Interior Design
Mossgreen Auctions – Collection Thomas Hamel and Martyn Cook
On May 20 at Sydney Mossgreen Auctions will offer for sale a collection from Thomas Hamel Interiors and Martyn Cook Antiques of art antiques and decorative arts
Thomas Chippendale – Eighteenth Century English Furniture
An 18th century village master craftsman, who designed and made furniture in rural Yorkshire Thomas Chippendale (1718 – 1779) was a progressive ambitious chap
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.
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.
Extravagant Inventions – The Roentgen Family Cabinetmakers
Later this year in The Met at New York will be a landmark exhibition of the furniture from the German Roentgen family cabinetmaking firm in operation c1740-1795
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 [...]
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
Gaining Enlightenment – Politics, Poetry, Passion & Liberty
The late 18th and early 19th century in England, Europe and America was a period of romantics and revolutionaries, politics, poetry, passion and enlightenment
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.
Bikini Girls – Splitting the Atom on Sicily in a Roman Villa
Perhaps the best known mosaics of the ancient Roman world are images of girls wearing an ancient version of a bikini and so they have been nicknamed ‘bikini girls’.
Napoleon: Revolution to Empire @ NGV – A Winter Masterpiece
Napoleon – destiny power and passion – the legend comes alive in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces Exhibition 2012 at the NGV (National Gallery Victoria). The show Napoleon: Revolution to Empire is sure to engage all observers, who will more than likely be completely overwhelmed at the magnificence and quality of the over 500 art works and objet d’art featured.
Thomas Hope – Recycling in a Grand Manner, Surrey to Sydney
Four panels inlaid with brass by George Bullock on a cabinet at Martyn Cook Antiques Sydney, come from a pair of doors at Thomas Hope’s house Deepdene in Surrey
PostModern – Pursuing the Past to Attain the Peak of Chic
Postmodernism (1970-1990) ranged from fashion to folly, from the luxurious to the ludicrous, from theory to theatre as it spawned out of control consumerism. It also grew a corporate design culture, which became encircled by money, wealth and power. Stylistically and realistically it all had to come to an end. Finally it collapsed under the weight of its own success.
Women of Influence – Painter Angelica Kauffmann
As far as women are concerned the Age of Reason in the eighteenth century was inappropriately named. This was a period when the role of women, especially in a professional sphere, took a retrograde step. Private salons hosted by wealthy and powerful women reached the height of their influence at this time with many voices raised in favour of women’s rights, but usually to no avail.
King Charles II – Restored to Rule Britannia Gloriously
King Charles II (1630 – 1685) was responsible for putting in place new rules for the preservation of excellence in the arts. He so successfully revived local tradesmen’s skills, that in a remarkably short space of time they began to exceed their continental counterparts, achieving new heights of technical skill. Together he and his noble peers would become arbiters and rulers of taste who observed universal rules of classical proportion in buildings and in the making of every conceivable article from a silver cream jug to a sedan chair.
Art Nouveau – Was this Style More than a Tendril in Time?
At the turn of the 20th century Europe was inspired by the style Art Nouveau as artists and architects produced sensuous, sinuous lines far more eloquent than words
Asides
Watch our free video
Shanghai Scenes
Explore the delights of the burgeoning Shanghai arts scene, including the visual arts music, dance and literature.
