We were motivated to put together this exhibition not only because Art Deco has been an important focus of our gallery for the past 40 years, but also because there is so little coming onto the market now, and with the recent focus on contemporary design, we feel that young collectors, who do not have a great deal of opportunity…
The Museum of Modern Art in New York is not the only place to see decorative objects produced by the Bauhaus. While the exhibition, Bauhaus 1919-1939: Workshops for Modernity, does include beautiful examples of metalwork created by the avant-garde art school, our own gallery exhibition, Art Deco Revisited, also features a special Marianna Brandt designed tea service (ca. 1924) that…
Silver objects of earlier periods are prized for their intricate forms, and the various surface embellishments of piercing, carving, chasing and other techniques. Art Deco silver and metal, however, is characterized by the total absence of this kind of surface decoration, relying instead on purity of line and perfectly polished surfaces for drama and style.
This month’s issue of Art & Auction featured an interesting editorial about the fact that fewer and fewer people seem to be visiting galleries. Is there some kind of “gallery phobia” out there? The reason usually given is that now people can simply go on-line – why bother to go out and visit, when there is so much at your…
One of the problems with the contemporary “Design” movement is that quite a lot of the pieces are seemingly extreme just for the sake of being “different”. Many designers forget that a little originality goes a long way. Also, many of the new designs are far from being actually functional. There are chairs that one cannot really sit on, tables…
André Arbus was a decorator, furniture designer, architect and sculptor. Born in Toulouse, France, he went on to work in his father’s cabinet-making firm after graduating from the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts. While Arbus was not himself a cabinet maker, he was interested in form and in good design. He believed in designing furniture that was comfortable and a…