David Stark Sketchbook

Love Letter: Jean Paul Gaultier

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As we are about to enter 2011 Fall Fashion Week, and I have all things fashion on the brain, I can’t help but think back to 1993 when Jean Paul Gaultier stunned the world with a collection inspired by traditional Hasidic dress.  I remember going up to the penthouse level of the old Barneys (before they moved to their current midtown location) where Gaultier was one of the designer’s that had his own little room, then bumping into this collection.  I didn’t seek it out, and I didn’t know about it in advance, but I was floored by his chutzpah.  He made me think.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a ton of controversy about the collection, much of it from the Hasidic community itself.  Funny enough, the community was less outraged by the actual inspiration.  Rather, the Hasidic men were outraged that Gaultier had women wear outfits that ONLY MEN traditionally are able to don.

Regardless, Gaultier has spent a lifetime blurring the boundaries between fashion and art and the fact that 18 years later I still remember this “ah-ha” moment on the Penthouse level of Barneys, inspires my own content-driven design work today.  May the fashion world cultivate many more Gaultiers, many more Alexander McQueens, many more Martin Margielas, and many more icons.   Fashion that has something to say is as powerful as any art hanging on a wall.

Have a great Fashion Week, gang.  Can’t wait to see what’s out there!

D.

Love Letter: David Hammons

I have been thinking a lot about David Hammons lately.

I did not see the below “piece” in real life, but "Bliz-aard Ball Sale" from 1983 in which the artist sold snowballs on the street, nestled amongst other street vendors in New York City reminds me how important it is for art to walk the line between brilliance and idiocy.  Hammons sold the snowballs, priced according to size, making something fleeting and ordinary the focus of “value.”

I think about that every day.

D.

 

Love Letter: Migguel Anggelo

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I am in love with Migguel’s new paintings.  I love them at face value: each is a luscious and intoxicating bloom.  Who can argue with that?  

But I love them more for their conceptual intention.  Each bloom is a portrait of the women in the artist’s family, spanning from his 3 ½ year-old niece to his 82 year-old grandmother.  This is not painting for the sake of recording nature.  Rather, this is painting as metaphor, as loving homage, as poetry.  The sensitivity that each portrait has been rendered, faint and soft as a memory is palpable and imbedded in every brush stroke.

If you are going to be in Miami from May 8th through the 15th, I highly suggest you check out Anggelo’s work.   The folks at Design Miami are hosting the exhibition at The Mosaic Building (161 NE 40th Street) in the Design District, in a cool space on the second floor.  Join the ARTWALK on the 8th.  It’s fun and free, and the city is lively with art lovers, music, and good cheer.    And unlike New York City art openings that are ultimately for the cognoscenti and artists who are dying for their own slice of a gallerist’s attention, in Miami, the whole community comes out to join the fun.  That’s the way it should be.
 
Xo

D.

 

 
 
 
   
 

Love Letter: Robert The

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Right now, I am fully engaged in books. Our own book, David Stark Design, published by The Monacelli Press launches on April 27th. The new collection we are doing for West Elm this holiday season utilizes book pages in inventive ways to decorate and celebrate with whimsy too – more on that soonish!

In my creative research for our current projects, I have stumbled upon and fallen in love with the work of Robert The. I have seen some of Robert’s pieces in the gift shops of museums like the Whitney and the New Museum, and I have always liked the objects, but all of a sudden, because I have books on the brain, I started to delve in a little more. Robert similarly takes books and does stuff to them, embracing them as already “found,” evocative objects while transforming them with layers of additional metaphor. Sometimes the books are saved from dumpsters and thrift stores, but the titles seem purposefully chosen to me. 

Here’s some additional eye and mind candy.

Nice, eh?

D.

   

Love Letter: Xavier Veilhan

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Love Letter:  Xavier Veilhan

Juli’s friend Molly forwarded information about French artist, Xavier Veilhan, knowing that I would be into his work, and  I am very grateful, Molly, because I LOVE it!

It is interesting how Veilhan takes generic objects, smoothes away the details and emotions that would normally be implicit in a public statue, and then creates a double-take.  Especially juxtaposed to historic, European architecture, in public plazas where grand and time-worn monuments typically celebrate heads of state, war heroes, the greatness of an empire, it is amazing to see forms that are familiar enough, but you never see an eye, an expression or the drape of fabric.  The candy colors and faceted, digital smoothness feel so modern and propel these forms to now even when they reference what on first glance could be a familiar site.  The horse drawn coach below is a fabulous example.

