Dan’s Papers May 6, 2011 danshamptons.com Page 26
Elms
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what you’ve missed. In some ways, I think it is a sort of curse to have seen Main Street go through its humbling transformation during the last 50 years. Just last week, I drove along and, as I always do, noted the few giants on Main Street which separate the newer trees and lamented the passing of the stand and considered how it will never, in my lifetime, be what it once was back in the day. Yesterday, at our weekly editorial meeting, I learned that a photograph exhibit is about to go on display at LongHouse on Hands Creek Road in East Hampton, which will feature “The Elms of East Hampton.” At first, when I heard about it, I thought, oh,
they have discovered an old treasure trove of photos taken years ago. But then I learned that it is the current stand of trees, battered in my opinion, but beautiful to others who don’t know the story, that are the subject of the exhibit. I guess what you don’t know, nobody will tell you. And at this point, I turn over the baton of this story to Senior Editor Elise D’Haene, who has written a charming invitation to this exhibit. * * * * There is a feeling that overcomes you when you drive down Woods Lane, turn left onto Main Street at Town Pond and head into East Hampton Village. History and grace seep into
one’s senses, a palpable sense of arriving. Much of this is due to the canopy of the stately elms, creating a sense of safety and refuge from the discord of the day. Garie Waltzer, a photographer who lives in Ohio, was given an assignment by Russell Hart, a former executive editor of American Photo magazine, to travel to East Hampton last year to photograph our elm trees. The project, called “Landslide: Every Tree Tells a Story,” was commissioned by the Cultural Landscape Foundation based in Washington, (continued on next page)
Art
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“Are the paintings valuable?” “The whaling paintings are. He was at the height of his powers in the 1970s and 1980s. I’ve sold some for more than $10,000.” Wallace of course knows the biography of Amundsen by heart. Amundsen was born in New York City in 1911 to a Norwegian mother and an English father, went to the Grand Central School of Art, and in 1932 became a founder, along with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Beaufort and Joseph Delaney and others, of the Washington Square Outdoor Art Show. In 1934, he was part of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His contribution was a sketch of Adolph Hitler, who had just become Chancellor of Germany. One half of the portrait was Hitler, the other half was the devil. The wife of the German Ambassador saw it hanging at the Met and demanded it be taken down, and the Met took it down, which created quite a stir. Articles about this acquiescence appeared in The New York Times and other publications. Of course, we know what happened to Hitler 10 years later. Amundsen painted Navy ships during the war and did cover illustrations for Motor Boating Magazine. Then, in 1946, he moved to Sag Harbor where he became quite the character. Besides being the town’s most prolific painter, he loved sailing, and founded many local groups and events, including the Sea Scouts, the Three Mile Harbor Sailing Fleet, the Montauk Sailing Club and the Outboard Racing Regatta in Sag Harbor, which became the precursor of the Sag Harbor Whaling Festival. “Of course, Cappy Amundsen was not his real name,” Wallace said. “Why did this not occur to me?” I asked. “He was born Casper Hjalmar Emerson, III.” “But he changed it to Amundsen.” “Legally. But he also called himself Cappy. He hated Casper. And besides, he was the Third.” The show at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum begins on June 3 and will run through September, with the first Annual Cappy Amundsen Outdoor Juried Art Show happening on September 10, just one of several events tied to the exhibit. Wallace’s upcoming biography of Amundsen, called Cappy: The Life and Art of C. Hjalmar Amundsen, will be out soon.