" NON ! "

How to say no with a smile -

in the interest of keeping the passage clear.

It's time for a getaway ...

Bon weekend !

Building Cathedrals

Lavished with ornament from one of the most elaborate decorative vocabularies ever created,

this Caterpillar is a beautiful Gothic machine. Heads turn quizzically  in the museum where it is displayed next to a 15th century maquette of the Saint Maclou Church,

 its nearby neighbor in the streets of Rouen.

This is a maquette of a monumental piece - small but still spectacular,

 at home in this Gothic city. It was created by Wim Delvoye, Flemish artist and spiritual descendant of Brueghel, who has a way - often jarring or disturbingly mocking - of transforming  objects emblematic of the modern world into the registers of traditional art or craft. Here a playful spirit hints at very different ideas of construction, 

and the varying aspirations and values applied to techniques of two ages so very far a part.

It is worth the time to take the time for these concentrated considerations

where standardized meets decorative

  with a good dash of humor. 

Wim Delvoye is exhibiting now at the Musée Rodin

Smoke and mirrors

photo Elle Décoration

It's all done with mirrors - or is it? It's all done with mirrors, maybe. These days, it would seem we are content to hang a mirror on the wall 

or in more adventurous moments, a grouping of mirrors.

photo  Guillaume Guérin

True, it maybe an exceptional mirror like this one by Hubert le Gall. 

Any well placed mirror can add another dimension 

to an interior; I'm not belittling the lone mirror.  

Going through my treasured documents, I notice that there was an outburst of reflective creativity not so long ago. In its glory days in the 30s and 40s, mirrored glass was called into service in inventive ways to make up a more decisive part of a room's décor. I don't mean the all out display where the mirror is the entire flashing statement - no, not spectacular Versailles, nor full blown glitzy Hollywood style- but there was originality in the approach to the material that attempted to make its sparkle and beguiling presence interact more with a room. These are some of the examples I've found.

Drian's outstanding painted mirrors surrounded the dining room in the home of Couturier Molyneux.

photo Buffotot

 Narrow bands of mirrors curve out on either side of one large  panel creating facets to reflect the lighting hidden in stucco vases. The color seems to be out of balance in this room by Raval. Is it the photograph? I'd like to replace the not so vibrantly colored hyacynths with geometric ebony sculpture.

More painted effects this time from Félix Davin. I imagine that from the vantage point of the table that the

false oeil de boeuf would be completely filled in with a reflection of the real window facing it.

Beistegui's Venetian glass and Napoleon III frou frou scream out in refusal of Le Corbusier's minimalism.

Brightly lit during the day thanks to plate glass windows, the house must have really come alive at night.

We must remember that this building-top villa was provided with electricity only for spectacular manoeuvres: automatic doors, sliding walls, disappearing trees. Candlelight was the only lighting source to flicker in the surrounding glass, mirrors and crystal.

M.L. Sue achieved an enchanted grotto effect for this double dining room. A composition of mirrors

was cut and superposed to form a sculptural decoration.

Marc du Plantier decorated this apartment in the Ile-St-Louis. Une chambre, c'est bleu ! Seductively wavering blueVenetian glass, blue walls and a bluegreen lacquer writing table with

a polished parchment top create an extraordinary vibration.  Parchment and Indian red keep it lively.

Adnet designed an extremely mannered bedroom, doubly remarkable for using 

 white Staff to imitate curtains and blue tinted mirrors "backstage." Even the bed has a smooth polished surface with its fitted satin cover.

unmarked photos are from Plaisir de France, Atelier Sougez