Graphic Surgery is an Amsterdam-based collective comprising Erris Huigens and Gysbert Zijlstra. Their work is influenced by Dutch modernist art and design like Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, as well as constructivism, futurism and various graffiti artists.
Most of their work is featured on untouched surfaces in abandoned industrial places. It is this contrast of precision graphic painting with rough and desolate spaces that makes their work so appealing to me.
Erich Consemuller
Bauhaus (literally meaning house of construction) was one of the most influential art, craft and design schools of the 20th century, which influenced classical modernism like no other institution.
Marianne Brandt
Marianne Brandt
Founded by architect Walter Gropius, their aim was to educate and train a new type of artist who could bring changes in society by shaping his environment.
Theobald Emil Muller-Hummel
Oskar Werner
Door by Walter Gropius
What they really shaped was the future as we see it now: the prevalence of clean form, rationality and functionality, and the idea that mass manufacture was compatible with individual artistic spirit.
Moholy Nagy
Takehiko Mizutani
As with any visionaries, their ideas were extreme, and mostly in architecture later on partly rejected, but their vision in graphic design, silverware, pottery and other crafts, was far ahead of even 21st century.
Mattia Bonetti is a Swiss-born, Paris-living furniture and interior designer. His works are contemporary, daring and beautifully executed, an unexpected meeting of ming, modernism, deco, rococo, surrealism and futurism.
The resulting collection comprises an exhaustive range of materials and techniques. Gold-leaf gilding, gleaming polished copper, and geometric steel piping meet exquisite leathers and tinted, lacquered fibreglass on the gallery floor. His metal cabinets are some of the most beautiful pieces of modern furniture.
Go and see it until end of August at David Gill Galleries, 2-4 King Street, Mayfair, London SW1Y 6QL
Often, when I am asked who are my style icons, I can’t think of anything to say. I know I am expected to state my admiration for the latest young and beautiful actress/ singer/ model, but to be honest I know that a lot of them (and of course not all of them) are styled by expert fashionistas, or just too busy to do their own shopping/ calling in samples. So of course they do look good, but does their style really deserve the credit in the 100 best-dressed list or is it just their beauty that shines forward?
I often think that style is something that you work around what suits your given body, and your style could be totally different were you given different face or body features. Fashion is rotating in the endless cycle of newness and sometimes we forget that true style is timeless, nothing that can be defined by an era or a season – or age for that matter.
This book is showcasing ladies over a certain age with multitude of style, and none of it is credited to the latest season or designer. They are big on colour, print, jewellery, scarves, hats, elegance, and lots of chic rebel attitude. They wear what suits them, and more importantly, what expresses their colourful personalities. I want to meet those ladies. And even more I want to know where they shop!
“Young woman, you’re gonna be an old woman someday. Don’t worry about it, don’t sweat it. don’t worry about getting older. Every year it builds character.” With quotes like this, this is one of the most – if not the most – inspirational fashion books ever created.
Advanced Style – A Book By Ari Seth Cohen is published by Powerhouse Books and is out now.
I have just completed a collaboration with Palladium Board. Palladium is a newly hallmarked fine jewellery metal, not dissimilar to platinum, but lighter and less expensive. The brief was to design five jewellery pieces which would demonstrate palladium’s properties of lightness and strength. Therefore I have designed cage-like structures which both transmit light and are very low in weight.
To make them more feminine I have played with organic shapes of spheres and curves; the collection was inspired by architectural formations like bridges, and natural structures like twigs and pods. There are five pieces in the collection: choker, pendant, cuff, earring and ring, all pave set with diamonds and featuring south sea pearls at its core.
The campaign was shot by John Akehurst, featuring actress and model Lydia Hearst.
The collection is available now at Harrods ground floor jewellery department, and in our Sloane Street store and website:
www.larabohinc.com
When I got an envelope in the post with “By appointment of her Majesty the Queen” and “Confidential and Important” written on it, I got a bit concerned. Have I done something wrong? Nah I thought, it is probably an invite to a party, in a palace I hoped, with a cinderella twinkle in my eyes.
