August 2011
30 Tuesday Aug 2011
Papiers a la Mode–Isabelle de Borchgrave’s Recycled Rags
26 Friday Aug 2011
Closing the Post Office in Kalaupapa, Jack London, and Leprosy
19 Friday Aug 2011
Nabokov’s prose …Van Morrison’s voice
18 Thursday Aug 2011
PHOTOGRAPHS:
The Luma Foundation has announced that its anticipated creative campus in the historic French city of Arles will open on 26 June 2021 (Covid-19 regulations allowing), featuring a striking central tower designed by Frank Gehry.~~~
Carpenters put the skills of their Medieval colleagues on show on the plaza in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, now being renovated, by reproducing for the public a section of the elaborate carpentry used when the edifice was built~~~
The drinks company Diageo says it has created the world’s first paper-based spirits bottle that is 100% plastic-free~~~
Banksy; pays tribute to George Floyd~~~
Prince dedicated his life to speaking out against injustice, advocating for black excellence, and spreading the message of "Love 4 One Another." In this note that he kept in his personal archives, he wrote a message that still resonates today. "Nothing more ugly in the whole wide world than INTOLERANCE (between) Black, white, red, yellow, boy or girl."~~~
Italian ingenuity while the world is in lockdown due to COVID-19...Rooftop Tennis~~~
bauhaus.photo in partnership with Museum of Craft + Design and the Goethe Institut, developed by the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin, presents 100 key works from the world’s largest collection of Bauhaus photography across three locations~~~
Notre Dame in the 1990's, photograph from the Statue Series, by Boulevardiers Publisher, Kim Steele~~~
The Mythic Being: A–108 (Kant), photograph by Adrian Piper, 1975, oil crayon on silver print~~~
Matera, Italy, 1954, photograph by Dan Weiner, International Center of Photography~~~
Pulitzer Prize winner ... photograph by Daniel Berehulak, Back-alley Killing~~~
Central Park South, photograph by Elliott Erwitt, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco
thru May 27, 2017~~~
Robert Frank set the bar for street photography in the 1950's. His seminal book, The Americans, stands as a touchstone for all documentary photographers, recently republished by Steidl, free show touring to 50 universities.~~~
This vehicle apeared in the film “Dick Smart, Agent 2007” starring Richard Wyler, Margaret Lee, Rosanna Tapados. For this movie, the Vespa 180 Super Sport was transformed by Piaggio and by the English factory Alpha Willis to race along the road, fly like a helicopter, sail and dive like a submarine.~~~
California (Malibu Kiss), by Elliott Erwitt, 1955, platinum palladium print at the PHOTOFAIRS | SAN FRANCISCO, January 2017: photofairs.org/sanfrancisco, courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery~~~
WTC Transportation Hub, New York City, designed by Santiago Calatrava, photograph by Boulevardier Bruce Matthews~~~
Vintage c-print, from the series Kodachrome, photograph by Luigi Ghirri~~~
Tolstoy taking up tennis in the 1940's...~~~
From the renovated & reopened Cartier Mansion, photograph of Andy Warhol wearing the Tank watch, Warhol Salon, home of the "most iconic timepieces"~~~
Cheers! Boulevard Spritz: Bourbon, Vermouth, Campari, Grapefruit Bitters, Prosecco~~~
The Art of Shop Window Displays: Selfridges' Bright Young Things~~~
Baby you're much too fast...inspiring, listened to & forever missed~~~
Sadness & Celebration, Zaha Hadid~~~
All of Earth's amazing aliens are leaving...safe travels Ziggy~~~
Admont Abbey library, Admont, Austria~~~
Sockeye salmon in the Adams River, BC, Canada, photograph by Yva Momatiuk & John Eastcott/Minden Pictures, Getty Images~~~
Janis Joplin’s Psychedelic Porsche 356 Sells for $1.76 Million at RM Sotheby’s New York~~~
