COLONIAL KITCHEN, SAN MARINO, LOS ANGELES

Before going to the Huntington Gardens in San Marino we had lunch at the Colonial Kitchen where I spotted this cute painting. The painting is actually a very "continental" note in a restaurant which is otherwise a timewarp of Americana circa 1960, the decor, the food and the patrons.  You can see pictures of the menu and food at Biggest Menu.  In a private dining room there was a large group of white- and blue-haired ladies playing cards. We loved it. 

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LOS ANGELES

The Natural History Museum in Los Angeles has lots of interesting things to see including a fabulous gallery of gems and minerals and an insectarium that includes enormous, shocking, live insects. In the California history gallery I particularly like this positively Dali-esque cart. This is not a surrealist sculpture or a Hollywood movie prop but an actual wooden cart from the period of Spanish rule in California.

ALEXANDRA VON FURSTENBURG SHOP, LOS ANGELES

I was pleasantly surprised by Alexandra von Furstenburg's home furnishings store/gallery in Los Angeles. One might wonder what she has going for her other than a name and lots of money, and her designs borrow heavily from 1970s style, riding a fashionable wave that may have crested--in my opinion, but she more than manages to pull off a look that is chic and oddly thoughtful at the same time.  Perhaps it is just the white California light or perhaps she recognizes that sometimes you just need a neon-colored lucite desk or accessory to finish, or start, your room. Her furniture and furnishings have interesting contrasts of  tone and density, with thick slabs of color playing against thin lines of light and a well considered combination of disco and conceptual art sensibilities. Despite the hard edges the whole look is surprisingly unpretentious. Again, maybe it was just the light but she really seems to get it right.

GARDENS IN BEVERLY HILLS

Greystone, in Beverly Hills, is a 1926 English late gothic/early renaissance style house surrounded by Italian renaissance/mannerist style gardens. Built by the Doheny family the property is now owned by the city of Beverly Hills and the gardens are a free public park. The house itself no longer has it's original furnishings and is rented out as a location for weddings, film shoots etc. On previous trips to Los Angeles I have visited the Virginia Robinson Gardens and the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden, both also in Beverly Hills--one could spend an entire day visiting these three sites and get a great idea of old (and beautiful and cultured) Los Angeles .  

Easter

I returned to New York from two weeks in Los Angeles recently and I have lots of stuff to post from the trip. Easter seems like a good day to start posting with pictures from the Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, magnificent on the outside and inside.

REGENCY ARTS PRESS BOOK SWAP

I went to the fun Art Book Swap organized by Regency Arts Press last week and held at the Museum of Modern Art. This is the third book swap that the organization, directed by Lauren Wittels, has produced. Here's how it worked: you bring any art books that you don't want or need anymore, hardcover or paperback (but no magazines or how-to books), present them at the check-in table where you get a receipt indicating the number of books you have donated, and then browse the tables full of books donated by other swappers and by publishers and dealers . There were more books filling the tables all day long as swappers arrived and donated. At the end of the day all remaining books are donated to prison libraries through local organizations: in New York the Prisoners' Reading Encouragement Project, and in Los Angeles the Bunche Center Prison Outreach Program. I walked out with some amazing books!

ART FROM 1st CENTURY BC INDIA

I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday to see the new exhibition "Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage" which was fascinating but not quite as exciting as I thought it would be. The collages on view were all examples made for intimate viewing in a private album rather than the tours de force made for public display. Nevertheless I highly recommend checking it out. While at the museum I took a stroll through the Indian art galleries and discovered some incredible things. The first gallery displays the art of 1st century BC India and includes the remarkable pair of earrings and the relief sculpture shown below. The gold earrings are described as "the largest, finest and best preserved examples of early Indian jewelry." The plaque illustrates a royal family with their dog in incredible detail. Check out those fantastic hairdo's!

COOL ZINES

As a young hipster and budding historian growing up in New York I acquired and saved a lot of magazines, newspapers and zines. As a result I now have a pretty extensive of publications like New York Rocker, SoHo News, The Face, i-D, Non-LP B Side, Short News, Mouth of the Rat, ZG and other titles that may be familiar to cool folks who hung out in the East Village and Soho circa 1979-1983. Back then the entire hip community seemed to consist of less than 1000 people--much less. While organizing my collection I discovered I had doubles of a few things and have put them up on eBay. Check out my listings for a rare copy of punk zine Mouth of the Rat and three early issues of The Face.

CUNEO MUSEUM AND GARDENS

Via the Art Newspaper comes this item about the Cuneo Museum and gardens in Vernon Hills, Illinois:

Loyola University Chicago has received the largest gift in its 140-year history from John Cuneo Jr, his wife Herta, and the Cuneo Foundation. The $50m gift includes the family mansion, which opened to the public as the Cuneo Museum and Gardens in 1991. It brings the museum just $100m shy of its $500m capital campaign goal. The university has a longstanding relationship with the Cuneos, after whom the Stritch School of Medicine’s main building is named, after the couple gave $13m to the university in 2000 to support education.

This gift will be used to support student scholarships, a new academic building on the Lake Shore Campus to be named Cuneo Hall, and for operational support at the mansion and gardens. The mansion is currently used mainly for private events, such as wedding, but plans for future programming include art performances, lectures and classes and artist residencies. According to the family, it was John Cuneo’s Sr’s wish that his home, estate, and collections be used as an educational institution for the public.

The Cuneo Mansion houses the family collection of antiques, paintings, tapestries, sculptures, silver, and porcelain, as well as murals by Czech-born artist John Mallin, who painted the interiors of more than 100 Chicago churches. Constructed in 1918, the coral pink villa was designed in the Venetian style by architect Benjamin Marshall for Samuel Insull, the original founder of General Electric Company. The gardens were designed by landscaped architect, Jens Jensen, who was also responsible for Lincoln Memorial Park.

LIBRARY THING

I ran into my friend Laren Stover, the author of the Bombshell Manual of Style, the other night at Sally Randall's fabulous and fun holiday party. I asked her if she was on facebook and she responded "no but I'm on LibraryThing!" She and a number of other friends of mine who embody style as well as substance. So I finally decided to join LibraryThing also. It's yet another internet timewaster but at least a highbrow one that also has some practical benefits. You enter the titles of the books in your collection into LibraryThing and it creates a catalogue of your personal library. A few of my favorite rarities from my collection are shown below and you can see the beginnings of my catalogue on the site (these books are in my permanent collection so none of them are for sale). Plus LibraryThing has social networking features: you can see the profiles and catalogues of people who have the same book that you do, etc. Check out Laren's profile.

              I Am A Cliche, 1979:                     

Les Lalanne, 1975:

Improbable Memories by Sarah Moon, 1981:

Oscar Niemeyer: Works in Progress, 1956:

Bjorn Weckstrom, 1980

The World of Carmel Snow, 1962:

Your Home and You, 1963