'Premonitions In Retrospect' A Fitting Title

In the early 1960s, Amagansett-based artist Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas said that she began to receive indications about what kind of life she was meant to lead. After experiencing a series of premonitions and other clues about her future, she determined that it would be the life of a sculptor.

Now on view at Guild Hall in East Hampton Ms. Strong-Cuevas’s exhibit of drawings and sculpture, “Premonitions in Retrospect,” is purposely titled to reflect those indications, she said. The exhibition contains her drawings and sculpture and is on view through Labor Day.

According to Ms. Strong-Cuevas, her upbringing in France provided no indication of a future in art. Her mother, Margaret Strong, was the granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller Sr. and a passionate academic. Her Chilean father, the Marquis George de Cuevas, was a ballet impresario and choreographer and a strong supporter of the arts. But even though artists such as Salvador Dali were frequent houseguests, Mr. de Cuevas and Ms. Strong were both too busy living a life of high status to instruct their children—John and Elizabeth, or “Bessie” as she was known as a child—on art.

“I was not coddled as a child. In fact, I was mostly deprived of a typical childhood,” the artist recalled this past Thursday, surrounded by her drawings on display in the Wasserstein Family Gallery at the museum. “I feel as though that is part of the reason I was so destined for the life I now live, because I had no choice but to entertain myself in my own head.”

The artist said that a string of premonitions about her future life began during childhood. Recently, she began remembering them while out to dinner with other artists here in the Hamptons.

“I suddenly saw myself at 6 years old and remembered thinking to myself, I want to make a watch, and feeling the skill in my fingers” she said. “That was just the beginning. Then, I recalled seeing an amateur fortune teller in France, she wasn’t even asking for money but she looked at my hand and she told me that if I ever got an idea out of the blue to do something, that I should do it because she thought it would work out. Isn’t that fascinating?”

Yet another indication arrived when she was a young woman in France. Her first husband, a Frenchman whom Ms. Strong-Cuevas did not name, came home with a variety of photographs and one particular photo stood out.

“I don’t recall why he was showing these snapshots to me, I just remember one striking me, it was a Maillol cast lying in a foundry, a reclining nude, and I remember thinking ‘Oh, what a delicious life,’” she said. “And that life became mine, but not until years later.”

After the flood of memories, all of which pointed to the idea of a fated artistic lifestyle, Ms. Strong-Cuevas said she set out to discover her destiny. In 1963, she landed at the Art Students League of New York with John Hovannes, an Armenian sculptor whom Ms. Strong-Cuevas called a “brilliant teacher.”

Mr. Hovannes was the first person to encourage the young, inexperienced artist to carve her first piece: the figure of an Indian lady leaning against the stump of a tree.

“I hadn’t carved anything yet, but I was fascinated by those around me who were carving. One day, he took me outside and said ‘Now, a little more imagination, a little more composition, you carve!’ So I went out and got a piece of beautiful marble,” Ms. Strong-Cuevas said smiling. “Just like that. He taught me that the concept of difficulty derives from ignorance, once you are taught how to do something the correct way, it becomes easy.”

She stayed with her teacher in his studio until his death in 1973, she said. And afterward, she continued to meet interesting people who helped her growth as a sculptor, she said.

“It was as if I’ve been given a red carpet for making my work,” Ms. Strong-Cuevas said. “Basically, all that I’ve learned and accomplished just fell into place naturally.”

It wasn’t until much later that a friend suggested that she give drawing a go too.

Strongly influenced by Picasso and his stated belief that a sole emotion inspires a piece of art, Ms. Strong-Cuevas created the images now on display at Guild Hall. She calls her pieces Zen-like, brush drawings that are meant to illustrate that we are all one.

“My drawings suggest my belief that we are indeed, on some fundamental level, all part of the same mind,” she explained. “Many in one; one in many.”

Fascinated by thought traveling and universal consciousness, Ms. Strong-Cuevas said her drawings are meant to suggest space exploration.

“Thought travels,” she said matter-of-factly. “We don’t just communicate through mediums but through an energy that has not yet been measured. These drawings—especially the ones with the red eye meant to represent a telescope—they are looking into space, seeking a message from beyond.”

Her five larger-than-life sculptures on display are made with aluminum, bronze and stainless steel. These pieces demonstrate Ms. Strong-Cuevas’s knowledge of primitive cultures, such as the Egyptians, Mayans and Aztecs, according to the exhibition program.

“Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas’s sculpture is rooted in primitive art, with its bold structures, expressive directness, communal symbolism, and conviction of cosmic absolutes,” the information states.

Whether it’s called fate, destiny, or just a happy accident, Ms. Strong-Cuevas said that she is happy with the life that has come via her inevitable artistic path.

“I have a wonderful life,” she said. “I am finally in a place that I love being in.

“Premonitions in Retrospect” by Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas will remain on view at Guild Hall in East Hampton through September 3. For more information, visit guildhall.org.