I would love to see what Veilhan could/would do in the middle of New York City, a more modern setting.   Dear CREATIVE TIME Can you invite him to play in our city?  I do think it would be interesting since the artist often employs the same trick I.M. Pei pulled off at the Louvre with such incredible effect.  If Pei’s glass pyramid was amidst more modern buildings, say in Shanghai, would it be as special? 

Feel free to share the cool things that you know of, everybody.  Send them in, and thanks so much, Molly, for bringing this work to my attention.  You really made my day.

xo

D.

 
 
 

Love Letter: DSI

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We were too busy in the month of December to have our company holiday party, so last Friday we did the deed and had a beautiful lunch at a loft in DUMBO.  It was great fun as always, but especially fun for me because the gang at David Stark Design surprised me with a wacky video that they made when I was in Japan producing a large event for Tory Burch.  To my great surpise, this was all pulled off without me having any idea at all.  I was so touched and amazed, and I am both embarrassed and excited to share their zany humor.

Perhaps you won’t shed the tears that I did upon seeing this, but I think you’ll be able to see what a wonderful family my team is.  That is something that I am very, very proud of.

D.

Love Letter: Margaret Kilgallen

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Over the holidays, I watched the documentary BEAUTIFUL LOSERS, which highlighted a group of artists that were friends, emerged at the same time period, and came out of a tradition of skateboarding meets tagging, meets happening, meets comic book, meets cartoon, meets folk art, meets mural. 

I had always admired the artist Margaret Kilgallen but was reminded of her brilliance by this film.   She was a central part of this group until her untimely death from breast cancer only three weeks after she gave birth to her and husband, Barry McGee’s daughter.  One can only imagine the power her work would have achieved  had she been able to continue making it.  As it is, I find the work to be very powerful, inspiring, and individual and often think about her sense of scale when I think about my work and impacting a space.

I marvel at the artists that have only a small window of opportunity to make their mark.  Think – Margaret Kilgallen . .  . Felix Gonzalez Torres, Yves Klein . . . and the sheer force of the work that can be created in their time on this earth.

Writing this on new year’s day, pensive about the meaning of it all, I can’t help but be touched by this art and want to publicly honor the voice of the artist who could only sing for a short time.

D.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Love Letter: Neil Dawson

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I was hunting around and stumbled upon the work of this New Zealander’s art – it’s very inspiring.  See how the piece below, called HORIZONS looks so radically different when the weather changes.  It’s amazing how this sculpture is both volumetric and  flat at the same time.  

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The below sculpture is called ECHO.  The “house” is somehow suspended and looks like it is drawn in the sky.  When you walk around the piece and look up, the perspective apparently reverses itself.  On one side, the front of the building is visible from below, but when you move to the other side, the view changes, and the building is seen from above.  WOWSA.

 

 

 

 

 

How come we don’t know so much about this gent’s work in America?  Come to our neck of the woods, and make something cool, Neil.

D.

 

 

 

 

  

Love Letter: Maison Martin Margiela, Part I

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Ok . . . so I have to admit that I am a little obsessed with this fashion house, and I have quite a collection of the designer’s clothing from over the years, but the store environments that they create to shop in are fantastically exciting too.  This year, the House of Margiela premiered a line of home pieces at the furniture fair in Milan.  Whether it was an experiment that will become a reality in the marketplace is one thing, but I was sad that I didn’t get to see it firsthand.  I am also sad that I did not get to see the retrospective, celebrating 20 years of Maison Martin Margiela at MoMu in Antwerp.  So . . . I am going to do my own little homage today, focusing on interiors.   Part 2 and 3 (in the future) will focus on clothing and accessories.   There’s too much yummy stuff for one posting, you know?!

 

I love the whole trompe-l’oeil thing, a frequently used strategy.  Note the real wooden floor that has been painted to look like a “real wooden floor.”  This is something that we do quite a bit too.  Note our real wooden stumps, painted to look like “real wooden stumps” for an event we did for the Sundance Institute (below).   It’s turning the tables; I love the wink and nudge of it all.  You see fake things all the time that are trying to be real – fake Louis Vuitton bags on Canal Street, fake Rolex watches, but it is funny to see a real thing, posing as a real thing.  

