Vladimir Kagan's Blog

Architecture RevisIted

In Search of Meaningful Architecture in New York

My Christmas present to all of my fans - wishing you a happy New Year!

Copyright Vladimir Kagan December 20, 2014

 

Four years ago I scoured New York in search of architectural satisfaction and could only find relics of a glorious past. Nothing in modern spoke to me nothing was visually gratifying. * This year I gave it another whirl, really determined to find redemption in modern. The exercise turned out to be feeble but all is not lost.

 

 

 

*See my Blog   A Tour through New York Streets July 8,2010

 

*For a more jaundiced review on the subject, read the New York Times’ recent editorial

How to Rebuild Architecture

By STEVEN BINGLER and MARTIN C. PEDERSEN DEC. 15, 2014

 

 

This is my review of some of the city’s newest and sometimes not so new buildings, some that appeal to me - others that don’t. (In Nantucket it was a walk through the Moors). In New York it’s whatever I could see from the passenger seat of my car - a worm’s eye view of the city.

This, in opinion,  is still one of New York's greatest - The Empire State Building construction started in 1929

 

Big spaces do not necessarily produce great works. The Freedom Tower (It has been renamed 1 World Trade) is tall and impressive. After much political back and forth- and the ineptitude of getting the project going, the design was finally watered down and Daniel Liebeskind’s original concept was redesigned by David Childs of the architecture juggernaut SOM. Conde Naste became the first tenant to move into the building in November 

(Tall towers scare me… they are too nice a target for mischief). The building is located at the far end of the Freedom Park. Its architectural statement has set the tone for the latest craze in modern architecture: Create a tall rectangular box,  then take a substantial diagonal karate-chop off it, - more than one is even better. And there you have the latest genre in 21^st Century Architecture. This has already set the trend for a number of new wannabes in the city.

 

The transportation hub was to be a monument of gracious architecture. Santiago Calvatava, the most imaginative architect that Spain has produced in recent years, took an open site and gave us a beautiful vision of a white dove in flight. The Port Authority bought the idea and made it the most expensive train station ever built; over $4 billion dollars! However, this glorious structure is buried amongst tall, inconsequential buildings virtually hidden from view.

 

Downtown Manhattan:  Enterprising real estate developers did not wait for the Freedom Tower to rise. They turned it into a residential neighborhood Downtown is now called "fidi" by the kids. The banks have all but moved elsewhere and Wall Street is more of a tourist stop then a place of serious business. Hundreds of buildings both residential and office have gone up since 9/11. The blighted neighborhood rapidly rebounded. Bravo for the entrepreneurs who had envisioned the future. But as my friend Ele said, “It’s like a bowl of M&Ms you don’t know which one to eat first.” – inconsequential architecture defines the neighborhood.

 
The new Karate chop wannabees

Cruisn' down the FDR Eastriver drive to the portal of Brooklyn:

and now we cross into Brooklyn on the venerable Brooklyn Bridge

 

Brooklyn's new skyline - driving up Flatbush Avenue

The new Barclay Center, a marvel of technology but short on aesthetics

Driving over the magnificent Brooklyn Bridge you come upon the new Barclay’s Sports Center; Barclays was designed by SHoP architects- 5 young kids with big ideas. They make their work about understanding the capabilities if technology - how 3d software in the computer can streamline physically making a building. Barclays could not have been made without a computer. Fascinating as it may be, it reminds me of a huge rust bucket, that’s what Cor-Ten steel does: it rusts. Non-the-less it makes an impressive statement as we drove up Flatbush Avenue and marveled at the rapid change in that Borough.

 

Much of my architectural journey followed the East River Drive, a beautiful way to ogle at the city. The NYU Hospital complex on the East River is a potpourri of elegant glass towers presumably well suited to their given purpose. One is hardly distinguishable from the other; glass towers with donor’s names in two-foot letter over the entrance doors, but because of crowded space, the buildings are barely distinguishable one from the other.

Every architect's favorite gimmick: use lots of mirror to reflect the other buildings often camouflaging their own creations


This is my hidden architectural treasure temporarily exposed by the big dig where once stood the Con-Ed Powerplant.

Ooop, a bird's eye view of Tudor City - we drove by too quickly to photo it from the car

There is a huge hole between First Avenue and the River where once stood the mammoth Con-Ed Power plant (long a blight on the neighborhood). The lot has been empty for years and is sprouting an urban forest with trees and grasses. For the time being you can see the heroic Tudor City, built in the 1920s by Fred French as the first high-rise residential complex including a hotel and other amenities. Prior to that the neighborhood was a derelict no-man’s land of hoodlums and squatters. First Avenue was home to dozens of slaughterhouses and the vast Con Ed Power generating plant. My first factory was located opposite this squalor on East 44^th Street. But the neighborhood was soon to change forever with the building of the United Nations. If you slow down long enough, there is one building on Second Avenue that has always fascinated me; a corn-cob rising some thirty or forty floors with a splendid view of the East River all the way up Long Island. This is not a new building… it has been there for at least thirty years. Normally you couldn’t see it obscured by the power plant, but now, for a little while it has its place in the sun.

 

The view from my apartment: lhe latest skyline interruption: 432 Park Avenue - 1,396 feet tall

And here come the wannabees!

New York is the city that never sleeps. But someone was asleep on the switch when they permitted the construction of a monolithic tower standing 1,396 feet tall: taller than the Freedom tower, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, 432 Park Avenue. Rafael Viñoly designed  a 10 x 10 structural grid of concrete. This makes a strong shell and strong core so there are no interior columns – I can’t wait to get my first comission to design one of the interiors!  The building is touted to be the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere. Imagine the joy of living in a hermetically sealed building with a power failure! Don’t be fooled by the address, it is plunked into the middle of the block on 54 Street between Park and Madison Avenue where once stood the gracious but jaded Drake Hotel. Seen from my apartment window or a drive down Park Avenue, or approaching the city from New Jersey or Long Island you are greeted by this singular erection on Viagra. For me It flaunts the last vestiges of New York’s civility. There was a time were when a building in the middle of a block had to conform in height with its neighboring structures. This gave a harmonious silhouette to the street scene. However with clever manipulation of building codes, anything goes. Now that the civility mold has been broken, expect more of these behemoths. The other day, I drove on East 60^th Street between Park and Madison to find a hole in the ground announcing the next super monstrosity. 60th Street is one of New York’s busiest cross streets– the last street feeding into Central Park and 59^th Street – no right turn is permitted on Madison Avenue, it is always chucker-block full with traffic spilling into grid-lock on Park Avenue. Now envision a hundred story residential building with tenants driving in and out of their luxury garage. (Where was the city’s planning board???)