8,000 yrs. old, the largest Neolithic structure settlement, is giant square of 101 raised mounds, larger than the Cheops Pyramids, seen from space~~~
Italian fashion house Fendi has moved into its new headquarters at Rome's Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana – a building commissioned by dictator Benito Mussolini in 1943 that has been renovated by local architect Marco Costanzi~~~
The King of Cool, photograph by William Claxton~~~
Ernest Hemingway (left), with Harold Loeb, Lady Duff Twysden (in hat), Hadley Richardson, Donald Ogden Stewart (obscured), and Pat Guthrie (far right) at a café in Pamplona, Spain, July 1925. Twysden, Loeb, and Guthrie inspired the characters Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, and Mike Campbell in The Sun Also Rises.~~~
Friends and contemporaries: From left, John Irving; Gay Talese; Saul and Gayfryd Steinberg, the hosts of this cocktail party for the PEN writers’ group in 1985; Kurt Vonnegut; William Styron; and Norman Mailer. Credit photograph by Jill Krementz, all rights reserved~~~
Harold Feinstein's dies, but his Coney Island teenagers live on, photograph by Harold Feinstein~~~
Kate Betts with Karl Lagerfeld at the Café de Flore; photo and captions by Art Streiber, from "My Paris Dream"~~~
John Nash, in reflective mood in his office in Fine Hall, Princeton University, 23 February, 2001 ~Rest in Peace~~~~
Dream No. 28: Love Without Illusion, 1951, photograph by Grete Stern~~~
Ruins of Palmyra, Syria - just captured by ISIL. World Heritage site, crossroads of trade routes to 1st Century...Roman, Persian & Greek~~~
Francis Fleetwood in 1991, near a home in East Hampton, N.Y., one of over 200 he built in the area starting in 1980, including homes for Alec Baldwin, Lauren Bacall, and Calvin Klein, photograph by Michael Shavel~~~
Picasso's Women of Algiers has become the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $160m (£102.6m) at Christie's in New York~~~
Étienne-Jules Marey, “Untitled [Fumées – plan normal à la direction du courant (smoke)]” (1901) (@ Cinémathèque Française, Paris)~~~
Fish in a Vase, c 1940, photograph by Hannes Beckmann~~~
The Lockheed Lounge by Australian designer Marc Newson has retained its title as the world's most expensive design object, after selling for £2,434,500!~~~
Opening at Grey Art Gallery: Tseng Kwong Chi, Performing for the Camera, friend of Boulevardier publisher, Kim Steele~~~
Must See: new Salgado film, The Salt of the Earth, it's visionary, heartbreaking and uplifting, photograph by Sebastiao Salgado/Amazonas Images~~~
Frei Otto wins prestigious Pritzker Architectural award for 2015. Blind, who just died before his award at 89, the German is renowned for his diaphanous roof canopies and other "inventive feats of engineering"~~~
Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy, Kennedy Inaugural, Washington, D.C. 1961, photograph by Phil Stern~~~
Wall Street, New York, 1915, by Paul Strand from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography~~~
Paris street by Louis Daguerre from 1838, maybe the oldest photograph with a person in it?~~~
Jean-Michel Basquiat, “Exu” (1988), Installation view in “Basquiat and the Bayou” at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, photograph by John d’Addario~~~
Photos Of San Francisco In The 40s And 50s, from Fred Lyon’s, San Francisco: Portrait of a City 1940 - 1960~~~
Anselm Kiefer, Erdzeitalter, 2009, Gouache on photograph~~~
Close of the Life from the Third International NanoArt Festival~Enio Longo/Third International NanoArt Festival~~~
Lauren Bacall, 1924 - 2014, there was only one...~~~
Charles James, Beyond Fashion, from the Metropolitan Museum show~~~