 

 

The wine bottle lamps (below) have been staples of the store interiors for years.  A couple of years ago, I was sent a holiday gift from the New York team, thanking me for being a good customer.  It was a bottle of champagne entirely painted over in their signature gesso, making the bubbly incognito, and rendering the bottle unusable.  Thus, a standard gift, a bottle of spirits, is transformed into an art piece.

 

Painting everything over in matte white until something is “anonymous” is the method de rigueur in the shops.  I am not attributing the painting to “they” or the house because there is something about the way it is done which makes you feel that everything is naturally the way it is.  You don’t feel the hand of the person who does the painting or the obscuring. Rather, you feel as if everything has always been that way. Often times, materials that are of value (leather), that “should” never be painted over are painted over.  Note the leather chairs below that have been erased in white gesso.  The furniture naturally rises out of years of painting jeans and shoes and coats.

 

 

 

When not painted, furniture is often wrapped in white muslin slipcovers.  Some of the most inane objects are also covered in white slip covers (hangers, for instance).  And often, multiple objects, grouped together, have one single slip cover that is made for the objects as a unit.  See the vignette of mannequins below, sheathed as one as well as the various seats in a line that have a single cover that unifies.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

The New York store has a tiny room whose walls are upholstered in egg cartons and the jewelry collection is shown off to great effect in there.  It is a brilliant amalgam of trash and chic all at once.  I couldn’t find any pictures of it, but go check it out.  Of course, I wish I had thought of that one.  It’s so perfectly inane.  And I love that they have the audacity to display and sell some of the most expensive clothing and items around in a setting that is anything but.  Once again, it is not what you use, but how you use it that wins the race.  It’s so inspiring for me to learn from others that do it so brilliantly and fearlessly.  Merci Monsieur Margiela.

Xoxo

D.

Love Letter: Stefan Sagmeister

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Finally someone has put into words exactly what I feel all the time:  “Obsessions make my life worse and my work better.” 

The melodramatic statement, undercut by the shimmering filigree of thousands of swirling Euro pennies, made for a gorgeous public art work in an Amsterdam courtyard.  I’d like to imagine that the piece was created from pennies that the artist saved every time he got change over the course of a period of time rather than just marching into the bank and exchanging bills for the amount of coins needed at that instant.  That’s how I would have done it . . . right now I have a year’s worth of plastic market bags piling up.  Stay tuned on that one . . .

 

 

 

 

More cool penny stuff?  Here’s something nifty . . . and perhaps against the law?  I saw this penny floor in process when I took a tour of the rooftop bar/lounge at the brand new Standard Hotel in New York City while it was still under construction.  Gotta go back and see it finished!

 

Of course, ideas always go round and round and round.  About 12 years ago,  I casted thousands of pennies in plaster (insane!), painted them all kinds of chalky and lovely colors, so carefully drilled holes in them, and threaded magical, impossibly tall stacks of gradated color that would just not fall over because of their hidden armature inside.  If I knew then that that project would be a precursor to so many of the visuals tricks that I employ now with different materials . . .  Hmmmmm . . . .

Cheers,

D.

Love Letter: The Bacardi Building; Miami, Florida

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There is a stretch of Biscayne Blvd in Miami that is at once super cool AND totally sketchy, framed by run down motels that were once 1960’s groovy and today’s fast food joints devoid of any style at all.  Tucked within that crazy quilt of visual noise is a gorgeous example of 1960s modern architecture, the corporate home of Bacardi USA, housing a museum of the corporate history, family history, and the history of their eponymous rum. 

The architect of the tower was Enrique Gutierrez of the Puerto Rican firm Sacmag International and the blue and white tile work on the exterior was created by Francisco Brennand of Recife, Brazil.  In 1973, the cool square building was added to the property, designed by local architect Ignacio Carrera-Justiz, and the glass tapestries, designed to withstand hurricane gales, were created in France under the direction of Gabriel and Jacques Loire of Chartres, after an original painting by the German artist Johannes M. Dietz.  Fancy, huh?!  (wink)

It’s a really, really beautiful spot.  I spend a lot of time in Miami.  Everyone knows it as a place for mad partying and chic hotels, but there is a ton of cool stuff tucked here and there and everywhere.  Come visit!

xo

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: "Bricks"

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So you say you like “bricks,” eh!? 

