Antonio Gaudi (1984), directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara

We were en route to Central Park to have ourselves a picnic. After a surprise street fair on Madison Avenue which provided the picnic provisions, we continued on for iced coffees, and that's when we spotted it. Antonio Gaudi. Playing at the Paris, right next door to Bergdorf Goodman. A movie about inscrutible Catalonian architect, Antonio Gaudi? Playing at a theater that I thought was reserved strictly for stage plays. This out to be good. We sat in the balcony. In very plush light purple velvet seats. A bit about the Paris from a 2008 New York Times article.

The 586-seat theater is one of the oldest art houses in the United States. Opened by Pathé Cinema in 1948, the Paris started out showing French films (“La Symphonie Pastorale,” which ran for eight months), and it still shows French films, both revivals (“Belle de Jour”) and new ones (“Amélie”). When French films are not available, the theater shows movies that seem French, including the Foreign Films Lite oeuvre of Merchant and Ivory.

If you decide to see this film, which is almost entirely visual, I suggest reading this article first. I was excited to learn more about Gaudi. I have been searching for good books about Gaudi for years. But can't find many that are more than picture books. This movie is similar to that pursuit.

Check out this site for some information (that I would have liked to have been included in the film) about the buildings featured. Scroll down below the photos for the text.

[image from the Curiosity Shoppe]

Here is the latest product from a design site I discovered last month called the Curiosity Shoppe. You know, the Potato Chip Necklace vendor? Yes, that's the one. This time, I found IT'S OK. A handcut wood sculpture by Sighn, available in bamboo, mahogany, or walnut. Limited edition of one million. Measures 2.5" x 3" x .375". The good news is: proceeds from the sales of these pieces go to the Arbor Day Foundation. Every piece plants one tree!

You have to see this ring. It is too amazing not to see.

At a super-fab event I attended earlier last week, I spied Spry, a notable NYC fashion stylist, wearing this super-fab ring, custom-designed for him by Melody Burns for Kiini Ibura Jewelry. The stone: agate. The metal: Brass dipped in gold. The visual impact of a ring that is larger than one's hand? Pretty incredible.

The Branch Chandelier, in a warm golden light shows off the gold-leafed
hand-blown glass teardrops that hang from the bronze-colored branches.


The Branch Chandelier, bathed in a cool light.
Asymmetric and evocative.

A beautiful chandelier makes all the difference in a room. So why do apartments come with the most basic of fixtures with the most fluorescent of bulbs? If I had the guts to do some rewiring, which I don't, I would invest in a chandelier. This one, from ABC Carpet and Home is perhaps a bit out of my price range at $12,000, but is right up my aesthetic alley. The Branch Chandelier, made in Italy. Find it opposite the main entrance on the first floor.


ABC Carpet & Home
888 & 881 Broadway
New York
212.473.3000

Anneke Jakobs, Chiquita Chandelier (and detail), recycled cardboard, 2003
[images: Anneke Jakobs]

Advertising is Good for You is a humorous, well-written, informative blog by Boston-area copywriter and creative director, Paula Zargaj-Reynolds. As of today, it is going on my list of weekly reads. The "Advertising Arts & Crafts" section offers some great examples of post-consumer recycling, like this ballgown by Jamie Kuli McIntosh. I also found the Chiquita Chandelier, pictured above, by Dutch designer and master recycler, Anneke Jakobs. If you would like to make one, the artist has graciously provided a digital how-to manual for you on her Website. As I have an affinity for both bananas and corrugated cardboard, I may just download it. Click on tekst> to access a PDF. For a list of Jakobs' projects, click here.

Masayuki Yoshinaga, Roadrunner ST-01, 1999, C-print

Please excuse the light reflecting off the surface of the photograph.
I love samurai-ness of his pose with his bike, the incredible lines of the bike itself,
and that the subject matter is presented so starkly frank and devoid of context

Before I got into fashion, I studied Japanese art history in college and worked at the Asia Society and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I have a particular fondness for Asian art, and design-wise, I am completely inspired by the minimalist Japanese aesthetic to this day.

So I was excited to attend the Asian Contemporary Art Fair this weekend at Pier 92. It was a great exhibition, with galleries from Japan, China, Korea, India, Indonesia, as well as England, Germany and good old New York. I took a lot of photos of the pieces that struck a chord with me. I wanted share them with you, with gallery links where possible. Note: I will be adding the works gradually tonight and tomorrow. Enjoy!

