Douglas Newby Insights - Page 23
Bathroom Jewelry
Dallas bathrooms became infamous in the 1980’s and their notoriety continued into the 1990’s. These huge bathrooms were considered contemporary expressions of Texas bigness and over-the-top opulence. It wasn’t until the recent Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibit at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art that I realized Karl Lagerfeld designing for Chloe may have even had a better idea. Rather than just one opportunity to have their opulent Dallas bathroom photographed and published in a showy shelter magazine, one could have worn the Karl Lagerfeld-designed showerhead necklace and matching earrings (scroll to see image) to display a decadent opulence, inspired, I am sure, by the Dallas bathroom. The oversized 80’s and 90’s houses are now often torn down but this 1983-84 Karl Lagerfeld necklace can be prominently worn or displayed forever. It is true that some extraordinary outfits can only be worn once as they are easily remembered. I am sure the strategy for this necklace was to wear it first for a series of small dinners hosted in the owners’ personal homes in different locations and then regional parties, before the necklace and earrings were unveiled on either coast and internationally. Handled right, this jewelry could have become quite practical. Camp is, “Ideas, held in a special playful way.” Susan Sontag, 1964. *Bathroom Jewelry
#NewYork #Texas #Dallas #Fashion #Design @metmuseum #MetropolitanMuseumofArt #MetCamp #KarlLagerfeld @Chloe #Chloe #CampNotesOnFashion #Camp #Showerhead #ShowerHandle #Jewels #Necklace #Earrings
Heidi Tribute
Cultural Slumming! This was the headline for the House of Moschino Jeremy Scott-designed dress exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum’s Camp: Notes on Fashion. How appropriate that Heidi Dillon wore, Drink Moschino Cape from this series, a few years ago to the DMA Art Ball. Heidi, more than anyone else I know in Dallas, has always embraced camp and elevated it to high fashion. Heidi loves fashion and has fun with fashion. The Metropolitan chose this quote by David Halperin for the piece: Camp—demonstrates an exhilaration in identifying with the lowest of the low. Heidi can elevate the lowest cultural ritual to a cultured Chi-Chi expression. Cultural slumming would define one of my favorite hijinks in which Heidi was an enthusiastic participant. Many years ago, the Dillons and I were invited to the very elegant opening of the Chanel store in Highland Park Village. Heidi’s response was to enhance the decadence of this elegant evening with what some would consider a low form of cultural ritual—tailgating. Across from the Chanel store in a Ralph Lauren parking space, the open trunk of the Bentley revealed blocks of the finest foie gras in exquisite serving pieces. This was my first time tailgating for any event, but it was a delightful and joyful experience as we drifted back and forth from the Chanel store to the tailgate. Heidi has the ability to identify with the lowest of the low and enjoy life with the highest of the high. If you slide through images, you can see some other fabulous costumes by Jeremy Scott shown at the Metropolitan Museum. Earlier this year, Heidi Dillon hosted Jeremy Scott at her house for dinner. I am sure he came away from the evening with further inspiration. *Heidi Tribute
@heididillon_hfd #HeidiDillon @metmuseum #MetropolitanMuseumofArt #MetCamp #DallasMuseumOfArts #Fashion #Camp #CampNotesOnFashion #Museum #NewYork #Neighborhood @JeremyScott @ItsJeremyScott #Dallas #Tailgate #CulturalSlumming #Design #Costume #HighFashion #LowCulture #Exhibition #FashionExhibition #UpperEastSide #Manhattan #dallasartball #dallasmuseumofart
Sam Gummelt Re-emerges
Sam Gummelt was a national sensation in the late 1960s. He was a major influence on artists like Dan Rizzie and David Bates in the 1970s. He was great friends with artist David McManaway, Bill Komodore, and many other celebrated artists of that generation. He shared a birthday with artist Barbara Bell and, most of all, I think of Sam Gummelt as a Tremont Artist, not because he lived on Tremont Street in Munger Place, but because of the hours and days he spent on Tremont sharing stories, ideas and inspiration with other artists. Sam Gummelt was also one of the favorite artists of the late architect Frank Welch who vigorously collected him. Sam Gummelt has shown his work over the decades in important galleries and been collected by sophisticated patrons, but like David McManaway his production never equaled his talent or the demand for his paintings. I am very excited that the Barry Whistler Gallery is showing Sam Gummelt’s work in an exhibition that opens Saturday night from 6:00 to 8:00. Slide through to see photographs of Paul Black co-curated by Allison V. Smith and the 1814 Magazine along with the paintings of Sam Gummelt makes this a very exciting opening. *Sam Gummelt Re-emerges
#TremontArtist #SamGummelt @AllisonVSmith #AllisonVSmith @BarryWhistlerGallery #BarryWhistlerGallery #GalleryOpening #Artist #Art #Design #DesignDistrict #Dallas #ArtExhibition #Photographs #Portraits #BlackAndWhitePhotography #PolaroidPhotography #Opening @1814magazine #1814magazine #paulblackcarol @pauljamesblack #DallasNeighborhood #tremontartists
Allison V. Smith Curation