The Acropolis Museum’s five caryatid sculptures are back on view after a three-and a-half-year long laser cleaning~~~
USPS issues Janis Joplin stamp~~~
Willem Dafoe and Mikhail Baryshnikov, in The Old Woman, at BAM~~~
Munos: Cosmic radiation will finally get us inside the Fukishima reactors~~~
David Burtka, Neil Patrick Harris tuxedo details from the Met Gala 2014~~~
One of the new works by Andy Warhol, trapped on floppy disks for close to 30 years~~~
Bill Murray, PBR shorts, best golfing attire ever~~~
Tangier 1961, William S. Burroughs and other Boulevardiers, his new biography: Call Me Burroughs--A Life, by Barry Miles~~~
Olav Thon, Norway's billionaire who is giving his entire fortune to medical science research~~~
Tanaquil Le Clercq and George Balanchine, "Afternoon of a Fwan: Tanaquil Le Clerq"~~~
Plank Piece I, II (aka The Artist in His Studio) by Charles Ray, (1973)~~~
1961 image of a gun-toting and paint-splattered Niki de Saint Phalle, photograph by Harry Shunk-Kender~~~
Chinese artist Sun Xun, from "Time Vivarium-ism" series, nytsyn.com~~~
"Beetles and Other Insects" by artist Bernard Durin~~~
New York's Graffiti Mecca, 5Pointz, was whitewashed overnight, Emmanuel Dunand /AFP/Getty Images~~~
Lost da Vinci Drawings Unearthed Beneath Layers of Paint, Sforza Castle, Milan~~~
Deborah Turbeville, 1932 - 2013~~~
Maria Pia Bridge, Portugal, built in 1877 by Gustave Eiffel~~~
Marcella Hazan, 1924-2013, pictured here at age 6~~~
The new & grand SF Bay Bridge, photograph by Kim Steele~~~
It's pink, Lake Hillier, Australia~~~
NY MoMa's Rain Room, a choreographed downpour~~~
The Queen, and her Leica~~~
Patricia Canino/The Decorative Arts, Fashion and Textile Collection deposit and the Cluny Museum, nyt.com~~~
Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton, Ischia, Italy, 1962, photograph by Bert Stern/Stale-Wise Gallery~~~
Vintage Braniff flight attendant uniforms by Pucci, papermag.com~~~
The photograph taken by William Eggleston for WSJ Magazine, of some of his Leica and Canon cameras, blogs.wsj.com~~~
From the book “Cotton Tenants: Three Families" by James Agee ~ photograph by Walker Evans~~~
In front of ~ Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice Biennale 2013, June 1 through November~~~
Memorial Day 2013, Presidio, San Francisco, photograph by Kim Steele~~~
Flapper Girl: What was missing from Great Gatsby, runway.blogs.nytimes.com~~~
Glass Jellyfish, by German glass artist Leopold Blaschka, 1822 - 1895~~~
In Honor Of Ottavio Missoni, 1921 - 2013, and his kaleidoscope of colours, textile-blog.com~~~
Iron Lady: Who knew Iron Man had a wife? nytimes.com~~~
Painters hang from suspended wires on the Brooklyn Bridge October 7, 1914 -- 31 years after it first opened; @AP Photo/New York City Municipal Archives, Department of Bridges/Plant & Structures, Eugene de Salignac~~~
Soldier with Bullet-proof Shield, Northern Ireland, 1973, photograph by Philip Jones Griffiths~~~
Mural, by Jean-Michel Basquiat~~~
Dinka Boy with Long Horned Bull, S. Sudan, photograph by Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher, frankpicturesgallery.com~~~
Gasometer Oberhausen, by Christo, Christo’s first show since the passing of his long-time partner Jeanne-Claude~~~
At the New York Botanical Gardens, Four Seasons, by Philip Haas, photograph by
Philip Haas~~~
Dancers from Martha Graham's Errand ballet, photograph by Andrea Mohin, nytimes.com~~~
Thérèse Duncan on the Acropolis, 1921, photograph by Edward Steichen~~~
Mardi Gras 2013, globalpost.com~~~
Ezra Stoller photographs, Yossi Milo Gallery, NYC, January 24, 2013 - March 2, 2013~~~
Rudolf Nureyev: A Life in Dance - de Young Museum, San Francisco~~~
TWA Terminal, designed by architect Balthazar Korab, nytimes.com~~~
Grand Central Station Terminal, NYC, on its 100th Anniversary, Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times, nytimes.com~~~
