Now this makes sense

Summoning Scandinavia, in this month's Architectural Digest, designed by Shelton, Mindel & Associates.

While this is not what I do, I find the clarity of vision and line, like all their work, very impressive. They are one of the few architectural firms that can, and should, decorate a house. What a difference compared to the recent Venezuelan house. To my mind's eye, at least, this house and the choices made to create it, make sense.



The wife is of Swedish descent; the family summers each year in Sweden; and the children speak Swedish. Their background suggested that the architects build on the family’s roots with a Scandinavian interpretation of Modernism, which is kinder, gentler and warmer than the more dominant Teutonic versions.









...in their individuality, the furnishings never disappear into the homogeneity that Scandinavian design suffers in the watered-down forms often seen today. “The pieces celebrate democracy but break free of any homogeneity,” says Mindel.


Text by Joseph Giovannini/Photography by Michael Moran

Room for Joey

Joey Arias

Inspiration comes in many forms. Performance artist Joey Arias, is one such form. His manipulation of his image and his voice is both mesmerising and haunting. Should Hollywood decide to remake Shanghai Express, one could certainly see him in the role of Hui Fei, originally played by Anna May Wong. Given his remarkable interpretation of the legendary Billie Holiday and his notable performance as Joan Crawford, one would imagine his rooms would reflect the exotic 1930s.


1988 Performance


The upcoming sale at the St. Charles Gallery would provide the perfect furnishings for such rooms. Rooms with turquoise glazed walls, that is.



Opposing Pair of Louis XV-Style Fruitwood Recamiers, third quarter 19th century, each with a padded and raised end, joined to the cushioned seat by a downswept back and framed side, raised above a floral-carved apron on cabriole legs ending in scrolled toes.


Gainsborough Silk Weaving Company's Camellia


Monumental and Stately English Carved Giltwood Overmantel Mirror, in the style of William Kent (English, 1684-1748), modeled as two Corinthian columns supporting a large broken-scroll pediment, with a reticulated giltwood inner frame centering an oblong broadly beveled plate.


Regency-Style Giltwood Bench, the large padded rectangular seat raised on six pineapple-form gilded feet.

High Priestess of the Neo Baroque

Palm Mirror



Coral Head



Room view with Cloud Table and Coral Chandelier



Coral Grotto wall light



Flames Head



Blue Grotto Table

In the Tarot the High Priestess represents unconscious awareness and mystery. For over twenty years Oriel Harwood has been creating just such pieces. Her work is almost from a different time. A time when the world still believed in dragons and sea monsters, gods and goddesses. In her hands myths are made real.

Oriel Harwood's work is available through the David Gill Galleries


----------------
Now playing: Gnarls Barkley - She Knows
via FoxyTunes

Back to pretty and nice

Viennese Trees


Starfish


Spiral Willow

Well, as pretty and nice as it can be in these hands...

Adelphi Paper Hangings has launched a new range, the Early-Twentieth Century Collection, drawing inspiration from the Wiener Werkstätte and the French Moderne movements. Sourced not only from their own comprehensive archives, but also from the archives of the Cooper-Hewitt and the Smithsonian.
The new collection is typified by the more organic motifs and bolder colour combinations prevalent at the beginning of the past century.


----------------
Now playing: Gnarls Barkley - Who's Gonna Save My Soul
via FoxyTunes

Bette Midler - Miss Otis Regrets

Homer's Odd Isn't He was absolutely correct I am nothing more than a crass vulgarian. For that reason, and out of deference to Homer's Odd, I have decided to delete this blog at Midnight GMT. Farewell.

Klymaxx - meeting in the ladies room

Well, let me tell you about Stacey

There are loos near our stands at Portobello with a notice stating, PRIVATE STALLHOLDERS ONLY. Simple and straightforward. I hate people who find it necessary to use public conveniences; it shows a lack of conviction. As I am not the attendant, any and all enquires go unheeded. Rude? No, just the lesser of two evils.
For example: when once confronted by an obnoxious New York dealer (whom I haven't seen in ages and I can only assume has rotted away by now)
"Do you have a key to the bathroom?"
No.
"What d' you care if I use the bathroom?"
I don't. Just as I don't care if you piss yourself. Makes absolutely no difference to me.

