2016年12月31日 星期六

Massimo and Lella Vignelli

Photo
Massimo and Lella Vignelli at home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 2012. Together, they were a two-person design army with a shared aesthetic that was sleek and intelligent. CreditFred R. Conrad for The New York Times
Lella Vignelli, a designer who, with her husband, Massimo Vignelli, introduced a spare, elegant style to a wide range of products and corporate brands, attracting an international clientele, died on Dec. 22 at her home in Manhattan. She was 82.
The cause was dementia, her son, Luca, said.
Ms. Vignelli, an architect by training, brought a three-dimensional imagination to her husband’s graphic-design sensibility. Together, they were a two-person design army with a shared aesthetic — sleek and intelligent — that appealed to clients eager to express a new identity or to develop products with bold, modernist lines.
After working with Italian companies like Pirelli and Olivetti in the early 1960s, the Vignellis established an American base of operations through Unimark, their corporate branding company, and, later, Vignelli Associates, which they founded in 1971, and a sister company, Vignelli Designs, which began in 1978.
The Vignellis gave American Airlines its double-A logo and Bloomingdale’s its signature brown paper bags. They designed brightly colored melamine dishware for Heller, stacking fiberglass chairs for Knoll and the interior of St. Peter’s Church — the triangular structure at the base of the building previously known as Citicorp Center in Midtown Manhattan — from the pews to the altarware to the organ.
Their work was collaborative, with areas of specialization.
“We sort of break the idea together,” Ms. Vignelli said in a 1981 interview at the Parsons School of Design. “Then, generally, if it’s graphic, it’s in his field, and if it’s three-dimensional, it’s my field, but we always cross over.”
Ms. Vignelli had a special feel for silver, reflected in two objects she designed for the Italian silversmith San Lorenzo — a ribbed teapot and a malleable necklace called Senza Fine (“Endless”).
“All of this work bears the mark of clarity and simplicity,” Mr. Vignelli wrote in the introduction to his book “Designed by: Lella Vignelli” (2013). “Lella’s work is solid, timeless, responsible and — in its essence — extremely elegant.”
Ms. Vignelli was born Elena Valle on Aug. 13, 1934, in Udine, in the Friuli region of Italy. Lella was her childhood nickname. Her father, Provino, was an architect, as were her sister Nani, a professor at the University of Venice School of Architecture, and her brother Gino. Together, Nani and Gino ran an architectural practice, Valle Studio. Her mother, the former Ave Rege, was a homemaker.
She met Mr. Vignelli, who was from Milan, at an architecture convention, and the two enrolled at the University of Venice School of Architecture to be closer together. They married in 1957 after Mr. Vignelli accepted an offer to do design work in the United States.
Photo
The Vignellis’ designs included the stacking fiberglass Handkerchief chair for Knoll. One critic described the couple’s work as “luxurious without being plush.” CreditVignelli Associates
With the help of her brother, Ms. Vignelli was accepted as a special student at M.I.T.’s architecture school.
Mr. Vignelli died in 2014. In addition to her son, Ms. Vignelli is survived by a daughter, Valentina Vignelli, and three grandchildren.
After working as a junior interior designer for the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago, Ms. Vignelli returned to Italy, where she and her husband opened an architecture and design office in Milan, working with Pirelli, Olivetti and several publishers. She completed her studies at the University of Venice, receiving an architecture degree in 1962.
Returning to the United States in 1965, the Vignellis joined with Ralph Eckerstrom, vice president of advertising for the Container Corporation of America, the Dutch-born graphic designer Bob Noorda and others to create Unimark, a design consulting firm that started the trend of top-to-bottom corporate branding. Business boomed, and the company opened 11 offices around the world.
The Vignellis founded Vignelli Associates, with offices in New York, Paris and Milan, in 1971. Three years later, Ms. Vignelli was installed as chief executive of Vignelli Designs, which concentrated on furniture, objects, exhibitions and interiors. The company’s design work included the stacking fiberglass Handkerchief chairs for Knoll (1982) and the Serenissimo line for Acerbis (1985), a series of glass-topped tables resting on thick cylindrical legs.
Over time, Ms. Vignelli assumed the lead in running the businesses, while the more extroverted Mr. Vignelli became the team’s public face. “I am practical,” she told The Observatory, the blog of the Design Observer Group, in 2010. “Massimo is creative, but he is disorganized.”
For many years, her contributions were simply ignored by the design and architecture press, which often credited Mr. Vignelli alone for the couple’s work. This was a source of frustration to both of them.
Parsons School of Design organized a retrospective of their work in 1980.
“The Vignellis do not really have a style as such,” the architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote in The New York Times. “All of their work could be described as clean, and it is relatively spare, but it is not austere. It is luxurious without being plush, and that takes a certain discipline, which is evident throughout this body of work.”
He added, “The best of the Vignelli designs manage to bring together visual pleasure and ease of use, relate to the history of design yet give us the sense that we are seeing something beautiful made in a way we have never seen it before.”
The Vignellis donated their archives to the Rochester Institute of Technology, where the Vignelli Center for Design Studies opened in 2010.
“If you do it right, it will last forever,” Ms. Vignelli told New York magazine in 2007. “It’s as simple as that.”

