In a radiantly decorated and appointed turn-of-the-century tea house on a Long Island estate, the vision of American artist and Elsie de Wolfe protégé Everett Shinn stands revealed.
As a female-coded area, the estrado provided women a degree of autonomy and self-expression not generally possible in Continental or colonial society of the time.
Rita Lydig coveted rare art and ravishing antiques to the point of bankruptcy. But her fine-tuned aesthetic sense remained intact until the last penny.
Exhibitions: Art on the Go-The collection that makes up Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte de Ponce was assembled by Luis A. Ferré, one of the most interesting men of his age.
Books: Seine Kid-Like a decadent lady cake crafted by the finest chef a Gilded Age heiress could hire, the artwork of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artist Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855–1919) exudes a rich taste.
Exhibitions: Discovering Caillebotte-When it comes to the likes of Monet, Manet, and Renoir, it seems there’s little left to unearth beneath the impressionist sun. But when it comes to Gustave Caillebotte, their less colorful colleague, tales remain to be told.
Objects: Masters of Disguise-Made for a simple purpose—to store
tea securely—antique wooden caddies come in a variety of ingenious forms, some made to confound would-be thieves, others to amaze.
An American Chorus-Visitors who stop by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing will be greeted not only by the exciting, challenging newness of the reinstallation—undertaken to mark the Wing’s hundredth anniversary—but given the opportunity to look beyond surfaces, with the help of two many-voiced audio guides that unravel the foundational myths of American art history object by object.
Exhibitions: Unknown Country-Recently it has seemed as if the only tradition revered in the museum world is the critique of tradition, a cause for score-settling as well as the occasional revelation.
Behind Closed Drawers-At the Kravet archive in Woodbury, Long Island, tens of thousands of textile samples from around the world are assiduously catalogued and preserved, serving both as a comprehensive record of sewn, woven, embroidered, and printed design history, and as inspiration for contemporary makers.
Accessions: Horse Sense-The Kimbell Art Museum’s director discusses a fine specimen from George Stubbs’s Mares and Foals series recently added to the collection.
Exhibitions: White Line Moderne-Upon her death in 1956, a portion of the work and personal ephemera of American artist Blanche Lazzell was sent to the Art Museum of West Virginia University (AMWVU) in Morgantown: brightly colored paintings and prints, along with charcoal drawings, personal diaries, and letters to her family and friends.
Best in Glass-Two longtime friends and colleagues in their passion for American decorative arts discuss a major acquisition to mark the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Met’s American Wing.