John Lydon (Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) remembers the primary advantage of safety pins. He had no money and didn't know how to sew. It was the seventies, and punks were the disenfranchised, bitter and poor kids of London and New York. They would show up with paint splattered clothing, garbage bags cinched at the waist, hacked off hair, safety pins piercing skin and cloth. Their ideology allowed for the remarkable notion that they could dictate their own taste, no matter how subversive. …
Articles
The Measure of a Man, Carlo Scarpa by Robert McCarter
In Robert McCarter’s Carlo Scarpa monograph Austrian architect Peter Noever tells an illuminating tale. In 1974 he and Scarpa visited the Adolf Loos-designed American Bar in Vienna. The moment they entered Scarpa started appraising the space. He ordered champagne for the ladies...... who were present and a measuring tape for himself. Scarpa then proceeded to measure everything down to the exact millimeter. When finished he proclaimed the space to be of "singular spiritual and emotional …
Carlo Scarpa and Cleto Munari: A Sonnet in Silver
On a spring evening in 1972 I was introduced to the person who would change my life. Cleto Munari remembers the meeting well. It took place in Vicenza, the Palladian city north of Venice, where both he and Carlo Scarpa worked. In Scarpa the architect, Munari found friend, teacher and collaborator. Munari, then 42, remembers their compelling relationship, The first two hours of the day we would spend discussing design. The rest of the day was devoted to architecture, history and art. I …
Modern in Murano: The Sisters Sent’s Wearable Glass Jewelry
When Venice was an island of wooden structures in the thirteenth century, glassmakers were confined to the neighboring island of Murano. Because of the threat of fire, it was too dangerous to allow them to remain in Venice. The foundries moved in 1291, all the better to isolate the craft and the artisans that revolutionized the alchemy of silica and heat. Susanna and Marina Sent grew up on Murano. Their personal glassmaking lineage reaches back three generations. They came to glassmaking …
A Guided Tour of Contemporary Venice Part II
You can see part one of this guided tour if you'd like to read it first. This begins part two of the exploration of Venice, a two-part series written by JoAnn Locktov and originally published on Architects and Artisans. Here's a preview of the piece: It was Mariano Fortuny sitting with his band of intellectuals in the late 19th century who dreamed up the concept of Biennale. The purpose was to gather and exhibit the most important contemporary art of his time. The tradition of Biennale, …