El Greco , "Saint Ildefonso," c. 1603/1614,

Take a careful look at El Greco's "Saint Ildefonso." The artist represents the saint in a richly decorated room. He is seated at a writing table furnished with costly silver objects. An otherworldly aura pervades the room; as the saint pauses in his writing, he gazes attentively at the source of his inspiration, a statuette of the Madonna.
El Greco's image of the Virgin resembles an actual wooden figure that Ildefonso is said to have kept in his oratory. The saint later gave the figure to the church of the Hospital of Charity in the Spanish town of Illescas, near Toledo. The statuette is preserved there today together with El Greco's larger version of this work.
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), "Saint Ildefonso," c. 1603/1614, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection

2016年12月23日 星期五

Business Of Design Week北戴河海邊圖書館獲香港設計大獎

Business Of Design Week: BODW

www.bodw.com/

BODW brings to Hong Kong some of the world's most outstanding design masters and influential business figures to inspire the regional audience on creative ...


北戴河海邊圖書館獲香港設計大獎

張璐詩:這幢秦皇島北戴河沙灘上兩層樓高的“海邊圖書館”,在朋友圈被刷屏後引來爭議,如今獲業界肯定。


透過香港會展中心的落地玻璃,海灣晴朗的灣仔碼頭上支著的五六台吊機分外醒目,它提醒我們,填海造地一直與這個國際都會的城市規劃發展並行。而落地玻璃窗之內,正在舉辦亞洲年度設計盛會“香港設計營商周”,今年“設計週”的伙伴城市是芝加哥。自2001年開始到今年,完成了“芝加哥河畔漫步”城市規劃工程,芝加哥與香港的共通點在於:一直在探索新舊建築融合的現代都市規劃、以市民體驗為本去重塑公共空間。
“設計營商周”主辦方是香港設計中心,任職其行政總裁已6年有餘的利德裕表示,全球各地的城市都有自己的“設計週”,但香港稱之為“設計營商周”,是要將創作和商界這兩個少有交集的圈子拉到一起來,是個“跨界知識分享會”。“設計不光需要好主意、大概念,還需要落地,需要規則和商業框架。而不懂設計的商人,即使花上千萬也未必能製造出感動人的作品。像T Park、理工大學的教學酒店Hotel Icon這些例子,就是在漂亮的設計意念背後都有成熟的商業模式。
利德裕所提到的T Park(源·區),是位於香港屯門的一個污泥焚化與人居社區結合的項目。這個新落成的T Park,“T”指代英文中“transformation”,“轉廢為能”的涵義不言自喻。設計者意圖顛覆廢物處理在城市人心目中的固有印象,將原本風馬牛不相及的“焚化爐”與“市民消閒設施”連接起來。回收後的污泥經過焚化後用以發電,縮減體積後再淨排。市民可以預約來免費享受水療spa。這樣一來,市民們就有了切身去認識資源回收和循環再用的機會。
