Robert Dash, Founder of Madoo Conservancy, Dies at 82

Robert Dash, an internationally renowned artist behind the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack, died there on Saturday. He was 82.

An abstract impressionist painter, Dash never formally studied painting, though he had a strong interest in abstract expressionist artists like Willem de Kooning. He has exhibited in one-man shows in major American art galleries, as well as in Holland and England.

His works is featured in collections at the Modern Art Museum in Munich, the Guggenheim Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Corcoran Gallery.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced yet, though a memorial service in the spring, when the gardens at Madoo are at their finest, is likely.

After spending time on the South Fork, Dash bought a two-acre property with an 18th century hay barn and sheds on Sagg Main Street in 1966. He would tame it to create a natural, organic garden, that he eventually opened up to the public as the Madoo — which means "My Dove" in Scottish.

In 1993, Dash formed a not-for-profit corporation and deeded over the property to the conservancy to manage and maintain the gardens, though he continued to live and work there. Since it's opening to the public, it has been featured by several publications. In 2005, National Geographic, selected Madoo as one of 22 Secret Gardens in North America worthy of a visit.

It was once described in The New York Times as, "Robert Dash's ever-changing masterpiece." The property also displays framed poems, letters and works of art from those who found inspiration there, including Georgia O’Keefe and Fairfield Porter.

The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Richard Warren Dash was born in New York City on June 6, 1931, to Emmanuel Dash, an insurance executive, and the former Shirley Nisinson. His mother died at the Southampton Nursing Center at 100 in 2001. His brothers were Gregory Dash, who died in 2010, and Matthew, who is also deceased.

Homeschooled most of his childhood due to illness, he left Manhattan for college at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

He was also a writer, authoring a book, "Notes from Madoo: Making a Garden in the Hamptons," in 2000. He wrote a longtime weekly column for The East Hampton Star, called "Notes from Madoo." He also taught for a few years at Southampton College.

Dash tended to the gardens himself for many years. In an interview with Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art in 1974, he said gardening and painting were quite similar. "And it illustrates -- the same thing with painting -- the unlimited possibilities in a small area, because the garden is very small. I mean you can stunningly create the new composition by just slight movement or clipping, the same way you do in painting, wipe out, and so forth. "

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