Ross Bleckner, an artist best known for his large paintings that chronicle the experience of remembrance and loss, has been working for two decades on transforming a Hamptons beach house that once belonged to Truman Capote, the New York Times reported.
Bleckner paid $800,000 for the home, located in Sagaponack, in the early 1990s, and has since then conducted two major renovations. He added wings, a pool and an art studio, and expanded the guesthouse. At one point in 2008, Bleckner had put the property on the market asking $14.6 million.
The property’s serenity, he told the Times, is what attracted him to it and made it an ideal summer home. Though Bleckner once lived in a loft in Tribeca, in a building that housed the Mudd Club, the neighborhood was too happening for him. He opted to sell it and move to the West Village, where he continues to live.
During the home’s Capote era, it was littered with books and tchotchkes and filled with yellow stuffed chairs. Bleckner, however, is far more minimal: The kitchen was “showroom-neat,” according to the Times.
“You see a lot when you come into someone’s room,” Bleckner told the Times. “Even when you don’t see a lot, you see a lot.” [NYT] – Hiten Samtani