Local Artist Dies In Sagaponack House Fire

A Saturday morning fire in Sagaponack killed renowned artist James Beres, 71, and devoured the home he had built with his wife, Lovella, in which to spend long summers in the Hamptons.

The fire at the residence on Narrow Lane East was called in to police by the artist’s wife at 5:57 a.m., but may have been started significantly before that, as the house was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

The Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor fire and ambulance companies, as well as the Southampton and East Hampton fire departments, responded to the scene to assist in search-and-rescue operations and extinguish the blaze. Firefighters were on the scene for several hours.

Ms. Beres was able to escape with minor burns despite trying desperately to save her husband by using blankets to smother fire on his clothing. She simply could not suppress the flames, the distraught wife of 47 years said on Tuesday.

Only when she could no longer see in the house, which had filled with thick black smoke, did she leave, she said, adding that moments later, she heard explosions and the entire house was engulfed.

The couple’s poodle, Oliver, also died in the fire.

The cause of the blaze is still being investigated by the Southampton Town Police detectives’ office, but arson was ruled out early on Saturday.

Mr. Beres, a smoker who used a home oxygen tank, according to family members, got up in the middle of the night and was on the sofa watching television, as his wife said was his habit.

Hours later, while sleeping upstairs, Ms. Beres awoke to the sound of smoke detectors and ran downstairs to find her husband struggling to put out the flames on his clothing.

The detectives’ division was unable to provide further explanation of the cause or to comment on Monday or Tuesday.

“It was just horrible—my whole world has been turned upside down,” Ms. Beres said, holding off emotion to try to focus on celebrating her husband’s well-traveled and adventurous life.

She said she wants to pay tribute to “the life of a wonderful man, a kind person with a love of people and animals, and a brilliant artist.”

Born James Jeffrey Beres, on June 11, 1942, in Detroit, Michigan, Mr. Beres grew up on Long Island in Bethpage. After graduating with a master’s degree in fine arts from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, he taught painting at Marymount College in Manhattan.

Mr. Beres was a pioneer of the lyrical abstract movement, with his large-scale paintings from a 40-year career included in collections around the world—including the permanent collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan and at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut, the Manhattan School of Visual Arts, and the now-defunct Bykert Gallery.

While large-canvas paintings were his passion, Mr. Beres switched to pastel drawings recently while battling emphysema and orthopedic problems.

Family members said that Mr. Beres loved surfcasting and driving his four-wheeler on the beach, and that he was an experienced traveler.

During the 1990s, Mr. Beres dabbled, and succeeded, in the real estate development market with a company called Palais Enterprises. “Even artists have to make money,” Ms. Beres said.

One project he was most proud of was a two-year stint in Spain overseeing the construction of Barcelona’s Twin Towers in the 1992 Olympic Village, according to his wife.

She said her husband had also developed properties in New Jersey and renovated lofts for the rich and famous in Manhattan, as well as doing business in St. Petersburg, Russia, Korea, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

For now, Ms. Beres said she plans to stay with family at the couple’s other residence in Manhattan.

A full obituary for Mr. Beres appears on Page A14 of this issue of The Press.

Staff writer Erin McKinley contributed to this story.