Gesamtkunstwerk.....a word to live by

Original William Morris interiors, including the hallway of his own Red House at the bottom. 

I discovered the word Gesamtkunstwerk a few months ago and came across it again last week while researching the Fortuny post.  It is a German word that translates to "a total work of art".  It came into common usage with the German opera composer Robert Wagner who believed the operatic experience should be the perfect synthesis of all the arts (music, literature, poetry, dance, theater, architecture, painting, etc.)---in other words, a Gesamtkunstwerk.  It is just a small step across the English Channel to find Wm Morris living out his own life of Gesamtkunstwerk epitomized by his most famous quote:  "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

While looking on-line for any discussion of Gesamtkunstwerk and Morris I found this wonderful essay on exactly this topic on the blog of NY artist Doug Blanchard.  And I'll end with the words of my polymath friend Cliff:
 
"All of one’s life MUST be a gesamtkunstwerk, or just phone it in...."

In praise of dimmers -- electrical, part 2

Last week I wrote about push button switches and this week it's dimmers.  Few rooms in my house do not have dimmers (the laundry room comes to mind) and yes, do this yourself, just don't forget to turn off the electricity.  There is no easier way to make a room feel inviting and beautiful than to dim the lights---that pile of tools in the corner fades into the shadows and you look better too.  Like most people I spend a lot of time in my kitchen and put much thought into the lighting in this room while renovating last year.  There are four sets of lights in this room (five if you count the hood light) and all are on dimmers.  This includes six overhead can lights (Lightolier 5" incandescent/aperture cone) spaced over the room on a dimmer rated for multiple lights; three Lightolier 3 3/4" low voltage overhead lights with halogen bulbs and pinhole trim over the sink counter (these are on a special low voltage dimmer); a rewired light found in a Maine antique shop over the table (normal dimmer switch); and two very inexpensive Xenon undercabinet lights from Home Depot under the wall cabinets on either side of stove (they are dimmed with a built-in rocker switch).  Add candles and votives and, voila, you've created an inviting cocoon of gustatory delight.  Salut!

"The Earthly Paradise", A Really Long Poem by Wm Morris

......about the quest for true love.

Cupid Finding Psyche, Edward Burne-Jones (ca. 1865)

An excerpt from: The Story of Cupid and Psyche.....

"Pigmenti per Artisti", a shopwindow in Venice

Fortuny Museum, Venice in November

 

 

 

 

A Venetian jewel is the Fortuny Museum.  Like Morris, Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949) was an accomplished designer in many mediums--textiles, interior decor, photography, stage-design, fashion, and lighting to name a few.  The museum, set in the Gothic palazzo that served as Fortuny's atelier, feels little changed from then.  Like Morris and wallpaper, Fortuny is best known today for his beautiful (and extremely expensive) silk lamps. I wonder if they ever met?

 

The view from my room at the hotel Domus Ciliota, a renovated Augustin Monastery near the Museum (yes, the canal actually did a ninety degree turn right outside my window.).

Albert, Righter, and Tittmann -- Modern Traditionalists

Last Thursday night my friend Dan Cooper, who the leader of the free world calls when he needs an historically accurate carpet for a certain famous bedroom, invited me to accompany him to his book launch at the Tavern Club in Boston.  The book is New Classic American Houses: The Architecture of Albert, Righter & Tittmann and while Dan is a fantastic writer, it is really the photographs that are the stars of this book.  I met the architects Albert, Righter and Tittmann, who were lovely and gracious, but I left wondering if they intentionally ordered their names so as to spell AR&T (how perfect) and what's up with architects and bow-ties?  Their "Modern Traditional" designs hearken back to the days of McKim, Mead & White and I sure Wm Morris would agree with Robert Stern's very Morris-sounding sentiment in the foreward to this book: “What a pleasure it is to have an architecture so beautifully naturalized—to site, to purpose, and to tradition.”  Here are my favorite AR&T houses/interiors......

A wooden wonder......

This one reminds me of the traditional architecture of the Gaeltacht of western Ireland....

Shouldn't everybody have a porch with a fireplace?.....

The Checkerboard House....

The Guest Cottage.....the yellow sashes are inspired....

America Recycles Day - Nov. 15th

http://www.nrc-recycle.org/americarecycles.aspx

In praise of push buttons -- electrical, part 1

above:  single-pole switch, single-pole dimmer, three-way switch

 

 Almost any house built before the 1940's had push-button switches, typically with a mother-of-pearl accent on the button.  About twenty years ago Classic Accents started reproducing these switches (to meet modern electrical codes) and shortly after that I started putting them back in my-old-house (now three houses later...).  The company's customer service is excellent and they recently replaced one of my switches at no cost even though I had bought it years earlier.   They offer a large array of plate styles but I typically order the forged antique brass (or is it the aged brass?  I never can remember).  It is very easy to change a switch (look for directions on the internet)---just don't forget to turn off the electricity!!!

The Houses of McKim, Mead & White

The Gamble House post reminded me of the book The Houses of McKim, Mead & Whiteby Samuel G. White that I've had for over a decade and often go to for ideas and inspiration.  Over the last few years I've slowly had all the shingles on the first floor of my house replaced.  The addition of the shingle diamond over front steps and the geometric motif on a bump-out on the southern wall were both inspired by houses in this book.  The 16 diamond shingles were cut from regular shingles.

Birds of a feather....

A New and Native Beauty, Gamble House

 

 

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston recently hosted an exhibition of the works of Greene and Greene, the architects and brothers whose careers culminated with the construction of "Ultimate Bungalows" (the exhibit can be found on-line here).  The most famous of these uber-bungalows is Gamble House in Pasadena, California.  "Drawing on the skills of outstanding craftsmen, as well as their own polytechnic training, formal architectural education, and natural artistic sensibilities, Greene and Greene created legendary living environments that were both beautiful and functional."   In 1901, Charles Greene honeymooned with Alice White in her native England.   Did they study the works of William Morris? 

My favorite piece in the exhibit is the breakfast table Charles made for Alice as an engagement gift.  I was inspired by the romantic gesture and the table's rustic simplicity.  The table used stock moldings and oak boards no different from those found in the flooring aisle at Home Depot.  In fact, it looked just like a minature "floor".  While looking for the a better picture I discovered that the table was auctioned at Sotheby's in 2004.   I wonder how much it went for?  Does anyone have an artnet subscription?

Darrell Peart of Seattle is an insanely talented carpenter dedicated to keeping the artistic legacy of Greene and Greene alive.

Morris the Preservationist & South Beach

 

 

I spent the weekend in South Beach, Miami, an urban area that was designated a U. S. Historic District in 1979 in an effort to preserve its distinctive and crumbling Art Deco architecture.  Nearly a century earlier Wm Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877, the precursor of all modern preservation organizations and still a vital force in Great Britain.  You can go to their web site and read Morris's founding (and still guiding) manifesto for the organization.  Here is an excerpt:

It is for all these buildings, therefore, of all times and styles, that we plead, and call upon those who have to deal with them, to put Protection in the place of Restoration, to stave off decay by daily care, to prop a perilous wall or mend a leaky roof by such means as are obviously meant for support or covering, and show no pretence of other art, and otherwise to resist all tampering with either the fabric or ornament of the building as it stands; if it has become inconvenient for its present use, to raise another building rather than alter or enlarge the old one; in fine to treat our ancient buildings as monuments of a bygone art, created by bygone manners, that modern art cannot meddle with without destroying.