The Moran Family's Legacy
Two new exhibits that will open at Guild Hall in East Hampton this weekend will share a little of East Hampton's history with their viewers. Both "Montauk Point Lighthouse: Two Hundred Years" and "The Moran Family Legacy" will be celebrated with an opening reception Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.
The artwork of several generations of the Moran family, who were particularly active in East Hampton's artist summer colony of the second half of the 19th century, will be the focus of a significant exhibit. It will feature works by Thomas Moran, his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran, and their children Paul Moran and Mary Scott Moran Tassin; Thomas's brothers, Edward, Peter, and John, and brother-in-law, Stephen Ferris, and their children.
The exhibit includes paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs, among them a number of Moran family works not previously shown. Highlights include many images of East Hampton scenes such as the Montauk Lighthouse, Town Pond and Hook Pond in East Hampton, and Western landscapes such as Yellowstone Canyon and the Grand Canyon.
Family Influence
Archival photographs and accompanying text will depict the family at work and play and shed light on family members' influences on each other. A special feature will be a recreation of Thomas Moran's East Hampton studio, complete with original furniture, artist's easel, etching table, and sketch book.
Curated by Katherine Cameron, "The Moran Family Legacy" is a joint venture with the East Hampton Library's Pennypacker Long Island Collection, and draws heavily on the collection's Thomas Moran archives. Ms. Cameron wrote her master's thesis at New York University on the East Hampton art colony between 1875 and 1900, and curated Guild Hall's "East Hampton: The 19th Century Artists' Paradise" in 1991 and "The Artist as Teacher: William Merritt Chase and Irving Wiles" in 1994.
Mr. Moran and his family lived in East Hampton from 1878 until his daughter's death in 1948; his Main Street studio and home, which overlooks Town Pond, was built in 1884 and was the gathering place for his extended family over the years. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark and has been bequeathed to Guild Hall.
Lighthouse Exhibit
Two talks and a bus trip to Washington, D.C., where a retrospective of Thomas Moran's work will run concurrently at the National Gallery of Art, are scheduled for November in conjunction with Guild Hall's exhibit.
The Montauk Lighthouse exhibit includes 22 paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs, the oldest of which is a U.S. Government drawing from 1796, the year construction of the George Washington-commissioned lighthouse be gan. The guest curator of the show was Terry Wallace, the owner of the Wallace Gallery in East Hampton.
Among the artists represented in the exhibit are Gloriana Stratton, the first teacher at Third House in Montauk, and A.T. Bricher, Walter Granville-Smith, Reynolds Beal, Gilbert Guillery, Ralph Carpentier, Francesco Bologna, Joseph Barni kowski, Stan Bair, Kathryn Abbe, and Thomas and Edward Moran.
Both exhibits will run through Jan. 6, 1998.
Children's Museum
The Children's Museum of the East End and Guild Hall in East Hampton have joined together on a pilot project called "Time and Place . . . Light and Space," a hands-on way for children and adults to learn together through exhibits at the museum.
Opening Sunday and on exhibit through Jan. 11, 1998, "Time and Place . . . Light and Space" will include activities such as a blowup of a Thomas Moran landscape (which will be featured at the same time in "The Moran Family Legacy" exhibit) with a number of doors that can be opened, revealing facts about the environment inside; a Victorian costume corner where children can see how they look in the dress of that era, and a giant felt board, where children are invited to create their own landscapes.
A nonprofit organization, the Children's Museum was founded in April of 1996. Its founders hope to receive support from the community in order to expand into a permanent location.