P is for Prue Trampled Flat in a Brawl, by Edward Gorey, edwardgoreyhouse.org~~~
Gertrude “Gussie” Moran, the American tennis player who shocked Britain when she turned up to play at Wimbledon in 1949 wearing a short skirt, thetimes.co.uk~~~
Fishlove conservation campaign, photo collaboration of Ocean2012, online grocer Waitrose, and sushi restaurant Moshimo, fastcoexist.com~~~
Selk'nam Hain (puberty ceremony) -- Tierra del Feugo, Chile, photograph by Martín Gusinde~~~
Isometric Systems in Isotropic Space, Map Projections, The Pyramid --The World from Below, by Agnes Denes, collection of Alice & Nahum Lainer~~~
Agnelli garden, Marrakesh, design by Madison Cox, photograph by Oberto Gili, nytimes.com~~~
Before the Fight, photograph by David Goldblatt, on exhibit now at SF MoMA~~~
Casablanca Piano, up for auction at Sotheby's in December, expected price $1.2mm~~~
Cornel Lucas, photographer of actors, with his Plate Camera, 1986, Photograph by Fi McGhee, nyt.com~~~
Winston Churchill, illustration by Denise Nestor and Shout, nyt.com.com~~~
Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Underground Extension, fastcodesign.com~~~
Par 6 hole, Dead Tree Forest, by Bruce Stillman, in his front yard, findery.com~~~
The Rolling Stones arrive for a surprise concert in Paris, telegraph.co.uk~~~
Miami Parking Garage, Miami, design Robert Law Weed Architect, photograph by Ezra Stoller, christies.com~~~
William Christie, designer, Baroque Garden~~~
He Xie, 3,200 crabs by Ai Weiwei at the Smithsonian, nytimes.com~~~
Early Edward Scissorhands art by Tim Burton, Museum of Modern Art~~~
The Louvre's new Islamic Wing, photograph by Ed Alcock for The New York Times~~~
Frank Lloyd Wright, photograph by recently deceased, Pedro Guerrero, guerrerophoto.com
INTERESTING OPENINGS…
~In the spirit of art for everyone, here are some of the best virtual exhibits to see during these troubling times when we Boulevardiers are strolling virtual boulevards...~
VIRTUAL ART FOR EVERYONE:
MoMA (NYC)
Who was Félix Fénéon? The first exhibition dedicated to this extraordinarily influential but little-known figure explores how he shaped the development of modernism. A French art critic, editor, publisher, dealer, and collector, Fénéon (1861–1944), he was also one of the first European collectors of art from Africa and Oceania. A fervent anarchist during a period of gaping economic and social disparities, Fénéon believed in the potential of avant-garde art to promote a more harmonious, egalitarian world.
He championed some of history’s most beloved artists before they became well known, including Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Amedeo Modigliani. He became particularly close with Seurat, Signac, and Matisse and coined the term Neo-Impressionism to describe Seurat’s and Signac’s novel use of bright contrasting colors, and pointillism, a dot-by-dot technique, they used to build their landscapes, portraits, and, occasionally, visions of an anarchist utopia. Just as the vivid touches of paint in these works came together to form a cohesive image, so, too, did Fénéon and these artists unify as intellectual partners and close friends to change art history forever.
Venture out to Moma here: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5075
~~~
The Broad
Based in Downtown L.A., this contemporary art museum is hoping to engage with viewers at home through socially distanced conversations, poetry and musical experiences. Their hashtag #TheBroadFromHome is a compilation of exciting digital initiatives dedicated to promoting contemporary art and culture during the lockdown period. In particular, the Infinite Drone series presents a new way of experiencing their artwork through immersive videos of light and sound.
