Inspiration

“I have a sensitivity to the small moments and the nuances of life,” writes Moscow-born, Tel Aviv-based ceramicist Yulia Tsukerman.     “Photography was one of my first passions. I used to wander around Moscow for hours, searching for those fleeting expressions of the city landscape when all elements are suddenly arranged into the only […]

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Genius at work.  

We are smitten with Swedish design. It embodies so many of our ideals: function without loss of beauty, beauty without vanity, modernity which embraces rather than annihilates the past. A kind of organic minimalism. Uncompromising adherence to quality–of materials, of fabrication. Comfort and simplicity. The first piece we acquired was a Neoclassical garden bench designed by Folke […]

Collectors spend a lot of time considering what air and light and hands and years have worked upon the surface of things. The thoughts of a collector tend, too, in the direction of desire, of ownership, of relationship with the object. We immerse ourselves in the story—real or imagined—of why a thing was made, and by […]

Take something, leave something. In the 1950s, Robert Rauschenberg began making works that were a hybrid of collage, painting and sculpture. He called them “Combines.” These are among our favorite of Rauschenberg’s oeuvre. He created the combine Black Market in 1961, for an exhibit at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. A collage on the wall which included four […]

Galatea will be there. Will you?  Come one, come all to the SKIN show. Just in time for longer days and warmer nights, a visual stream-of-consciousness inspired by skin: furniture and objects which employ leather, parchment and fur, Old Master nude studies, 1950s snapshots in a style we have coined “Woodland Cheesecake,” African tribal statuary, […]

Connect your bluetooth speaker, close your eyes. This 10-hour recording of forest sounds has been getting us through the winter. We thought you might enjoy it, too.  

We’re thrilled to be occupying space 1056 in the 1stdibs showroom of the New York Design Center. Here are a few peeks at our inaugural installation. Drop by our floating world. There’s bound to be something new every time you visit. Through the gilt iron Baguès screen, a breathtaking view of Nagasaki Bay. Have a […]

In the brute cold of February, we take solace from the slowly lengthening light. The late afternoon and early evening in industrial Long Island City is especially rich. Here are a few blurry i-phone shots from the neighborhood. Enjoy.  

Welcome, 2014!

What a night! A perfect storm of beauty to stir all the senses. Thanks to the Simon String Quartet for their soulful and rigorous interpretations of Schubert, Shostakovitch and Beethoven. Thank you, Amanda Darrach of Chalk on Slate, who provided such exquisite food. And thanks to our appreciative guests. We were happy to share some of […]

Jorgen Leth’s masterpiece, here in two parts:

“At the age of 74, Norman Swann still lives in his family home, a grand apartment in South Kensington. Now a retiree, he had served for decades as a part-time teacher of architecture at Cambridge University. However, Norman did not achieve any success as an architect himself and he never managed to realise a single […]

What is it about masks that makes us think we are protected in that liminal time between the last harvest and the onset of winter? Or is it the license afforded by anonymity that attracts us to the practice of disguise? Whatever the power, we keep at it. Photographs from 1875 to 1955, collected in Haunted […]

If you couldn’t attend our exhibit of Jeff Hoppa’s drawings, including the monumental Ultima Thule, here are a few images from the show (with candid contributions from friends). Jeff Hoppa and artist Kira Greene examine a cabinet of curiosities. The Daedalus table makes an appearance. The processional figure observed from a discreet corner. Cordelia Lawton with […]

Lawton Mull are grateful to Jeff Hoppa for permitting us to publish this essay on our website. We feel it offers a rare glimpse into the artist’s stream-of-consciousness.    Ultima Thule 40.5” x 83.5” Graphite on Arches 140lb Hot Press Paper Jan 2010 –Aug 2013   Often identified as Norway, Greenland or Iceland, “Ultima Thule” […]

As September begins, we feel the old pull to school: to new materials, new ideas; to learning, to play and to their intersection. “Take your pleasures seriously,” said Charles Eames. Here are a couple of short films for the kid in us eager to shake off summer and go back to school. Enjoy. PARADE, by […]

SCHUBERT – Impromptu n°3 Awe-inspiring.

We like venturing into the midst of industry. Neighbors range from wine storage and urban landscapers, to a steel fabrication plant, a television studio, a wholesale bakery, and a woman who painstakingly reproduces medieval armor. From the neglected exteriors of the warehouse buildings of Long Island City, you might never guess the goings-on within. Wandering […]

We can’t stop watching:

“Huge trees grew nearby, and their leaves intercepted the sunlight very precisely, so that the shadows of the leaves seemed vital and creaturely as they stirred on the ground–an inkling of some super nature, to a sensibility open to such things.” Joseph O’Neill, Netherland “Dappled light is produced when sunlight is filtered through the leaves of trees. […]

We could watch this all day. Loie Fuller, circa 1896, captured by the Lumiere Brothers in her Danse Serpentine. Another trance-inducing convergence of fabric, film and the body: Kate Moss rendered ethereal by Alexander McQueen. Perhaps he had a thing for Loie Fuller too?  

Our knowledge of Girolamo da Carpi’s life comes primarily from Giorgio Vasari’s indispensable Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. And while Vasari may be less than reliable on some of the artists he describes, his knowledge of Girolamo was gleaned directly from the artist himself, whom he apparently first met in Florence […]

We can’t help but be moved when details–the deliberate gestures of artists and designers–seem to speak to each other across cultures and centuries: From an ink and pencil work by Muhammad Qasim, Circa 1630-50 The gilt carving of a Louis XV side chair, 18th century France Ceramic Amphora vase from the Gres-Bijou series, Austria, Circa […]