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LongHouse Reserve
celebrated its annual Summer Benefit honoring the joyful
creativity of artist Mary Heilmann and the literary
genius of A. M. Homes. Gala Chairs Dianne Benson,
Cindy Sherman, and Robert Wilson, Art Chairs
Pamela Willoughby and George Negroponte, with
LongHouse Board of Trustees, greeted friends and
supporters - including Alice Aycock, Candace
Bushnell, Rosanne Cash, Renee Cox, Bill T. Jones, Laurie
Lambrecht, Sophie Chahinian and Robert Longo, Lisa Perry,
and G.E. Smith - to the MidSummer Dream themed
evening, full of wonder. Guests entered through the sand
dunes, into a whimsical world with pop-up performances
including stilt walkers, musicians, dancers, a horse rider,
a merman in the pool, trapeze aerialists and acrobats
roaming the gardens, enhancing the sensual space that is
LongHouse. The entire 16-acre grounds were open to discovery
with art at every turn, including this new works by Wyatt
Kahn and Fitzhugh Karol (both in attendance),
loans from Daniel Arsham and Ai Weiwei, as
well as permanent works by Buckminster Fuller, Sol LeWitt,
Yoko Ono and more. The evening raised over
$650,000.
Dinner began with a video of the late LongHouse Founder
Jack Lenor Larsen walking the gardens sharing “change
involves the new and there’s something magical about the
new. Let’s look at what could be done; at what hasn’t been
done. How to get away from the ordinary and the
conventional, to discover. Let’s do that, even in a small
way, and see what we can find.”
Director Carrie Rebora Barratt quoted Eleanor
Roosevelt saying “The future belongs to those who believe in
the beauty of their dreams” as she referenced Jack’s vision
for LongHouse. “When I worked at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, I remember Jack visiting from time to time, sitting in
our Textile Center, always looking and learning. He’s
created quite a stir, fabulously dressed, so tall, and that
voice. Jack was present and thoughtful, local and global,
just like the institution he created that we carry on”.
Board President Nina Gillman said “We continue to
learn from Jack, and from LongHouse, a magical place in our
community that inspires each of us to live with art in all
its forms. Jack was endlessly interested in the new and had
a fearless love of change. He often instructed us ‘to be
relevant, not reverent’ once he was gone. Since his passing
2 ½ years ago, we have used these words as our guide. This
has been a time of enormous change for LongHouse, from a
private residence with grounds open part-time to visitors,
led by its founder, to a fully public institution with
expanded open days and hours, led by board and staff. We
have more programming, greater engagement with the
community, and more supporters and members than ever before.
In this transition, LongHouse is moving from strength to
strength.. Speaking of strength and beauty, I’d like to
toast Dianne Benson and allow us to thank you. Dianne B,
your vision and leadership, and style and grace, are beyond
compare. We are honored to call you our President
Emeritus.”
Laurie Anderson
introduced A.M. and shared a few words about her longtime
friend, "Some of A.M’s recent work has been about talking
trees, and so it’s great that we’re here at Longhouse, a
place that treasures trees and is probably pretty open to
what trees might have to say, if they could talk. I first
met A.M. in a tree. It was the early ‘80s after a show in
Washington and for some reason I was outside trying to climb
a tree. A.M. just showed up and we started to talk. I
immediately saw her as someone who’s intensely interested in
where she is at the moment and able to put that into words.
Lately the talking trees are branching out into AI and I’m
really happy about that since I think AI is one of the most
powerful tools for writers. The language it produces is a
mix of moronic and profound. It’s a little bit like what I
imagine the sentences of talking trees will sound like when
we finally start to understand what they’re really saying.
So I put in the phrase “our friend A.M. and her talking
trees” into the supercomputer, ground it through the
algorithms, and out came about 9,000 words. I’m going to
share a few of these, so here is A.M. in AI.”
