Vladimir Kagan's Blog

The Quiet Season

Nantucket in the Quiet Season

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, November 27, 2014

 

 

 

This is Thanksgiving weekend. In years past, I shared our hilarious Thanksgiving festivities. This time I want to share the quiet season; the pleasure of seeing leaves floating in puddles, the thrill of seeing trees devoid of their foliage, showing off a filigree of branches and twigs.

“A Walk in The Woods” was one of my favorite books about the author’s trek of the entire Appalachian Trail - all 2,000 miles of it! For me a half- mile walk through Nantucket’s moors and grasslands is an unbelievable treasure. It is a quiet, serene experience. There is no longer fall’s vivid display of colors. Instead you see the majesty of barren trees, berry-laden bushes and golden grasses swaying like waves in the sea. Leaves die quietly on country roads turning from burnished reds and gold to mellow shades of taupe. Once flaunting brilliant colors, they are now shrived in size and reveal their delicate veins. You must look down at the ground to see the last leaves plastered onto the wet pavement or blowing past your feet by a burst of wind.

     

 

The landscape is transformed into a panorama of muted colors against a gray sky. Threatening clouds whisk across the somber heaven. I am in love with this time of year; it has its own special beauty. A tree that once bore leaves and berries has long since died; its barren stems become a sculptors dream. Dressed in shades of grey with white trimmed windows, the distant town lies quietly on the horizon, only the white church steeples reach above the roofs.

 

Fall in my garden has its own time schedule. First to drop are the leaves of the wild cherry and crabapple trees. The rose bushes have long ago shed theirs. Last is my Japanese maple, it holds on to its foliage through wind and cold, but overnight, like the strike of a conductor’s baton, all leaves drop to the ground and turn the muddied earth into a red carpet. These too soon drift away.

 

In other years a little snow had fallen to put a finishing touch on this idyllic scene. This year our temperate weather has eluded it. It will come sooner or later after I have left the Island. We have rain instead, lots of it - with blustery winds gusting to fifty, canceling all plane and ferries. We are once again an Island thirty miles out at sea, separated from the mainland by an angry ocean. Darkness descends early from the rain-filled sky casting a somber visage to my fall’s idylls. But even that has its allure. After all, what can be better than roasting chestnuts over glowing embers in the fireplace?

 

Me on a walk in the woods

My son Illya painted this picture of the same scenes in the fall

 

And finally, my friend Betsey, who encouraged me to walk every day and patiently carried my sit-stick for me to rest on when I got exhausted.

 

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I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving

The Salon Art & Design Fair - a review

THE SALON ART + DESIGN

At New York’s Park Avenue Armory

Copyright Vladimir Kagan November 18, 2014

 

 

The Salon + Design Fair at New York’s elegant Park Avenue Armory is the premium show of its kind. It is a concentration of 20^th Century and contemporary art and designs, an exhibit assembled by Sanford Smith, the dean of impresarios for modern art exhibits. It was an inspiring show that featured 50 galleries from nine countries.

 

 Unlike next month’s Art Basel Miami, which will be a sprawling exhibit spreading over thousands of feet in Miami’s Convention center and will overflow into off-premise spaces in every nook and cranny, Salon was a tightly vetted fair like its sister, The Paris Biennale which brings together a handpicked collection of galleries from Europe and the United States. I was privileged to be invited to the elegant opening of the show and my good friend Ashlee Harrison, who was managing the public relations, arranged for a limo to pick me up.

 

As so my many friends at the show wanted to know what I liked, these were my favorite finds:

 

Joseph Walsh was in my opinion, the most creative artist in the show. He creates furniture out of thin air. He swooshes quick light images and captures them in solid form. This creative craftsman is all of 35 years old, self-taught, living and working in Dublin. He is modest and self-effacing.. His work defied convention as his shapes explore the fluidity of bent laminations. He magically transforms rigid materials into fluid forms that are reminiscent of soft flowing seaweed as it undulates back and forth in a tidal sweep… ”Joseph, you are a genius”

 

Joseph Walsh's Luminoria 1 table at Todd Merrill Gallery - N.Y.

