Cindy's Salon

November 3, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I went to the “American Painting” exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum or Art on Sunday.  It is superlative experience that every American would benefit from seeing. There are 100 paintings on display from 44 institutions. The theme of the exhibition is narrative painting—paintings that tell a story overtly or subtly. The first picture, Watson and the Shark, is a great John Singleton Copley painting of a man overboard in shark infested waters. Since Watson lived, one understands the curatorial reason behind its placement at the entrance of ...Read More

October 27, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

Rick Ellis, my partner, is a food stylist and culinary historian.  He has over 5000 books devoted to American cookery.  I serve as an adjunct curator of sorts.  In fact, I suggested he specialize in American material because, when we started almost 25 years ago, American food was under appreciated.  Its serious scholarly study and even the interest from chefs were just beginning.

Since it is October, I have been thinking about the unavoidable decoration, pumpkins, as blog topic.  And recently, at dinner, amongst our towers of bookcases, Rick and I spoke about this iconic s...Read More

October 20, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I was recently in Oxford doing among other things arcane research about paneled rooms, and discovered these photographs. (Are decorators at the Jayne Design Studio the only ones left who employ paneled rooms? I find nothing is equivalent to the kind of background old paneling provides for decoration.)

The photographs are from the Pitt Rivers Museum, a Victorian collection of ethnographic and anthropological specimens arranged by types. What is fantastic is that the old system of arrangement has been maintained, row after row of sarcophagus-shaped glass vitrines filled with a diversity of man made objects, from baskets to shrunken heads. 

...Read More

October 13, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Early in my career, I met Cora Ginsburg whom I greatly admired. She was a pioneer authority, collector, and dealer of antique costume and textiles. She was so important that today every public collection of costumes or textiles features something from her. In the 1920’s when she started in the field, antique textiles were seen as mere accessories to decoration. By the time she died in 2003, the field was considered primary in the study of culture...Read More

October 6, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I am grateful to my friend and colleague Peter Pennoyer for the pair of very big urns in the so-called cabinet room of my loft. He suggested I buy them because he knows I would appreciate their French origins, strong silhouette and, via the depiction of Lady Liberty on the sides, their American historical connection. They are from about the same date as the Statue of Liberty, a gift made from France to the United States in 1886. These urns along with the widely inventive examples by Piranesi are my favorites. I like their inventive nature and their "guts."



In general, I think urns are prime examples of the decorative art...Read More