Photography, like other art, is about composition, context, point of view, and how it affects the viewer. Photography has another dimension—capturing a moment in time that can never be replicated. Whether it is a dramatic event that disappears completely, or a nuance of an orchestrated scene, the slightest variation changes the mood and alters the message. Allison V. Smith adds another dimension to this exhibit of Carol photography by Paul Black between 1968 and 1972 which she co-curated with 1814 Magazine. Allison Smith has an instinct to capture the precise emotion of the moment with the click of her camera. It might be a deep emotion surfacing or the changing nuance of a landscape. Capturing or provoking emotion is what Allison V. Smith does. This show exhibits moments that captivated Allison. These black and white photographs of modest and mundane scenes are sexy and compelling. They draw one in, provoke, and make one long for more. You will see what Diane Arbus saw in Paul Black early in his career when she selected his portrait as the best of show—purity and precision, perfect photographs, prescience of his later career processing photography at his Photographique lab in Dallas. His black and white photographs are as pure as the natural and honest approach of the era. His beautiful wife, Carol, and setting conveys a Pennsylvania simplicity that transforms into fashion, domesticity that transforms into glamour. Unadorned and unselfconscious, these photographs explore the intimacy of the home and the evolution and moods of Carol—an artist, a wife, a mother. You will enjoy seeing these photographs at the opening of the exhibition Carol on June 1 at the Barry Whistler Gallery. *Allison V. Smith Curation
@AllisonVSmith #AllisonVSmith @BarryWhistlerGallery #BarryWhistlerGallery #GalleryOpening #Artist #Art #Design #DesignDistrict #Dallas #ArtExhibition #Photographs #Portraits #BlackAndWhitePhotography #PolaroidPhotography #Opening @1814magazine #1814magazine #paulblackcarol @pauljamesblack #DallasNeighborhood @fjac_art1
Texture Creates Shapes
What a treat to have in Dallas two museums on Flora Street, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center, increasingly complimenting and impacting each other. Both grow as a result. What an unexpected surprise to have two exhibitions to explore how textiles create shapes. The Dior exhibition of the DMA shows the architecture and evolution of dresses through the evolution of designers and decades. As you slide through, you will see images of designers’ work seen at the DMA, exploring materials that are tightly tailored or loosely flowing. Artist Sheila Hicks’ work is an exploration of fibers, texture, and shapes. Her inspiration for her art might even come from the feel of texture in her hand. Just as fashion designers do, she explores century-old techniques and natural fibers, and recent synthetic fibers, and technology with much different effects. I recommend if you have not seen either exhibit yet, go to the Sheila Hicks exhibition at the Nasher Museum first. You will leave with a whole new understanding of textiles, textures, drape, form, shape, and the broad and delicate strokes of design and construction. *Texture Creates Shapes
#JoySpotting #SheilaHicks @NasherSculptureCenter @AtelierSheilaHicks @HastingsHicks #NasherSculptureCenter #Artist #Art #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #Design #ArtsDistrict #DowntownDallas #Museum #MuseumExhibition #SheilaHicks #ArtMuseum #Gallery #Sculpture #Weaving #Weave #Textile #Tactile #SoloExhibition @GalerieFrankElbaz #NasherMuseum #Dior #DiorFromParisToTheWorld #DallasMuseumOfArt @DallasMuseumArt
#Museum #MuseumOpening #MuseumExhibition #Gallery #Art #Artist #Design #Fashion #Designer #OpeningNight #ArtsDistrict #Dallas #Neighborhood
Continuous Joy
Soft mounds of enticing textured color immediately brings a smile. A floating glass wall does not divide this installation but extends the mood and visual delight as one can see the sculpture through the glass and tumbling around the glass. This Sheila Hicks piece invites an intimacy that extends to every other more detailed pieces in this solo Sheila Hicks exhibition at the Nasher in Dallas. *Continuous Joy
#JoySpotting #SheilaHicks @NasherSculptureCenter @AtelierSheilaHicks @HastingsHicks #NasherSculptureCenter #Artist #Art #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #Design #ArtsDistrict #DowntownDallas #Museum #MuseumExhibition #SheilaHicks #ArtMuseum #Gallery #Sculpture #Weaving #Weave #Textile #Tactile #SoloExhibition @GalerieFrankElbaz #NasherMuseum
Sheila Hicks Universe
This Shelia Hicks constellation pulls one in to explore vignettes and patterns of design and texture. On closer examination, there is minute detail that comes into focus. These threaded revelations encompass greater mystery within each of these spherical objects. A simple pattern of color and similar shapes becomes increasingly complex as it dissolves into mystery. Artist Sheila Hicks can make the primitive profound.
#SheilaHicks @NasherSculptureCenter @AtelierSheilaHicks @HastingsHicks #NasherSculptureCenter #Artist #Art #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #Design #ArtsDistrict #DowntownDallas #Museum #MuseumExhibition #SheilaHicks #ArtMuseum #Gallery #Sculpture #Weaving #Weave #Textile #Tactile #SoloExhibition @GalerieFrankElbaz #NasherMuseum
Margaret McDermott Home?
