The Ladies’ Village Improvement Society
30th Annual Landmarks Luncheon
Preserving the Artistic Legacy of James Brooks and Charlotte Park
Photo by Jane Martin
For thirty years, the Landmarks Committee of LVIS has consistently been involved in maintaining our historic heritage by supporting historic preservation efforts within the town, beginning with the creation of the East Hampton Village Historic Districts in 1993.
The committee honors preservation efforts at its annual Landmarks Luncheon, and uses the proceeds to help fund future preservation projects.
As the keynote speaker for this year’s Landmarks Luncheon, the LVIS Landmarks Committee is delighted to welcome acclaimed artist and founding director of the Ossorio Foundation, Mike Solomon.
Mike’s topic will be Preserving the Artistic Legacy of James Brooks and Charlotte Park, whose home and studios in Springs have recently been saved from destruction. All proceeds will benefit the efforts to preserve the future Brooks-Park Arts and Nature Center in historic Springs, East Hampton NY
The mission of the Brooks-Park Arts and Nature Center is to protect and restore this important historical site, rehabilitating it for the education, inspiration, and enjoyment of our community.
The lecture is followed by a leisurely luncheon in a glorious oceanfront setting at the Maidstone Club.
Speaker: Mike Solomon,
Artist and Consultant
Photo by Michael Halsband
Growing up in the art world of his parents, Syd and Ann Solomon, artist Mike Solomon gained an early familiarity with artists' lives. Choosing at the age of 15 to practice art, Solomon's career now spans 50 years. He is represented by Berry Campbell Galley in New York. His work has been collected by many museums throughout the country including those on the East End. Both Guild Hall and the Parrish Museum have his works in their permanent collections. His works are in private collections here too. Dan Flavin Jr, Edward Albee, Alfonso Osorio, Beth De Woody, Pricilla Rattazzi, Michel Berty, and Noelle and Richard Prince, have collected his work. Solomon has been included in the books; Studios by the Sea: Artists of Long Island's East End by Jonathan Becker and Bob Colacello and in Artists Estates: Reputations in Trust by Magda Salvesen and Diane Cousineau.
Solomon attended Skowhegan School of Art in 1975, The Yale Summer Art Program in 1978. He has BA from College of Creative Studies, UCSB 1979 and an MFA from Hunter College, NYC in 1989. He was John Chamberlain's first assistant in Sarasota in 1980 and worked with the sculptor through 1984. Chamberlain's small "Tonk" sculptures were Solomon's project with him.
With his background and awareness of how artists live and work, Solomon later became a consultant to artists' estates, a writer, lecturer and curator. While working with Alfonso Ossorio in 1990 he conceived of the Ossorio Foundation and became its Founding Director from 1995 - 2002. In 2003 - 2007 Solomon served as a Co-Trustee to the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. Other clients include artists Elizabeth de Cuevas and Jack Youngerman and the estates of Alan Shields, and of course James Brooks.
Solomon is now completing the ten-year organization of the Solomon Archive, a very large collection of documents and materials related to the milieu of his parents Syd and Anne Solomon and their friends and colleagues. It contains manuscripts, correspondence, audio and visual documents and published materials on some of the most significant artists and writers in the post war period, many of whom lived on the East End. His yet uncompleted memoir, Our Salon By The Sea is developed from the Archive as well as from his experience of growing up within the art world. The new home of this unique and significant Archive will be made public in 2023.
Over the years Solomon has provided reviews and commentaries for The East Hampton Star, Hamptons Art Hub, Whitehot Magazine, and Sarasota Magazine among others. He has written essays on art for Beth Rudin de Woody, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and Glenn Horowitz Bookseller. He has been a guest lecturer at the Pollock House and Study Center, East Hampton, NY, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY, The Parrish Museum of Art, Watermill, NY, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC , The American Museum of Folk Art, New York, NY, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota FL, The Museum of Fine Art, St. Petersburg, FL, The Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL and the Center for Architecture, Sarasota, FL.
Tickets: SOLD OUT
Please make an additional donation to support LVIS’s historic preservation endeavors:
The LVIS is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, and contributions are deductible to the extent allowed by law.
