Portfolio
Bulletin: Mary Heilmann
A close look at what Mary Heilmann keeps on the walls of her studio in Bridgehampton, New York
Heilmann's studio wall featuring ephemera and artwork by artists including Richard Serra © 2026 Estate of Richard Serra Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photos: Lindsay Morris
In the latest installment of Bulletin—Ursula’s recurring feature about the things artists keep on their walls, the casual image banks they assemble for inspiration—we visited Mary Heilmann in Bridgehampton, New York, where she has kept a home and studio for decades.
“This wall is really like the inside of my head. It’s memories and art and things I like to look at and think about. You’ll notice a lot of surfing pictures, because I grew up in California and surfing culture has been big for me ever since I was a little kid. And the beach. The Atlantic is just a few miles down the road. When I first moved out here, going straight down Ocean Road on my bike to the water was a kind of ritual. Farther down on the wall you’ll see the Wonder Bread polka-dot logo, which I love and which I also remember from the time I was a child. Near it is a blow-up doll of John Waters that he once sent me as a Christmas card. He’s a pal and is very cute that way. One of my absolute favorite things is a printout of a text Richard Serra sent me, of a drawing he made of one of his dogs. Richard and I knew each other when we were both in high school in California, and that drawing is such a great way to remember him. He’s really still with me now in my memory.”—Heilmann
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Mary Heilmann is one of the preeminent abstract painters of her generation. Heilmann’s work overlays the analytical geometries of Minimalism with the spontaneous ethos of the Beat generation. She has spent her life living near the ocean, first in California and, since the late 1960s, in Manhattan and Bridgehampton, New York.