Architecture
Modernism – Innovating Design Styles in the 20th Century
Modernism is a term the art and design community of our contemporary western world has adopted to describe a diverse range of architectural and interior decorative styles, as well as applied and graphic arts created between approximately 1880 and 1940 on an international scale.
St Mark’s Basilica at Venice
St Mark’s Basilica at Venice is one of Italy’s most famous Roman Catholic churches described by nineteenth century English art critic John Ruskin as ‘a vision out of the earth…a treasure heap it seems, partly of gold and partly of opal and mother of pearl’. The great domes of St. Marks were originally much lower [...]
What is an Antique?
What is an Antique? An antique is something made in a previous era. However, according to antique dealers, their associations and the tax man, it is not really that simple at all.
Lasting Impressions – Paintings, Pools and Plants at Giverny
Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) celebrated the real art of gardening in the creation of his now world famous garden at Giverney, in Normandy. Monet’s painting of Spring at Giverny (1886) is a vision of the village clothed in the softest pinks. It is a first impression of a region full of magic light and charm the country that seduced and held him captive for the rest of his natural life.
Flights of Garden Fantasy – Inspiring the Human Spirit
Growing beds of flowers is part of the delights of gardening and only one aspect of an ever evolving story that satisfies the human spirit to a profound degree.
Thomas Jefferson at Monticello – to See and be Seen
Throughout his life Thomas Jefferson was continually putting his house Monticello up or pushing it down as his knowledge and experience of life and architecture expanded.
Gertrude Jekyll & Edwin Lutyens – The English House & Garden
The agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century removed land as the chief source of wealth in England. By 1901 money to pay for a country house had to be made in urban centres of trade or, in the countries that made up the British Empire. Building a house in the country made to appear as old and as venerable as the countryside itself was the ideal. Stylistically they looked back to the English vernacular tradition, which had been modified in response to the differing requirements of affluent clients. In this creative climate of possibilities architect Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) and gardener Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) became names well known.
Josiah Wedgwood Tradesman – Tycoon, Firing up the Modern Age
Josiah Wedgwood was a trend setting potter, manufacturing innovator and marketing genius. He fulfilled the dream, going from being an apprentice tradesman in a tough industry, to becoming a world famous tycoon. He built a business empire, founded a famous family dynasty and gained for himself a favourable reputation against all the odds and in harsh and physically demanding conditions.
Heaven on Earth? – Palladian Villa at Padua nearby to Venice
The precise location of heaven on earth has never really been established. However it could be at the Villa Moro Malipiero at Padua, nearby to Venice in Northern Italy.
Archaeology – Met Show Explores Origins of Egyptian Art
The best and shortest road towards knowledge of truth [is] nature* In ancient Egypt their agricultural society, at first, was structured around a King, who embodied the Egyptian belief that their lives were being divinely guided and nurtured. During the ‘Old Kingdom’ in the 3rd millennium before the Christ Event, he emerged as a ‘living [...]
Archaeology – Uncovering the Past to Help Invent the Future
Without romantic enthusiasm attached to a hunt for hidden treasures the true wealth of our cultural heritage would never have been re-discovered at all.
Charles Voysey – Head, Hand & Heart
English architect Charles Francis Anneslsey Voysey (1857-1941) evolved a simple linear style mostly devoid of surface ornamentation that while susceptible to local variation, was universally acceptable. He stressed architecture had its roots in good quality work, which should have some connection with everyday life, where well-made objects are treasured. His father, a Reverend of the [...]
Planning Savvy, Sustainable City Environs – Being Eco-Smart
Delivering sustainable communities is big business. We need to fast-track informed, intelligent decisions and solutions for managing natural, urban and virtual environments. A lot will depend on creatively connecting communities globally, as well as computing the right answers.
Pugin & Pearson – The Master & Disciple of Gothic Revival
Auguste Welby Pugin [1812-52] and John Loughborough Pearson [1817-1897] were leading exponents of the nineteenth century Gothic Revival style in architecture in England from Waterloo (1815) to the Great War (1914-1918). Their connection with the expansion of the colony established in the antipodes during the late eighteenth century has almost been forgotten, especially in England.
Lord Byron – A Rock Star Poet in an Age of Extravagance
For historians the Regency era in England is about romantics and revolutionaries, poets and princes, architects and artists. It was a paradox where extremes met
What Is Art Deco – Does it Celebrate Life as Art?
Art Deco was about integrating contemporary living with art, and turning life into art, against those consciously working for the undoing of art and its purpose was enjoyment.
Asides
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