Well I’m feeling them too lately.  Here are some of my favorites . . .

Cheers,

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kirsten wrote in and tipped me off on a cool brick tote.  Check it out and if anyone else has a favorite “brick” thang . . . send it in!

Xo

D.

Love Letter: Marni

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I’ve been kind of obsessed with Marni’s 2009 Spring collection and the windows of the store in Miami are like beautiful abstract paintings to me.  I love that the colors are anything but matchy matchy and that the accessories are surprising and loopy.  In my head, the collection is the fashion equivalent of what we do with our events.   If the work of David Stark Design wore clothing, it would definitely wear Marni!  (wink)

Xo

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Ai Weiwei

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I have been looking a lot at the work of the Chinese artist, designer, architect, and activist  Ai Weiwei who creates magical installations that fuse east and west, old and new and very serious AND loopy into fantastical dreamscapes that are also stinging social commentary.  Calling for the Chinese government to ease control over the individual, Weiwei’s outspoken and critical views of totalitarian states have gotten him into some hot water with Chinese officials over the years, but the rest of the world has fallen in love with him.  I’m late to the table, but enjoying the meal thoroughly!

 

"Bamboo and Porcelain", 2008

 

The most popular brand of bicycle in China is called “Forever.”  The symbolic form of infinity, created from a symbolic “thing” of the people, beautifully interwoven like magic, is really stunning to me.

 

 

 

The three images above are of the public sculpture “Template,” constructed from the wooden doors and window frames of Ming and Qing dynasty homes that were destroyed by the Chinese government during the vast building boom that was characterized as being part of China’s second Cultural Revolution.  The piece was originally a tower standing tall, but the tower was thrown down by a violent windstorm.  Weiwei both accepted and embraced this “new” installation as highly preferred to the original conception.  Very “go with the flow,” huh?

 

The carved marble piece (above) is entitled, “Monumental Junkyard,” and it honors and immortalizes the heaps of trash that are commonplace in Beijing suburbs.

 

The Tate Liverpool in Liverpool, England commissioned the above fantastic work for the opening of their exhibition, “The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China” in 2007.

 

It would be really cool to have the above chandelier in a very tiny New York City walk-up tenement apartment.

 

 

I adore this series of images as well.  Not a symbolic “fuck you,” but an actual one, these are samples from a larger body of work in which the artist gives the finger to the representation of state power – from the White House to the Eifel Tower.

Love Letter: Roy McMakin

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I became enchanted with the artist Roy McMakin back when the ultra serious Richard Meier, architect of the just completed Getty Center in Los Angeles, had a tantrum over the furniture McMakin was commissioned to create for the complex.  The furniture was a little roly-poly and a tad goofy, juxtaposing a sentimentally sweet wink to Meier’s absolute purity.   Maier was outraged, AND I LOVED IT!

McMakin is that rare talent that slides seamlessly between architecture, furniture, and art making. Over the years, his Domestic Furniture/Architecture Company has created special buildings and interiors all over the country for artists, art collectors, and people of style.   Simultaneously, his art is sold at one of the most blue chip galleries in New York – Mathew Marks.  His “art” often looks like furniture.  His “furniture” often looks like “art.” 

I was tooling around the internet and found these incredible interiors where painted shapes bisect the furniture and rugs of the space.  My friend Robert had suggested I paint a rectangle on the ceiling over my bed the other night – almost like a canopy.  Then, low and behold, I ran into the image below.  Pretty GREAT, huh?!

 

 

 

I thought The below images/pieces were pretty neat too.  I like that something is sweetly “off”  in all of the objects/rooms.  Whether misaligned, out of proportion, strangely colored – there is a memory game going on in McMakin’s work that is sometimes hard to pin-point, but the imperfection is quite beautiful and haunting to me. 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Ellis Gallagher

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Lauren reminded me that in our very own neighborhood, we have a graffiti star: Ellis Gallagher (aka Ellis G.).  Known for his chalk outlines of the shadows cast from everyday stuff, those of us in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens have loved Ellis’ outlines of hydrants, street lamps, and bicycles found on the local sidewalks for years. 

Ellis used to be more of a traditional street tagger, using subways and other public spaces as his canvas but when his buddy and fellow tagger Hector Ramirez was hit by a train, Ellis changed directions. We’re really glad you did, neighbor!

