Category Archives: Art Monday

ARTmonday: Slim Aarons

While working on a “Palm Beach Primer” for The Inside Source last week, I spotted a photo by Slim Aarons above a  yellow ikat breakfast banqette in a room designed by San Francisco based interior designer Palmer Weiss, who was kind enough to identify it for me. His images are timeless, yet retro groovy. (See if you can spot who must surely be the prototype for Chuck Bass.)

Aarons, who was born in 1916, chronicled “the good life” of the upper classes of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. He approached society portraits, both formal and candid, with the eye of a photojournalist.  His career was built on what he called, “photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.”

Room designed by Palmer Weiss.

Poolside Gossip
A desert house in Palm Springs designed by Richard Neutra for Edgar Kaufman. Lita Baron approaches Nelda Linsk, right, wife of art dealer Joseph Linsk, who is talking to a friend, Helen Dzo Dzo, 1970.

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Family Snapper
Babe Paley by the pool. Her husband, William Paley, is snapping the photographer at their cottage in Round Hill, Jamaica.
Staley Wise Gallery, NYC

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American socialite and Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, the world’s richest woman, reclining by the Lido in Venice, 1958.
Staley Wise Gallery, NYC

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Sundowners
Two bikini-clad holiday makers enjoy a glass of wine outside the Carlton Hotel, Cannes, 1958.

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Rex Reed
Actor and film critic Rex Reed relaxes in a wicker chair on Great Harbour Cay in the Bahamas, 1973.

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Jacqueline Kennedy at an “April in Paris” ball, c. 1959
Staley Wise Gallery, NYC

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Capote at Home
Author Truman Capote relaxes with a book and a cigarette in his cluttered apartment, Brooklyn Heights, New York, c. 1958.

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Guinness Family
Hon. Desmond Guiness in his recently acquired home Lixlip Castle, Co. Kildare, Ireland with his children Marina and Patrick. Holiday Magazine, 1963.

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Beauty and the Beast
Lady Daphne Cameron on a tiger skin rug in the trophy room at socialite Laddie Sanford’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, c. 1959.

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Mara Lane At The Sands
Austrian actress Mara Lane lounging by the pool in a red and white striped bathing costume at the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, 1954.

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Penthouse Pool
Young women by the Canellopoulos penthouse pool, Athens, July 1961.

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Monocled Miss
Renata Boeck enjoying breakfast in bed at the Regency Hotel in New York, 1964.

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Donald Lease
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Lease with their Rolls Royce and two pet dogs outside their home in Palm Beach, Florida, April, 1968.

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Have A Topping Time
Socialite Alice Topping relaxing at a poolside in Palm Beach, 1959.

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Gloria Schiff
Gloria Schiff, the twin sister of Consuelo Crespi, with her pet dog and pet birds at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, 1963.

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Lord Lichfield
British photographer Lord Lichfield holding a Hasselblad camera. On his arm is Marina Lante della Rovere, to the left is Ines Torlonia, and reclining is Signoria Gancia, Porto Ercole, Italy, c. 1970.

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ARTmonday: Polly Apfelbaum

I learned of Polly Apfelbaum when I saw her work hanging in interior designer Amanda Nisbet‘s daughter’s pink bedroom. It’s the framed pink piece affixed to the bookcase, on the right.

I promptly Googled (thankfully the mag supplied the credit) and was rewarded. I LOVE Polly Apfelbaum.  Her work reminds me a bit of another favorite of mine, Beatriz Milhazes. Turns out that fine art publisher Durham Press creates prints of both women’s work. Seeing how MOMA owns Apfelbaum’s work, a print is about as close as I’ll get to ever owning one.

