A nod to a trilogy of lesser know site specific arts and crafts people of the Mid-Century. For Ruth Asawa, it took half a century and her death to be recognized for the great work it is.
Lenore Tawney honed her craft of off loom weaving, assemblage and collage from the 50’s thru the 80’s (until she lost her sight). She worked out of one cavernous loft after another. A building she owned on Coenties Slip in Lower Manhattan was inhabited by the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Agnes Martin, and Sol LeWitt.
She told me a story of looking for a loft space in Tribeca ‘back then’ in the 50’s - the realtors were peaked by
her interest in this out of the way, abandonded part of downtown and began to pick her brain, trying to understand what she would use the space for. They thought they might possibly uncover an untapped market to sell their wares to…former ware-houses. Manufacturing in Tribeca, such as my father’s offices and storage facility were moving away from the city, leaving these forgotten industrial buildings vacant.
The artist would begin a rebirth of Soho and Tribeca. There’s more about this transformation in our blog about Soho.
affordable art at our fingertips
Who among us wouldn’t want to live with a Monet, a Picasso, a Rembrandt or a Rothko? And while we’re on the subject, one for each room, please – well, that was easy. Or was it? The only drawback for most of us - our bank accounts. So, what to do?
~Setting up our first apartment, my boyfriend and I bought prints from museums we visited and hung them around. Since a real Matisse lithograph is not within my reach, I recently found a lovely older edition book of Matisse Jazz cut outs and intend to frame them.
~I believe there is SO much good (dare I say great?) artwork that is affordable. Take for instance children’s artwork. This is probably the most reasonably
priced – and in some cases free? Might even be at our fingertips? It’s a win-win because what little person wouldn’t want to have their artwork displayed on a refrigerator or graduate to a frame on a grownup’s wall?
~How about we mine and frame a few of the endless photos we take on our mobile phones?
~Why not wallpaper instead of the aforementioned poster? Here is how the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in NYC features wallpaper as part of their exhibition – in frames. If they can….
