Signs of Springs The Springs Artists’ Exhibition Posters

Featuring exhibit posters publicizing the Springs Improvement Society’s annual artist invitational, Signs of Spring will be on view at Clinton Academy through February 28.

In 1968, the Springs Improvement Society held its first annual “Artists of the Springs” invitational exhibition on the grounds of Ashawagh Hall coinciding with the annual Fisherman’s Fair. It started as an outdoor exhibit to raise money for local scholarships and the construction of a gallery wing. Works were contributed by “just about every well-known artist in the Springs” reported the East Hampton Star that opening year. The first exhibit was kindled by a decades-long relationship between The Springs Improvement Society and artists that flocked to the area in the mid-1940s and 1950s, most notably Lee Krasner, James Brooks, Willem de Kooning, and John Little.

From the start, the Society appointed a chairperson each year to run the invitational in their own way. In 1972, artist Arnold Hoffman suggested that the Society produce a poster to announce and promote the show, starting a lively tradition that continues to the present day. The posters, featuring a single artwork reproduced in a variety of printing processes over the years including silkscreen and lithograph, have become collectible artworks on their own. A portfolio of the first five posters, by Ray Parker, James Brooks, Ilya Bolotowsky, Lee Krasner, and Ibram Lassaw was requested by the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Exhibitions Abroad for an international traveling exhibit called Images of an Era: the American Poster, 1945-75 held in 1975.

The selected posters on view at Clinton Academy demonstrate a range of artists, printing processes, and styles from 1971 to 2024 while highlighting the contribution of women artists to the Springs community.

 The posters are on loan from the Springs Historical Society and The Springs Improvement Society.