“The words, the words, the words are the words. And the
birds? What about you? You've been out of reach for a while
now. But don't give up hope. Dreams are made of smoke.
A.M. P.M. A.M. P.M. She’s a poet and a writer and she writes
in her head. At 3 A.M. At 4 A. M. At 5 A.M At 6 A.M.”
A.M. took the stage to share “an odd piece of trivia that
I’m sure no one knew when they selected me for this honor.
Jack Lenor Larsen has been part of my life since I was 3
days old—literally. In 1960 my parents built a modern glass
house at the edge of Rock Creek Park in Washington D.C.. At
three days old I was carried through the front door; the
first thing I passed were beautiful woven curtains—fabric by
Jack, and then I was carried down the hall to my parents
room and placed on their bed, fabric by Jack, and the drapes
in that bedroom, by Jack. My first experiences, my first
visions were influenced by Jack. For the entirety of my
childhood, I viewed the outside world through the weave of
Jack Larsen.”
Artist Almond Zigmund introduced honoree Mary
Hailmann, "One of my favorite people and painters. Mary’s
work gives you permission to luxuriate in the now. I don’t
surf but I imagine looking at her work is similar to the
experience of catching a perfect wave, where the absolute
chaos of the ocean and tranquil sublimity of catching the
wave are combined and distilled into a perfect gesture.
That is what Mary’s paintings are to me."
A Junior Committee - including Emma Wrazej (Chair)
and Hilary Cianciolo, Noah Erni, Emma Grayson, Mary
Kantor, Robert Ladov, Vivienne Lange, Victoria de Lesseps,
Sami Lyons, Owen McGowen, Ben Mitchell, and Morgan Wilkins
- hosted the afterparty with cocktails, dessert, and dancing
with DJ Amber Valentine until midnight
This years art auction, benefiting education at LongHouse,
included works by Annie Albers, Bjorn Amelan, Laurie
Anderson, Ross Bleckner, Cyril Christo & Marie Wilkinson,
Peter Dayton, Dawn DeDeaux, Michael De Feo, Sally Egbert,
Maryam Eisler, Connie Fox, Joe Gaffney, Judy Hudson, Peter
Hujar, Anton Perich, Fitzhugh Karol, Mel Kendrick,
Laurie Lambrecht, Jeff Muhs, Randy Polumbo, Marcia
Resnick, Ugo Rondinone, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith,
Arlene Slavin, Clintel Steed, Suzannah Wainhouse, David
"Mr. StarCity” White, Lucy Wynton, Mark Wilson, and
Robert Wilson.
In the coming days LongHouse will host conversations and
book signings with celebrated multidisciplinary artist
Michele Oka Doner for her forthcoming book, A Seed
Takes Root: A True Story on July 30th, as well as
actress Alexandra Auder with her book Don't Call
Me Home: A Memoir on August 13th. Gifted virtuoso
pianist and composer Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner will
share an evening of enchanting music under the stars in
celebration of Jack Larsen’s birthday on August 5th, made
possible by the generous support of Barbara Tober.
ABOUT A.M. HOMES
A.M. Homes is an author whose work has been translated into
twenty-two languages and appears frequently in Art Forum,
Harpers, Granta, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The New York
Times, and Zoetrope. She is a Contributing Editor to Vanity
Fair, Bomb and Blind Spot. Several times a year she
collaborates on book projects with artists—among them Eric
Fischl, Rachel Whiteread, Cecily Brown, Bill Owens, Julie
Speed, Michal Chelbin, Petah Coyne, Carroll Dunham,
Catherine Opie and Todd Hido.
She was a Co-Executive Producer and Writer on David E. Kelly
and Stephen King’s, Mr. Mercedes, Co-Executive Producer and
Writer on Falling Water and has created original television
pilots for HBO, FX and CBS and was a writer/producer of the
Showtime series The L Word. Homes serves on the Writers
Guild East Counsel. Additionally, Homes wrote the adaptation
of her first novel JACK, for Showtime. Director Rose
Troche’s 2003 adaptation of The Safety of Objects
marks the screen debut of Kristen Stewart. Other Homes
novels include, The Unfolding, This Book Will Save
Your Life and May We Be Forgiven.
