Printed Matter annual art book fair
I visited PS1 this weekend and was amazed by the huge crowd this event draws. It’s great to see so many art books and so many people interested. I didn’t have the time to see everything but didn’t miss Christophe Boutin’s One Star Press booth representing artist Nathan Calder and his bookshelve
One Star Press asks their artists to design a book shelve when their book is published and here is another example from Tobias Rehberger
Other booths I visited included Parkett Art Magazine
I was also amazed at the number of books on the punk area
Furniture by Robert Daniel Gerard, ada Sam Gerard
I live in Rockland County next to the Lamont laboratory and one of my neighbors, Alice Gerard who recently lost her husband wrote a book about his work and their lives. Alice is an archeologist and an anthropologist. She is also the area’s historian. While visiting her I noticed some beautiful pieces of lighting and furniture and learned that her husband Sam had built them in the 60’s and 70’s.
Alice grew up in Palisades and went back to settle there after her marriage to Sam. They had met at the university of New Mexico where Sam studied sculpture among other things. In 1955, after a first job on the Vema , Lamont’s new oceanographic ship which took him on a cruise to the Azores, Casablanca and Portugal Sam started a 37 years career at Lamont Observatory. He worked on a series of scientific projects related to the ocean and invented a number of instruments to further research in that field. He was at sea often on the Vema and other boats, travelling as far as Argentina and Africa.
In the early 60’s when the old teak decking on the Vema was replaced with steel Sam ended up with a lot of teak which he used to make lamps and tables. A boom was used to anchor the staircase in the house he, his wife and father in law had recently built.
The chandelier is reminiscent of work by Franco Albini for Fontana Arte from the 1960’s. It is about transparency. The wall lamp with a ceramic shade by a famous local artist is from the 70’s so are the chair, coffee table and other lamps.
Listening to Santiago Calatrava
Listening to Santiago Calatrava
I was glad to go back to the 92nd Street Y’s Design Legends series and attend the talk by Santiago Calatrava interviewed by Paul Goldberger . Read his very good article in the New Yorker
Santiago Calatrava enthusiastically presented his work starting from his studies of the human body in drawings and sculptures to his architectural and engineering achievements: towers like turning torsos, train stations and hubs with opening roofs, bridges that extend into the skies like arms and theaters that reflect into the water.
Most of his work consists of building infrastructure therefore they are very long term projects and many things can happen along the way: major crisis, changes etc. Therefore he reminded me that one needs to strongly believe in its profession to stay in it and make things happen.
I like a lot his sculptures shown at the Met, and his furniture I have seen like this anthropomorphic table.
Calatrava recently re-settled in New York and worked on set designs for the New York City Ballet. The auditorium at the Y was full and people were excited about his upcoming work in New York and especially at Ground Zero. It felt that the era of heroic works had come back to the city.
Interview with Sarah Raymond, Decorator NY
VG: When did you start your career as an interior decorator?
S.R: I feel like I have always been in design. When I arrived from France I studied interior design at FIT and started working immediately after for Sarah Tomerlin Lee. who was in her time editor-in –chief of House Beautiful and worked in fashion. She took over her husband’s business Tom Lee, a successful interior designer, when he died in a car accident. She is famous for her work as the interior designer of the Helmsley Palace and the Parker Meridien hotel in New York among many others. Then and when the business was later acquired by Beyer Blinder Belle. I worked on an number of hotel and commercial projects. Later at BBGM I designed interiors for major Casino & hotels in Atlantic City and Las Vegas .
Schedule was very demanding and by 2000 I was ready to start my own company and work on residential projects. After a stunt at renowned firm McMillan Interiors I opened my own design studio.
VG: Tell me about your current projects:
S.R: The projects are very mixed, I would say more modern than classic but I like the mix of styles.
VG: What stands out in your work?
S.R: I’d say the extensive use of color because color can solve a lot of problems with space, for example a narrow corridor leading to a large room. I will mix paint, wallpapers, mirrors, several fabrics to have texture and break the dullness of a space or enhance it. I will bring in artists who can create custom finishes for the project. I also pay a lot of attention to window treatment looking for solutions out of the ordinary. For example I recently used leather straps which at first horrified the client but when they saw it in place they loved it.
In terms of furniture my taste is very eclectic and I like to mix modern with 16th century Spanish furniture for example. I like to propose using artist furniture because it interests my clients. For them it is like collecting art, they enjoy discovering artists like Eric Schmitt http://www.valeriegoodmangallery.com/signature/eric-schmitt/ or Christian Liaigre although he is now quite well known. I ask them to not only look at Architectural Digest US but to also buy the French and the Italian editions to broaden their knowledge of design.
Marc Newson at the 92 Y
Two blocks away from my gallery is the 92nd street Y and Thursday night was the 1st of theirDialogues with Design Legends series curated by Daniella Ohad Smith.
I was eager to go and listen to Marc Newson interviewed by Alice Rawsthorn of the International Herald Tribune because he has made such a mark in so many industries from a piece of luggage for Samsonite, to spaceships for EADS, cars, furniture, jewelry to name a few. Marc Newson just opened his new exhibition “Transport” at the Gagosian Gallery.
It was interesting to learn about his approach to design, his way of thinking about his work. He grew up in Australia interested in making things and started his education with sculpture and jewelry design because they were the only classes that were practical and not just theoretical. His first creation that launched his career was the Lockheed lounge in 1986 made out of small pieces of aluminum soldered like an old aircraft hence the name. It looks great but the soldering is not intentional, he just did the piece with the technical knowledge he had at the time and through this project he learned how to do the next one. What drives him is that each piece he makes helps to expand his knowledge and solve a problem. By 1992 when he designed his Event horizon table his range with aluminum had expanded tremendously.
He is not a collector, doesn’t have emotional attachment to his work but on the other hand it is important to him that his pieces are collected, kept for a lifetime by their owners because he has managed to create something beautiful, groundbreaking, well made etc.
He wants to be recognized as a groundbreaking design talent and he welcomes challenges of very large corporations coming to him to solve a problem they, with all their means and talents haven’t been able to figure out. He worked 6 years on a project for Qantas, he designed a car concept for Ford, a spaceship for space tourism, aircrafts and many other objects. He is the choice of any luxury brand looking to make a statement in their industry from Boucheron jewelry to Riva boats, Ikepod watches etc. When he speaks about his projects you feel his excitement, he points to a number of aspects that went into the concept and production of the piece. He sees each of his opportunities to design as a dream come true, he starts from what he hates about existing products in the industry and thinks of how to make it great, from the form to every detail of its production.
Artist or designer? He doesn’t consider himself one or the other, he hates boundaries and if a gallery like Kreo or Gagosian offer him the possibility of creating a concept or a very limited edition he is happy being an artist on the other hand if a corporation sells thousands of his products he is happy being a designer. The objects take a life of their own; what’s important is to keep producing new concepts and one approach helps the other.
His body of work is enormous and his pieces sell for several million dollars at auction. What I find incredible is that he can make something beautiful for anyone. I love his Fractal Necklace for Boucheron inspired by the Julia set, a fractal whose formula was created by the French mathematician Gaston Julia (1893-1978), it is breathtaking piece with its 2,000 stones which took the craftspeople 1,500 hours to complete