McDermott home at 4701 Drexel is the most historically significant home in Highland Park. Many say it will be torn down. Here are some of the reasons one might assume it will be preserved. 1) There have been several years to find a buyer interested in preserving the home with the proceeds going to UTD. 2) I have sold two Scott Lyons homes in the last several years in the same price range as Mrs. McDermott’s home. Both of these Scott Lyons homes have been renovated. 3) This is the most important Scott Lyons home. It is the right size, has the right ceiling heights, enormous walls of glass, and the contemporary spaces people desire. 4) There is a history of Dallas art patrons involved with the DMA that have preserved homes including past DMA presidents. These DMA presidents include John and Jennifer Eagle who renovated their Edward Durell Stone architect-designed period home; Tim Hanley renovated his O’Neil Ford designed architecturally significant home; Catherine and Will Rose renovated their Edward Larrabee Barnes architect-designed home. There are other Dallas art patrons and those with a sophisticated eye for architecture who would love to renovate and live in this Scott Lyons designed home. There are also an increasing number of buyers moving to Dallas that have a keen interest in purchasing an architect-designed period modern home. 5) There has been no concern expressed about the future of this home by Preservation Park Cities or Preservation Dallas. This suggests that the preservation community has been told that there are already plans in the works for this architecturally significant home to be renovated by a buyer that intends to live in it. 6) Margaret McDermott loved this home, as did the thousands of her friends and visitors. She was a great friend of architecture and promoted the preservation of homes designed by her architect friends and other significant architects. Above all, it would be unfathomable for this fabulous home to be torn down. *Margaret McDermott Home?
#MargaretMcDermott #MargaretMcDermottHome #ScottLyons #Preservation #PeriodModern #HighlandPark #ArchitecturallySignificant #Dallas #Architecture #Architect #HistoricPreservation
Scott Lyons Blossoms
Architect Scott Lyons originally set up a mobile office in what is now the garden where he designed and oversaw the construction of this architecturally significant home in Mayflower Estates. When the large O’Neil Ford designed home of the Pensons on Armstrong in Highland Park was torn down and even a 14,000 square foot home only 20 years old was torn down in Mayflower Estates, I love Walter and Audrey Stewart’s vision, who groomed their Scott Lyons-designed home and garden. Their efforts were followed by another couple, cultural patrons, who elaborately renovated their Scott Lyons-designed home next door. The average size and price of these two Scott Lyons homes was approximately that of Margaret McDermott’s home at 4701 Drexel in Highland Park. When talented buyers recognize the architectural significance and quality of a Scott Lyons home, the enduring appeal of Scott Lyons architecture is confirmed. Having sold these two homes designed by Scott Lyons, I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of other potential purchasers who loved the warmth and modernity of the Scott Lyons Texas Modern design. Scott Lyons, who for a time worked in the office of O’Neil Ford, shared his affinity for continuous walls of soft, oversized, Mexican brick, quarter-sawn white oak and enormous walls of windows capturing the views of creeks or gardens. This enthusiasm for Scott Lyons-designed homes and the ability to make them current works well for the future of the late Margaret McDermott’s home in Highland Park. It would be disingenuous to claim there is no market for a Scott Lyons-designed home on expensive land as an excuse for selling the home to a buyer who will tear the house down. This home definitively demonstrates that a Scott Lyons home of the same size and on the same priced land as Margaret McDermott’s home can be sold to a buyer who will renovate it. *Scott Lyons Blossoms
#MargaretMcDermott #HighlandPark #Mayflower Estates #ScottLyonsArchitect #Architecture #Preservation #HistoricPreservation #ArchitecturallySignificant #DallasNeighborhood #ContinuousWalls #Dallas #TexasModern #MayflowerEstates #Design #EstateHome #Modern #Window #SoftMexicanBrick
Preston Hollow Edge
Sharing an edge with proper Preston Hollow is Mayflower Estates. Arbitrary boundaries can make a monumental difference in perceived prices and values of land and neighborhoods. Walnut Hill twenty years ago was one of these neighborhood edges, with the land in Preston Hollow south of Walnut Hill costing twice as much as land in Mayflower Estates, north of Walnut Hill. Now, Mayflower Estates is on the right side of this Preston Hollow edge with even more valuable land. Rather than fences, here White Rock Creek might delineate boundaries and privacy. Boundaries are blurred with extended views of several-acre estates with their lakes, creeks, and gardens. Whether a home is in a town, a city, or in an estate neighborhood, people love being surrounded by nature.
*Preston Hollow Edge
#MayflowerEstates #PrestonHollow #EstateArea #Dallas #EstateNeighborhood #DallasNeighborhood #LandscapeDesign #LandscapeArchitecture #Horticulture #Garden #Tree #WhiteRockCreek #EstateProperty #DallasEstateHome #ScottLyonsArchitect #WalnutHillLane