. This program is free with regular museum admission.
Located at 1200 Route 25A in Stony Brook, The Long Island Museum is open Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Regular museum admission is $10 adults, $7 for seniors 62 and older and $5 for students ages 6 to 17. For more information, call 631-751-0066 or visit www.longislandmuseum.org.
LIM senior curator Joshua Ruff, center with red tie, stands in front of ‘Fishermen’s Mural’ by Lumen Martin Winter with members of New York City’s Salmagundi Art Club after the tour. Photo by Heidi Sutton
By Heidi Sutton
The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook welcomed members of the Salmagundi Art Club last Saturday morning to view its latest exhibit, Lumen Martin Winter: An Artist Rediscovered. A guided tour of the collection was led by the museum’s senior curator Joshua Ruff followed by a live jazz performance and lunch in the Carriage House Museum.
Lumen Martin Winter was an important American public artist for more than 50 years, with major murals and commissions at the United Nations in New York and the AFL-CIO Building in Washington, D.C. In the late 1960s, he was chosen by NASA to design the official insignia for lunar missions Apollo 13 to 15. After his death in 1982, Winter’s name became as obscure as some of the fading frescoes produced in the prime of his career. Now, for the very first time in a museum setting, his work is being reappraised with new light being shed on this prolific but not fully appreciated artist.
The exhibit, which features 90 works of art from paintings to sculpture, runs through Sept. 17.
Shelter dogs from Last Chance Animal Rescue will be available for adoption and The Middle Country Public Library’s Mutt Club, which partners with animal rescue organizations, will be collecting donations for shelter pets including pet food, toys, treats, collars, cat litter, toys, cleaning supplies and peanut butter.
Preparatory works for massive sculptures are also on view including sketches and designs for the Kansas State Historical Society’s “White Buffalo” marble sculpture, which depicts a Navajo Indian on horseback with a buffalo. This was Winter’s final commissioned piece and he passed away before finishing it. His son William, working from the designs of his father, saw the statue to its completion in 1983.
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