Visit The Broad here: https://www.thebroad.org/art
~~~
The British Museum
The British Museum has recently revamped its online collection to accommodate the fast-growing demand for accessible digital content. Visitors to the website can now enjoy nearly 4.5 million objects from over 2 million records. Cutting-edge zoom technology allows viewers to see objects in unprecedented detail and high-definition images can be examined up-close from a range of digital devices. Among other things, the launch has seen 280,000 new object photographs and 85,000 new object records published for the very first time, including recent acquisitions by Damien Hirst and Rossetti.
Delight in The British Museum collection here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection
~~~
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes: Notes on America’ at PACE Gallery
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes is an online exhibition featuring some of the past century’s most influential photographers and their depictions of American culture at its most challenging and triumphant moments. The show includes works by Richard Avedon, Harry Callahan, William Christenberry, William Eggleston, Robert Frank, Jim Goldberg, Paul Graham, Peter Hujar, Richard Learoyd, Richard Misrach, Trevor Paglen, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, JoAnn Verburg and Carmen Winant.
Explore the collection online here: https://www.pacegallery.com/viewing-rooms/diamonds-soles-her-shoes/
~~~
Louise Bourgeois Drawings at Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth’s digital programme ‘Dispatches’ will run throughout spring and summer, bringing you homemade artist videos and interactive conversations, as well as exclusive exhibitions. A highlight is this 1947–2007 collection by the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, who drew daily throughout her seven-decade career. The show captures her inner psyche through undulating marks in ink, watercolour and pencil.
See the full program here:https://www.vip-hauserwirth.com/louise-bourgeois-works-on-paper/
~~~
The Courtauld Institute of Art
Though closed for major renovations in 2018 (and set to reopen in 2021), the Courtauld Institute of Art has released a visual tour of its collection of iconic works of art. The tour allows you to explore each room of the gallery and zoom in for an intimate view of masterpieces such as Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear or Edouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, taking in the beauty of individual brushstrokes and paint textures.
Explore the gallery here: https://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/about/3d-gallery-virtual-tour
~~~
Latin America from 1950 to 2020’ at the Stephen Friedman Gallery
Over the past 25 years, the Stephen Friedman Gallery has built a reputation for its commitment to artists from Latin America. This specially curated exhibition features works by celebrated historical and mid-career artists from the region, including Juan Araujo, Tonico Lemos Auad, Manuel Espinosa, Gego, Judith Lauand, Beatriz Milhazes, Rivane Neuenschwander, Mira Schendel and Luiz Zerbini.
See the exhibition here: https://www.stephenfriedman.com/viewing-room/2-latin-america-from-1950-to-2020-a-personal/
~~~
Dale Chihuly at Sims Reed Gallery
Sims Reed Gallery presents 29 original prints and 10 original works on paper by the renowned American artist Dale Chihuly. Best known for his glass installations, Chihuly also made drawing integral to his artistic practice, after losing sight in his left eye in 1976. This exhibition seeks to reveal the synthesis of his two key creative disciplines.
The 3D virtual walking tour is available here: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=g2mBHz3G2aJ
~~~
Andy Warhol at Tate Modern
Tate shut its galleries just five days after the opening of the first Warhol exhibition at Tate Modern in almost 20 years. Fortunately, the institution is now releasing a series of films offering audiences the chance to discover Warhol from the comfort of their own homes. Promising a new look at the extraordinary life and work of the Pop Art superstar, the retrospective includes works never seen before in the UK.
