Letters to the Editor: 05.01.97

Before A Week Old

Panama City

April 26, 1997

To The Editor:

I have been a Star reader since I could first read. But this morning I woke up early to let the dog out, and said what the heck, let's go online. And I finally got to read my Star, or some of it, before it is a week old as it usually is when I receive it. So it's nice to know even though I live on the Panama Canal I can now read my Star on line.

Thank you,

JACK CONNORS

More Glitz

East Hampton

April 28, 1997

Dear Mrs. Rattray:

Land reform in East Hampton? Take from the poor and give to the rich!

While our best minds struggle to find solutions to the problem of the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, our local government struggles to increase the gap.

Upscale zoning? Just what the doctor ordered. A little more glitz, a little less funk!

Sincerely,

RITA McINTYRE

Memorial Tribute

East Hampton

April 28, 1997

Dear Helen,

On Sunday, April 20, a very special event took place at Guild Hall. Colleagues, friends, neighbors, and members of the Jimmy Ernst Artists Alliance gathered to participate in a memorial tribute to Willem de Kooning, perhaps East Hampton's most famous artist, who died last month. Fifteen people who knew and admired Bill, as he was affectionately known, came to offer their memories and anecdotes about this modest, candid, caring, and humorous man, whose art is famous throughout the United States and the world. A special exhibit, in fact, featuring his last paintings, before he became a victim of Alzheimer's, is just concluding at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.

The program, sponsored by the alliance and ably moderated by Helen Harrison, director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, began with a short film produced in the 1960s by Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenburg, which set the scene and revealed a vigorous de Kooning and demonstrated his painting technique and his authenticity, dating back to his European upbringing and training.

"Bill was the king of us," stated Paul Brach. "He was the best." Other colleagues described his generosity, his lack of pretension, his "sweetness." Ibram Lassaw, de Kooning's oldest friend and colleague, told of the many adventures he and his wife and Elaine and Bill had together. Will Zogbaum, a young neighbor, fondly remembered dinner table conversations when he was just 6 years old. Dr. Alan York, de Kooning's optometrist and an art scholar, spent hours discussing the old masters with him and watching him paint so that he could design special eyeglasses for close and faraway work. He noted that this caring man paid for an ambulance for the Springs Fire Department, and gave them two paintings which are hanging today in the firehouse.

Others who spoke at this moving tribute were Connie Fox, Donald Kennedy, David and Marion Porter, David Slifka, Judith Wolfe, Athos Zacharias, Elaine Benson, and Ruth Nasca.

This was indeed a memorable tribute to a remarkable and talented man. Everyone who attended felt privileged to be present and came away with a new understanding and appreciation of this irreplaceable human being.

Cordially,

MARIE WARACH

President

Jimmy Ernst Artists Alliance

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