The Elizabeth Delson Studio Now Open to the Public by Appointment Year-Round

Atelier Liz | East Hampton

The Elizabeth Delson Studio Now Open to the Public by Appointment Year-Round

Beginning this Fall, the studio of the late painter and printmaker, Elizabeth Delson, will be open for visits by appointment to provide increased public opportunity to see and enjoy her art.  Near to Gardiner’s Bay in the Springs, the studio remains as the artist left it upon her death in 2005, having created over 400 works of art both in East Hampton and her Brooklyn studio during a productive career spanning over 50 years.

Her artwork is on view in portfolios, flatfiles, and on the walls of the studio. Additionally, the artist’s creative output has been meticulously researched, catalogued, and curated for the website atelierliz.com, an online Catalogue Raisonné.

"Metamorphoses 02: Descent into Hades" by Elizabeth Delson, 1965. Color aquatint and hard ground etching, 11 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches [Cat. 127].

Liz, as she preferred being called, found her vocation at a young age. After graduating from Smith College she studied drawing and painting under Philip Guston and Richard Lindner at Pratt Institute, where she also met her husband Sidney Delson, then an architecture student. She subsequently pursued a master’s degree in printmaking under Gabor Peterdi at Hunter College, while working as a textile designer and free-lance illustrator of children’s books. When she and Sid had their first child, Liz stopped commercial design work to be a full time artist exhibiting drawings, paintings and prints throughout the country, and abroad with the United States Information Agency.

The artist kept detailed journals with regular entries about her artwork and process. These aided the subsequent organization and classification of the art stored and exhibited in the studio, and made possible the online Catalogue Raisonné that is a wonderful resource for collectors, academics, and students of art.

Her artist's statement in 1963 describes the creative emphasis that guided Liz throughout her career:

“Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.”

"Blue Lagoon" by Elizabeth Delson, 1982. Color viscosity etching, 12 x 16 1/4 inches [Cat. 021].

Prints from the Metamorphoses series (1960s) and color viscosity etchings like Blue Lagoon (1982) and The Deep (1981) are clear evidence of this statement. They also show her active experimentation with various printmaking techniques, learned under mentors Letterio Calapai, Gabor Peterdi, and Krishna Reddy. A Charles Brand etching press prominently anchors the studio.

"The Deep" by Elizabeth Delson, 1981. Color viscosity etching, 22 x 15 inches (sheet) [Cat. 268].

Liz’s versatility and investigations in different mediums and subjects can be seen in her paintings, such as the Panorama series (1998), a group of works in oil and gesso on folded paper. With In the Pink (2004), the artist zooms in on a landscape element, again evolving a relief composition in her fluid abstract manner.

Sand, seashells, and glass sometimes form part of the picture surface, creating a variety of textures, volumes, transparencies, and reflections, as occurs in Buried Treasure (1975) which evokes an ethereal figure built up in oil relief with glints of colored glass.

"Panorama Series VI: Mountain View" by Elizabeth Delson, 1998. Oil on gessoed folder paper, 13 x 36 inches [Cat. P-30].

"In the Pink" by Elizabeth Delson, 2004. Oil and gesso on paper, 22 x 29 inches [Cat. P-6].

Elizabeth Delson’s work is in the Permanent Collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Brooklyn College Library Art Collection, Newark Public Library, Boston Public Library, and seven other institutional collections, as well as in many private collections.

The Elizabeth Delson Studio is open for private individual and group visits by appointment, year-round. Contact [email protected] or 631.324.7173.

For further information about the artist, visit www.atelierliz.com. You may also request a free brochure by mail (email [email protected]).

"Buried Treasure" by Elizabeth Delson, 1975. Oil relief and colored glass on wood panel, 66 x 18 inches [Cat. P-52].

BASIC FACTS: The Elizabeth Delson Studio in East Hampton, NY is open for private individual and group visits by appointment, year-round. Contact [email protected] or 631.324.7173. For information about the artist, visit www.atelierliz.com.