[PHOTOS] Fire Island’s art history is documented in new first-of-its-kind book

Prepare to fall in love with the Pines' past, present, and future.

Mark Mark
May 4, 2026 - 20:00
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[PHOTOS] Fire Island’s art history is documented in new first-of-its-kind book
A man in a white tank top stands across from a deer on the beaches of Fire Island Pines.
Wolfgang Tillmans, Deer Hirsch, 1995.
Image credit: Courtesy Wolfgang Tillmans and Galerie Buchholz; Maureen
Paley, London; David Zwirner, New York (page 269)

As far as LGBTQ+ travel destinations go, few are as well-visited, mythic, and magical as Fire Island, located just a dreamy 30-minute ferry ride away from New York.

Imagine a world connected by water taxis, wooden boardwalks, and an overwhelming sense of queer visibility, celebration, and, well, the expected amount of friskiness, and it’s no wonder why both its resorts towns — Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines — have inspired their fair share of art.

And for the first time, the queer haven’s art history is getting its moment in Fire Island Art: 100 Years ($69.95), an astonishingly gorgeous volume edited by John Dempsey, an island history expert and the president of the Fire Island Pines Historical Society.

The book cover of 'Fire Island Art 100 Years' featuring two men wading into the water.
Fire Island Art. 100 Years
Edited by John Dempsey. Credit: The Monacelli Press

The first-of-its-kind book examines the visual artwork of both artists inspired by the island, like Paul Cadmus, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Robert Mapplethorpe, Paul Thek, and Andy Warhol, as well as the explosion of art-making on its scenic beaches, with pieces by locals like TM Davy, Nicole Eisenman, Lola Flash, K8 Hardy, Lyle Ashton Harris, Doron Langberg, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Salman Toor.

Within the hardback’s 304 pages, readers will find many never-before-published and recently found archival images, essays and interviews with artists, and both a nostalgia for and appreciation of the paradise that generations of LGBTQ+ people fought to create for us.

Thankfully, Fire Island Art: 100 Years arrived at just the right time, because the countdown to Pride season is on, and GayCities got a sneak peek at some of its most eye-catching photos.

Prepare to fall in love with the Pines’ past, present and future…

Two men pose in light colored briefs shirtless at a bar at Duffy's Hotel in the late 1940s.
Paul Himmel, The Bar in Duffy’s Hotel, late 1940s.
Image credit: Cherry Grove Archives Collection (page 13, left)
Bernard Perlin and Wilbur Pippin cuddle on the beach of Fire Island Pines in 1948.
Fred Melton, Bernard Perlin and Wilbur “Billy” Pippin on Fire Island, 1948.
Image credit: Courtesy the Estate of Fred Melton (page 17, bottom)
A man in a floral print speedo stands on a wooden wheel with an umbrella over his head at Fire Island Pines in the 1940s.
PaJaMa, George Platt Lynes on Fire Island, c. 1940s.
Image credit: Courtesy Daniel Cooney Fine Art (page 22)
An illustration of three shirtless men smiling with their arms around each other on ab each looking down at a phone.
TM Davy, 635, 2019.
Image credit: Courtesy TM Davy (page 237)
Pastel on gouache toned paper, 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)
Fidelma Cadmus lays with her hands across her chest on the beach of Fire Island Pines with a circle spread around her like angel wings.
PaJaMa, Fidelma Cadmus, Fire Island, 1937.
Image credit: Courtesy Gitterman Gallery (page 31, bottom)
Chuck Howard in a speedo lays shirtless across a wooden set of stairs on the Fire Island Pines beach.
PaJaMa, Chuck Howard, Fire Island, c. 1954.
Image credit: Courtesy Gitterman Gallery (page 32)
An illustration of two shirtless men on the beach in speedos with a blue sky behind them.
Mark Beard, Two Men on a Beach, n.d.
Image credit: © Mark Beard [Bruce Sargeant) (1898–1938)], courtesy
CLAMP, New York (page 171) Oil on canvas, 36 × 24 in. (91.4 × 61 cm)
Dick and Doe Avedon run down the hot sand on the beaches of Fire Island in the late 1940s.
Dick and Doe Avedon, late 1940s. Photo by Lillian Bassman.
Image credit: © Estates of Lillian Bassman and Paul Himmel (page 54)
Henry Geldzahler and David Hockney sit on wooden beach recliners underneath their own colored umbrellas at a pool in Fire Island.
Henry Geldzahler and David Hockney, 1970s (page 133, left)
Two men lay on a mattress on a wooden dock in the sun on Fire Island Cherry Grove in 1951.
Two women getting sun, Cherry Grove, 1951.
Image credit: Cherry Grove Archives Collection (page 194)
A Pride flag on a string, cut in strands that wave like streamers, at Fire Island in 2019.
Joe McShea and Edgar Mosa, Flag, Fire Island, 2019.
Image credit: Courtesy Joe McShea and Edgar Mosa (page 234) Ribbon and
bamboo installation
A shirtless man in a speedo dances in a club behind a Grace Jones mask at Fire Island in 1977.
Meryl Meisler, Grace Jones Mask Created from Richard Bernstein Portrait, The
Ice Palace, Cherry Grove, Fire Island, NY, Labor Day, September 1977.
Image credit: Courtesy Meryl Meisler and CLAMP, New York (page 284)
Two drag queens with white faces and blonde wigs pose with their arms around each other under a red shard of fabric on the docks of Fire Island.
Image Credit: Fire Island Art: 100 Years, edited by John Dempsey

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