Madoo : The Making of an American Garden

A portrait of an iconoclastic garden in the Hamptons where painter, poet, and self-taught horticulturist Robert Dash created an eclectic plant paradise and a literary and arts salon.

During the 1960s, painter, poet, and gardener Robert Dash set out to create a haven where art and the garden existed in tandem. What began as a fallow farm field over time became a beloved public garden and Hamptons treasure that The New York Times has called an “ever-changing masterpiece.” Madoo, by By Alejandro Saralegui and Kendell Cronstrom, is a living tribute to this eclectic, beautiful place. Sumptuously photographed by Tria Giovan, the book is filled with stunning images of interiors and gardens, archival pieces illustrating Madoo’s early days, paintings and drawings by Robert Dash, and essays from contributors who have witnessed its evolution. Madoo appeals to a broad range of readers infatuated with American culture, the gardens of artists, and the enduring appeal of the Hamptons. “Madoo,” which is Old Scots for “my dove,” was both Dash’s personal haven and a forum for collaborative, creative discourse and critique, marked by the arcadian confluence of art, music, literature, and poetry. It was also a refuge for many famous artists and poets—John Ashbery, Fairfield Porter, Willem de Kooning, James Schuyler, and others—who spent time at Madoo, were deeply inspired by it, and often referenced it in their work.

Since the mid-1960s, Robert Dash has been regarded as an accomplished painter for his depictions of a now all-but-vanished Hamptons landscape. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Yale University, and the University of Missouri’s Fine Arts Building and is included in the collections of the Modern Art Museum in Munich, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts, and more. His archive of poetry and garden writings was acquired by Yale University’s Beinecke Library in 2011.