The Rest is History
4 Newtown Lane | East Hampton, NY
August 13 – September 27, 2026
The Rest is History
Elise Asher • Ellsworth Ausby • Richard Bowman • Sari Dienes • Jorge Fick • Susan Fortgang • Helen Frankenthaler • Sidney Geist • Charles Houghton Howard • Walter C Jackson • Ibram Lassaw • Marcia Marcus • Jay Milder • Costantino Nivola • Joe Overstreet • Pat Passlof • Esther Pressoir • Jeanne Reynal • Miriam Schapiro • Thomas Sills • Esteban Vicente • Peter Voulkos
Esteban Vicente
Gentle Sound, 1988
oil on canvas
52 x 64 in.
132.1 x 162.6 cm.
(EVIC008)
Eric Firestone Gallery is pleased to present The Rest is History, an exhibition at its East Hampton location of sculpture and painting made between the 1940s and 1980s. The show reflects the gallery’s ongoing commitment to historical re-investigation of the art historical canon. Eric Firestone Gallery has maintained its original location at 4 Newtown Lane since 2010, and has prioritized, in its programming, the local community and the legacy of art-making in the area. The exhibition includes artists and estates the gallery has worked with since its inception, artists that have become synonymous with the gallery’s program in recent years, and some artists making their debut with the gallery.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the East End of Long Island became one of the most significant meeting-grounds of like-minded artists, who gathered on the beach, in local bars, and at the artist-run Signa Gallery in East Hampton (active from 1957–60). It was an extension of the vanguard artistic activity happening in New York City around abstraction, which constituted a radical re-definition of art. But the East End was also a place where artists were freer to experiment.
Peter Voulkos
Stack, 1976
fired clay and glaze
36 1/2 x 12 x 12 in.
92.7 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm.
(PEVO001)
The artists in the exhibition who lived and worked in the Hamptons include Sidney Geist, Ibram Lassaw, Costantino Nivola, Miriam Schapiro, and Esteban Vicente. Other artists found refuge in different summer communities: Helen Frankenthaler, Elise Asher, and Marcia Marcus in Provincetown, on Cape Cod; Esther Pressoir on the coast of Maine and Rhode Island.
Pat Passlof spent time in the Schwangunk Mountain ridge area in upstate New York. Sari Dienes retreated from New York City to an artist community known as The Land, in Rockland County, New York. Other artists in the exhibition were based in the Bay Area of California, including Richard Bowman, Charles Houghton Howard, and Peter Voulkos. Joe Overstreet began his career in the Bay Area before moving to New York; several of his Flight Pattern paintings were made during a temporary return to Oakland in the early 1970s. Jeanne Reynal spent the war years in the Bay Area, with a retreat in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Jorge Fick left Detroit, New York, and San Francisco, to live in the high desert of New Mexico.
Thomas Sills
Ralley, 1961
oil on canvas
49 x 60 in.
124.46 x 152.4 cm.
(THSIL047)
Many works in the exhibition are connected aesthetically by the impulse to break apart and explode forms. This may reflect a response to World War II, as well as the ongoing lineage of Cubism. Susan Fortgang and Jay Milder collapsed interiors and urban landscapes in highly textured arrangements of biomorphic shapes. This aesthetic also becomes a visual metaphor for what coastal and rural areas represented to these artists. They were a refuge from the pressures and quotidian nature of the city, and as such, a fragmenting of dense urban culture. The work of Overstreet and Thomas Sills frequently refers to childhood experiences in nature: for Overstreet, screened porches in Mississippi; for Sills, the experience of working in a greenhouse in North Carolina.
The work in the exhibition is both joyful and optimistic, as well as reflecting socio-political tension points, and wartime experiences. The families of several artists were refugees or immigrants before and during the war. Lassaw, who was born in Egypt to Russian-Jewish parents, learned to weld while serving in the army. The Surrealist and biomorphic forms in the work of Dienes, Howard, and Reynal are part of a larger aesthetic response that emphasized the subconscious and intuition, in the face of “logical” thinking that led to mass destruction.
Miriam Schapiro
Normal Heights, 1969
acrylic on canvas
72.0h x 80.0w in
182.88h x 203.2w cm
(MSCHA012)
Socio-political expression also runs through the show. Schapiro was a leader in the Feminist Art movement who used symbolic forms to explore structures of containment and freedom for women artists. Walter C Jackson and Ellsworth Ausby turned to African roots and forms as inspiration for their work. Overstreet considered the idea of the North Star as a beacon towards freedom for enslaved people. This inspired him to look upward, and point his paintings towards the ceiling.
In many works, nature becomes an abstract contemplation. Asher’s paintings are poetic and mysterious ruminations of light and shadowy forms. Dienes would often begin her sidewalk rubbings on urban streets, and then layer them with rubbings from natural forms she collected, like branches, leaves, and shells. In his Pod series, Fick depicted semi-abstract forms of growth and regeneration, reflecting his study of Buddhism, Native, and Latin culture. Lassaw’s work draws on the forms of constellations; while Bowman explored sub-atomic structures and primal elements. Bowman was a pioneer in the use of fluorescent paints, considering them a way to express life energy and reflect early discoveries in atomic physics and space exploration. Nivola, while spending time with his children on the beaches of Long Island, developed a singular technique of using molds made in sand to cast plaster or concrete sculptures. These works combine the textured freedom of sand with the permanence of stone.
Costantino Nivola
Maquette for Raymond Loewy Building, 1955
sand on cast plaster
11 x 43 1/2 in.