So today, this youngish American woman (who can only be politely described as living proof that there is someone for everyone) chose to ignore the sign and slipped into the ladies. Unknowingly, she had managed to lock herself in. I know, because I could hear her politely rapping on the door for help. I did nothing, except snicker. After about ten minutes her lumpen husband came to see what was taking so long.
"Stacey, you alright in there?"
"I can't open the door"
As I was engrossed in my Elle Decor and listening to my paused ipod, he cleverly decided to look elsewhere for help.

Upon exiting her confinement, Stacey thought she would like to take a picture. Stacey thought wrong.
Without looking up or removing my earphones (after all I could hear everything), I let them know
I don't allow photographs.

I learned two things today. One, Stacey's husband was not as stupid as he looked. And two, Stacey never watched the Twilight Zone growing up, otherwise she would have known that the innocuous looking door might actually be a portal to Hell.

Who are you?

Just to be clear. This is not about bashing either the architect or the couple, or the magazine, for that matter. It is an observation of something that use to be random, but is now occurring with far greater frequency, to the point of almost being acceptable. It's not.

The spread on the Venezuelan house in April's Elle Decor illustrated everything that is wrong with contemporary interior design and possibly, today's culture.

First and foremost there was no connection between the decor and the architecture, and, I suspect, its inhabitants. Every bit of the furniture could have been purchased from any design store anywhere in the world. The interiors could have been anywhere and belonged to anyone. That is not a house, that is an hotel.



While the couple's choices appear to be informed, they do not appear to be heartfelt. How can they be? How does that house reflect the where, the who, and the why? It doesn't and it can't. The house screams for some Nakashima and some Latin American art. Instead of all that Panton, Saarinen, and Linge Roset they should have looked at contemporary and vintage Latin American designs. Then, and only then, would the Scandinavian pieces have made sense. Within the larger and more relevant context of where and who, they would have served as exclamation points rather than big question marks asking why?

Wanting and having something is not always enough. There really needs to be a deeper connection between us and our possessions, otherwise it's all just Disneyland.

Here is the link to the spread -
http://www.pointclickhome.com/elle_decor/articles/perfectly_clear

BTW : Coffee + Schnauzer + Laptop = No pictures and a new Dog Rug

Reading between the lines, or, somethings are just better left unsaid

Another email gem regarding Portobello.
Some misguided soul sent this missive:

Hi; my name is Kristian and I'm living in
Son, not far from Oslo, Norway.
I visited you in your interesting shop saturday 15.03.08, during my easter holiday in London. I bought a stuffed carp (fish), and in addition to that, I among other things looked at a graywhite roedeer scull in the bottom of your staircase priced to 30 pounds. This scull was whole and not on a wooden piece. It seemed to have been found at forest ground, not from a hunted animal. I would very much like to have this one, and is it possible to send it for me, please? I will ofcourse pay the porto in addition to the price.

To say I was in two minds would be putting it mildly. I opted to be nice. The italics are what I wanted to say, but omitted.

Dear Kristian -
As we don't sell rubbish, I am afraid to say you have the wrong dealer. We specialise in rare and unusual examples of Victorian natural history. That I am sure you would not appreciate or buy, as it is all a little more than £30. I am afraid I am unfamiliar with the dealer you visited. Who is obviously too cheap to advertise in the Portobello guide. I can only assume it is the one with the random assortment of crap masquerading as taxidermy near, or in, the Admiral Vernon.
Best of luck. and please do not bother me again.

Have you heard the one about the doctor's wife and the Norwegian tourist? It's a hoot....

----------------
Now playing: Kirsty MacColl - Here Comes That Man Again
via FoxyTunes

Royere retro

Image from the instillation.

The Sonnabend Gallery is holding the first major retrospective of the work of Jean Royere (1902-1981). The exhibition is curated by two of the leading authorities on 20th Century design, Patrick Seguin and Jacques Lacoste.The schematic design of the exhibition has been entrusted to the noted architect and designer India Mahdavi, who says unlike the more austere designs of his contemporaries, Royere brought great humor to his work. We wanted to celebrate this fun, playful, eclectic spirit.


Liane lamp, 1958


Jean Royere - French Legation, Helsinki


Serpentin ceiling lamp, 1954


Tour Eiffel table, ca.1950


Ours Polaire sofa, 1952


Hotel Saint-Georgesa, Beyrouth, 1950

All Royere pieces from Galerie Patrick Seguin

----------------
Now playing: Breaks Co-Op - Duet
via FoxyTunes

Speak of me as I am...

