Barbier-Mueller Brings Oceanic and African Masterpieces to the Met
Some three dozen masterpieces of Oceanic and African sculpture from the Barbier-Mueller Museum (Geneva) will be shown at the Met in New York, from 2 June to 27 September. The exhibition, sponsored by Vacheron Constantin, reflects the extraordinary taste and astute judgement of the two individuals who amassed the entire Barbier-Mueller collection over a period spanning eight decades.
Vacheron Constantin’s involvement with the exhibition stems from an ongoing partnership with the Barbier-Mueller Museums. Read more…
Housing Art by David Howell
When we made our own house here in Bali, housing art was a primary part of the design program. This priority makes specific demands that call for intelligent solutions, and when they are achieved, the result is far greater than the sum of the parts. The house, the art, and the people living in it all benefit.
Architect, David Howell succeeded magnificently in this regard with the Herne Bay Residence in New Zealand.
As he explains, “This house, for a serious art collector, is simply a series of walls. Each axis is terminated with a piece of art on a wall. Spaces between walls are filled with walls of glass maintaining the open connection to the outdoors. The requirements of wall space for art are balanced with the functional need for an open plan.”
Making Modernism Rich
What is called “modernism” in architecture can be a bit barren and over-blank. The term colloquially refers to almost anything that’s rigorously rectilinear and mostly unornamented. But it doesn’t have to mean aesthetic impoverishment. Frank Llloyd Wright understood this perfectly. Case in point, the Bachman-Wilson House (1954) which has been meticulously restored by its architect-owners Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino. It’s one of Wright’s “Usonian” houses, which were conceived with a vision for a new American architectural vernacular that would be respectful of the natural environment.
What a better world it would be if Usonia had happened, instead of random suburban sprawl and McMansionism.
Photographs by Lawrence Tarantino, A.I.A.
Pascal Morabito Weds his Beloved Marie-Ève . . . Again!
The seasonal winds in Bali have finally shifted and the fresh, dry season has come. It happened suddenly, as if commanded by the hand of Pascal Morabito especially for the occasion of his latest wedding to his lovely wife, Marie Ève. They are so well-matched that they simply can’t resist being wed again and again. And who ever said romance was dead? Not a bit of it.
No Recent Posts on Architecture: wHY?
This blog has been entirely bereft of architecture posts for months. Why the dry spell? I haven’t seen much worth mentioning. The endless insensitive regurgitation of 20th century modernism doesn’t do it. Nor does the egomania of international celebrity architects who rode the wave of wacky overspending that brought us such nightmares as Dubai’s alien cityscape and freakish so-called “design hotels” that amount to little more than houses of horrors. In residential architecture, particularly for tropical second homes and resorts, the gratuitous use of all manner of gimmicks and gewgaws just makes me feel anxious. Or nauseous.
I’ve been looking for contemporary architecture that manifests deep beauty, not superficial stylishness or irrelevant grand gestures. Buildings that fulfull their function elegantly, with forms that follow from that. Buildings with harmonious proportion, balanced placement of solid and void, legible spaces with palpable meaning . . . and all that other good stuff that we know makes buildings more than the sum of a bunch of parts. Well, I found some examples of the kind of magic I’m talking about here. Don’t ask, “WHERE is this great architecture?” Instead say, “wHY . . . IS this great architecture!”
That little “w” is no typo. I’m referring to wHY, an LA-based practice, which has woven together the talents of one Thai, one Japanese and one American partner into a talented triumvirate that makes some of the most relevant and beautiful buildings I’ve seen in dog’s ages.
Much More than Mud Wrestling: Mepantigan @ Green School Bali
Something very strange is going on up at the Green School in Bali. Strange and wonderful. Every full moon the school hosts the most extraordinary performance evening on the Island of Bali, called Mepantigan. It’s impossible to describe, but I shall try. Imagine a troupe of talented local lads and lasses doing drama and martial arts and irreverant yet pointed comedy in a mud-filled rice paddy, with lithe young Balinese girls throwing hale and hearty lads splat on their backs in the muck, and all manner of other mud-merriment, but with music (mostly bamboo) and plenty of fire (from torches, mouths, and the fiery energy of the performers). That’s a snippet of the multi-media-mud-laced magnificence of this madness. Must be seen to be believed.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s: a) traditional, b) a legit martial art, c) sacred, d) musical, e) theatrical, f) beautiful, and g) to benefit the boldly innovative Green School?