New York City | Russell Brightwell

ANGELO AND I

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The Laurens’ Fifth Avenue Apartment by Angelo Donghia, c. 1980

Angelo Donghia died in NYC April 12,1985. I was still at Parsons studying Graphic Design and not aware of his unprecedented success as an interior designer and business man. Or of the figure he cut though Manhattan society from Studio 54 to the Metropolitan Opera Club.
But decades after his death he seems to be “haunting” me in the best possible way. First came “Angelo Donghia: Design Superstar,” a retrospective at the New York School of Interior Design in the Fall of 2015. The venue limited the scope of the exhibition, but it gave me a glimpse of Donghia’s Fifth Avenue duplex for Ralph and Ricky Lauren. More Tribeca [before Tribeca was Tribeca] than Upper East Side, it was low-slung, white and spare – no molding, no art, just overstuffed white furniture and unadorned white walls as far as the eye could see.
Not long after, I was talking to a friend, Liz Youngling, who’s career has included stints in fashion and as an interior designer. Having attended meetings in that gorgeous apartment when she worked for Ralph Lauren, she could confirm it was even more spectacular in person. Recently via email, Liz also remembered, “Angelo used to come to our office quite a bit to see Ralph and he was the most elegant man! So well-dressed, handsome, and kind to all of us peons. I’ll never forget being around him the little bit that I was – not many men like that anymore.” Certainly something to aspire to.

Angelo Donghia and unamed friends in NYC

I read more and learned that the Donghia studio’s signature included silver-foil ceilings, lacquered walls, bleached floors and oversize upholstered furniture. His use of grey flannel, a reference to his family’s tailoring business, prompted the moniker, “the man in the gray flannel sofa.” And his business acumen led him to produce furniture, textiles and wallcoverings for the design trade, and he licensed his designs for sheets, towels, china, glassware and giftware produced for the general public, to great success unheard of for an interior designer of the day.

A vignette in the Donghia Dallas showroom featuring vintage books, ceramics and silver from my inventory.

Today, Donghia, Inc., operates twelve showrooms across the United States with collections including textiles, wallcoverings, case pieces, accessories and upholstery. The Dallas showroom is helmed by the dynamic Jessica Craig. I was introduced to Jessica by my dear friend, interior designer Alice Cottrell, with an eye toward making advertising industry connections. A second meeting clarified two things for both of us: my dream job wasn’t in advertising, but in selling beautiful objects, books and art; and Jessica and I could work together.

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Jessica and the Donghia Dallas showroom, providing thoughtfully chosen books, ceramics and silver accessories. I hope to bring even a bit of Angelo Donghia’s wit and flair to the showroom’s already smart décor. And I hope he would approve.

Trust Is Key

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Copies of Pavilion goers’ keys, from a work of public trust and participation at the 28th São Paulo Biennial in 2008.

Paul Ramírez Jonas’s first survey exhibition in the Americas, “ATLAS, PLURAL, MONUMENTAL,” is on view at CAMH through August 6th. The exhibition includes 25 years of Ramírez Jonas’s exploration of access, ownership, the public, contracts, belonging and trust [among other themes] through his art.
A number of the artworks feature keys – his own and the public’s. One such work he created for the São Paulo Biennial in 2008. Ramírez Jonas arranged for members of the art viewing public to a receive a key to the front door of the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion that allowed them unfettered access to this biennial venue, day and night. In exchange, each person signed a single large contract agreeing to a standard of behavior related to the venue AND they were required to leave a copy of one of their own keys. One had to surrender some measure of personal security and sign an oath and only then was one rewarded with access.
In FAKE ID, part of “Paul Ramírez Jonas: Half-Truths,” at The New Museum in NYC through September 17th, the artist and his teenage assistants will deconstruct photocopies of museum goers’ documents—school IDs, transportation passes, credit cards, and licenses—to create a new identification card. The unused material will be shredded onsite. The project is an exploration of identity and the entities that define it as well as of security and trust.
Though I thought “ATLAS, PLURAL, MONUMENTAL” terrific, and I wanted to include a post here, I kept putting off its writing. Partly because much of Ramírez Jonas’s work is fairly complicated to describe, with lots of moving parts. But I think also because of its effect on me. Even a step removed – looking at evidence and documentation of past happenings – I was intrigued, but uneasy. Perhaps I’m not as trusting as I might be.

Stern Expression

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Robert A. M. Stern’s “Century” Candlestick for Swid Powell, 1984

Robert A.M. Stern is perhaps the most prominent representative of New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture in this country. In much of his work – from pre-war on steroids buildings for potentates in Manhattan to shingled 10,000 square foot “cottages” in the Hamptons – his muscular approach to contemporary classicism is evident.
Swid Powell, founded in 1982 by Nan Swid and Addie Powell, produced innovative housewares designed by the foremost architects of the 1980s, including Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, and Robert A. M. Stern, among others. Executed in silver, ceramics and glass, these objects have in many cases, become design classics. None more so than Stern’s 1984 “Century” fluted column candlestick.
One may never have the opportunity to live in one of Stern’s iconic towers or homes, but one can live with this hefty silver-plated column, the perfect distillation of Stern’s approach to design on a decidedly more manageable scale.

