Landscape Architecture

Isamu Noguchi: Spirit and Matter Written In Stone

www.artesmagazine.com Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi’s (1904-88) philosophy of life and artistic output are so intricately intertwined that it is near impossible to think of them separately. He is also one of a handful of 20th Century artists whose very ideas and explorations, perhaps even more vital today than in his own time, warrant careful study. Noguchi was no ordinary thinker. He believed that seeing stars from the bottom of a well can be a sculpture, spoke of ancient monuments and stones as being alive, light and sound as sculpture, and shapes carrying memory. He also was extremely interested in the additional space that sensory experiences and imagination supplies and experimented widely with such notions as weightlessness in weight. xxxxxMore

‘Palm Beach Panache,’ Luxury from the Inside, Out

panache DSCN9513 Recently published, Palm Beach Panache, by inveterate design fashionista, Carolina (pronounced, Caro-lee-na) Fernandez, plunges headlong into a world few get to see. Behind the gates and curving drives leading up to those fine homes bordering the ubiquitous Florida inter-coastal waterways, there are treasures of design and good taste meant for only the most discerning eye. But, Fernandez has managed to pierce the coveted privacy veil, inviting her readers into those hallowed realms with dozens of beautiful photographs and her probing narrative style. Inspired by her own investment in Sunshine State property, as well as shaping attractive living environments for her own family, based in New England, the author ventured into the Palm Beach community to learn about and share her observations of the unique, ‘Palm Beach style.’ xxxxxMore

Editor’s Letter: August, 2015

“The way we see things is affected by what we believe.” ~John Berger

Left: Nicholas Hilliard, ‘Queen Elizabeth, The Ermine Portrait’ (1585). Hatfield House, London

Listening to Stone

The art of the quest means leaving home; it is the companion of adventure. Questers must be prepared to venture into the unknown, confront difficulties and dangers, and return home with new understandings of themselves and the world. A pilgrimage is, by definition, part trip and part ritual. The impetus for my journey was not nearly as dramatic or danger-wrought as that. It was urged on by a wish to pay homage, and seek the truth about an 18^th century woman, whose story remained locked in the back of an antique pocket watch for over two hundred years. xxxxxxMore

Janet Echelman’s Dazzling Aerial Sculpture: for Boston, the Sky’s the Limit

With this one project, Boston has gone from a public art also-ran community to a serious cultural player.

One glimpses a surreal vision when driving out of the Route 93 Tunnel at Boston’s downtown Purchase Street exit: a gigantic but benign jellyfish-like apparition is floating up in the sky. This diaphanous sculptural presence, gently dancing and fluttering in space, seems to be swimming on the wind. Artist Janet Echelman’s public art work, entitled As If It Were Already Here and hosted by the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, is a stunning achievement, an indelible image that manages to seem both ephemeral and permanent. xxxxxxMore

Contemporary Artist, Richard Humann’s ‘Same River Twice’: Study in Accidental Fractals

www.artesmagazine.com — View of Ruchard Humann;s intallation work, ‘The Same River Twice, ‘at CR10, Linlithgo, NY., 2013.

Considering information and concepts as fractal in nature, is a basis of mathematical analyses. Fractals are a tool for carrying out analysis of complex forms to reveal simple underlying structures. Yet exploring fractals in ideas and artwork, is an odd concept, until we consider fractals- not just as complex algorithms- but as ways to examine complexity. We can see this proposition in Richard Humann’s work “The Same River Twice,” shown at CR10, Linlithgo, NY, Summer 2013, by looking at how the work presents a visual representation of the natural form of the Hudson River, shaped by broken pieces of printed text. If the viewer contemplates the intersection formed in paintings of raw nature by the Hudson River School landscape painters, with Humann’s self-similar elements of text, cut out from printed books, screen plays and musical lyrics reorganized into the shape of the Hudson River, one can come to an understanding of a fractal way of looking at art, and “The Same River Twice.” artes fine arts magazineMore

Antoni Gaudi’s Architectural Vision: Exploring the Fantastic Park Guell

Editor’s Note: In this, Part II of a two-part series on a sampling of architect, Antoni Gaudi’s best known creations, architecture critic, Mark Favermann takes the reader on a tour of Barcelona’s municipal gardens of ‘Park Guell.’ Gaudi lived and worked his entire life in this beautiful Catalonian city on the Mediterranean. He devoted much of his career and energy to the creation of the elaborate cathedral,’ La Sagrada Familia, as well as residental properties, ‘Casa Batllo’ and the apartment building ‘Casa Mila,’ also known as ‘La Pedrera.’ Visit all three of these properties in Part I of this story, on a link appearing at the end of this article. Gaudi’s vision and eccentricities, examined by the author, are an essential part of our understanding of the man and his design sensibility.

