Natalie Edgar's Work Is on View at Duck Creek

The Arts Center at Duck Creek opening exhibition for the season, “Natalie Edgar: 1970s Paintings,” is organized by curator and art consultant Juan Puntes and includes a selection of abstract paintings and prints by Edgar that highlight her singular approach to art. Edgar’s boundary-breaking style has earned her a reputation as an artist who defied convention. As she explained, she “deepened the experience and continuity of the [picture] plane as treated in early Abstract Expressionism, expanding its power.” The show remains on view through Sunday, June 2, in the John Little Barn at Duck Creek.

In 1978, Edgar, her husband Philip Pavia, a renowned sculptor and co-founder of The Club, and their two sons moved their studio barn from Southold on the North Fork, across Peconic Bay to Squaw Road in Springs, just a stone’s throw from the Arts Center at Duck Creek.

“We are honored to share the work of our distinguished neighbor,” said Jess Frost, the center’s executive director. “Her imagery is a testament to her mastery of color and the activation of negative space. Her compositions feature striking color paths that captivate the viewer.”

Edgar’s illustrious career as a painter was ignited by her mentor Mark Rothko, with whom she studied at Brooklyn College. She earned a degree in art history from Columbia University and went on to become an art critic for Artnews. She wrote for the magazine from 1959 to 1973 and reviewed exhibitions of work by Isamu Noguchi, Esteban Vicente, Robert Motherwell and other major New York School artists. Influenced by figures like her teacher Ad Reinhardt, her friends Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, and her husband, she emerged as a formidable presence in the art world. Her book, “Club Without Walls,” an edited selection of her late husband’s journals, was published in 2007.

“How lovely to see Natalie Edgar’s energetic abstract paintings from the 1970s exhibited at The Arts Center at Duck Creek, not far from her East Hampton home,” said Gail Levin, Distinguished Professor of Art History at The City University of New York. “Edgar is still vibrant in her 90s, a veteran of the feminist campaign for equal rights for women artists. This show offers an opportunity to take a trip back in time and see the accomplishment of just one of the many women artists who once had to struggle for visibility.”

The Arts Center at Duck Creek is located at 127 Squaw Road in Springs, East Hampton. The galleries are open Thursdays through Sundays from 2 to 6 p.m. Admission to programming is always free.