The curator-led video tour is available now on Tate Modern’s website: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/andy-warhol/exhibition-guide
~~~
HOT TOPIC~PUBLISHER MUSINGS:
An enlightening exhibit at the illustrious Cooper Hewitt Museum, Willi Smith: Street Couture, on Fifth Avenue and 91st Street (the old Frick mansion), focuses on Willi Smith, a ‘streetwear’ designer in the eighties–and a dear friend who fell to AIDS. The exhibit features Smith’s portrait by Boulevardiers Publisher, Kim Steele. My portrait graces the entrance of the Cooper Hewitt exhibit– modeled after the original site at PS1, where I photographed Smith, for an exhibition titled “Art as Damaged Goods.” The current exhibition is suspended at the moment due to the coronavirus.
~~~
Hudson Yards
Much hoopla has been published about the ‘largest urban development project in US history.’ But it has been predominantly negative. Hudson Yards is overrun with Super stores like Balenciaga and Hermes, and criticism over ‘public space’ [air] waste above the turn around yards from Penn Station.
The Shed’s wheels are forty feet high, that use the tracks to reveal its roof, and cover an expansive outdoor venue for top flight mainstream performances. Within the West Side Rail Yard of 28 acres, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with others, The Shed is made of steel, and a translucent Texlon-based polymer, which rolls out to form McCourt Plaza. Co–designer David Rockwell stated, “the mark of a good design is that that it survives reality.” (Credit: Pilar Viladas) “Meh” – I say. In a place of white-boxed galleries and glass stores, it is not embracing and certainly not a novel use of urban development-same old stuff. It’s our contemporaneous Atlantis.
~~~
ICE, photograph by Henry Wessel, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York
As a shooter of film for forty years, it has been a struggle to grasp the impact of the digital age and the Internet on of the status of photography in our world. The act of shooting has become an indulgent, social event.
Henry Wessel, sadly recently deceased in California, was a profound photographer, mentor, professor and thinker on photography, especially on the American West.
“Pressing the shutter is saying yes to the world.’” One of his most poignant quotations which set me back; upon arriving at LAX, he commented on the light intensity, “it looked like you could lean against it.” He was honored by many museum exhibitions from Szarkowski’s at Moma, to Eastman House, to Cologne. He was instrumental in the photo program at the San Francisco Institute, joining its faculty in 1973.
Lee Friedlander called him the “Photo Buddha.” I could mention Walker Evens or Cartier Bresson as his inspiration, but he embarked further into the ordinary terrain of life. This plots a direct collusion with Instagram and Facebook imaging. He was concerned about the proliferation of pictures and it’s deterioration of the import of the photograph.
“People don’t pay much attention these days to the descriptive, expressive and suggestive facts found in a good still photograph.
“The process of photographing is a pleasure: eyes open, receptive, sensing, and at some point connecting. It’s thrilling to be outside your mind, your eyes far ahead of your thoughts.”
That’s picture taking.
I cannot help to be critically drawn to the narcissistic nature of people’s images – selfies, food, pets and fronting famous objects. Nothing to do with image making but all about themselves. Sadly that is our future.
BEAUTIFUL BOULEVARDIERS BOARDS ON PINTEREST:
MUSINGS continued…
Faire du Lèche-VitrinesWe have celebrated The Boulevardiers raison de’tre for many years now, founded on the French pre-occupation of strolling and window gazing in Paris, and London, and Rome. This Publisher was struck by a newly found term, "Faire du Lèche-Vitrines," which is crudely translated as “window licking.” Now knowing the decorum of the French, I am convinced that they would not apply this term to their promenading in the trendy section, the Marais, of Paris, which is the center of all that is cool, hip and expensive. The original center of Paris, built in the 13th century by the Knights Templar, much has remained, avoiding destruction by City decree in 1964. The Boulevardiers strolled through this section last summer on the way to L’Orangrie and gazed covetously at the many shops, bakeries and patisseries... and could very well appreciate this phrase.
~~~
The FlâneuseGuest Musing from The Boulevardiers "Muse" Sally Steele:
Never let it be said that the Boulevardiers don't celebrate all who wander in search of inspiration, or in daily observation. A recently published book, The Flâneuse, is a lively tome focusing on the French flâneuse, the feminine of flâneur: defined as a woman who is or who behaves like a flaneur; who is defined as an idle man-about-town.