Met Monster Mash

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A contemporary figure holds a 300 year old Egyptian hippopotamus head in Adrián Villar Rojas’ Met roof graden installation, “The Theater of Disappearance”

Adrián Villar Rojas’ “The Theater of Disappearance” is New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s summer rooftop installation. Sixteen sculptures are arranged throughout the outdoor space, on and around banquet tables and chairs strewn with plates and glasses, the aftermath of some monstrous party. Villar Rojas has chosen pieces of the Met’s mind-bogglingly extensive collection and combined them with likenesses of friends and family [and himself] to create the otherworldly guests. Through the use of laser scanning and photo measurement techniques combined with machine milling and 3D printing, an 18th Century Ganesha tops a girl in trainers who in turn straddles King Haremhab as a royal scribe from 1336 BC. A young man who you might see every day in your local coffee shop sits atop a banqueting table holding a 3000 year old Egyptian Hippo’s head and has upside down disembodied hands (complete with arms) for glasses. Each combined sculpture is finished in the same light or dark material [that reads as stone or bronze or marble] so that they each seem of a piece, in spite of their multiple sources. Villar Rojas’ has freed these works from the museum’s collection and recombined them in exuberant modern mashups, bringing them to life in a way The Met’s traditional methods of display never could.

One Night Only

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Kevyn Aucoin transformed me into a 1950s Maria Callas-like siren.

One evening in 1994, I went to dinner with my then boyfriend Ken, my friend from Charavari, Donald Reuter [who by that time was working for Mr. Beene], and his boyfriend, the makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin. We went to see one of the Terminator movies, grabbed pizza and went on to Kevin’s amazing little 2-story house complete with front garden in the rear yard of a building on the edge of Soho/Little Italy. Kevyn asked if he could do my make up and I said yes, of course. Kevyn was already “famous” by pre-internet or social media standards and spent much of his working life with the likes of Naomi, Cindy, Whitney and Dolly. Though he would be remembered for his approach to individual, “natural” beauty, he was a master of transformational makeup, turning Isabella Rossalini into Baraba Streisand and Gwyneth Paltrow into James Dean among many others. So I was to be a mid-century Italian bombshell a la Maria Callas. Arched eyebrows, reshaped features, full lips and a beauty mark. Dark wig in place and the transformation was complete. I was still in the white t-shirt, jeans and boots I had been wearing that evening out. We admired his handiwork, Kevyn took polaroids and then he took it all off.

Picturing Penn

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Still Life With Watermelon, 1947

Irving Penn’s 70-year career is celebrated in “Irving Penn: Centennial” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. From modern old master still lifes of the 40s for Vogue to his painted lips for L’Oréal in 1986, from impossibly chic shots of wife Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn to inventive portraits of celebrities and tradesmen alike, this show demonstrates Penn’s life-long precison and care as an artist. Such a different time – I wonder who [if any?] of today’s working photographers will be celebrated as true artists on the centennial of their birth? TBD.

Art to Wear and Sell

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Order/Chaos: Garments from “18th Century Punk AW 16/17”

I was in NYC this past weekend. On the top of my must do list was the “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between” exhibit at The Met. She and Issey Miyake and Yojhi Yamamoto (among others) changed how we looked at fashion AND how we dressed when they burst onto the scene in the 80s.
Kawakubo especially seemed more interested in ideas than wearable clothes, but nonetheless, she has made a long, lucrative career out of challenging norms in fashion. In fact, she has been quoted as insisting that she is primarily a businesswoman rather than an artist.
In many ways just as compelling as the garments were the wide range of “hair” pieces created by long time collaborator Julien d’Ys and Kawakubo’s exhibition design itself – in places hulking white washed Richard Serra sculpture like enclosures and in others glass vitrines hanging overhead and in still others, simple house shapes showcasing garments.
At 74, and despite this being a 35-year retrospective, she’s not done yet. I’m looking forward to her next collection already.

Be A Connoisseur

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Artist Leslie Wayne interviewed by HMACC Exhibitions Manager, Dominic Clay

This past Saturday I was thrilled to see my friend Leslie Wayne’s shared exhibition at the Houston Museum of African American Culture “Africa on my mind: The art of Malick Sidibe and Leslie Wayne.” Leslie and her sculptor husband, Don Porcaro, flew down from NYC for the opening and the next afternoon Leslie gave a gallery talk/interview. One of Dominic Clay’s questions to Leslie was along the lines of “What advice would you give to an artist who’s intent is to a have a global, cross-cultural approach to their art practice?” Leslie’s emphatic response was “Connoisseurship!” This from a NYC-based life-long working, successful artist. And I couldn’t agree more. For any kind of creative person – from painter to art director to copywriter – output IS connected to input. The more you absorb, the more you have to work with. Leslie admonished the audience to be informed, to look at everything we can. Be interested and engaged. Yes! Creativity does not exist in a vacuum. Or at least it’s more fun and more of this world if it doesn’t.

I’ll Start at the Beginning

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The moment pictured – the Astor Place Diner in 1984 with my friend Alice (and that waiter) – wasn’t quite the beginning, but it was fairly soon after my move to NYC and Parsons School of Design after two years at Rice University in Houston. It was the beginning of my life in the applied arts and my love of art, design, architecture, photography, fashion, and eventually advertising and marketing. And as all my friends like to point out , “Look at that hair!”