By Annette Hinkle
A few years ago, Sag Harbor’s E.T. Williams was asked to check on the Ninevah home of Hazel Shearer Thomas Gray and her husband Julius. Both Hazel and Julius had passed away and the couple had no children, but Williams had known Hazel Gray since he was a teenager growing up in Brooklyn. They had remained close until her death in 1998 at the age of 94 and he had helped Julius in his final years as well.
When Williams arrived at the Gray’s beachfront home that day, he was dismayed to find that the water had not been shut off and had flooded the basement. But he was more astounded by something else he found in the basement during his visit — an impressive collection of still life paintings, primarily stunning florals, that Hazel Gray had created probably in the 1960s.
“I was surprised by the quality of the work,” says Williams who adds that though he is not an expert in art, he has sat on the board of the Museum of Modern Art and on the Brooklyn Museum’s acquisition committee. “I had a sense that there was something here.”
Williams had also believed that all of Gray’s paintings had been accounted for — but the evidence indicated otherwise. Fearing the work would be damaged if left in the house, he brought in a conservator to remove the paintings, catalog them and document each piece.
“A few months later, he gave me a disk of all the work and I saw some of those still lives,” says Williams. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, these things are terrific.’”
This weekend, 40 of Hazel Shearer Thomas Gray’s florals will go on view in “Treasures Found” an exhibition at Romany Kramoris Gallery in Sag Harbor. In assembling the show, Williams brought in Julia Hotton, a well-respected (and now retired) curator who specializes in African American artists. She confirmed Williams’ instincts about the work and, along with gallery owner Romany Kramoris, selected the pieces for the exhibit.
“I like the brightness of the pieces,” says Williams. “I like the fact that they are in an impressionistic style. They go well on any wall and around real flowers. They make a very nice presence in people’s living rooms.”
Though she was an accomplished and prolific painter who studied at Pratt Institute, the Brooklyn Museum Art School and, after she and Julius began spending summers in Sag Harbor in 1963, at the Art Barge in Napeague, Gray was not widely known as an artist in her lifetime. She was, however, a dedicated teacher in the New York City public school system for 40 years and painting remained primarily a hobby pursued in her free time.
“She did mostly watercolors and acrylics,” says Williams. “She continued to do them throughout her life. Occasionally she gave one to someone if a friend wanted one. There may be two or three people here who have her work. But no one noticed these paintings before.”
Williams surmises that Gray might have been influenced to pursue still life subjects by her contemporary, Lois Mailou Jones. Jones was from Boston and one of the leading African American artists of her day. The Jones family was among the earliest African Americans to have homes in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, as was Hazel Gray’s. French impressionism was becoming popular in American art around that, and it seems to have influenced both women’s artistic style. Jones even traveled to Paris to study in the late 1930s.
“We don’t know for a fact, but we feel they certainly knew each other,” says Williams. “It was a small community, she [Lois] was the premier artist out on Martha’s Vineyard. She had a major retrospective at the MIT Museum and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has some of her work.”
Though Williams notes Gray occasionally showed at the Bed Stuy Art Fair in Fulton Park, two blocks from where she lived in Brooklyn, unlike Jones, she has never had a retrospective of her work at a major museum. But with this exhibit at Kramoris Gallery, Williams is hoping to create a lasting legacy for her.
“I was very interested in memorializing Hazel in some way, because she was a good friend,” says Williams. “She said if she had a son she’d want him to be like me. I was very touched.”
To honor Gray, Williams thought back to those Brooklyn days of his youth and a cause that was near and dear to his friend’s heart. Gray, who was 10 years older than Williams’ own mother, was deeply involved in the Brooklyn chapter of The Girl Friends, a well-known African American social club that defined the cultural life of the community in which they lived. She immersed herself in organizing the important social events of the day that brought together the young people.
“I really got to know her as a teenager — especially in my late teens,” says Williams. “The young girls needed escorts for the cotillions. She taught us how to waltz. It was wonderful. We were very appreciative.”
It was because of Gray’s deep involvement in the organization that Williams has set up The Hazel Shearer Thomas Gray Scholarship Fund through the Brooklyn chapter of The Girl Friends. Proceeds from the sales of Gray’s paintings at the Kramoris Gallery will be donated to the fund.
“We’re happy to show and expose the work of what we think is a very significant artist.”
“Treasures Found” will be on view from July 1 through July 15 at Romany Kramoris Gallery (41 Main Street, Sag Harbor). E.T. Williams and his wife Lyn will host a special reception at the gallery on Saturday, July 3 from 4 to 7 p.m.