Joseph Walsh and me at the Amory opening

 

My friend, Zaha Hadid is always ready to surprise and enchant us. This time she has designed a lyrical acrylic iceberg table that refracts light into myriad shadows. The limited edition was instantly sold out…“Love your work Zaha”

 

Zaha Hadid's Liquid Glacial Table was the hit of the show at David Gill Gallery - London

 

Another of my all time favorites is Sebastian Errazuriz.  His uncanny sense of humor always tickles the imagination; from a nude image of him in a casket, to cabinets that hold nothing, to poignant paintings whose messages hits you square between the eyes. This time he treated us to Venus DeMilo encapsulated in a latticework bookcase….”What next Sebastian?”

 

Sebastian Errazuriz's Venus Caged at the Salon 94 - N.Y.

 

 

You probably know, I love birds. I found these two bronze specimens in separate galleries. Were I in the market for some sculpture, these certainly would be on my wish list.

Peacocks in bronze (I neglected to get the artist's name)  Galerie Dutko - Paris

 

Pelican in bronze by Daniel Daviau - Galerie Dumonteil - Paris - Shanghai - N.Y.

 

 

Wendell Castle is a whiz with wood. Back in 1980 he surprised us all with a collection of non-functional furniture. Simple everyday items of clothing and utilities found in our homes and reinterpreted in delicately carved wood. The delicate table with a red tablecloth is one of a series of Trompe l’oel creations that he made for his exhibit at the Burchfield Penney Art Center…“Wendell, you are my hero”

 

Carved Table with Cloth by Wendell Castle at Lillian Nassau Gallery - N.Y.

 

 

The bronze furniture designed by Ingrid Donat was quite amazing, incorporating robust mechanical elements that delighted and intrigued the audience. I had admired her designs some years earlier at a Design Miami show. Ingrid happens to be the mother of Julian Lombard, who is the co-founder of the Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

 

  

A bronze chest of drawers reminiscent of an ancient treaure chest by Ingrid Donat at Carpenters Workshop Gallery -Paris - London

 

 

Ingrid Donat on the left with  my friend Elle Lake-Ewald and me.

 

 

And then I found surprises in beautifully crafted tables, sculpture, and a number of fifties and earlier designs that are lasting examples of modernism in the 20^th Century.

 
A card table by Eugene Printz Walnut and oxidized brass gaming table 1930 -  Galerie Marcilhac - Paris

 

Africa Mask by Dan-Bassa - Lucas Ratton Gallery - Paris

 

A wrought Iron table by Albert Paley 1944 - Lilian Nassau Gallery - N.Y.

Bianco by Agostino Bonalumi 1981 a Milanese sculptor at Robilant + Voena Gallery - Milano/London 

 

 

A giant jack "Balance" delicately balances on one point and becomes animated when touched or agitated by a breeze. Israeli sculptor Iftah Geva - Geva Goldner Gallery - Israel

 

A classic Rieetvelt chair in mint condition at Galerie UlrichFledler - Berlin

I have often been asked, “What inspired you to design your early furniture?” I never had a ready answer. In retrospect, it might have been this classic leather and teak chair by Denmark’s Finn Juhl. It was truly one of my early inspirations.

 

Finn Juhl's iconic arm chair that was one of my early isnpirations - Hostler Burrows Gallery - N.Y.

 

 

 I found a pair of exquisitely restored freeform sofas that could easily have been attributed to me, but were created by an unknown Italian craftsman back in the 50’s.- Bernd Goeckler’s Gallery - N.Y.

 

 

Unfortunately the show closed on Monday night… I was too late in getting this article out to you… Look for it next year… same time – same location.

 

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P.S.

I have often expressed my dislike of modern art as contrived, meaningless, sensationalism and for me, lacking the alure of art. But admittedly, it is all in the eyes of the observer... what is one persons million dollar choice is anothers worthless trash.

This painting by Jean-Michel  Basquiat was quoted at over five million - I offered the gallery owner $50, and I am not even sure if I would actually hang it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A catastrophic water scenario

Water, Water Everywhere but Not a Drop To Drink!

Rejoinder: Where is the Water Going?

Reality – water is disappearing

 

Copyright Vladimir Kagan – November 8, 2014

 

Though the earth is mostly covered with water, less than three percent of this is fresh and most of this is now contaminated.

