Read my story about the walk in Architectural Digest here. All photos are by Rich Pomerantz, including the ones above of  sculptor Fitzhugh Karol putting  last minute touches on his work. Karol is one of 40 sculptors whose work is on display throughout the New England town. Today (Saturday, July 14) is the official opening 2-6pm, but don’t despair if your schedule is full, the walk will be running (pun intended) until November 1.

July, 2018

The post Sculpture Walk – Summer Day Outside of the City appeared first on Elena Bowes.

No one is here, she said. I can zip around the city, do all my errands in no time.

I couldn’t agree more- no line at my local coffee shop, pilates class is now just me and the teacher. It’s a bit like being on holiday without the jet lag. A staycation is so under-rated. If you  happen to be in London this summer, even for just a few days, here are my tips on what to see while luxuriating in the rare quiet.

Pack a picnic and head to Regent’s Park where Frieze is hosting its first-ever summer Sculpture Park in the very pretty English Gardens. The display includes 25 new and important works by top 20^th century and contemporary artists, including, Urs Fischer, Miquel Barceló, Michael Craig-Martin, Ugo Rondinone, Tony Cragg, and John Chamberlain.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s Clare Lilley talks about each work for a few minutes on the downloadable audio tour.  Lilley is full of interesting  and fun facts about the sculptors.

Ugo Rondinone’s Summer Moon below is a white enamelled bronze cast of a 1,000 year-old olive tree from where Rondinone’s family came from in Italy. He currently lives in a converted chapel in Harlem.

I loved the plaster Gran Elefeandret by Miguel Barceló. And I thought headstands were hard! Born in Mallorca he now spends a lot of his time in Mali without electricity or running water.

Below is American artist John Chamberlain’s Fiddlers Fortune. Best known for his crushed automobile scrap metal sculptures, this is a finger-sized sculpture made big. Imagine a tiny tinfoil chewing gum wrapper rolled into skinny tubes and twisted into a knot. Then enlarge it.

Next stop is White Cube Gallery in Mason’s Yard in St James. Harland Miller is a British writer and artist who just can’t get his thoughts out of the gutter…

For something a bit more serious, go see Fahrelnissa Zeid (1901-1991) at Tate Modern, a forgotten female artist from outside the conventional American European norm. The Turkish-born painter and princess had been left behind until Tate’s Frances Morris and Jessica Morgan (now at NYC’s DIA) “rediscovered her” at the Istanbul Biennale a few years ago.

I interviewed the show’s curator Kerryn Greenberg about Zeid. She led a fascinating and troubled life including a family murder, death of her first child, a narrow escape from political assassination and two world wars, not to mention tea with Hitler and writing to Donald Trump. Through it all, she kept painting. Here’s my blog in The Women’s Room Blog about the unappreciated artist.

The Victoria & Albert’s long-awaited new entrance and porcelain-paved courtyard has finally opened its doors. The £48 million project by Amanda Levete Architects beautifully connects the museum to Exhibition Road. And come September, the 1,100 square meter, column-free Sainsbury Gallery will open, one of the largest temporary exhibition spaces in the U.K. A new Member’s Room opens in the autumn with glorious vistas of the entrance and London beyond. Worth joining for the view.

Just up the street from the V&A is the Serpentine’s Summer Pavilion designed by Francis Kére, an award-winning Berlin- based architect originally from Gando, Burkina Faso.

The main canopy mimics a tree, the central meeting point in Kéré’s hometown. While you’re there check out cross-dressing artist Grayson Perry’s show, The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever.

And lastly, Matisse in the Studio opens August 5th at the Royal Academy, an exhibition about  the props from which the French painter drew inspiration and the specific paintings they inspired. African masks, Chinese calligraphy, Islamic odalisques and more. Wish I was here for that.

But alas I will be hopping around and reporting back. Stay tuned for more urban centric stories – a blog on a terrific Milanese designer and his gem of a shop, a lovely, contemplative show  in New York and a story on when your friend becomes your stylist. It did not end in tears.

July, 2017

The post Summertime in the City – a Delight appeared first on Elena Bowes.

I recently spent a weekend in and around New Canaan, Connecticut and discovered there’s a whole bucolic, art-filled world an hour outside of the bubbling, buzzing city that is Manhattan. Here are my top tips for a day  or a weekend beyond the Big Apple.

Legendary American architect Philip Johnson’s modernist Glass House is a must-see, as well as the 13 other stunning structures on the 49-acre compound a mere 50 miles from New York City.  Lived in by Johnson from 1949 until his death in 2005, the glass and painted steel pavilion is mesmerising in its zen simplicity – a cube.

With 360 degree views and a central fireplace that divides the space, the pavilion  looks just as contemporary today as it did when Johnson built it nearly seventy years ago. The house sits on a knoll overseeing a pond and some woods beyond. Nature is everywhere. Add the possibility of a roaring fire and  nirvana meets colonial New Canaan.

(The house is) more of a landscape than it is a work of architecture.. It’s more a memory of the English parks of the 18th century, which are called English gardens for some reason, said the late visionary.

Most of the furniture came from Johnson’s Manhattan apartment and is designed by Mies van der Rohe. Be sure to book a tour on-line (weekday tours are less busy) and experience firsthand Johnson’s genius.

It’s the only house in the world where you can see the sunset and the moonrise at the same time, standing in the same place, Johnson once  said.

Beyond the house there are several galleries to peruse. Alongside the permanent  collection of 20th century painting and sculpture are the temporary exhibitions; This summer’s special guests are Robert Indiana and Julian Schnabel, the most represented artist in the collection after Frank Stella.