D.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Robin Rhode

I have been into Robin’s work for quite awhile.  Born in South Africa and living in Berlin, the below stills come from photographic sequences that beautifully walk the line between performance and photography.  Robin interacts within his own drawn worlds much in the same way that my childhood hero HAROLD (AND THE PURPLE CRAYON) did.  While Harold’s skin was pearly white and his fantasy worlds rather benign, Rhode’s scenarios often register the cultural traces of poverty and social inequality that were endemic to growing up in Johannesburg.   The work retains a playful joy, though, identifying fundamental social concerns while never becoming judgmental.   I like that.  A lot.

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter: Florentijn Hofman

I have been infatuated with rubber duckies ever since I was a child.  In fact, a collection of them resides in my shower, greeting me upon every ablution with a smile.

Upon searching the web for more rubber duckies, I fell smack dab into the work of Florentijn Hofman.  Apparently Mr. Hofman is an extremely well known artist in his native Holland as well as throughout the rest of Europe, and he created this grand ducky for ‘Loire Estuary 2007,’ an outdoor contemporary art exhibition taking place in France.  Of course, I immediately started searching voraciously for information on more of his works.  Piece after piece is simply astounding!

 

 

 

The below piece, “Signpost 5” was created to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Schiermonnikoog International Chamber Music Festival in 2006.  Like beached whales or shipwrecked cargo, these grand pianos totally change the context of this peaceful beach and appear to either float or have been washed up on shore depending on the tides and time of day.  I always think about how hard it is to make an impact with a sculptural work outdoors.  The world and sky are so, so BIG that it is difficult to penetrate on that gargantuan scale.  These pieces seem to do so with such aplomb while also providing a comfy seat (or two) for birds and people alike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Beukelsblue” is a stunner too!  By dousing an entire city block in Rotterdam with electric, candy blue paint, Hofman changes the context of this neighborhood and turns a derelict building into a sculpture.  Why not?!?

 

 

 

Hofman’s work reminds me of one of the first art lessons I learned as a freshman at RISD, a lesson that I think about all of the time.

On a crisp Monday in October, our professor Alfred DeCredico took us all to the First Baptist Church in America, an iconic, New England clapboard church with a steeple.  When inside, Al handed us some rope and said, “As a group, and with only this rope, change the context of this Church.”  Then he left and didn’t come back for five hours.
 
My classmates and I spent the day stumped.  This lesson was as much about “context” as it was about the difficulties of group collaboration.  When he finally returned, we had nothing to show for our afternoon of push and pull, and with the grandiosity he was known for, he created an elegant, snake-like coil, put it on the floor directly in front of the altar and walked out triumphantly.

Al’s “piece” was not impressive for its mind-blowing transformation of the Church in the way that painting a whole city block blue is.  Rather, I was blown away by the simplicity of the gesture and the grand concept of “changing a context.”  They didn’t talk about things like that in suburban New Jersey!

Today, every single project I touch or consider makes me think of that day at the First Baptist Church of America. 

Thank you, Al.  Thank you RISD for the gifts you gave me.

D.

Love Letter: Saul Steinberg and Inge Morath

For Christmas this year, Susie gave me a book called, MASQUERADE filled with such inspiring photos, a collaboration between the artist Saul Steinberg and the photographer Inge Morath, taken between 1959 and 1961.  What a lot of fun, right?!

Thanks, Suse.  I LOVE this work!!

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter to Robert Indiana

I saw Robert Indiana’s beautiful show at Paul Kasmin’s Gallery and took some photos to remember it by. GORGEOUS.

D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Letter to Marimekko

When someone mentions “Marimekko,” people automatically think of that big, happy, iconic flower print from the 70’s, which I believe Crate & Barrel revived a couple of years back making it seem so cheery and new. Fast forward to now and Anthropology is upholstering some of their furniture pieces with that fab newish lily pad print. 

I’ve caught the fever as well. I am obsessed with these new patterns and am trying to figure out how to use them in my life. I love that you would never know they were Marimekko unless you were told.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been using some fabulous Marimekko patterns for recent events. We used Liro A. Ahokas’ pattern (Turbulent) in green and white for MoMA’s Party In the Garden this year – so chic and sophisticated (and incidentally, not seen all that often!).