Ma Jun, Television, 2007, porcelain, from the 'New China Series'
Krampf Gallery, New York

Possibly my favorite piece from the show.
It is incredible how this artist has combined traditional
Chinese ceramics with contemporary electronics.
The extra layer of droll is that this and most televisions
are made in China.


Ma Jun, Television (back), 2007, porcelain, from the 'New China Series'
Krampf Gallery, New York


Ma Jun, Radio, 2007, porcelain, from the 'New China Series'
Krampf Gallery, New York


Long-Bin Chen, Guan Yin Manhattan, 2006, phonebooks
Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York

You may think this sculpture is marble, but amazingly
this Guan Yin (Kannon) is carved out of a Manhattan Phone Book.


Liang Kegang, Buddha, 2007, tea leaves
Beatrice Chang Contemporary Art, New York


3 of 6 shiny Mao's at the entry to the show
I cannot tell you how many versions of Mao there were,
which was right up my alley. Chairman Mao is so graphically pleasing.
In fact there were many pairings of Mao and Marilyn (Monroe), a la Andy Warhol.

Night Presence IV

And I am sorry you did. I didn't, however. I saw the Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) retrospective in all its glory at The Jewish Museum before it closed on September 16. The exhibition was just down the street, 92nd Street, that is, from the permanent installation of Night Presence IV (1972, cor-ten steel) on the green median strip of Park Avenue. Nevelson donated the sculpture as a gift to the City of New York. The original model for this work was included in the retrospective.

I have good news for you. The show will travel to the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco for a brief showing, October 27-January 13. It is a rare opportunity to see so many of Nevelson's pieces under one roof, gathered from private collections and museums around the world. Her works in series have been reassembled as cohesive installations to create a new harmony among the forms. I saw details I never saw before, and understood her work in a new context.

If you are in the neighborhood of 92nd Street and Park Avenue, you must pay a visit to Night Presence IV, and then take trip to San Francisco to complete your study on this great sculptor.

If you stand at Noguchi's Cube at 140 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, and look further downtown, you can see this monumental incredible work in orange and steel. I also wanted to show you what really goes on at the base of the sculpture. This touched me. The sculpture is part of the fabric of the street. It is loved.

The hungry tourist is dazed and can only see the Halal cart.
I think he has failed to notice the monumental orange sculpture entirely.
Maybe after he eats, he will regain consciousness.


The Halal cart at the base of the sculpture serves the people.

And the sculpture's leg serves to protect and cradle the doors of the halal cart
as they provide food to the hungry wandering tourists.
A wonderful symbiotic relationship.
You won't see this detail shot in the art books.

Lower Manhattan has a wonderful collection of public sculpture. I remember years ago seeing a Richard Serra somewhere in that neighborhood, and I'll never forget it. This steel Cube by Isamu Noguchi is worth a closer look. You will find it in front of Brown Brothers Harriman at 140 Broadway.

Do you see the relationship between this slatted curved sign
and the building across the street?

I find Midtown East to be particularly inspiring and stimulating. As you know, I love 53rd Street for all the fonts, plazas, public sculpture, and of course, notable architecture. But 54th Street offers just as many stimulating elements, especially with respect to the sculptural architectural details.

Don't forget to look up and look all around you when you walk along 54th. There is a lot of interesting interplay of forms. Buildings right across the street from one another are talking to each other. Don't forget to look, enjoy and listen to what they are saying.



Since I saw the Richard Serra exhibition at MOMA a few weeks ago, I see the push and pull of forms in everything around me. Richard Serra makes sculpture about sculpture. His work is so essential, so boiled down, so compressed, that once you take it in, his work begins to inform everthing around you.

This sculpture is in a public park nestled in between buildings on 54th Street near Madison Avenue. Go take a look.

In my opinion, like 53rd Street, 54th Street is full of visual treasures. Begin at 1st Avenue and walk west. I will be bringing you more of my own observations more about 54th.

I think that most people don't think of 53rd Street as a prime spot for quiet contemplation. But I do. There is something both stirring and calming about that street for me. And when it comes to monumental public art and grand plazas, 53rd Street does provide. I spent a nice time looking at this wonderful Calder stabile from all its interesting angles the other day. I think I might go back today and visit it again.

I think I will call it my birthday sculpture. It was made in the same year I was born.

This could possibly be my most favorite thing ever! (I like hyperbole.) But really, sculptural cacti? Simply beautiful! I will show you lots of pictures and then let your fingers do the clicking. There is a mirrored version too. Why not?

The artist is Eric Carroll. His pieces are available on Unica Home dot com.