 

A fifties "Wedding Cake" Architecture along Park Avenue

 

As students, we scoffed at the proliferation of the post-war wedding cake architecture, mostly built in white glazed brick. The Genre was virtually owned by Emory Roth and Sons – Architect. These building sprouted up all over New York – East Side and West side. - In retrospect they weren’t all bad. Designed to meet strict building codes for air and sunlight; the many setbacks provided terraces and penthouses for dozens of tenants. And yes, sunlight did filter down to the street. The windows were bad and often leaking, the ceilings were low, the little square parquet floors were rather heinous. Air conditioning often came as an afterthought and these buildings now sprout hundreds of dripping units. Still, they respected the building code for height. Cunning builders sometimes squeeze another floor out by dipping the lobby entrance below street level. However, none of these buildings towered above the others.      

 

Redemption: Today, some the most pleasing architecture are those buildings that have been shoehorned into tiny spaces. Where once stood a modest brownstone between two apartment buildings, new low-rise building have been neatly inserted into their place - decent modern without despoiling the neighborhood.

           

                                                  

Not all great buildings are residential - here are a few others that I really like


A storage facility in the Bronx - a renovated warehouse downtown NY

I can't reist the "old" - I guess that I am a nostalgic octeneratian after all

A wacky relic of the good old days

The last vestige of civility at the Battery - the old sailors home and church

How did this one get left behind in 2nd Avenue?

Is this cheating? I do love the marriage of these two Metropolitan Museum building under one glass roof

 

 

New York may be the city that never sleeps… it’s certainly true of its architecture - More and Upward!

 

 EPILOG

New York is not an easy place to be an architectural trendsetter. Her are five Architects and their buildings that have filled the bill:

 

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Seagram building 1957 was a trendsetter; build in Bronze, clean, monolithic and monumental. Asked why Bronze, Mr. van der Rohe replied “Because I like it!”

 

In 1952 The Lever House by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owing & Merrill started the glass trend. It sits airily on a square block on Park Avenue. Mercifully it is Land Marked and protected from greedy development.

 

Frank Lloyd Wright defied the skyscraper and gave us the poet Guggenheim Museum in 1959. I was proud to have met Wright during that period. He was much defiled by his contemporaries for degrading 5^th Avenue.

 

The TWA terminal by Eero Saarinen, 1962 is one of my favorite building in NYC. I would fly TWA whenever I could just to pay homage to this lyrical, totally impractical masterpiece. (Saved by Landmark designation)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I am hard pressed to find any new candidates for this short list! (No wonder Mid-Century design holds us in such awe today!)

 

Memories

 

 

Three Years Ago Today

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, December 13, 2014

 

Erica Wilson as we've all got to know her with her cowboy hat and feather! 

 

This is my daily reminder of  Erica. Her hat and the Erica Chaise in my bedroom

 

Three yeas is a lifetime – Three years is within living memory – Three years is a life changer –  It was three years ago that my darling wife Erica left me.

 

Life has its cruel ways: here today and gone tomorrow, not planned, just plucked out of my life. Even as I was holding her hand, still warm and blood coursing through her veins she was gone. I held on for twelve hours not believing the enormity – the life changing moment. Three years to this day, my life changed forever. I was cast adrift as her spirit soared into the heavens and I was left holding a cold hand. This was not the script I had written for myself. It is traditional that the wife outlives the husband.

It was not to be. Life is a gamble and God deals a wicked card. You are expected to accept and carry on. You are not alone – that is of little comfort.  But God also doles out an opiate that lets you survive. It is buried in memories, in flashbacks, good times dominate –others diminish. I was not perfect but she was. What lingers in the mind is the harmony we enjoyed for fifty-five years. Me, the scrooge who loved to kill Christmas and she, who lovingly bought presents for one and all, the more was better. Our bedroom became the warehouse for piles of accumulated gifts. Wrapping never happened until the night before Christmas. Scrooge was sucked-up into the process and like Ebenezer, his heart melted and willingly, happily joined into the festivities. This, of all times, is when she left me. The unwrapped presents accumulating in the room and dinner parties to accept and decline. Christmas cards to be written and addressed and now tell the world that I was now alone.

 

She is gone. She left the dining room table filled with ancient family photographs that we were meticulously pasting into photo-albums. Her father, Colonel Wilson in Mesopotamia, little Erica driving a goat car in Bermuda, Major Spragge her stepfather, looking dashing in his uniform as the A.D.C. to the governor of Bermuda – Mummy England, Erica’s elegant mother, looking smashing dressed for a queen’s tea party. And there were photos of little Vladi and his sister Tanya, looking shy and demure as tiny tots in traumatized Nazi Germany. There were photos of my family braving it out in very difficult times. Those albums remained on the table for weeks until we realized the task was more than we could face and so once again they were swept into storage boxes, awaiting a second spurt of nostalgic energy and there was more; two thousand pieces of Erica’s needlework to be sorted, cataloged, appraised and donated to select museums. This is still a work in progress, three years after her death. Erica was amazingly prolific. A quiet plodder who got things done. Sixteen hard cover books, thirty-six television shows shown over the entire English-speaking world by WGBH and the BBC. She wrote a newspaper column called: “Ask Erica” distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate. She designed hundreds of custom needlework projects for her students and clients. She designed the kneelers and vestments for some of the most important churches in America. And she had time to cater to her very demanding husband, we both probably ignored our children, who had to fend for themselves a lot of the time, but at least no weekend went by without a family ski trip or sailing outing.