Author Lauren Elkin: "The portraits I paint here attest that the flâneuse is not merely a female flâneur, but a figure to be reckoned with, and inspired by, all on her own…She is a determined, resourceful individual keenly attuned to the creative potential of the city, and the liberating possibilities of a good walk."
For some time, I have been lamenting whilst walking my town, enviously observing the abundance of hipster bistros and coffee bars populated all day and into the evening by those lucky enough to grab the time to simply sit and watch the world go by. But how oh so boring that would be!
Recently perusing the tales of Diego, the sire of Galapagos tortoises, I smiled having "met" Diego in the Galapagos several years ago. And when reading about the rich arts scene in Milan, funded mostly via the largesse of the fashion houses, my head was full of images of days spent wandering there, not so long ago. As I poured over my travel photos I saw Los Angeles, Lima, and Santiago; New York, Maui and Athens; Venice, Istanbul, and Marseilles; Cannes, Sydney, and Tokyo, and so many more. I walked for miles in for London, from my favorite museum, The V&A, to Harrod's, to the trendy parts of town with all the big name galleries. Ditto for New York. And Rome, major renovations to ancient and Renaissance sites currently underway, again due to the largesse of the world's fashion leaders. And oh, Paris, strolling in the Tuileries in the drizzle after a glorious morning spent at l'Orangerie. Then there were some standout strolls on La Croisette amidst the excitement of the awards season. I live a fanciful life!
I'm lucky enough to be partner to the ultimate flâneur, who has so graciously guided me into becoming a full-fledged flâneuse.
Here's to women everywhere, and to living a life that takes the good walk, and turns it into the truly great walk.
~~~
Flanerie SeasonThe raking light of fall brings out the Flaneur in me, the season of Flanerie. Elaine Sciolino reminds us of the first establishment of this pastime in literature, “Tableau de Paris,” a twelve volume set of observations the gestalt the of ‘street’ in Paris. Half a century later, this sites’ figurehead, Charles Baudelaire, demarked the ‘wander-spectator’ activity as flaneur. “The crowd is his habitat, as is air for the bird or water for the fish” he quoted.
This activity is so important to the French, that Hermes created a pop-up museum on the left bank to honor its significance. The artistic director of the project, Pierre-Alexis Dumas also created an illustrated book on the subject. It’s a small single room structure with four window displays, including from the collection of a past president, Emile Hermes.
To observe yes, to interact no. The sounds, the smells and the visual jewels glistening in the shop windows- draws us to the streets of Paris, or London or our favorite ville, Roma. And of course, the most animated of them all – the people who stroll and sit and observe in the cafes, not the harried New Yorkers who are irritated by strollers in their path. Years ago, I proposed a story for Life Magazine, on the important promenades of the world, but to no avail. Sadly, it is not an American occupation.
~~~
On every trip to NY, I visit one of my favorite urban spaces, The Grand Central Oyster Bar. Between my passion for oysters and my adoration for Guastavino's tile craft, this is my ideal spot. We traveled to 103rd Street this last trip to enjoy a beautifully illustrated and informative exhibition at The Museum of New York, of his sumptuous tilework throughout New York employed by McKim, Mead and White, and NY City (including the recently uncovered bottom to the Queensborough Bridge, now a Farmer's Market).
Guastavino tile is the "Tile Arch System" patented in the United States in 1885 by Valencian (Spanish) architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). Guastavino vaulting is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar to form a thin skin, with the tiles following the curve of the roof as opposed to horizontally (corbelling), or perpendicular to the curve (as in Roman vaulting). This is known as timbrel vaulting, because of supposed likeness to the skin of a timbrel or tambourine. It is also called "Catalan vaulting" and "compression-only thin-tile vaulting".
Guastavino tile is found in some of New York’s most prominent Beaux-Arts landmarks and in major buildings across the United States.
~~~
