Marble muscles ripple—the stone carver’s feat charismatic in its unselfconsciousness. Crystals dangle, their effervescence gleaming for centuries as blown baubles from the past. Mother-of-pearl inlay…
View More Ateliers of EuropeTag: design narratives
You may be asking what design narratives are and I wouldn’t blame you. They are fictive situations that I put historical figures in to see how they respond.
One of my favorites to date is a diary entry in which I had Peggy Guggenheim shopping for mid-century modern design elements for her Venetian home Palazzo Venier dei Leoni at the Oculus Gallery in the Hyde Park neighborhood of LA. The pièce de résistance that day was Edward Wormley’s La Gondola sofa. This is but one of the vintage pieces sourced by the gallery’s owners Dario Diovisalvi and Tara DeWit that inspired this piece.
As she and I stroll past a rare Akari floor lamp by Isamu Noguchi, Guggenheim’s eyes linger longingly as she tells me, “I’ve finally found a palace of white stone with one of the largest gardens in Venice. In 1910, Louisa, Marchesa Casati, a poetess, had lived in one of the wings, giving fantastic Diaghileff [sic] parties and keeping leopards instead of lions in the garden.” No, it’s not real; I didn’t walk through the Gallery with her but I could imagine it thanks to her autobiography that fleshes out her point of view!
The Hotel de la Marine Restored
In his foreword to The French Royal Wardrobe: The Hotel de la Marine Restored, Philippe Bélaval, the President of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, illustrates how painstaking…
View More The Hotel de la Marine RestoredThe Sensuous Delight of Place
Like Katherine Mansfield’s enigmatic stories, the book Place by Tara Bernerd feels like “a thread with a subtly woven texture embracing ecstatic feeling, sensuous delight.” The…
View More The Sensuous Delight of PlaceThis Side of Paradise
I looked forward to meeting Michael Berman during the Spring 2016 High Point Market when he was there to debut his Califolio collection for Theodore…
View More This Side of ParadiseRewriting the Myth of Pandora
I’ve always been fascinated by the myth of Pandora because the most widely accepted explanation of this parable—that feminine curiosity “is responsible for all the…
View More Rewriting the Myth of PandoraA Midcentury Cougar on the Prowl
The nickname cougar, signifying women who have “a thing” for younger men, hasn’t been around for as long as they’ve been cropping up in popular…
View More A Midcentury Cougar on the ProwlPeggy Guggenheim Visits Oculus Gallery
In 2009, I trekked to Venice with my dear friend JoAnn Locktov, the founder of Bella Figura Publications whose newest book Dream of Venice Architecture…
View More Peggy Guggenheim Visits Oculus GalleryWhat Is Art?
“It is assumed that everyone knows and understands what is meant by the word beauty,” Leo Tolstoy wrote. “And yet not only is this not…
View More What Is Art?Through the Looking Glass into Devon
Through the Looking Glass Into Devon “‘What is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’” “What is the use of a…
View More Through the Looking Glass into DevonDining with History
A month from Sunday, I’ll be winging my way to Paris to attend Maison & Objet, and I’m thrilled to say I’ve been invited to…
View More Dining with History