A wood sculpture by Schnabel …

This is the eye-catching gunnite Da Monsta building, where Johnson was influenced by  artist and friend Frank Stella.

New Canaan is an easy train ride from Grand Central. The Glass House and surrounding 49 acres  is open from May through November,  everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Visitors are picked up from the Visitor Center (handily located across the street from the train station)  and driven to the nearby Glass House.

Stop in at the Design Store adjacent to the Visitor Center. It’s full of novel objects., like these Carl Aubock brass paperweights …

Be sure to take the fast train from Grand Central to New Canaan which takes just over an hour. Despite the train’s ease and convenience, I recommend renting a car because there’s so much  to see in the area. Check out another exceptional glass building; The River is an undulating 83,000 square foot glass structure  on the expansive nature  conservancy Grace Farms designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects  SANAA.

The meandering snake-like structure

houses everything from the Pavilion and a library  to a  gorgeous basketball gym

and a mouthwatering cafe…

Book a River Walk and Tea tour to see five site specific installations by artists Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Teresita Fernández, Beatriz Milhazes, and Susan Phillipsz.

Final stop on the cultural Connecticut tour is the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum  in picturesque, historic  Ridgefield, a twenty minute drive from New Canaan. Founded by Larry Aldrich in 1964, the Aldrich is the only museum in  Connecticut dedicated solely to contemporary art. Interesting fact: Philip Johnson attended the first board of trustees meeting in 1964 (small world).

The Aldrich enables artists to try out new things outside the fishbowl of NYC. (Almost like off Broadway – Broadway). The museum is currently showing four artists whose work is loosely linked with text. Tony Matelli’s  bronze Sleepwalker sculpture was an internet sensation three years ago when it appeared on NYC’s Highline…

Here’s his latest sculpture unveiled at the Aldrich earlier this month.

And if your thirst for the arts is still not quenched, a bit further afield is the Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich and Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven.

If you’re staying overnight, the Glass House’s Christa Carr  recommends the Roger Sherman Inn in New Canaan.

Its owned by a French man so the food is delicious, real French food, says Carr, whose mother is French.

Other local restaurants  Carr likes are Elm and Solé, both on Elm Street, just off of central Main Street.  Bon voyage!

This article also appeared in The Women’s Room Blog. Seductive photos of the Glass House were taken by Robin Hill.  Non-seductive by yours truly.

May, 2017

The post Art-y Weekend Outside New York appeared first on Elena Bowes.

Last night at the opening dinner Tate Director Nick Serota got a well-deserved standing ovation,

 and I got a selfie and  some chocolates.

I want to go back and explore, just not this weekend. Mob scenes aren’t my thing.  If Switch House and Boiler House (the original Tate Modern next door where the art has been completely rehung) are Britain’s cultural cathedral then I’ll visit Mecca when the path clears.

In the meantime, there are two shows which promise to please and be a tad more relaxing. For the city mouse,  don’t miss terrific Nigerian fashion designer Duro Olowu’s curated “Making & Unmaking” opening this weekend at the Camden Arts Centre.

How, you might ask, do I know Duro’s show will be great when it doesn’t open until tomorrow?

Simple, I answer, his dresses make me feel fabulous.

(My horoscope told me not to overthink things.)

Duro delights in blending bold pallettes of pattern and color into beautifully-cut, flattering dresses. Image below is from Duro’s shoebox size, treasure trove of a shop in Mason’s Yard near Piccadilly.

Similarly, Duro is mixing it all up in Camden – antique West African textiles and Bauhaus tapestries are placed alongside contemporary works and new commissions. He has selected over sixty international artists that inspire him from household names like Fernand Leger and Brice Marden to lesser known talents like Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou’s Untitled (Musclemen series)

and Wangechi Mutu’s Panties in a Bunch.

For the country mouse, we move from edgy Camden to cosy Cotswolds, where On Form, a biennial exhibition of sculpture in stone  at Asthall Manor has just opened.

Once owned by writer Nancy Mitford’s family, Asthall Manor is set in gorgeous  gardens designed by Isabel Bannerman  whose green thumb has worked its magic on Highgrove and Arundel Castle. Her stunning botanical photographs are being exhibited at On Form and can be purchased through her London dealer Jonathan Cooper.

Asthall Manor owner Rosie Pearson explained to me how she hopes On Form will make sculpture accessible.

I want people to touch the works, explore them and not be put off by over intellectualisation.

 About 270 stone sculptures are scattered throughout the property.

as well as is in the Ballroom …

This was my favourite by Tom Stogdon.

The Cotswolds can be very social. Asthall is no exception. My hosts Sebastian and Thomas Gibson (below from the left) seemed to know everyone there. Meanwhile, I bumped into my son Thomas (right), who was there with friends. Thomas has always operated on a needs-to-know basis.

Also at Asthall are the Mad Hatter bookshop with a packed schedule of events and  the Potting Shed Cafe with a guest chef  every  Saturday night until the sculpture show closes July 10th.

June, 2016

The post Tate Modern Fatigue – Wanna Save the Tate for a Later Date? Then Read On appeared first on Elena Bowes.

Read my postcard in Indagare about this Italian jewel. And if you’re a Christo fan, don’t miss the Bulgarian born artist’s Floating Piers installation from June 18- July 3rd. Take a road trip after Art Basel and walk on water. A mere  70,000 square meters of shimmering yellow fabric will pave the way across Lake Iseo, a few minutes drive from the lovely l’Albereta.

May, 2016

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