HG sans TV -- "The Everyday Perfectionist"

Tomorrow is the last day of the sculpture installation in Times Square (see my previous post.)  And the answers to the quiz from Thursday are:

1. François-Xavier Lalanne, with his partner and wife Claude, are perhaps the most famous sculptors to make sheep the object of their work.   These critters have fetched over $30,000 at auction.

    And look what showed up at the Art Show at the Armory, going on in New York now:

 2.    Tom Otterness, the sculptor of The Mouse in the Times Square exhibit also created a series of delightful bronzes that are installed in the 14th Street and 8th Avenue subway station.  Reminscent of Thomas Nast's cartoons and Monopoly's "Mr. Monopoly," they add wry humor to the commuters' daily grind.

Photos by D. Thomas Dee


Now, as I was saying about HG....

"The Everyday Perfectionist."  Sounds like a book of etiquette, doesn't it.  That's not too far off the mark.  Barbara Barry, a Los Angeles-based interior, furniture, table top, you-name-it designer has very definite ideas about how to live an elegant, mannered life, all of which seem right on the mark to me.

She has become one of the most influential modern day designers, but until HG introduced me to her work in their June, 1993, issue, I had barely heard of her.  She had opened her design firm just seven years prior and already was engaged in important projects, not to mention starting a collaboration with Hickory Business Furniture.  She was well on her way to becoming a major design force as well as an arbiter of good taste.

HG published these photographs of her Los Angeles duplex almost 18 years ago.  It still has wonderful appeal and, to use Barry's quote, is replete with "'small moments of beauty,'" and of course Good Design.

Barry's home was like a laboratory for her future furniture designs.  The wonderful ivory lacquered desk with its fluted edge she described as "'Elsie de Wolfe meets Jean Michel Frank.'" 

The living room is a sanctuary of calm and comfort.

Like a still life, one of her "'small moments of beauty'" inlcudes a Sally Gall photograph, a Murano vase and a 1940s silver dish.

Wonderful tableau in the living room mixes objects and periods.

The Giacometti style lamp is by Sirmos.  The handsome yet utilitarian bedside table was later produced for Baker Furniture.

Another great photo (Tim Street-Porter shot all these photos) showing Barry's dining room.   The  paper pendant is  by Ingo Maurer; the leaning mirror is by Nancy Corzine.  

"The flirtatiousness of materials" -- what a wonderful descriptive.   In less fanciful terms, it refers to the juxtaposition of disparate materials that results in a  harmonious union.  Jean Michel Frank might have used straw next to bronze next to plaster and so on, and the end result was fabulous! 

My next post will take another look at Frank-inspired interiors.  They were masterfully created in the late 80s by architect and designer Peter Marino for another master in a different sphere of design.  Any idea?  If you can't guess, you'll find out next time when I show you these beautiful rooms published by HG in 1990.

Thanks for reading, everyone!