Surprise surprise, the letter said I was nominated for an MBE and would I like to accept this honour? Honestly I hardly knew what this meant, I have never taken much interest in regal matters.
So I googled it. MBE stands for Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Apparently you can be nominated either by the government or by the public (I asked my husband and he swears he didn’t do it). Anyone can make a nomination, it is very simple, all you need to do is download a form and describe what is special about your candidate’s achievements and how he or she has made a difference. It can be anyone who did something outstanding in the community, like a teacher or a seamstress, not just entrepreneurs, innovators or creators. It is about celebrating success in all walks of life.
So how come that when getting an MBE, women are far worse than men, with only around 40% of women being nominated? This is a very small percentage, given the huge number of women who make amazing contributions in the community either through their work or on a voluntary basis. And let’s not forget the huge number of women who give up their careers in order to take care of their children, the silent supporters of society, simply because their salary doesn’t even cover the cost of childcare. In the UK there is a very low level of support for working mothers, with working and school hours out-of-sync and state-funded childcare sparse. There is still lots to do before women are truly integrated in a modern society: equal pay, more women in top jobs and politics, state-funded childcare and more recognition.
And recognition is where you can put the balance right. Come on girls – go and start nominating all those amazing women now HERE.
Growing up in the times of Postmodernism actually made me rebel against it. But seeing it all in one exhibition at the V&A I realised how much I loved parts of it, actually more or less everything apart from the architecture: the colourful graphics and fashion, the use of contrasting vivid and pastel colours, the jaggered, broken mirror effects, the childish playfulness, full of simplicity (in the furniture and prints of Memphis and Alchemy), the genius of Ettore Sottsass jewellery (a real discovery!) and original graphics of Peter Saville album covers and typefaces of Emigré and Neville Brody. I could see it all again through those rose tinted glasses.
‘Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990′ exhibition at the V&A, 2011 © V&A Images
Ring by Pol Bury
A new inspirational exhibition just closed at the Museum of Art and Design in New York titled Artist as Jeweller. As the title describes it, it was an exhibition of established artists working in the jewellery field.
So where does art end and jewellery begin? It seems that jewellery can be any object that is worn on the body; as soon as you put a string through a stone and hang it around your neck it becomes jewellery – it is that simple.
So in the same way, as soon as you put a string through a miniature sculpture, it becomes art/jewellery, as long as it is made by someone officially regarded as an artist.
But what I always ask myself is: Is this a good piece of jewellery?
And by good I would define it as: 1. beautiful or striking to look at, 2. easy to wear, 3. designed in a way that is suitable to production and 4. well-functioning (good hinges, clasps, etc). There is another, fifth parameter which sets just good apart from the best and that is about being new, inventive, different or modern. When I look at art jewellers featured in the book, some of them are really exceptional as jewellery designers too (the amazing Pol Bury, George Braque, Frank Stella) and some are just being artists. Because the thing is, a jewellery piece also needs to be designed around the principles of good design, not just created as a vessel for an art idea.
Below are a few of my favourite pieces:
A brooch by Georges Braque
A brooch by Georges Braque
Brooch by Salvador Dali
Ring by Frank Stella
Cuff by Pol Bury
ICA- a film premiere about the work and life of artist William Turnbull by his son Alex Turnbull was a fantastic documentary exploring a number of questions.
During the interviews with numerous established artists (Anthony Gormley, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton,) it became clear that he was and still is a very important and influential figure in the art world on a par with Henry Moore. So why was he massively overlooked?
One of the possible answers is that he is one of the few abstract sculptors in UK. Even though we had over a century of modern art, some of it abstract, it seems that people find it difficult to relate to abstract forms. To understand and relate to abstract shapes one must have a capacity for abstract thinking and that is something that we will probably not see en mass in the near future. Most people like to look at things they can relate to; flowers, landscapes, human bodies, butterflies, skulls and even a shark in formaldehyde are easier to understand than lets say a square on a white background.