27.9 x 110.5 cm.
(CNIV014)
Together, the work in the exhibition is a reflection on this history – a synthesis of social forces, pressures, and discoveries of the time – along with the refuge and healing of nature and rootedness in place.
Miriam Schapiro
Normal Heights, 1969
acrylic on canvas
72 x 80 in.
182.9 x 203.2 cm.
(MSCHA012)
Jeanne Reynal
Mother and Children Between Sun and Moon, 1966
smalti and Japanese shell on pigmented cement
48 x 61 x 2 in.
121.92 x 154.31 x 5.4 cm.
(JREY058)
Jeanne Reynal
Untitled, 1945
smalti and pigmented plaster on wood
18 x 24 x 1 in.
45.72 x 60.96 x 1.91 cm.
(JREY152)
Marcia Marcus
Joe Gifford, 1967
oil on canvas in artist frame
75 x 32 in.
190.5 x 81.3 cm.
(MMAR130)
Richard Bowman
Kinetogenics 30, 1960
oil and fluorescent oil on canvas
71 x 87 in.
180.3 x 221 cm.
(RIBOW001)
Jay Milder
Subway Runner (Spray 4), 1960
oil, spray paint and volcanic ash on canvas
56 x 60 in.
142.24 x 152.4 cm.
(JMIL034)
Elise Asher
Untitled, 1962
mixed media on paper
16 3/4 x 13 7/8 in.
42.5 x 35.3 cm.
(ELASH151)
Charles Houghton Howard
Bivouac, 1942
gouache, tempera, and ink on paper
48 x 67 1/2 in.
121.9 x 171.4 cm.
(CHAR008)
Ibram Lassaw
Cluster in Lyra, 1950
metal construction
18 x 16 x 12 in.
45.7 x 40.6 x 30.5 cm
(LAS005)
Costantino Nivola
Maquette for Raymond Loewy Building, 1955
sand on cast plaster
11 x 43 1/2 in.
27.9 x 110.5 cm.
(CNIV014)
Helen Frankenthaler
Thanksgiving Day, 1973
glazed stoneware
13 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.
34.3 x 44.5 cm.
(HFRANK020)
Walter C Jackson
GOTHIC NO. 5, 1979
aluminum, wood, plastic, and sisal
74 1/2 x 17 x 13 1/4 in.
189.2 x 43.2 x 33.7 cm.
(WALJ005)
Sidney Geist
Out There, 1962
oil on plaster
35 x 27 x 11 in.
88.9 x 67.31 x 27.94 cm.
(SG463)
Sidney Geist
Untitled, 1960
oil on plaster
32 x 21 x 9 in.
81.28 x 53.34 x 22.86 cm.
(SG213)
Peter Voulkos
Stack, 1976
fired clay and glaze
36 1/2 x 12 x 12 in.
92.7 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm.
(PEVO001)
Miriam Schapiro
Normal Heights, 1969
acrylic on canvas
72 x 80 in.
182.9 x 203.2 cm.
(MSCHA012)
Jeanne Reynal
Mother and Children Between Sun and Moon, 1966
smalti and Japanese shell on pigmented cement
48 x 61 x 2 in.
121.92 x 154.31 x 5.4 cm.
(JREY058)
Jeanne Reynal
Untitled, 1945
smalti and pigmented plaster on wood
18 x 24 x 1 in.
45.72 x 60.96 x 1.91 cm.
(JREY152)
Marcia Marcus
Joe Gifford, 1967
oil on canvas in artist frame
75 x 32 in.
190.5 x 81.3 cm.
(MMAR130)
Richard Bowman
Kinetogenics 30, 1960
oil and fluorescent oil on canvas
71 x 87 in.
180.3 x 221 cm.
(RIBOW001)
Jay Milder
Subway Runner (Spray 4), 1960
oil, spray paint and volcanic ash on canvas
56 x 60 in.
142.24 x 152.4 cm.
(JMIL034)
Elise Asher
Untitled, 1962
mixed media on paper
16 3/4 x 13 7/8 in.
42.5 x 35.3 cm.
(ELASH151)
Charles Houghton Howard
Bivouac, 1942
gouache, tempera, and ink on paper
48 x 67 1/2 in.
121.9 x 171.4 cm.
(CHAR008)
Ibram Lassaw
Cluster in Lyra, 1950
metal construction
18 x 16 x 12 in.
45.7 x 40.6 x 30.5 cm
(LAS005)
Costantino Nivola
Maquette for Raymond Loewy Building, 1955
sand on cast plaster
11 x 43 1/2 in.
27.9 x 110.5 cm.
(CNIV014)
Helen Frankenthaler
Thanksgiving Day, 1973
glazed stoneware
13 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.
34.3 x 44.5 cm.
(HFRANK020)
Walter C Jackson
GOTHIC NO. 5, 1979
aluminum, wood, plastic, and sisal
74 1/2 x 17 x 13 1/4 in.
189.2 x 43.2 x 33.7 cm.
(WALJ005)
Sidney Geist
Out There, 1962
oil on plaster
35 x 27 x 11 in.
88.9 x 67.31 x 27.94 cm.
(SG463)
Sidney Geist
Untitled, 1960
oil on plaster
32 x 21 x 9 in.
81.28 x 53.34 x 22.86 cm.
(SG213)
Peter Voulkos
Stack, 1976
fired clay and glaze
36 1/2 x 12 x 12 in.
92.7 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm.
(PEVO001)