It’s the most valuable commodity in the world.

It’s the most undervalued commodity in the world,

This brings us to a catastrophic water scenario!

 

Water waster - you and me flusing our toilets

We watch torrents of water flow down rivers and empty into the sea… We brush our teeth twice a day with water gushing from the tap down the drain… Old toilets use up to seven gallons with each flush (water savers use 1.5!)… I love luxuriating in a hot bath … over 35 gallons whirlpool down the drain. My lawn sprinklers wastes hundreds of gallons each summer… The neighborhood car wash gulps hundreds of gallons per day.

 

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water waster you and me brushing our teeth with running water

 

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water waster me luxuriating in a hot bath

 

 

BUT…all this is just a drop in the bucket!

 

The real culprit is industry waste and industrial farming: Yes, I said farming.   Farmers are huge consumers of water… Some of the biggest farms are in the desert. Fruits and vegetables grow well there. These farms sit on millions of gallons of water in their underground watersheds… Abundant water and unlimited sunshine make desert farming ideal. The problem is that these watersheds are being drained by wasteful irrigation.

 

water waster a desert lemon grove running their water down an irrigation ditch

 

Ten years ago, my son-in-law, Matt opted to leave the profitable world of hedge funds and set out to save the world’s water! He is Don Quixote jousting at windmills. The hue and cry then was: “Yes, water is important, but hey there’s a lot of it”… (If you want to invest in commodities, go for gas, oil)… But the fact is: the world is running out of that good stuff. There’s no digging for it or praying for it. Gone is gone.

  

My son-in-law, Matt Diserio, as Don Quixote saving the world's water one drop at a time

There are huge reservoirs of water under the ground; farmers are sitting on millions of gallons in their aquifers. When properly used, it can benefit the farmer and the municipality…. And that is where Matt excels. How does a water-based company become one of the largest farm owners in the land? He partners with huge farms and installs efficient irrigation, which save millions of gallons of water to sell to municipalities… It’s a win-win situation. The farmer has a new cash crop; the city dweller can enjoy water as long as he turns the tap off wisely.

Industrial Pollution is also a culprit: industries use freshwater to carry away waste from their plants into rivers, lakes,aquifers and oceans. Hydraulic Fracking for oil uses million of gallons and in the process contaminate thousands of acres of land. Paper mills, mining, tanning, textiles, and the automotive industry poison millions of gallons.

 

water waster industrial waste such as power plants

A water utility in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is running out of water. It is astounding that Latin America’s biggest metropolis, the ninth largest city in the world, may be out of water by next month! The water left in its Cantareira reservoir, a four-lake complex that supplies half of Sao Paulo has already been drained of 96% of its water capacity! Sao Paulo metropolitan area could suffer “unprecedented collapse” if it doesn’t rain hard and soon…

 

You don’t have to go to South America to feel the pain. If you live in California, you know you can run out of the good stuff.

 

Matt’s water business, Water Asset Management, has him involved in all facets of water: the pipes that transport it; the reservoirs that store it – desalination that converts it – to irrigation and generation. One of their properties is deep in the Ruby Mountains; the plan is to build a storage dam on top, pump water up with solar and release the water through turbines to generate electricity when needed.

 

Since founding Water Asset Management (WAM), Matt and his partners have been writing and speaking about the role that private capital and full cost pricing is playing in the water industry.  While water is one of the world’s largest industries consuming nearly $400 billion per year, its local nature and historical dependence on unsustainable government subsidization has made it one of the most inefficient industries in the world. To improve efficiency, and solve water supply and water quality problems Matt’s company, WAM, advocates tiered volumetric pricing. Matt says “Trillions of dollars of investment spending is needed to prevent the shortages in Sao Paulo from happening in L.A., Las Vegas, Beijing, Atlanta, Houston, and the list of global cities goes on and on. Governments have failed at managing their water supply and infrastructure through subsidies.  Without adequate pricing to pay for all operating costs, capital, and future reliable supply, the world faces the risk associated with unsustainably cheap water as a water crisis is now reported almost daily in some parts of the world.”

 

Real world examples dispel the misperception that “water should be free”.