CLEARING OUT OF POSTCARDS... with apologies to my friends

ART I ADMIRE: Robert Delaunay

 Robert and Sonia Delaunay were a great influence on design since the 1920s.

POETRY: Derek Walcott: The Prodigal

The Syrian writer, historian and broadcaster Rana Kabbani, with oriental 'savoir vivre', comes loaded with presents whenever she comes to lunch or dinner. Amongst the presents last time was The Prodigal by Derek Walcott, a Nobel Prize winning poet I had never read.

Extract:
I had said goodbye to the beautiful plump soldier
whose hair, when she removed her forage cap,
was neatly parted as a blackbird's wings,
to the berry-red lipstick, goodbye to eyes
that held, I hoped, more than formal affection,
outside the hotel.  Desire flashed from my face
like a weapon caught in sunlight, then she mounted
her lucky motorcycle and glided off, gone
into the turning traffic out of our lives.

LIVING BY DESIGN: More JS Scribbles

ARCHITECTURE: David Adajaye

Keep tabs on the Ghanaian/British architect David Adajaye who designed the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.

Adajaye has also designed a chair for Knoll.

FABRICS: John Stefanidis Archive: SOPHIE

*** Each facet of cubes a Stefanidis fabric design ***

LIVING BY DESIGN: Tony Duquette, Californian designer

Verging on Kitsch - glitz with éclat - fearless invention... Duquette's 'green dining room' and garden at Dawnridge... 

Hollywood comes to Venice 'piano nobile' 

Palazzo Brandolini for Dodie Rosenkrans...

Right: When Elsie de Wolfe died, she willed her 'meuble' to Duquette who placed it in a prominent position in the ballroom of his studio.  

ARCHITECTURE: Hot News

Thomas Heatherwick has conceived a garden bridge across the Thames. Google it and see how great it could be. According to the London Evening Standard: Private donors have pledged £150million, now the Chancellor should find the rest. IT MUST BE BUILT AND FAST, IT IS A GREAT IDEA.

POETRY: Reason & Love by Alexander Pushkin

Young Daphnis, chasing Chloe, cried:
"My beauty, wait! Don't run away!
Just say: I love you - don't go hide,
I swear by Venus, I won't stay!"
"Be silent!  Reason coldly said;
"Say: I adore you!" Eros replied.

"Adore you!" sang the maiden sweet,
And love set both their hearts ablaze,
And Daphnis fell before her feet,
And Chloe dropped her flaming gaze,
"Oh flee! O flee!" cold Reason cried.
While crfaty Eros "Stay!" replied.

She stayed,  And, trembling with his love,
The happy shepherd made his plea:
"O look, he said, "that downy dove
Has kissed his mate beneath the tree!"
"Oh flee!" cried reason once again;
"They'll show you how!" said Eros then.

DOCUMENTARY: The History of Art in Three Colours

Not Lord Clark of 'Civilisation' but nevertheless very good watchable TV and erudite: James Fox eloquent, far-fetched but pleasurable.

'The History of Art in Three Colours' - GOLD / BLUE / WHITE. 

No longer available on BBC Iplayer but full episodes can be found on You Tube.

ART / COMMENT: Frieze Masters 2013

This month in London there were 3/4 art fairs, the best of these for contemporary art, Frieze, has been going for years. Frieze Masters, started in 2012, is art until the year 2000 - a very remarkable collection of galleries from all over and of very high standard, a welcome newcomer.