The Wonderlust Journal

Art World "Controversy" (read: "Gossip") >> The Robert and Ethel Scull Collection

Robert and Ethel Scull with Warhol, George Segal, and James Rosenquist

I would LOVE to see the show right now at Acquavella Gallery.

This fascinating and much-maligned couple– the Sculls– amassed an amazing collection of Pop Art and AbEx before that, and actually are somewhat credited with driving the Pop Art movement’s beginnings.

Warhol’s “Ethel Scull, 36 Times,” 1963

The Good:

They commissioned Warhol’s first portrait, gave James Rosenquist his first sale, bought an entire show of Jasper Johns when it wasn’t selling, and gave George Segal enough money to quit his hairdresser job and focus full time on his art.

Rauschenburg, “Currency (Mona Lisa), 1958″

Robert bought the art, according to the awesome NYT article about the show, because of a genuine love and understanding of it, and he helped fund a struggling movement by buying it. He and Ethel then even spurred a social scene that revolved around championing and buying the art.

Jasper Johns, “Map,” 1961

The Bad:

It was the sale of the art, at an auction in 1973, that made them much maligned. The auction, which was seen as a scandal because of its pure money-grabbing motives, brought the couple $2.2 million.

Interestingly, it is this auction that is seen as turning the art world into what it is today.

Claes Oldenburg, “Cake Wedge,” 1962

The Ugly:

Robert was originally able to buy the works with the money he got from his taxi empire, inherited from Ethel’s father, and he and Ethel were seen as the epitome of social climbers.

Even before the auction scandal, they were seen as tacky– the NYT describes them as the “loud-talking, cigar-chomping, Jaguar-driving taxi king and his wife, who modeled Dior and Courrèges in Vogue.”

In fact, by the mid 1960s, Tom Wolfe had called them “the folk heroes of every social climber to ever hit New York.”

Willem de Kooning, “Police Gazette,” 1955

“They were vulgar, knew it, and didn’t give a damn,” said art critic and historian Irving Sandler, who actually meant it as a compliment, as he was stating why he liked them.

I find it particularly interesting that they were such a patron and friend of Warhol, since their seeming superficiality and greed is exactly what Warhol was fascinated by.

George Segal, “Robert and Ethel Scull,” 1965

The remaining works in their collection were sold at an auctionin 1986 after Robert’s death (and their divorce) and were scattered all over the world.

Now, Acquavella Gallery has gathered 44 of the pieces in the collection. What an awesome exhibit.

Read the full article (very interesting) here.

For a sweeter tale of a (more humble) couple and their art collection, check out this post.

April 19, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Arts Visuels

Labels:

Waiting for Superman

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April 18, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Must See

Labels:

Summer's Coming…

Doesn’t that cabin above look perfect for a summer weekend?

…a few evocative images from the poetic blog 46th at grace that remind me that summer’s coming…

April 17, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
photography

Labels:

LustList >> Bar Carts Pt. II

More bar cart and tray eye candy…

Above, an image from Tiffany Table Settings. Bonus points for the fact that it’s in front of a bookshelf with art hung over it! It’s a triple-point lustlist item.

Eddie Ross

Scot Meacham Wood’s apartment (aka tartanscot)

See the bar tray, right in the middle of the arrangement? Also, look closely– that is a mirror behind the sofa (I thought at first that somehow there was another room back there!), and that is a trompe l’oeil curtain swagged over it. Clever.

by Richard Lowell Neas, via Peak of Chic

April 13, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Interiors, LustList

Labels:

Provenance You Can Believe In >> Izzy Lane Wool

I’ve mentioned before that I love the trend going on towards consuming locally-grown foods, companies supporting local economies, etc., and here’s a company that takes these philosophies very seriously:

Izzy Lane in Britain saves sheep that are destined for the slaughterhouse for being lame, missing a pregnancy, or being male, and puts them to use for their wool instead. Then, the cloth is woven in a nearby ancient mill by neighboring craftsmen. Does that make you love it or what?

Unfortunately, their methods of production are more endearing than their designs, and the sweater above was really the only piece I really liked! Maybe they need to collaborate with someone else, like Apolis Activism does, to get a good designer in there. They’ve already got all other pieces in place! Still, thought the company was worth sharing…

April 13, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Masters and Their Crafts

Labels:

Canal House Cooking

I am loving this concept by Christopher Hersheimer and Melissa Hamilton. They are producing these books, that are somewhere between a cooking magazine and a cookbook, three times a year — a Winter/Spring edition, a Summer edition, and a Fall edition.

You can buy them individually, or you can get a subscription for $50/year. Wouldn’t a subscription make a great gift?

As the Kitchn said, reading it is like flipping through a friend’s recipe journal, complete with little personal notes.

You can also preview the books at their website, which is where I pulled these images from. The current issue is Volume III, Winter/Spring. It opens as a full screen pdf and looks pretty even on a computer!

