25 Years Ago In Dan's Papers August 27, 1982

There Are No Artist Studios

By Dan Rattiner

There are no artists in the Hamptons. Cartoonist Charles Addams found that out last week when the Southampton Zoning Board gave him the answer to his request that he be allowed to have an art studio at his house in Water Mill.

The answer was no.

According to Robert Nardy, who is chairman of the zoning board in Southampton Town, the reason the answer is no is that there is a law prohibiting the building of separate " studio" buildings on residential property. This law is the same in both Southampton and East Hampton, which effectively means all of the Hamptons.

"The reason for the law," Nardy said, " is that a separate structure can be an art studio for one man, but it can be a rental unit for another. Only one residential unit is allowed per parcel unless a variance has been obtained."

It turns out that since there certainly are hundreds of artists slaving away in separate buildings adjacent to their residences in the Hamptons, these buildings are not technically known as studios at all, but as "garages." Garages are perfectly legal.

Charles Addams, however, is not the sort of man to call such a place a garage when what he meant was artist studio. And thus, the Town turned him down. He has decided, as a result, to build the studio anyways but connect it to his main residence with a breezeway. It turns out that as long as the place where the artist works is in the same building as the residence, then it is also okay.

I've been thinking about all of this. If garages are what these places are then why not call them that? We could point out the garage where Jackson Pollack did his work in Springs, and we could have these tours where all the artists open up there work for charity. One of the most famous garages in the area, of course, is the one owned by Willem de Kooning.

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