   

Colonel George Wilson in the first World War and Drorothy "Mummy England" to all

Erica's parents

  

 Erica with her Dad

 

The dashing Major Basel Spraqqe, ADC to the Govenor of Bermuda - Erica's Stepfather

 
And on the other side of the pond, my little sister Tanya and me being very pensive



Annecy and Ondine Kagan the two clones of Erica

Her’s were the days of writing letters in legible monastic handwriting. She never learned to type, the computer was complete anathema. We had stored all her family’s letters in ancient wooden boxes and on visiting storage bins in Europe, we found an equal number of Erica’s letters written to her mother. A perfect subject for the book “Conversations with Mummy”. Erica had always wanted to write a cookbook, of course, heavily laced with needlework illustrations, the title: “Really Dull English Cooking for When you are Pregnant or have the Flu”. These books still await a willing historian to take on the task.

 

Erica's long-hand notes in her inimitable handwriting

 

Drawings from Erica's hundreds of sketch books

It is difficult to carry on in her spirit. She wore big shoes; I’ve found no one to fill them. My children each carry a good slice her genes. Our son Illya inherited her amazing artistic strain. She painted beautifully, so does he. Erica would draw incessantly, as does Illya. They both have an overwhelming love of nature.  Of all of my progenies, Illya’s daughters, blond and slender, most resemble their grandmother. Jessica, the oldest of our children, has inherited Erica’s endless energy and in her career as a jewelry designer and maker, uses so many of the needle work skills that her Mother taught her. She is a devoted embroiderer and often lays aside her blowtorch to pick up a needle and thread. Vanessa worked closely with her mother in her shops and now lovingly runs Erica Wilson Nantucket, one of the Island’s most iconic retail locations. Vanessa carries on her mother’s tradition and teaches needlework classes to small children, guaranteeing a continuation of Erica’s legacy. Vanessa has been blessed with Erica’s caring and compassion. She is the mother hen of the family.

 

Erica, teaching little Jessica to do Crewel embroidery - a lesson that she has never forgotten

Erica teaching boys and girls on the beach in Nantucket
 
Vanessa, following in her Mother's foot steps, teaching a children's needlework class in Nantucket

Kids, horsing around in Vanessa's needlework class at the 1800 House in Nantucket

 

Erica was a marvel, she touches our lives daily. She had a saying for everything and she was stubborn: “You can agree with me or you can be wrong!” She strived to be tidy and admonished us all with ”A place for everything and everything in its place” – she inspired me daily with creative ideas “don’t sit on a table – its bad luck”, so I dutifully designed sofas with wide backs for sitting. She was a pesky; when a bug hit her there was no escape. She was a mosquito buzzing around my head relentlessly until I would finally acquiesce. My Fettuccini chair took ten years to put into production. It was only her persistence that made it happen. She was a frustrated furniture designer and sketched her ideas on paper table clothes, napkins or envelopes and then persisted until I adopted them into my designs. She was the inspiration for so much of what I did.

 

Erica may now be teaching needlework to the angels, but she has left her imprimatur here on Earth!

 

Yes, my darling Erica – I miss you – but you have never gone away.

 

 

Erica and I traveling the world in her ubiquitous straw hat

   

Our happiest moments were those spent together in the Swiss Alps. Why not Nantucket, you might ask... because Nantucket is where we worked while Switzerland is where we vacationed.

 

 

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 fortnight in Europe 

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, October 25, 2014

 

 

The ubiquitous water fountain on Lake Geneva

I love to travel -- hate to fly … but fly I must. To make it more tolerable and assure that I arrive in one piece: luggage, computers, electronic paraphernalia and far, far too much clothing…I need a keeper… This makes it a perks for my kids … how often do you get to bond with your adult children for a fortnight?

 

Jessica and me at the vernissage

This time the lucky straw was drawn by Jessica. Of my three children, she’s the most fun loving and adventuresome, She’s imbued with joie de vivre. No grass grows under her feet. It’s a 24/7 adventure. “Oh Daddy, can’t we do this – go there – buy that??? She inherited her mother’s philosophy: “You can agree with me or you can be wrong!” The formula for happiness with Jessica is simply say YES. With that admonition we packed in a month of travel into ten days.

 

First stop: Geneva

A visit with my sister Tanya for her art show to celebrate the memory of her departed daughter Cathy, who died after a prolonged bout with cancer. The show was a gem. Tanya is an amazing artist; she has a sturdy hand, bold use of color and a wicked sense of humor.

 

Tanya Josefowitz's art show

 

 

The invitation to Tanya's vernissage opening of her show in Geneva's old town

Tanya's portrait of Cathy

         

Dinner with my sister Tanya, after the show

Visiting with Tanya is a continuous food orgy. She loves to cook; she loves to eat; she loves to entertain. Between meals we promised each other to go on a diet... Ha, ha!

A small dinner party at Tanya's house - there were fourteen at the table - some had gotten up when I took this photo

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 A visit to to the Marche au Puce

Jessica does not stand still - Our first outing was to the Marche au Puce. I am obliged to keep up with her. It’s “swim or perish” as she bravely pushes me in a wheelchair. I could have done the show in ten minutes and see nothing that I need or want… Jessica managed to spend three hours and brought home two shopping bags full of “must have – can’t live without” stuff…. This was our warm-up session for saving Europe’s sagging economy.

Where I could find nothing, Jessica found treasures

Some of Jessica's treasures - found in the first five minutes of our stroll

   

The Marche is full of weirdos... I forgot to photograph them all... here is one chomping on a join

 

Second stop: Gstaad

The weather turned from a drizzly fall week into an unexpected sunny summer weekend. The lure of the mountains was irresistible. We extracted ourselves from Tanya’s culinary temptations and drove to Gstaad in the Bernese Oberland. You know how much I adore the mountains and Jessica does too. In two days we packed in a week of eating Fondues, fresh baked croissants, meringue with “berg rahm” and hot chocolate.

 

The route out of Lausanne is breathtaking, driving high above Lake Geneva

 Even the rest stops are magnificent where we stopped for lunch..."A selfie" 

 

...And finally up the twisting mountain road over the Mt. Diablore pass, the highest peak in the region.