Carved boxwood gueridon by Andrea Brustolon, c. 1690–99.


Pair of Italian stands in the 18th Century taste.



A magnificent pair of Baroque style North Italian parcel-gilt, walnut and ebonised Blackamoor torcheres on stands, each formed as a standing and stooped figure with mother-of-pearl eyes and teeth, holding one hand up to support a large scallop shell upon a tasselled cushion that rests on the back of his head and shoulders, each figure in contra-pose wearing a flowing native costume tied at the waist with a sash, standing with the weight on one foot upon a rock on a shaped and stepped plinth carved at the four canted corners with acanthus bearing bearded masks below scrolls issuing foliate and floral swags on a stepped base. North Italian, date circa 1860.


Venetian glass Blackamoor, mid Century Murano.
These are the type, by Salviati, that Francis Elkins favoured.


Italian gilt and painted wood blackamoors.


Pedestal in the 18th Century Venetian taste, c. 1900-1910.
My least favourite type as they are too Byzantine and better suited to the English taste, which tends to be more Arab-centric.

Blackamoors were not merely the lawn jockeys of their day. They were created to exalt rather than to demean. By the mid to late seventeenth century Venetian sculptors began carving likenesses of these handsome figures out of wood. The major exponent (see top image) was Andrea Brustolon (1662-1732), who studied under his father Jacopo before being apprenticed in Venice under Filippo Parodi and from about 1684 worked for many of the major Venetian families. Brustolon carved some magnificent Baroque sculptural furniture including a vase stand that incorporated Africans, classical river gods, Charon, Cerberus and the Hydra, now at the Palazzo Rezzonico, Venice.


----------------
Now playing: Crosby, Stills & Nash - Our House
via FoxyTunes

Something fishy this way comes

Normally I loathe fish cases. They lack romance. This, our latest natural history acquisition, is somehow different. An early example, circa 1870, of Cornish taxidermy. It has a charm that the better (and much later) examples so often lack.

----------------
Now playing: Barnes & Barnes - Fish Heads
via FoxyTunes

FYI

Serge Roche

Serge Roche, Sculpture

Around 1930, somewhat against the trend of his era, Serge Roche embraced the baroque. His knowledge of the rococo decors and mirror rooms of baroque Europe helped to make him an instant success. First with an exhibition of frames and mirrors at Georges Petit's gallery in Paris, then with an array of furnitures at Elsie de Wolfe's gallery in New York. His successes eventually took him to the London gallery of Syrie Maugham where he showed an expanded range of sculpted and mirrored works.


Mirror fireplace from the rue Las Cases
Only one other was created, for Mrs C. Suydam Cutting, New York


Chandelier, painted metal and glass, circa 1937

He designed and produced furnitures, objects and decors that would hold their own for more than thirty years with a select clientele ranging from the likes of the couturier Chanel to Prince Ali Khan. Created from stucco and mirrors, his consoles, obelisks, fireplaces and decorative objects re-invented the baroque for the 20th century.


Mirror, 1930 - 1939


Plaster objects


A highly important mirror.
One of only two known examples, the other being in a private collection. Syrie Maugham purchased this looking glass from Serge Roche and placed it above the mirrored fireplace in the drawing room of Robin Wilson's apartment in London which she decorated in 1936. In the 1970s, Roche reacquired the mirror.


In addition to his own surrealist and neo-baroque works, Roche collaborated with Jean Michel Frank, Gilbert Poillerat, and the famous Sevres factory. His famous magic mirror was used by Jean Cocteau in his film La Belle et la Bette (1948), which ironically was to mark the end of the vogue of the neo-baroque movement.


La Belle et la Bete

----------------
Now playing: Tears for Fears - Mad World
via FoxyTunes

The rhinoceros in the room

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. His influence has been wide-ranging and he is generally regarded as one of the 20th century's most important philosophers.



Wittgenstein was Derek Jarman's last film before he lost his sight.

----------------
Now playing: Supertramp - The Logical Song
via FoxyTunes

Almost there, NW3

Soon, very soon indeed.


----------------
Now playing: Lizz Wright - A Taste of Honey
via FoxyTunes

Almost there, W1

Soon, very soon.


----------------
Now playing: Alison Limerick - Gettin' It Right
via FoxyTunes