The Kitchn published their recipe for the Lemon and Sea Salt Focaccia shown above… It looks so good! Click through below for the recipe…

From the Kitchn…

I made this delicious focaccia recipe last night with stellar results. The bread was crisp yet chewy and the lemon provided a bright, slightly bitter contrast to the olive oil and salt. The rosemary brought everything together, matching the lemon’s assertive notes with its lovely, piney perfume. And, it was easy!
Lemon and Sea Salt Focaccia
makes four 8-inch rounds
For the Dough
1 envelope (2-1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
6 tablespoons really good extra virgin olive oil
4 cups bread flour, plus more for kneading
2 teaspoons salt
To Assemble
Really good extra virgin olive oil
Leaves of 2-4 branches fresh rosemary, chopped
2 lemons, washed and very thinly sliced into rounds
Coarse sea salt

For the dough, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water in a medium bowl. Stir in 1-1/4 cups water and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.

Pulse the flour and salt together in the bowl of a food processor. Add the yeast mixture and process until a rough ball of dough forms, 1 minute. Briefly knead dough on a floured surface until smooth. Shape dough into a ball. Put 2 tablespoons of the oil into a large bowl. Roll dough around in bowl until coated with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm spot until it has doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Pour a thin film of oil into each of four 8-inch round cake pans. Quarter the dough and put one piece into each pan. Using your fingertips, spread dough out in each pan. The dough is elastic and will resist stretching. Let it relax for 5 minutes or so after you’ve stretched it as far as it will go. Eventually, it will cooperate and fill the pan.

Preheat the oven to 450°. Cover the pans with damp dishcloths and let the dough rest until it has swollen in the pans a bit, 30-60 minutes.

Uncover the pans. Sprinkle the dough with the rosemary. Using your fingertips, poke dimples into the dough in each pan, then liberally drizzle with oil so it pools in the hollows. Arrange just the thinnest rounds of lemon on top, drizzle with more oil, and sprinkle with sea salt. We like ours salty. Bake the focaccia until golden brown, 20-30 minutes. Drizzle with more oil when you pull the focaccia from the oven. Serve cut into wedges.

Dana’s notes: I used a KitchenAid stand mixer instead of the food processor and I imagine the dough can be mixed up by hand the old-fashioned way as well. If you don’t want to bake all four loaves, you can freeze the dough for future use–just wrap them in plastic right after you’ve quartered the pieces. Next time, I may try substituting 1 cup of the regular flour for whole wheat flour just to see how it is. Also, the kind of salt with large, flaky shards (like Maldon) does really well here but coarse kosher salt should do just fine, too. Finally, I used Meyer Lemons since they’re falling off the trees here in SF and my friends are starting to leave bags of them at my door (rough life, I know) but regular lemons should be just great.

April 12, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Food

Labels:

“Real People” ad campaigns

Have you noticed this trend? I feel like I’m seeing it everywhere… brands asking blogger-photographers, as well as just normal photographers, to create ad campaigns of “real people” wearing their products.

There’s actually no reason “real people” should be in quotations, except that in the case of Tod’s and Cole Haan, if you’re wearing the shoes on a daily basis, you might be real, but you’re not exactly a plebian, so saying “real people” might overextend the point. So really, by “real,” I mean, non-actors/models.

Here, a Tod’s campaign by wonderful photographer Eliott Erwitt.

I feel like it’s a way of brands attempting to become more real and human to people. Like the idea of the Creative Director becoming the human face of a brand, or knowing the “story” of a company and its materials, knowing who the photographer is and who the subjects are makes you, as the buyer, feel somehow closer to the brand, like it is more accessible to you.

Instead of advertising images just appearing like magic on a magazine page, you have a sense of how the image was created, which makes it feel more authentic, and, as a result, leads you to feel that the ad is more believable.

For this Cole Haan campaign, the brand asked Todd Selby, of The Selby, to photograph people who inspire him wearing Cole Haan shoes.

Interesting the way this is bringing the whole photographer-blogger thing full circle, since I guess we wouldn’t have really known these photographers in the days before blogs.

Like Scott Schuman, for example, was already a fashion photographer, but now we know who he is, so now it’s like, “Oh look, these brands are using that photographer we like,” when really, they’re just capitalizing on the fact that we know who they are now by publicizing who the photographer is. It’s working out well for the photographers who have created blogs!!

April 9, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Style Files

Labels:
Photography

Bibliotheque – Now and Then

I still love the original “Bibliotheque” wallpaper designed by Richard Neas (read more about him here) for Brunschwig & Fils,

“Bibliotheque” in Nina Campbell’s home.

and I just discovered this new version by French design company homology…

I’ve also seen this version, in Gary Spain’s portfolio, but I’m not sure who it’s by:

I still prefer the old-school versions like this and the Brunschwig one at top, where it looks hand-drawn rather than photo-realistic, but I still thought the new one was worth sharing.

Also, I discovered homology because of this other trompe l’oeil wallpaper they are doing:

I’d never seen anything like it! You can wallpaper your walls so that they look button tufted!

My friend Rayna’s apartment in LA has the facade of the kitchen island that faces the living room, underneath the bar top, upholstered and button tufted in a cream just like this and it looks so pimp.

April 8, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Interiors

Labels:

Pretty.

I just love this little mudroom/entry hall by Gary Spain. It’s a pretty unusual color story, but it works!

April 8, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Interiors

Labels:

Dolly Parton

I know I’ve already posted this song once, but this is a different video of it, and well, I find myself weirdly fascinated by her.. The song itself is awesome, but Dolly Parton is just unbelievable.

LOOK at what she is wearing!! And her wig! She is like a drag queen but actually a woman!

April 7, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Listening To

Labels:
classics

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