 

My feeble attempt at landscape sketching

 

 

Enjoying a hot chocolate with meringue and “berg rahm” at Early Beck, the best bake shop in the area

Paragliding, the big sport in Switzerland - soaring free as a bird

 

Next Paris

On Sunday, we reluctantly drove to Geneva and caught the TGV to Paris arriving in time for a mid-night snack and off to bed… The next morning there was serious shopping to be done by Jessica … (She manages to ferret out every thrift shop in town, no matter how small or hidden) while I met with Julien Lombard, the creative director and co-owner of the Carpenters Workshop Gallery, who are planning an exhibit of my latest designs: Art-furniture cast in bronze and aluminum  combined with luxurious fabrics and precious woods. … How I wish that I could show you my sketches… but I must keep them under wraps to surprise you next September.

  

Jessica with Julien Lombard enjoying lunch at the famous Cafe Benoit

 

Beautiful Paris architecture

 Julien Lombard and his family in the Carpenters Workshop Gallery's warehouse

While in Paris, a friend sent me this clipping announcing that I am Wallpapers choice of 100 Best Designers In The World


 

Return to Geneva

As you can see, Jessica and I travel light for a two-day visit to Paris! (the big black bag is my portable wheel chair)

There was still shopping to be one in Geneva… the Marche is open Wednesday as well as the weekend. As there were stands not yet visited, Jessica managed a return visit and still met me on time for a luncheon given by one of my glamorous clients… impeccably served by a white-gloved butler.

 

That night we packed our purchases and twice as much clothing than we arrived with… Early next morning we headed for the airport and flight home.

 

Back in New York

 

Our reentry into the real world is best described in one word: “Yuk”

...… And we were hardly missed!

  

Note: many of the best photos in this blog posting were taken by my daughter Jessica 

Vladimir Kagan Celebrates the end of summer

Just an Ordinary Summer on Nantucket

part 3

final installment

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, October 12, 2014

(posted from Geneva Switzerland)

  

PARTIES ON NANTUCKET

Vladi the party giver

 

This summer I hosted over a dozen dinner parties and entertained 100 guests mostly to uproarious chili dinners - al fresco in my garden. However, to celebrate my 87^th birthday I gave a sedate sit-down for twenty of my nearest, dearest and oldest friends, mostly octogenarians like myself, some of us hobbling on sticks, canes and crutches. A sumptuous filet mignon dinner was prepared by my clever, culinary daughter, Jessica, who drove up from Connecticut to wish me a Happy Birthday…thanks Jess!

One of the many dinner parties I hosted in my kitchen this summer

Bob and Ingrid Grueter, my old ski friends visiting from Aspen together with Lee Bordes another Aspen skier and myself - we've all skied together for over forty years

After their final recording session, the entire Coq Au Vin Band came for a Chili dinner: back row is Caleb Cressman the band's leader, Andy Harris the fabulous trumpeter, foreground Gordon Gund, Joanna Hay the violinist, Marjan Shirzad from the Whaling Museum, Lindsay, Caleb's wife and Anne Gund 

 

No room for the high and mighty - everyone in my house pitches in. Here is the world-renown art appraiser, Ellen Lake-Ewald and me shucking corm for twenty guests

The three musketeers, Jeff, Reed and Steven  flew up to 'Tucket for some fishing but first stopped to visit me for the BEST martinis on the Island - Vladi-tinis!

 

 setting up for an intimate Fondu Bouginion party

The party grew and grew until finally ten forks were being dipped into the communal fondu pot

Here are two of the bevy of beauties that usually gather in my kitchen: Tina on the left, my Serbian housekeeper with my friend Amy Lau, New York's hottest interior designer

 

After dinner entertainment in the living room with Australian virtuoso musician, Hugh McDonald Playing his guitar and Me tootling along on my accordion

The perks of being a party giver - you get to kiss all the girls!

The Nantucket Double Dip is not a dance… it is a typical Nantucket social weekend with two or more parties to attend. My most audacious Dip was a party I hosted, with my guests invited to arrive at 7 pm. I managed to escape with three lovely ladies, my houseguests for the weekend, to attend another party… just before my guests were scheduled to arrive. By the time we returned, my party was in full swing…we were hardly missed! Over twenty friends were on hand for one of my Chili fests. In

classic Vladimir fashion, dinner was served after nine and guests hung in till after mid-night.

 

 

ILLYA KAGAN’S ANNUAL ART SHOW

Illya Kagan's annual reception at the Westmoor Club

The unofficial end to the summer is not Labor Day; it’s my son Illya Kagan’s spectacular art-show extravaganza. This is THE event of the season… He plans it annually for the last week of August to give himself time to finish the forty or more paintings he creates yearly. It is a tour de force as he paints en plein air in all seasons; rain, sunshine, nights and sometimes snow. His show has become a “le must” on Nantucket’s social calendar. Hundreds of people crowd the Westmoor Club’s huge gym for an elaborate vernissage of delectable food and a generous open bar. The show takes Illya two days to install and another two to dismantle. It is a colossal undertaking but worthwhile when you see all those red dots embellishing so many paintings…Of course I am proud of my son!

A few of the forty or more paintings at the exhibitions

The party in full swing

....And finally the annual family photo of me and the granddaughter: Gabriella, Annecy, Sophia, Ondine and Olivia... Mallory was missing as she had to work

Two generations of Kagan painters: Illya giving his daughter Ondine some pointers on painting en plein air

 

DESIGNING ON NANTUCKET

In spite of my sybaritic summer, I actually find time to draw and create new designs for a collection of limited edition art-furniture for The Ralph Pucci Galleries in America and the Carpenter’s Workshop Galleries in Paris and London. Chris Eitel, my wingman for all seasons, interprets these designs into AutoCAD to feed into our new 3D printer. This machine is a wicked, cantankerous and disobedient gadget but gives us a significant leg-up on design development…I am able to study each design in miniature and make corrections before going into full-scale prototypes.