It is said that unlike his contemporary architects, Gaudi had a tiny library. The Gaudi scholar, Joan Bassegoda I. Nonell says that Gaudi’s favorite book on architecture was the tree that he could see through the window of his studio. Rather sternly, Gaudi rejected traditional approaches to architecture and had his own techniques derived from natural forms. In later years, his personal grooming was rather lax. To refer to him as an eccentric would be an understatement. artes fine arts magazine

Antoni Gaudi’s Architectural Vision: Aesthetic Born of Devout Religious Mysticism

Editor’s Note: In this, Part I of a two-part series on a sampling of architect, Antoni Gaudi’s best known creations, architecture critic, Mark Favermann takes the reader on a virtual tour of Barcelona’s elaborate cathedral, La Sagrada Familia. We also visit two Gaudi-designed resident properties, Casa Batllo and the apartment building Casa Mila, also known as La Pedrera (The Quarry), gracing the wide boulevards of this Catalonian city on the Mediterranean. For Part II, appearing in ARTES in the near future, the municipal gardens of Park Guell will be highlighted. Gaudi’s vision and eccentricities, examined by the author, are an essential part of our understanding of the man and his design sensibility.

Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) was not only an eccentric architect but, as he aged, he became more and more devoutly Catholic. His religion and architecture became increasingly intertwined. The overtly mystical nature of his beliefs informed the design of his building projects and their details. Gaudi’s approach translated into an often colorful joy for much of his work, a fantastic organic arrangement of shapes and forms that tended to suggest structure and space as a visual musical harmony, sometimes a bit cacophonic, but most often smooth, quite sensual, and rather symphonic. artes fine arts amgazineMore

Santa Barbara Museum of Art Expands Collection of Early Roman Sculpture

I love museums on the move, particularly those that take their mission to educate, seriously. Located in a beautifully-renovated former post office, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (left) boasts an international collection deserving of repeated accolades. With the earliest renovation of the original structure by architect David Adler in 1939, and with several more expansions and improvements to the space over several decades, the newly renovated Park Wing Entrance and Luria Activities Center opened in June, 2006. The institution is now celebrating its 70th anniversary year with the addition of the newly-installed Lansdowne Dionysus in its entrance courtyard. Drawn from the collection of Wright Ludington, a life-long patron of the museum, the piece serves as an elegant reminder that the museum holds the second-largest collection of Greco-Roman sculpture in California, only to be outdone by the mighty museum atop a Los Angeles hill—the Getty. artes fine arts magazineMore

Wilmington, Delaware’s Concerned Community Revitalizes Architectural Landmark

Classical limestone bank buildings line the streets of downtown Wilmington, Delaware; facades that suggest prosperity and life. But until recently, the streetlights shining vigilantly at night exposed nothing but emptiness. And, although Wilmington became a national financial center for the credit card industry – since the Financial Center Development Act of 1981 removed the legal cap on interest rates that banks charge customers – at the receiving end, its population had a median household income of $35,000 in the 2000 census. fine arts magazineMore

Coming of Age: The Birth of Modern American Architecture

New canaan modern homes artes fine arts magazine — Alice Ball House, New Canaan, CT. Design by Philip Johnson (c.1950); Interior Design, Victoria Lyon; sculpture, Matthias Alfen; Photo, Eric Roth.

“I shall confess to you that I have only had one teacher: the past; only one education: the study of the past.” – LeCorbusier (1929)

Moored like sleek Cigarette boats in a harbor full of luxury yachts, the growing number of New Canaan ‘moderns’ (more than 75 exist today), offer an unexpected visual respite in a small New England town where, for generations, tradition has ruled supreme. Their sleek, simple façades, flat roof lines, and ample, oversized windows will either shock or delight the observer today, much as they did more than a half century ago, when they were first constructed. Just like an overpowered speedboat, these bad boys of the harbor (and the men who conceived them) were out to make a point—and they succeeded. fine arts magazineMore