East End Legacies: Philip Pavia – Natalie Edgar – Paul Pavia

Rare masterworks from two Abstract Expressionist pioneers

July 10 – 13, 2025  |  Booth #149-B  |  de Kooning Pavilion

Two Visionary Practices in Resonant Dialogue—Bridging Mid-Century Abstraction and Contemporary Legacy

WhiteBox is honored to present East End Legacies: Philip Pavia – Natalie Edgar at the 2025 Hamptons Fine Art Fair, a cornerstone presentation in its acclaimed Seminal Artists Series. This distinguished exhibition traces pivotal developments in American abstraction through the lens of two vital and intertwined practices—those of sculptor and thinker Philip Pavia and painter-critic Natalie Edgar.

Philip Pavia, Abstract Bronzes, 1949

The presentation features rare early works by Philip Pavia, including 1948 bronzes and watercolors that mark a decisive shift in his evolving sculptural language, culminating in his signature Scatter Sculpture. Pavia’s experimental approach to mass, void, and gestural tension shaped the aesthetics of postwar abstraction and positioned him as a critical voice in shaping the New York School. As founder of the Eighth Street Artists Club, Pavia also catalyzed a groundbreaking moment in American art history, curating conversations among de Kooning, Motherwell, Kline, and others that would come to define Abstract Expressionism.

Natalie Edgar. Tondo, Oil paint and mixed media on canvas, 1978

In elegant counterpoint, Natalie Edgar’s lyrical Tondo paintings of the 1970s evoke structural clarity and intuitive energy. A noted art critic and painter, Edgar’s works resonate with a sensitivity to form, color, and process that reflect her deep engagement with both practice and theory.

This presentation also anticipates the founding of the Philip Pavia–Natalie Edgar East End Art Center, a future cultural institution dedicated to preserving and advancing the couple’s legacy and the artistic communities they fostered. A sample of maquettes of the planned Center—conceived by architect Robert Marino and his Springs-based team—will be on view, along with a film featuring twelve design responses from Columbia University graduate architecture students (Spring 2025 Studio).

In an intergenerational gesture, the exhibition includes an invited work by Paul P. Pavia, whose sculptural practice reflects a poetic dialogue with form, memory, and materiality, extending the family’s artistic lineage.

For collectors, curators, and institutions, East End Legacies offers a rare opportunity to acquire historically significant works of extraordinary provenance—works that anchor the story of postwar abstraction while pointing forward toward its evolving legacy.

This exhibition is part of WhiteBox’s celebrated Seminal Artists Series, which, over the past 25 years, has spotlighted groundbreaking artists, including Carolee Schneemann, Aldo Tambellini, Dennis Oppenheim, Conrad Atkinson, William Anastasi, Mary Beth Edelson, the Vienna Actionists Nitsch and Brüs, Hyman Bloom, and Alison Knowles.

WhiteBox is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent alternative art space based in New York City. Proceeds from benefit sales directly support WhiteBox’s curatorial programming and its commitment to championing experimental and historically significant contemporary art. Donations are warmly welcomed.

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Philip Pavia was an influential artist, writer, and a pioneering force in American Abstract Expressionism. In the 1940s, he founded The Club, an artists’ collective that brought together key figures such as Willem de Kooning, John Cage, Ad Reinhardt, and Joseph Campbell, among others, shaping the critical discourse that laid the foundation for New York City’s avant-garde movement. Pavia was also the founding editor of It Is: A Magazine for Abstract Art, a vital publication in defining the postwar art scene. His sculptural practice ranged from evocative forms exploring the interior of the skull to his acclaimed “Scatter” sculptures, abstract compositions that challenged spatial conventions. Pavia’s work has been exhibited at major institutions including the Guggenheim Museum, the Cooper Hewitt, and the Cloisters, affirming his legacy as a visionary who expanded both the language and context of modern sculpture.

Natalie Edgar, a former ARTnews critic and abstract expressionist painter, remains a seminal presence throughout both modern art history and contemporary art present. Lunging into alternative spatial realms and their intricate visual consequences, her work transcends the traditional, mesmerizing and confronting her viewers through the interplay of absence and presence, color and atmosphere, recessive and projective contrast. Echoing and expanding upon themes spotlighted by the art world through artists such as her late husband Phillip Pavia and mentors Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhart, Edgar imbues each stroke with an existential faith informed by a deeply contemplative sense of spatial awareness. Her solo work has been featured at establishments such as Ingber Gallery, Mark Borghi and Museo dei Bozzetti. 

Paul Pavia New Path, Wood and Concrete. 9.5″x11″x7″ (inches)  2018

Paul Pavia, son of artists Natalie Edgar and Philip Pavia, continued his family’s legacy in Abstract Expressionism while developing a distinct approach of his own. Surrounded by art from a young age, he spent summers in Pietrasanta, Italy—a town known for its marble—where he deepened his connection to sculpture. Paul chose to pursue philosophy in college and adopted an existentialist approach in subsequent artistic endeavors. Drawing on ancient monoliths like Stonehenge, Paul explored scale, presence, and material in his work, building a practice marked by quiet power and a deep respect for the traditions of abstract sculpture.