 

From sketch to 3D modeling

My freehand sketch of a potential daybed to be cast in bronze - part of my limited edition series

Chris' computer interpretation of my design

The bench as it comes out of the 3D printer with all of the debris that supports the delicate legs while printing

The 3D print of my original design

The intricate detailing of a new chair's arm done by Chris on his computer

 

My first love is still pencil on paper and then developing the new designs in clay.... there is a hands-on pleasure lost when the computer gets involved. I wish that I could show you the full repertoire of my new designs that I have created this summer, but for obvious reasons, they must be kept under wraps until their introduction in 2015.

model making

 

 

When 3D printing becomes too complex to prepare, I still make clay model of the project. Above is proposal for a "Sea Coral" lamp

 

Lectures

On a lovely sunny afternoon, I gave an illustrated lecture to an attentive audience at Audrey Sterk's Gallery... the bottom photo is Audrey thanking me for the talk... the bear-hug was worth the effort!

 

Scrimshaw

 


And on rare occasions I still draw and do scrimshaw on an antique whale's tooth... this is a friend's house




  

It was sometimes difficult to look at a cloudless sky with temperatures in the 80s, dreaming about the beach or a sail but continue to slog away on a sketchpad…  Chris and I welcomed the rare blustery day when we could work without regrets.

 

 

......Hey, it’s been a hell of a great summer!

 

 

 

Just An Ordinary Summer On Nantucket

In three installments

Part 1

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, September 19, 2014

A panoramic view of Nantucket harbor taken from the Whaling Museum roof

 

 

The countdown to the end of summer starts on the July 4th and comes to an official end at Labor Day… but in reality it lingers deep into September, when we have some of the finest weather with un-crowded beaches, streets and restaurants.

 

Here’s a sampling of my “ho-hum” summer

 

INDEPENDENCE DAY

This year the fourth started with a bang. The traditional Fireworks display was usurped by a full-fledged hurricane – Arthur! (The only one that reached our Island so far this year.) We had no damage other than a few downed branches and some temporary lowland flooding due to storm surge.

 Nantucket’s summer folks are a hardy bunch. In place of the traditional firework’s party, we were invited to a laptop dinner to savor the storm in our hostess’ beachfront house. Sixty guests turned up to snuggle down while the wind was howling outside. When we finally dared to leave, the wind was still blasting at 60 mph as we waded through 6” of water to reach our cars.

Hurricane Arthur gave us a soaking and a few boats washed ashore on the sandy beach... but no major damage -                                     Photos courtesy of The Inquirer & Mirror - Jim Powers photographer

 

 

FUNDRAISERS ON NANTUCKET

Summer life on Nantucket is frenzied… The social calendar is mind-boggling. Over 100 official fundraisers are gnawing at your heels to relieve you of your surplus money. You have to weasel your way through all the invitations not to end up in the poorhouse!

 

 

I went to the annual Art & Artisan Show for a fun starter. Fifty local and invited artisans from the New England area and beyond were housed under a tent. Potters, jewelers, weavers, quilters, carvers, beachcombers who build handcrafted furniture all exhit at the show. The show was sponsored by Small Friends on Nantucket, a non-profit facility that provides day care and early education for infants from 3 month through five years old. It is an unsung benefit for Nantucket’s working parents, who otherwise could not go out and earn a living.

 

  

My favorite ceramist Barbara Toole, Clay Art Studio, makes hand-thrown mugs, bowl, canisters in colorful glazes

 

Karin Sheppherd weaves traditional rag rugs out of discarded blue jeans and Nantucket red pants - Island Weaves on Nantucket

Birdbaths carved out of granite make beautiful attractions in a garden by sculptor Andrew Mintz

 

The three Bratd sisters - all were pupils of my wife, Erica Wilson, when they were little girls. Erica used to call them the Bratlings - Today they are all involved with Small Friends

 

Ginny Brown is a designer and quilter and used a Kaffe Fassett textile (on the right) and quilted it

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope Murphy works in fused glass and created these colorful door and drawer knobs to freshen up any cabinet

 

THE LIVELIEST FUNDRAISER OF THE SEASON

The Nantucket Cottage Hospital has a lulu of an annual affair; the Boston Pops comes to town for one night, setting up a mammoth stage on Jetties Beach… The concert is a blend of patriotic music… every song that glorifies our flag and nation with a heavy dose of John Philip Sousa. After intermission, there is an abrupt change of pace…the music is replaced with a session of Abba replete with imported Swedish performers.

The band stand as seen from our center stage table

Super size screens brought the concert to the distant audience on the beach and in boats on the sea. Left: Nantucket High School student singing the Star Spangled Banner  Right: David Gregory NBC news host was the MC for the evening

Our lovely hostess, Marty With Chris and me enjoying the show

When darkness finally overtakes the breathtaking sunset, the orchestra ends with Tchaikovsky’s heroic 1812 Overture, followed by a twenty-minute display of spectacular fireworks. It is the social event of the summer. Virtually the whole town turns out for this Gala. Over 7,000 people crowd onto a small strip of beach; each paying $30 to squat on the sand with their picnic baskets and beach chairs… the hoi-polloi, pay anything from $15,000 to $100,000 for a table of ten… As an invited guest, I got to sit at a numbered table with tablecloths to eat tepid food served up by hundreds of adorable volunteers. The ‘beach-sitters’ bring their own picnic, frequently more elaborate and delicious than the catered food… Finally there is the flotilla of boats: many set out at sunset to enjoy the concert from the sea…. (For years Erica and I were a part of this floating audience). After the concert, the fleet, from dinghies, fishing boats to luxury yachts, grope their way home through shoals and jetties in pitch darkness to their moorings…. a hair-razing experience under the best of circumstances and terrifying when the fog rolls in.

 Fireworks accompanied Tchaikovsky’s heroic 1812 Overture

After the last boom of the thunderous fireworks and the concert is barely over, the throngs of people start slowly exiting. The “circus crew” is already dismantling the stage and tents that housed kitchens – bars – dressing rooms and the fifty or so porta-potties…

 

Even as the orchestra was exiting, the work-crew started to disassemble the stage

On land, thousands of pedestrians trudge home with beach chairs on their backs, tugging little wagons with the remnants of their picnic fixings and small children on their hands or riding on dad’s shoulders. Those of us lucky enough to have obtained parking permits, gingerly pick our way through the masses of pedestrians… it is all very orderly, and miraculously, without incidents or accidents.

By morning all is gone and the beach is once again left in pristine condition for the summer tourists.