A.M. Homes has been the recipient of numerous awards
including Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim
Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, NYFA, and
The Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York
Public Library, along with the Benjamin Franklin Award, and
the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.
In addition, she has been active on as Co-Chair of the Board
of Directors of Yaddo, and on the board of The Fine Arts
Work Center In Provincetown, The Writers Room, and PEN-where
she chaired both the membership committee and the Writers
Fund. Additionally, she serves on the board of Poets and
Writers.
ABOUT MARY HEILMANN
Influenced by 1960s counterculture, the free speech
movement, and the surf ethos of her native California, Mary
Heilmann ranks amongst the most influential abstract
painters of her generation. Considered one of the preeminent
contemporary Abstract painters, Heilmann’s practice overlays
the analytical geometries of Minimalism with the spontaneous
ethos of the Beat Generation, and are always distinguishable
by their often unorthodox—always joyful—approach to color
and form.
Raised in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Heilmann completed
a degree in literature, before she studied ceramics at
Berkeley. Only after moving to New York in 1968 did she
begin to paint. While most artists at that time were
experimenting with the concept of dematerialization and
demanding that painting should avoid any references to
experience outside the material presence of the work itself,
Heilmann opted for painting, rebelling against the accepted
rules. ‘Rather than following the decrees of modern,
non-representational formalism, I started to understand that
the essential decisions taken during the creative process
were more and more related to content. The Modern movement
was over…’
Since then, Heilmann has created compositions that evoke a
variety of associations. Her work may be
non-representational and based on an elementary, geometrical
vocabulary—circles, squares, grids and stripes—but there is
always something slightly eccentric, casual about them. The
simplicity of the forms is played down by a deceptive form
of nonchalance: the contours are not clearly defined. In
some paintings, amorphous forms appear to melt into each
other like liquid wax. Splashes of color can be discerned,
sharp edges bleed for no apparent reason, and the ductus of
the brushstrokes is always perceptible. Heilmann’s casual
painting technique conceals a frequently complex structure
that only gradually reveals itself to the viewer.
ABOUT LONGHOUSE RESERVE
LongHouse Reserve is 16-acre integrated environment created
by artist, collector and world-renowned textile designer and
weaver Jack Lenor Larsen (1927-2020) with a mission
to inspire living with art in all forms. Over the past
two years, LongHouse has transitioned from a founder-led to
board and staff-led public institution, serving the
community with vast open space, programs in art, nature, and
wellness, providing a sanctuary for Long Island and beyond.
The sculpture garden, featuring more than 60 outdoor
works—including permanent collection works by Yoan Capote,
Buckminster Fuller, Yoko Ono, Sui Jinguao, and Willem de
Kooning, and seasonal loans from artists such as Wyatt Kahn,
Maren Hassinger, and Ai Wei Wei—encourages exploration and
contemplation for new and repeat visitors alike. As of this
year, the garden is fully open to the public for education
and enjoyment, with a next chapter of activating Larsen’s
home (a modernist structure based on the Shinto Shrine at
Ise) and the extensive collections.
LongHouse Reserve inspires and empowers visitors of
all ages to see and think in new ways, and to incorporate
art and design into their lives, invoking an ongoing act of
creation that is renewed by the diverse communities drawn to
its values and purpose. Whether visitors return to see a
favorite garden or walk the grounds in search of a new
installation, LongHouse is always changing and
always new.
LongHouse Reserve is open April – December, Wednesdays
through Sundays from 12:30pm until 5pm. A Membership allows
you to visit LongHouse Reserve throughout the season.
General admission is $20, with reduced price tickets for
seniors and students, and no charge for children, veterans
or active-duty personnel. More information is available at
www.longhouse.org.
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