Las Pozas explored

Surreal Eden : Edward James & Las Pozas by Margaret Hooks
Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2006.

After a visit to Xilitla in 1987 Margaret Hooks became interested in the English surrealist Edward James. She has written on the life and work of James for ARTnews (1998) and Grand Street(2004) and her book Surreal Eden: Edward James & Las Pozas, the first to be written on his surreal masterwork in the Mexican jungle, was published to critical acclaim in 2006.

Edward James was finally able to realize his artistic desires by creating Las Pozas -- a work twenty years in the making. In 1945, arrived in this part of Mexico, abounding in waterfalls, parrots and butterflies, in pursuit of wild orchids, one of James' many passions. - Margaret Hooks

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Now playing: Chavela Vargas - Luz De Luna
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Builder of Dreams

A Surreal Life: Edward James

Edward Frank Willis James (1907 - 1984) the son of American railroad magnate William James and Evelyn James (nee Forbes), a Scots socialite, who was spuriously reputed to have been fathered by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII).
On the death of his father in 1912 James inherited the 6,000 acre West Dean Estate in Sussex. Where, in 1964, he would establish the Edward James Foundation, a charitable educational trust. Which in turn founded the West Dean College, an institution that supports the visual and applied arts.


Monkton House was James' masterpiece of Surrealist decor.


The hall at Monkton with the famous carpet woven with the paw prints of his favourite hound.


Salvador Dali’s White Aphrodisiac Telephone


Salvador Dalí and Edward James
Mae West Lips Sofa, 1938. One of a pair created for the dining room at Monkton, which had upholstered deep-buttoned walls.


James behind his desk in the Tent Room at his Wimpole Street house, London. Behind him hangs Picasso's Femme Assise Au Chapeau. The composer Igor Markevitch lounges at the right. Interestingly this photograph was taken by Norman Parkinson in the late 1930s

In art, as he was in life - slightly disjointed from the world around him.


Swans Reflecting Elephants by Salvador Dalí
James' portrait is to the left.


The Pleasure Principle: Portrait of Edward James by René Magritte


La Reproduction Interdite by René Magritte

Las Pozas





James' herculean task began in 1949, Las Pozas is a sculpture garden more than 2,000 feet above sea level, in a tropical rain forest in the mountains of Mexico. It included more than eighty acres with natural waterfalls and pools punctuated by towering concrete Surrealist sculptures and follies. From 1964 until his death in 1984 this was James' world. His dream.

I have seen such beauty as one man has seldom seen,
Therefore will I be grateful to die in this little room surrounded by the forests,
The great green gloom of the trees, my only gloom - and the sound, the sound of green. - Edward James

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Now playing: La Lupe - Puro Teatro
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Coming attraction

The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought
by Robert J. Richards

The definitive account of Darwin's greatest intellectual heir. The Tragic Sense of Life is a sweeping reevaluation of the Romantic ideas and calamitous biography of a man whose vision of evolutionary theory is still influential today.

Wonderland

Interior of Flutter in Portland, Oregon.
Described as a delightful disarray of found objects and clutter. Clearly, more treasure than clutter.

These birdcages are just wonderful. Inside or out, what finch or lovebird wouldn't look fabulous housed in these?

Beehive Birdcage


Sage Green Rustic Birdcage


Pagoda birdcage with folding stand


Deco oval mirror with a sanded and weathered finish.
Very reminiscent of 19th Century zinc mansard windows that are often converted into mirrors. Very smart.

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Now playing: Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship & Starship - White Rabbit
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This is none of my business, but

it does rankle the hell out of me. And it is an excellent example of how a certain type debases, for what ever reason, what was once regarded as a learned perspective.


Magnaverde's Chicago Living Room 2002

Two anonymous comments were left on Decorno's post Status Anxiety: outsized social ambitions in response to magnaverde's comment:
Here's Charles Dickens bemused take on the whole process in Our Mutual Friend:
And now, in the blooming summer days, behold Mr and Mrs Boffin established in the eminently aristocratic family mansion, and behold all manner of crawling, creeping, fluttering, and buzzing creatures, attracted by the gold dust of the Golden Dustman!

That's the nice part about not having any status worth mentioning: you also have no obsequious hangers-on. And if you also have no particular interest in climbing the status ladder in the first place (and here's Andrew Marvel's "me lusteth no longer rotten boughs to climb" comes to mind) it's pretty easy to be happy with where you are in the status food chain. And to me, that's the secret of contentment: setting your standards really low.



Anon April 16, 2008 9:54 AM
Status anxiety is part of competition, and competition is an inescapable fact of life.

Whether you're competing over the number of things you know about someone named Mrs. Fish or how many Famous Writers you can quote (Dickens, Marvel, etc.), it's all competition.

ESPECIALLY claiming you're above it.


AnonApril 16, 2008 11:09 AM
Anonymous 9:54, THATS the way to smack the clawing knuckles of classics quoting social climbers. You go, girl!! Money isn't the only thing we need to defend against intruders.

Ah, the joys of visual aids. Though, quite frankly, I think the two Anons would benefit greatly from a different kind of aid...


Shiny Happy People

Jean Cocteau's Blood of a Poet, 1930

Batgirl

Pipistrello lamp: designed by the multi-talented Italian designer Gae Aulenti in 1966 for Martinelli Luce, Italy.
An absolute favorite. Thankfully, seldom seen in contemporary use. After all, only a very few are actually that cool.

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Now playing: The Jam - Batman Theme
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The Great Lie

Sometimes there's a terrible penalty for telling the truth.
Bette Davis and Mary Astor in The Great Lie, part of the TCM centennial celebration of the birth of Bette Davis.

One of the best lines delivered by Sandra (Mary Astor) - I'm not one of you anemic creatures who can get nourishment from a lettuce leaf...

Back to basics

Moderne: Fashioning the French Interior
by Sarah Schleuning







Before colour photography in magazines there was the pochoir. Moderne is a catalogue of these sumptuous hand-coloured stencil brochures favoured by French designers of the 1920s. With the likes of Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, Pierre Chareau, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Charlotte Perriand, and Eileen Gray represented this really is required reading.

More than two hundred plates, selected by Sarah Schleuning, a curator of the Wolfsonian Museum, and faithfully reproduced to preserve their original color palettes.

Stop the presses

This just in from the Feast of Fools.
The Crayola crayon company announced this week that they are re-launching their famous box of crayons line, by renaming seven colours.

OLD: laser lemon, NEW: super happy
OLD: wild tangerine, NEW: fun in the sun
OLD: screamin' green, NEW: giving tree
OLD: beaver, NEW: bear hug
OLD: turquoise blue, NEW: happy ever after
OLD: hot magenta, NEW: famous
OLD: orchid, NEW: best friends.

I find this really irritating. Pass the sick bag Alice.
I wonder what colour Bite Me would be?

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Now playing: Gnarls Barkley - Whatever
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This is interesting...

The Age of American Unreason is Susan Jacoby's critique of modern culture. Listen to her reading, which took place in February of 2008, at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

Could this (her premise) be a contributing factor to the indiscriminate rise in popularity of mid century modern? The reason for the proliferation and the justification of counterfeit goods? The lack of discernment? Why elitism is the new bogeyman?

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


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Now playing: Gnarls Barkley - She Knows
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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.


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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.