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Blossom, 2000
Dye, Synthetic Velvet
Collection, MOMA, NYC

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Bloomings II, 2005.
Ink on silk/rayon velvet
Angles Gallery, Santa Monica

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Funkytown (detail), 2005-09
Dye, Synthetic Velvet
Group Show: “Painting and its Environs” , Palacio de Sastago, Zaragoza Spain

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Love Park V, 2006
Unique multi color woodblock monoprint on Hiromi Handmade DHM-11 Triple Thick
Frith Street Gallery, London

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Dogwood Park 4, 2009
monoprint on Hiromi handmade Kozo triple thick paper, published by Durham Press
Locks Gallery, Philadelphia

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Rainbow Park I, 2006
Unique multi color woodblock monoprint on Hiromi Handmade DHM-11 Triple Thick Paper
Frith Street Gallery, London

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Color Field Notes – Orange, 2009
One of Eight Woodblock Prints in Color Field Notes
Paper: Osamu Triple Thick Edition: 43
Durham Press

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For Alice, 2003
Paint and Glitter on Building
The 2nd Valencia Beinnial, “The Ideal City”, Valencia, Spain

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Spooky Love #4, 2003
Large format Polaroid
Angles Gallery, Santa Monica

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Today I Love Everybody, 2004
Dye, Synthetic Velvet
Group Show: “Optima” The Ballroom, Marfa, Texas

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Las Vegas Room (detail), 2009
Synthetic Sequined Fabric
Solo Show: “Anything Can Happen In A Horse Race” Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK

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Wallflowers (Purity), 1990
Wire, paper, glitter, tacks, pencil
Galerie Nachst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwalder, Vienna, Austria

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Wave Park
Durham Press

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Little Dogwood 33, 2009
Multi-color Woodblock Monoprint
Paper: Hiromi Handmade DHM-11 Triple Thick
Durham Press

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Inked blocks for a Polly Apfelbaum print at Durham Press


A Polly Apfelbaum Dogwood print in the press at Durham Press

Durham Press’ blog has a lot of cool images and info on Apfelbaum, Milhazes and other artists.

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ARTmonday: Kathleen Schwartz

I knew my friend Katie took gorgeous pictures of her kids. Their pale cheeks, long mermaid hair, and the idyllic beach and forest settings all added to the images she captured so beautifully. But it’s the quirkier shots that I love, with the girls in their fairy costumes just going about their day, and the interiors from their big old house in Maine, with its high ceilings, tall windows, crystal chandeliers, and sailboat seat. The photo of the yellow living room caught my eye this morning, reminding me of Tina Barney photographs. I started browsing through Katie’s collection and was immediately drawn in.

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ARTmonday: Focus Line Art by Tracy Melton

Last month while browsing Etsy I came across these amazing tree ring encaustic paintings from Focus Line Art by Tracy Melton. I’ve been really interested in wall installations of late, and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try one out. So I promptly purchased several sets (well, after much agonizing over just which sets). They’re amazing. I plan to hang them over my green Twilight Sleep Sofa in my study on the Cape. That is, if I can convince my husband to bang 12 nails into the pristine wall. I will post a pic if I prevail.

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ARTmonday: Tina Barney

I spotted a Tina Barney photo in a room featured in a decorating magazine recently; luckily they provided the credit. I love the atmospheric, more casual than thou, but I’m guessing posed, slice of privileged East Coast life that Barney portrays.

These are the kind of shots that make me feel like, “Well, why can’t I take one of those of my kids at a museum or a friend’s family at their house (and I know just the one)?” Obviously, not so easy, as Barney’s work goes for $20,000-$30,000. Maybe I should grab my camera and try.

Barney also shoots amazing, stylish en scene portraits for The New York Times, so be on the lookout.

The Daughters, 2002

The Graham Cracker Box, 1983

The Brocade Walls, 2003

The Granddaughter, 2004

The Hands, 2002

The Red Sheath, 2001

John’s Den, 1985

Sunday New York Times, 1982

The Young Lady, 2003

Marina’s Room, 1987

Marina and Peter, 1997

The Young Men, 1993

Jill & Polly in the Bathroom, 1987

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