 

THE COQ AU VIN BAND

I still chase my favorite “Gypsies”, the Coq Au Vin band. There is not a gypsy amongst them… All are wholesome American kids playing romantic music. This August they did a series of intimate (and sold-out!) sunset concerts to a packed appreciative audience on the spectacular rooftop of the Nantucket Whaling Museum, where they debuted some new songs and introduced their fun T-shirts! These gigs were a far cry from the usually noisy, boisterous evenings at the Pazzo restaurant where their fans congregate until one in the morning dancing on tables with yours truly leading the cheering.

 

The band on the roof-top of the Whaling Museum doing their twilight concerts

Ingrid and her friend Hebe introducing the band's new T shirts

The "fan club" touting our new purchase

Ingrid Feeney the lead singer sings in six exotic languages and has just completed her Masters in Anthropology. Every song has a history, which she interprets in a scholarly way to her appreciative audience.  

 

The band cavorting on Caleb Cressman's farm while being filmed for a Music Video

 

Caleb's farm menagerie - goats, sheep and pigs

 

Ingrid Feeney the lead singer with Lucy Van Ardsdale the base-fiddler - Joanna Hay, the violinist, taking a break in the recording studio

This was the band’s last week playing together… Ingrid went to Oregon to be with her boyfriend, who is getting a doctorate in Eco-sciences; Joanna Hay, the violinist, returned home to Louisville Kentucky to her daytime career of documentary film maker and her eagerly awaiting husband.

The Band’s popularity has spread beyond our Island; earlier this summer, a Hollywood team of cinema-photographers converged on Caleb Cressman’s farm to film a Music Video for release later this year. Caleb is the leader of the band. He is a very talented multi-faceted musician, who plays the violin and accordion and has written many of the band’s soulful melodious songs. In their final week together, the band recorded their first CD…  After their final recording session, the entire band came to my house for a hilarious farewell dinner of chili and ice cream.

 

  Hang in there - for two instalments to come!

The Flight of the Snowbird

Migratory Birds Fly North - and So do I

Copyright Vladimir Kagan May 27, 2014

 

DAFFODIL DAYS ON NANTUCKET

 

After a long cloistered winter - housebound and often without access to the outside world for weeks on end, Nantucketers get itchy. By the end of April, they are in need of some diversion. The Chamber of Commerce came up with a solution: the daffodils are in full bloom, it is a rite of spring, let’s celebrate!  They decreed that on the last weekend of the month, rain or shine, year after year, was to be a holiday and they called it “Daffodil Days”. In truth, there is no sign of spring except for the “daffies”… the trees are bare and it can often be downright chilly. In the twenty years that I’ve participated, it snowed once and had been marred by rain on several occasions. And so it came to pass, that this year it rained. But the daffodils flourished and the people came dressed as daffodils and wore yellow in commemoration of the yellow tuber.

 
my granddaughter Mallory and Chris Eitel my "Wing Man" looking into my Model T

Special events are created to celebrate the weekend. A classic car parade, followed by feasting on the backs of the car called a “tailgate picnic”. These elaborate tailgate picnics are judged by judges… not for their tastiness but for their cleverness in celebration of the daffodil. If you follow in the judge’s footsteps, you might be able to sneak a dip into other peoples’ picnic and steal a morsel or two….

P.S. There was no picnic this year - rained out!

    

my little buggy - no time to decorate - but faithfully in the parade every year for 20 years

There is also a flower show organized by the garden club ladies. This is a particular nice event on a rainy day as it is held indoors. Restaurants are open and everyone is happy to see and be seen so early in the season.

"Daffies" at the flower show

paper daffodils made by the elimentary school children

 

This annual rite of spring, however, is short lived; after the cars and tourists have gone, Nantucket recoils into its winter slumber for another two months.

 

my pond and trees are barren except for a few miniature daffies breaking through the ground

 

 

+++++++++

 

NEW YORK’S SECOND CITY SYNDROME

 

New York has become a “Second City” not because of its outrageous new mayor, but because it is doing its darnedest to become the art capital of the world. Admittedly Christies and Sotheby’s sell a lot of art and buyers from around the world flock there each spring for a feeding frenzy.

New York’s art dealers have smartened-up and also want a piece of this action: Why not an Art Basel New York? Miami has successfully kidnapped the genre, why not New York? Along with dozens of art events, tent shows, recycled vacant real estate, New York is vying for its rightful place in the art world.

 

For the design world, we have had ICFF (International Contemporary Furnishing Fair) for 21 years. But like the Milan Salone Di Mobile, what happens off-site is often more important than the events inside of the Javits Center. Collective2 Design Fair, is in its second year and is the brainchild of Steven Lerner, a New York based architect and interior designer, turn design impresario.  He has temporarily transformed the cavernous ground floor of the once magnificent, but now obsolete Moynihan Post Office building and turned it into a hip design showcase. Not to long ago it was where all the mail was sorted by hand. The building has a grander future: it is to be converted into the NEW Pennsylvania Railroad Station.

   

from scrolls to screens to chicken coops - it was a darn good show

Opening night at Collective2 was so crowded you couldn’t see the exhibit. (New Yorkers are see and be seen people). This event is a great alternative to Design Miami for those not wanting to deal with the crowds and nightmarish struggle for hotels, places to eat and taxis…. Art Basil Miami was still better than its New York counterpart, but that won’t be for long… Basel in Switzerland still trumps them all, but if you love New York, you’ll love the new art scene.

 

Follow my migratory flight path across the ocean to Italy and Switzerland in my next post!

The jewel of Classic Car shows

A Guys Thing

cars – cars - cars

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, April 17, 2014

 

There are only a few things that can draw a man’s attention away from a shapely woman… and that is a shapely car! However, judging by the number of enthusiastic female “oglers” at the Barrett – Jackson Collector Car Auction, in West Palm Beach, this is no longer only a guy’s thing.

