Insular, clubby, navel gazing
creating their own bubble
Category Archives: art
Yves Saint Laurent Collection at Auction
Legendary clothes designer Yves Saint Laurent died last June at his residence in Paris, where he and his partner Pierre Bergé had created a house of style in bricks and mortar. Their art collection is now hitting the auction block at Christies this February. The collection is a testament to Saint Laurent’s style in its wide-ranging combination of mediums, time periods and styles.
Quite conveniently, just as this collection comes to auction another style maven, moi, is moving to a new apartment and is in serious need of furnishings. Thus I did some online shopping at Christie’s.
First there are practical matters to consider: how to sit, how to drink martinis, and how to eat cereal. My solutions:
Reading Chair
Amazing Silver and Coral Spoons
YSL bar: now that’s a beautiful thing.
Amazing Silver and Coral Spoons
YSL bar: now that’s a beautiful thing.
But what shall I contemplate, not that I’m set up in that luxurious chair, enjoying a martini and cereal? Leger’s Profile and Hooch’s Parrot, I think. Then for sheer exuberance I’ll add Calder’s Dancers and Sphere. But I’ll have to find a table on which to display it.
Fernand Leger, The Black Profile
Pieter de Hooch, A Young Woman Feeding A Parrot
Alexander Calder, Dancers and Sphere 
This style, as I like to call it, is ‘Manhattan Spartan-Chic,’ combining essential luxuries in limited space. My new apartment will be a joy once I purchase these lovelies. There were many other temptations, but a blogger can only afford so much. As it is, I won’t have any funds leftover for Vermouth.
Louise Bourgeois’ Spiders
“My work has always been a recording of my emotions. It’s not a concept that I’m after, but an emotion that I want to keep or destroy. All of my sculptures have the sense of vulnerability and fragility. Sexuality is one theme tied to those two states of being.” –Bourgeois, 2006 interview
Bourgeois, 97, still lives and works in New York City. Her spider, shown above, was there on my visit to Dia:Beacon. It fuses metal plates together in a way that suggests contained energy and torque. Balancing that strength, the heavy body rests on pins that end in sharp points. It’s a fragile stasis. In Dia’s small space, I was torn by the desire to examine it and nervousness that the spider would jump!
Despite the delicacy of the legs, these spiders seem less vulnerable than threatening. Spiders, such as the ones pictured above, have been a part of her work for many years. Even placed in an outdoor setting, they look as natural and harmless as Godzilla. They are fascinating works that draw you in even as they unnerve you.
Does anyone know more about why Bourgeois uses this spider motif?