De Kooning's Bicycle: Artists and Writers in the Hamptons

by Robert Long

Some of the twentieth century's most important artists and writers--from Jackson Pollock to Saul Steinberg, Frank O'Hara to Jean Stafford--lived and worked on the East End of Long Island years before it assumed an alternate identity as the Hamptons. The home they made there, and its effect on their work, is the subject of these searching, lyrical vignettes by the critic and poet Robert Long.

Pollock moved to Springs because he thought he wanted to stop drinking, but he found a connection to nature there that inspired some of the most significant paintings of our time. Others followed him. When Fairfield Porter bought a house in Southampton, the New York School suddenly had a new headquarters, and James Schuyler and Frank O'Hara found companionship and raw material for their poems on South Main Street and on the three-hour train ride between the city and the East End. Willem de Kooning rode his bike every day between his studio in the East Hampton woods and the bay, where the light informed every brushstroke he put to canvas from the early 1960s on.

In De Kooning's Bicycle, Long mixes storytelling with history to re-create the lives and events that shaped American art and literature as we know it today, in a landscape where town met country and the modern met America's rural past.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2005

Reviews

[Rustin Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am on my fifth reading of this book. I can't get enough of it like I can't get enough of Vonnegut's Bluebeard. The locale is the same between the two, and the two books inform each other in a strange way, in my mind at least, like cross-pollinating plants.

[Mike Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book for someone familiar with the Springs/East Hamptons area and the artists that lived and worked there. Gives me a reason to look up their work and study up on them.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version of this one while I tooled around in my car running errands & such here in Alaska. While it's very green here in the summertime and, hopefully, very sunny, there's not much beachy-ness to be had so this book felt like a summer vacation, what with all the talk of the Hamptons & the light & the sand & the ocean & all the picturesque scenery, way back before the area was "The Hamptons" packed full of filthy rich Paltrows & Diddys. I liked the format of the book -- short essays, very lyrical & descriptive. I also loved the subjects of the book because not only do I love artists and writers and the works they create, I'm also intrigued by all the details of their lives -- their houses & studios & offices & typewriters & brushes & paint colors & clothes, etc etc etc. The book was a little slow at the end, I thought, but it was short & sweet & all in all, it was right up my alley.

[Marcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was fascinated with the history and description of the Hamptons. I am interested in many of the people mentioned but became very frustrated with the author's style. His descriptive language seemed very affected and he acted as though he knew the thoughts of the people he discussed. He also had the habit of calling everyone "he" or "she" and I often listened for a long time before I could figure out who the subject of the chapter was. Did all of these folks actually drink continually? I know that alchohol was part of the life style and was a serious illness for many (Pollack died because of it, after all) but wasn't there more to their lives?

[Chris Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not invested in knowing about the Hamptons, but I did want to learn a bit more about De Kooning and Jackson Pollack. And I did. Plus a little more. Nothing Earth-shattering, but I did feel is helped broaden my understanding of two of America's most significant artists.

[Arty · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring bullshit

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intrigued by the intertwining history of long island, art and personal lives and relationships of the artists

[Leeleewells]

pretty much...

[Josh Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I want to read more about Pollock and the De Koonings.

[Richard Rowland]

Well written. The Hamptons back in the day.

[Mejix · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's hard to believe that you could make an awful book of a rich fascinating subject but this guy did it, this a real stinker of a book.