 

Palm Beach Fairgrounds is a huge complex that hosts anything from Agricultural events, to Gun Shows, to County Fairs with scary rides for the kiddies… but the best event for me, is the Classic Car show with 750 mint condition vehicles ready to be auctioned on the block.  Each car is driven onto the stage and within five minutes, is sold and the next beauty appears. For those with stamina, it was the World Series of car sales… It starts at 9 in the morning and drags on none-stop until 9 pm only to be continued the next day.  Bidders and spectators bring their kids in strollers, their lunch and beer, and sit on bleacher benches under an air-conditioned tent.

 

No one bothered to look at the shapely ladies - all eyes were on the shapely cars

 
This guy stole my thunder on his electric tricycle - I have a soft spot for bikers

 

I love classic cars… for me they are a collectable art. I would gladly own one in my living room…cheaper and much more enjoyable than some of the multi-million dollar “contemporary art” sold at Sotheby’s’ or Christie’s.

 I am prone to give my unofficial awards: my choice for Best In Show is the Super-charged, yellow convertible 1937 Cord … Next: I am anointing a little Hot-Rod…(I normally dislike Hot-Rods) they are a travesty inflicted on beautiful classic vehicles… but I found this one to have exquisite lines as it hovers 2” above the ground… (Not your best car for snow or bumpy back roads.)

My choice for "best in show" the 1937 Cord

...and for my second prize: this unlikely Hot Rod

 

At the show, it was obvious that the hot new car of the year is the 2015 Corvette Stingray … a muscle car on steroids. It is a beauty! Looking back fifty years, it is hard to believe how the elegant little Corvette morphed into this intoxicating raging bull of a vehicle.

This "man-eating shark" is the new 2015 Stingray 

 

This is the new image of the 2015 Corvette - The Stingray

It is hard to believe that this elegant little 50's  car is the "granddaddy" of these new monster cars

 

 

I have always been a car buff. My first car was a 1937 LaSalle (a division of the Cadillac motor company) It was the most beautiful car I have ever owned - it was also a lemon. At the car show, I had a nostalgic passion for the dozen 50’s Thunderbirds, mostly dressed in red, the only proper color for a respectable T bird.– It was my little red 1955 “T” Bird that Erica married back in 1957… I just happened to own it!

 

This is almost a replica of my original 1955 T Bird (except this one is a 1956)

The engine that made the T Bird throb

The Tunderbird is still a head-turner - even sixty years later

 Looking back over the years, I seldom ever bought a new car off the a dealer’s floor – I nearly did once, when I walked into a Plymouth dealership and drove out with a white station wagon… it lasted half a day as Erica threatened divorce unless I got my old Thunderbird back out of the trade-in!

 

 I seemed to have a taste for the exotic and remember wanting a Keiser but settled for a Nash (with cruise control option) next it was a little Hillman Station wagon which we picked up in England and drove to the south of France and then shipped it back to the USA.  After the little “Hilly” died, I had the notion to buy a classic Bentley Park-Ward convertible, this made for an enjoyable trip to the English countryside in search of my dream car. However, my accountant talked me out of it, assuring me that everyone in my factory would want an immediate raise when they saw me driving it.

 

This jaguar is the closest car I could find that looked like my dream-car, The Bentley  Park-Ward 

 

Subsequently my taste in cars became mundane… until the 70’s when I bought my 1922 Center Door Model T. This enjoyable car has satiated my taste for the exotic ever since.

 
Being a Model T fan, I found this over-restored 1912 Depot Hack, which is being used in a quirky Hollywood film soon to be released.

 

 Other cars that stirred my nostalgia

  

I also have a passion for hood ornaments

   
Above: Pontiac and Buick - below: Rolls Royce and Jaguar 

NO, this is not a railroad car - it is a delux R.V.

The RV’s on display were behemoth… larger than a freight car, costlier than an airplane.

 

By early afternoon Chris and I managed to tour two pavilions and five open-air tents jam-packed with cars and people. As usual, my little electric scooter served me well… until it ran out of juice!  Only with much coaxing, did I manage to ooze it along to the entrance gate where Chris rescued me with my Toyota Sienna Minivan.

 

+++++

  

This story is not complete without telling you about my friend Lance’s extreme hobby.

 

How many boys have dreamed of building their own car?… yes, some of you may have built go-carts when you were growing up, or modified an old jalopy into a Hot-rod. But how many of you have fulfilled your dream of building a sexy car from the ground-up… or taking the hottest stock car and restyling it into your own dream machine?

 

My friend Lance is one of those guys… One of Lance’s boyhood dreams was to build racing cars… twenty- odd years ago he started to pursue that dream… He has transformed four stock cars into sexy un-recognizable custom machines. An Audi A6, a Lexus SC430, a Pontiac G6 Convertible and now a Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, He chose the CTS as it was rated one of the best performing American stock cars ever. That wasn’t good enough for Lance. He proceeded to tear it apart. He determined that the CTS had a cumbersome body styling that needed improving. Accordingly, he filtered through fifty design possibilities to come up with his final concept… the 550 HP engine was not powerful enough so he upgraded the engines induction and exhaust systems to achieve 700 HP. …He bought 500+ pounds of Chavant automotive styling clay and hired William von Medicus, a body-shop “artist” and set him up in his garage to strip the Caddy… This was started in September of 2013 and is still a work-in-progress. It will probably take another six months to put the car on the road.

  

This past winter, I had the opportunity to visit Lance and see the operation in person. The body was unrecognizable. When completed, the interior will be finished in the finest Italian Leather by John Caravaggio… Lance is never happy until these cars are his own unrecognizable concoction. To date he has one of these road-wonders whizzing about in California, one in Miami, and one that is mesmerizing the jet set in the south of France… Lance, where will you launch this one?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Architectural Digest Home Show Revisited

 

A Visit with the Artists

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, April 3, 2014

 

Last month’s Architectural Digest Home show at the Piers in New York has long been dismantled - replaced with a Dog or fashion show… But the memory lingers on.

 

My "Four Days in New York” Blog was liked by so many of you, that I felt the craftsmen and women, who’s work I had admired, deserve a better showing than my hastily snapped I-phone photos…. I’ve asked each of them to send me quality photos of their works along with an address where you can contact them. Below is the result:

 

VIRGINIA BLANCHARD 

Virginia Blanchard grew up in Pelham, New York.  After earning her B.A. in Russian from New York University and realizing that neither translating nor espionage would be the best career path for her, she began studying furniture making at the aptly named Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine.  Virginia was seduced, and now lives and works in the Mid-Coast region of Maine.  Time not spent designing and building furniture is devoted to restoring her 1840's ship captain's home.  Her aesthetic derives primarily from her love of early 20th century European decorative arts.   

