Bill Clinton wandered over from the farmers market and stayed for 45 minutes. By the time he left, a hundred-year-old gallery’s history was on full display.
The Ashawagh Hall farmers market felt routine on the morning of August 29 — until Bill Clinton crossed the street. The former president, followed by Kayla Rose Bergen, Strobe Talbott, and Barbara Ascher, drifted away from the stalls and slipped into ACA Galleries’ pop-up — “Vignettes: Where Two Roads Meet.” Clinton lingered, wandering the show for 45 minutes. A visit meant to be quiet and private morphed into a spontaneous gallery talk as shoppers trickled in, whispering and then crowding around.
Courtesy of Ashawagh Hall
Courtesy of Ashawagh Hall
Courtesy of Ashawagh HallAt the door, ACA president Dorian Bergen and her son, Vaughn, representing the family’s fourth generation at the gallery, which has been in the city since 1932, greeted Clinton. He wasn’t just looking to browse; he had a specific painting in mind: Romare Bearden’s “Bluer Than Blue,” a vivid collage from Bearden’s 1981 Jazz series. It made sense — Clinton’s fondness for the saxophone is legendary, and now here he was, right in the middle of Bearden’s music-drenched imagery.
“President Clinton inspired so many of us, and today we were honored to share a glimpse into American history with him as conveyed by the artists in our exhibition,” Vaughn Bergen said afterward. “It meant a great deal to us to hear how knowledgeable Bill already was about the history of our gallery and the artists we’ve championed over the years.”
Courtesy of Ashawagh Hall
Courtesy of Ashawagh Hall
Courtesy of Ashawagh Hall
Courtesy of Ashawagh Hall
Courtesy of Ashawagh HallAs the market crowd caught wind and flowed inside, Dorian Bergen launched into an impromptu walk-through, touring works by artists from ACA’s long past: Milton Avery, Bearden, Faith Ringgold, Edward Bannister, Richard Mayhew. The gallery’s usual quiet fell away, replaced by a seminar on twentieth-century American art. People leaned into corners and doorways, following Bergen from wall to wall.
Joseph Peller’s oil-on-linen views — “Fire and Rain” glinting with coastal light — anchored one wall. At the other end, Clinton paused by three paintings from Sergo Tbileli. Tbileli, trained at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and long a church icon restorer, now paints Hamptons scenes using the same layered technique. His Montauk Saint Patrick’s Day Parade — a bagpiper and a flash of Montauk sun — embodies the show’s title: two roads meeting, old and new.
Bearden's Bluer Than Blue. Courtesy of Ashawagh Hall
Brewster's Fuchsias
Bearden. Courtesy of Ashawagh HallThe afternoon had its personal notes too. Strobe Talbott, once U.S. deputy secretary of state, was Clinton’s Oxford roommate. He and Barbara Ascher brought along their granddaughter, Dahlia Ascher-Walsh, a staple at the farmers market since preschool, selling honey and banana bread. Clinton and Dahlia smiled for a photo in front of the Tbileli paintings, joined by amused onlookers.
Before heading out, Clinton accepted a small pile of books, including ACA’s 1989 exhibition catalog from its Bearden memorial show.
