Brooks Park Pair
Brooks Park Pair, Fitzhugh Karol, Carved Cedar from Springs, 80” H x 11” W x 7” D Stand 16” W x 12” D
This pair of carvings by Fitzhugh Karol was inspired by the roofline of James Brooks’ studio. Together, these two carved cedars, cut from the forest in Springs, are representative of the collaborative creative life of James Brooks and Charlotte Park. Brooks and Park were both well know and well regarded Abstract Expressionist painters who settled in the East Hampton hamlet of Springs in the mid-20th Century. They were close with other local artists like Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner — but sadly their live/work spaces were not preserved like those of their more famous friends. Vacant and left to deteriorate since 2010, the James Brooks and Charlotte Park Home & Studios remains at risk — but the future is looking bright for this important historic site. A committed group of local advocates formed the Brooks-Park Arts and Nature Center (BPANC) and recently entered into a management plan with the Town of East Hampton. With the approval of that plan, the nonprofit BPANC can begin to move forward with their goal of rehabilitating the historic structures and creating an inviting destination on the 11-acre property. The four buildings that anchor the site include James Brooks’s studio, a Midcentury vernacular structure designed and built by the artist; Charlotte Park’s studio, which was reportedly the original Wainscott post office; and the couple’s residence and guest cottage, a portion of which had been moved via barge from Montauk after their studios were damaged in a hurricane. We hope this sculpture will be among the first exhibited publicly at the Brooks-Park site once they are ready to welcome guests.
Brooks Park Pair was commissioned by the Preservation League of NYS thanks to a Capacity & Regrowth grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. Through that grant, the League is using artistic interventions to draw attention to its Seven to Save endangered historic sites across the state. Included on our 2022-2023 Seven to Save list, the League remains to committed to bolstering the efforts of our local colleagues as they work to save the Brooks-Park historic site.
James Brooks’s studio seen around 2021
Black and white photo of Charlotte Park and James Brooks circa 1950s, photo by Maurice Berezov
Fitzhugh Karol is a sculptor best known for his large-scale public artworks in steel and wood, as well as ceramics. His forms are based on the silhouettes of actual and imagined landscapes, using slopes, steps and portals to create playful new landscapes with stories embedded within them.
Born in New Hampshire in 1982, he is a graduate of Skidmore College, received his MFA from The Rhode Island School of Design and was apprentice to ceramic artist Toshiko Takaezu. Karol has exhibited nationally and internationally including at The Tang Teaching Museum, The LongHouse Reserve, New York City’s Prospect Park and Tappen Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Bartow-Pell Museum and Sculpture by the Sea Australia. He was a winner of the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge Public Art Program as well as the Uniqlo NYC Park Expressions Grant, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Process Space Residency, The Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship Residency, and the Socrates Sculpture Park’s Emerging Artist Fellowship. Karol lives in New York.