Donovan: Peter Marino Is The Keeper Of The Flame

Friday evening I attended the opening of architect Peter Marino’s exhibition “Counterpoint: Selections from the Peter Marino Collection.” If you follow the arts in our area, you’ve probably read all about it here in The Press, as it is the art event of the season.

Two days after the opening and in retrospect, I realized that I wasn’t prepared for the full impact of this event. Magnificently mounted by the Southampton Arts Center, it’s a collection of painting and sculpture so visually stunning, so rich and so wonderfully and surprisingly diverse in its content and display, it reminded me just how inspiring great art in the setting of a beautiful, traditional museum institution can be. This is a show with gravity, or, as you often read the word, gravitas. You can feel its pull the moment you walk through the doors.

The Southampton Arts Center’s new executive director, Tom Dunn, and the seasoned artistic director, Amy Kirwin, can truly be proud of this benchmark exhibition. This show is as important as it is ambitious. That’s my formal art column take on it, but in truth, that’s just a tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

I suppose I could produce a workman-like list of the art with details and explanations, but that is not the point. This is a show that needs to be experienced—not explained. And that is exactly how Mr. Marino presents himself and his art. The visual experience is king. If the visual experience fails to inspire or falls short of lighting you up, then no amount of Art Forum-like dissertations will ever fill the gap.

But this exhibition, “Counterpoint,” is just a portion of Mr. Marino’s vast collection of art.

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that. So, halfway through the opening reception on Friday, what does this brilliant, world-renowned architect and artist do to top the excitement of the evening? He makes the totally unexpected announcement that he just bought the historic Rogers Memorial Library next door—that grand and iconic edifice that so sadly languished, unoccupied, for years on the corner of Jobs Lane and Main Street. It will soon serve as permanent home for Mr. Marino’s vast art collection. This was stunning news!

And what a collection of art he has to fill that library building, from world-class modernism to stunning and rare antiquity. It’s going to be amazing simply to consider what Mr. Marino is going to do to the interior of the building just to accommodate this large collection. It would be futile to attempt to list or discuss his collection here, as the scope of his collection is just too expansive. As I consider this reality and also that Mr. Marino’s own sculpture, his stunning “Bronze Boxes” are included in the “Counterpoint” show, it would suffice to say that a major cultural shift is looming on Southampton’s horizon—an infusion of the visual arts that has not yet been seen outside of New York City. To be fair and accurate, our East End museums and galleries host some of the most important and thrilling art shows and exhibitions in New York State. But this is something outside of the realm. May I say, it’s a true revival of the visual arts. Is it the spark? The ignition point? Surely you must admit that the excitement generated here is a most welcome event.

Immediately after the evening’s stunning announcement, the Press features editor turns and asks if I could get an interview with Mr. Marino.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” I thought. “This is the big opening weekend of Mr. Marino’s show! How in the world is he going to find the time for an interview?”

But amazingly enough, the architect not only agrees to an interview, but invites me to his Southampton Village estate for coffee the next morning.

I was loath to the idea of sitting down with Mr. Marino and asking, for the umpteenth time, “What’s your inspiration?” “Which architects do you most admire?” “What led you to begin a collection of fine art?” You know, the numbing questions that just drive the life out of the arts and torment the interviewee. Considering the scope of Mr. Marino’s accomplishments and the complexity of his art collection, the standard interview questions could neither illuminate the life of the man nor inform the reader about his art with any tangible depth.

Driving through the gates of his estate, I decided that this was not going to be an interview at all. Under no circumstances was I going to sit down with this legendary architect and reduce the opportunity to a simplistic Q&A. The pen, camera and worn moleskin notebook that I carried, all to effect a journalistic-y appearance, wasn’t going to be necessary.

Apparently, it was the right decision. Upon meeting Mr. Marino on the veranda of his home, which overlooks the southern view of his gardens, he immediately put me at ease. I don’t exactly remember how our conversation began, but what I do remember is that it was the most enjoyable and culturally fluid, two hours of discussion I’ve ever had with an artist. Upon meeting him, what was apparent was his ease and confidence. Actually, it was more than confidence. It was a worldly gentility that can come only from years of experience and living at the very pinnacle of his profession. Now here is an architect, artist, designer, a major collector of fine art, an architectural engineer, creator of Versailles-like gardens, a professional who travels and operates in the most rarified circles in the world and does he talk only about himself, as such superstars are so prone to do? No. Not in the least bit. Mr. Marino talks about everything but himself. He has a passion for art and culture and he is so very driven to share it. He points to the art. He points to the architecture, the gardens. He doesn’t point to himself. That indicates to me a generosity of spirit at work here. It quickly became clear that this purchase of the old library was not a self indulgence, but rather a grand vehicle to illuminate art and point the way.

As I looked out over his gardens—south, west, east and north—it was all too much to absorb in such a brief period of time. These gardens are stories, in full. They need time to regard, study and experience. Flora and fauna, so magnificently conceived and designed, that it couldn’t be washed away with verbose descriptions and details. Nor should it be. This was a place that demanded contemplation. Chatter doesn’t work in a place such as this. Silent and powerful, it’s all in the realm of the visual. And for Mr. Marino, visual is king. These incredible gardens, this estate, this breathtaking art seem to sum up his entire philosophy. And that philosophy is to inspire. Whether it’s deep, artistic contemplation or within the realm of high commerce and consumer sales, Mr. Marino uses art as a tool to move the viewer to respond—and he uses this tool with the skill of a surgeon.

Here, it would be impossible to detail his client list, awards, accomplishments, architectural and artist achievements. I’ll leave that to you, the reader, to discover. My job here is to convey what I saw as the most important facet of the man. That facet is his deep and abiding respect for his profession and for those who practice it.

After a lifetime of continuing architectural achievements, awards and accomplishments, I wanted to know the answer to just one simple question. And it was the only formal question presented to him during our time together. I asked him what was the one, single thing that he would like to convey to the readers of The Press. He responded without a moment’s hesitation and with a forcefulness that was different from the cordial tone of our time together. Mr. Marino said, “Get to know the name of the architect who designed your house!”

It doesn’t matter if it’s public housing or a grand estate, there’s an architectural professional who created it—a skilled and experience professional who not only needed to consider the aesthetics of the project, but also negotiated with the clients, the local government, the permits and applications, the structural components and the people who physically built it.

Mr. Marino is an architect, a builder of beautiful things. After talking with him about everything under the sun, I gleaned that he is, above all, extremely proud to be a respected member of that ancient and most noble profession. Mr. Marino remembers the indestructible and indivisible greatness of antiquity.

He remembers. And in our fragmented, shattered contemporary world, he knew that we needed a Keeper of the Flame, and he stepped up to the plate.