   

 

 

Contact info.

Virginia Blanchard

914.282.7518

[email protected]      

virginiablanchardfurniture.com

 

 

AARON SCOTT

 Aaron Scott was born in 1974 in Southern Oregon. He studied philosophy at the University of Colorado, followed by graduate work in fine art and filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. He moved to NYC in 1998 to make art and films - and eventually furniture. Scott’s art/design practice has been deeply influenced by the formal complexities found in nature - skeletal systems, plant forms, topography and cellular structure; he has also had a lifetime interest in mathematics, including structural engineering, topology, and tensile structures. Scott's art and design work has been exhibited at Voos Showroom, Brian Kish Gallery, 208 Gallery, ICFF, Wanted Design, and Architectural Digest Home Design Show. His lighting has been featured in Furniture Fashion and Design Duct. His film and performance work has been exhibited at Anthology Film Archives, Dixon Place, Abrons Art Center and the Lincoln Center.

 

Contact info.

Aaron Scott

140 Plymouth St., #1A

Brooklyn, NY 11201

541.227.1614

www.aaronscottdesign.com 

 

 

GREG KLASSEN

 

Greg Klassen is a furniture designer/maker in the Pacific Northwest.  He calls his new River Collection “a celebration of the beauty that I find outside my front door.”  His River Tables, made from locally salvaged trees, combine “rivers” of inlaid blue glass with the wood’s live edges to stunning effect.  Klassen is an independent craftsman and his work is commissioned by a nation-wide clientele.  He invites clients to visit his workshop where they are encouraged to be apart of his creative process, which includes choosing the wood for their very own table.  Klassen lives in Lynden, Wash., with his wife and three young children.  Twice each day you can find him gathering with his family for “fika” - a coffee break tradition he learned while studying furniture design in Sweden, at the Capellagården School of Craft & Design.  See Klassen’s full body of work at gregklassen.com or shop his furniture collection at 

 

Contact info.

gregklassen.bigcartel.com.  

[email protected] / 360-305-5070

 

 

JOHN DODD

John established John Dodd Studio in 1979 and has been designing and creating furniture full time for more than 35 years. His Studio is located in the Finger Lake Region of western NY.

He has created furniture for Private, Corporate and Ecclesiastical environments as well as active participation in Museum, Gallery and National Art Shows. He has received numerous awards include twice being a recipient of a Fellowship from the New York Foundation  for the Arts.

John Dodd is a graduate of the School for American Crafts: Furniture Design Program at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has taught there ever since as an Adjunct, currently teaching a 3D Design course.

 
Contact info.

web site               johndoddstudio.com

e-mail                  [email protected]

phone                  585 229 4444    

5434 County Road 33 / Canandaigua, NY 14424

 

 

PATRICK WEDER

 

Patrick Weder’s work marries streamlined architectural elegance with sculptural refinement that integrate seamlessly within residential and commercial spaces. Inspired by naturally occurring forms and pushing raw materials beyond the practical application, Weder created the combinations of Corian and wood in 2001 and continues to refine this pairing with concrete.  Originally from Switzerland, Weder moved to New York in 1994 to pursue art and design. After numerous exhibitions and high-end architectural projects, his experience working with a diverse set of materials—such as steel, resin, stone, wire, sand, and paper—led him to begin his own business creating primarily site-specific handmade furniture and functional objects such as the PW honeycomb lamps.

Weder was selected to exhibit in the Makers Market at Socrates Sculpture Center and was awarded for his sculpture at Longhouse Planters On & Off. He continues to exhibit his unique pieces at the Architectural Digest, West Edge Design Fair and ICFF.

Contact info.

Patrick Weder Design 

153 Roebling Street 3B

Brooklyn, NY 11211

347-210-2466

www.patrickweder.com

[email protected]

AMY GENSER

 Amy Genser plays with paper and paint to explore her obsession with texture, pattern, and color. Evocative of natural forms and organic processes, her work is simultaneously irregular and ordered. She uses paper as pigment and constructs her pieces by layering, cutting, rolling, and combining paper.

The natural world is a clear source for Amy’s work. She is fascinated by the flow of water, the shape of beehives, and the organic irregularity of plants, flowers, rock formations, barnacles, moss, and seaweed. Her pieces bring to mind aerial landscape views, satellite imagery, and biological cellular processes.

Amy’s love affair with paper began in a paper-making class at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she got a masters degree in Graphic Design. Amy lives in West Hartford, CT with her husband and three sons, and spends her summers on the beach in Rhode Island.

                     Contact info.

www.amygenser.com or email her at [email protected].

 

....and finally: surprise-surprise MY RUG WAS FOUND!

Ashlee Harrison striking a pose on my silk rug at Atelier Courbet

 

 

ATELIER COURBET

Malanie Courbet, Ashlee Harrison and me at Art Basel Miami earlier this year... where the idea of a Vladi Rug was hatched

 

Melanie Courbet, Founder of Atelier Courbet 

Melanie was an art and design consultant as well as an independent curator for international clients in Los Angeles, New York and Paris. Past experiences include collaborations the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, as well as the Musee des Arts Decoratifs at The Carrousel du Louvres, in Paris.  Atelier Courbet was born from Melanie's taste and will to share the stories and provenance of the most skilled hands and makers: master craftspeople and their workshops. 

“ Atelier Courbet shifts the usual curatorial angle from the artistic or the creative to the meticulous work of masters and craftsmen who carry-on centuries-old techniques and thereby our cultural heritage.”

 

Ashlee Harrison, Partner 

With over 10 Years experience in luxury marketing  and contemporary design, including her 5 year stint as director of the DCOTA near Miami and the D&D Building in Manhattan and as well overseeing marketing and communications for the Bal Harbour flagship of Saks Fifth Avenue.

Contact info.

175 / 177 Mott Street

New York NY 10012

212-226-7378

[email protected]