T Park這樣一個自給自足的污泥處理設施對設計師來講挑戰極大,這個項目也因此獲得了2016“DFA亞洲最具影響力設計獎”。利德裕介紹,這個獎項嘉獎的是提升當地人民生活質素的亞洲各地建築項目。主辦方香港設計中心除了這一年度評獎,平時也不定期舉辦工作坊,包括與香港的公務員合作,讓更多公務員去了解如何利用設計去提高公務員服務效率;又與香港中文大學EMBA合作,不光訓練總裁、行政人員,也訓練設計師。利德裕提到,香港從一個昔日漁港變成今日的國際金融中心,但這樣一個擁有成熟型經濟的社會也很容易“走進盒子裡”而不自知。“設計營商周”邀請各國各地的講者來港,希望通過不同案例去拓寬本土設計師和決策者的視野,並帶來靈感。
今年的“DFA亞洲最具影響力設計獎”另外一個得獎作品,也同樣是對自然環境與人居社會關係的一種突破式探索。
去年,一則聚焦“中國最孤獨的圖書館”的新媒體文案在朋友圈中被高密度刷屏。隨之,這幢秦皇島北戴河沙灘上兩層樓高、450平米的“海邊圖書館”,迎來了絡繹不絕的慕名參觀者。這次獲得“亞洲設計獎”的大獎,得獎單位、直向建築設計事務所的兩位建築設計師高樂舟、張菡告訴FT中文網撰稿人,在此之前該項目的影響主要來自網絡,民眾中不少人發出過質疑的聲音;如今獲得的是專業上的肯定,對於一家獨立建築設計事務所來說很有意義。http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001070685#s=d
“海邊圖書館”的實現來自三方合作:地產開發商“阿那亞”委託“直向”為其在北戴河的配套設施設計一幢公益圖書館,建成後圖書館的書籍由三聯書店提供。設計與建造一共用了不到兩年時間。高樂舟與張菡介紹設計概念:在沙灘和海水永恆的動態烘托下,建成後的圖書館就像海灘上的一塊石頭。因為想要達到這種效果,設計師沒有用公路、人行步道直接連接圖書館。“遊人們可以由西邊三十米的濱海步道,踩過軟沙灘抵達硬質地面,走進圖書館之前,把鞋子裡的沙子倒掉,抬頭,會看到一片靜止的大海”。張菡解釋,設計師希望同時能夠創造一種儀式感。這塊“大石頭”與一般陸地上的建築也不一樣:沒有一個明顯的入口。人在接近它、走進它之前,需要先在“石頭”的各面對它進行體驗和觀察。
“海邊圖書館”整個工程包含了許多人工的工藝,材料不是工廠裡造好的材料,而是在當場用混凝土澆築了三次樣牆,除了木紋的肌理以外,所有工人在牆上的觸碰痕跡最後都被留下來。而這也是設計師董工的初衷:建築上留著時間、人工的痕跡,就像在海上留下的痕跡那樣。由於落成初期已有大批遊客去觀瞻、拍照,不到兩個月圖書館已需要限制人客流量。最初的“圖書館”身份也已有所擴充,在這裡,詩歌朗誦會、電影放映會、音樂會都有舉辦。
(本文僅代表作者本人觀點。責編郵箱:shirley.xue@ftchinese.com)

2016年12月22日 星期四

Virgin of the Immaculate Conception by Carlo Crivelli


virginal conception :童貞懷孕:聖母瑪利亞因聖神受孕,仍保留其童貞狀態。

Immaculate Conception, the :聖母無玷始胎;聖母無染原罪;聖母無原罪;聖母始胎無染原罪: 1854 年教宗碧嶽九世宣佈:「瑪利亞在其母胎成孕之初,即因天主特恩未染原罪」為信條。其節日在十 二月八日 。拉丁文稱作 Immaculata Conceptio 


National Gallery
Painted in 1492, this work by Carlo Crivelli may be the earliest dated picture of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. The symbols derive from the Bible, including the Book of Revelation and The Song of Songs. Here, the Virgin's purity is symbolised by a lily in a pure crystal glass. The painting comes from the Franciscan church of San Francesco, Pergola, central Italy. It hangs in Room 59: http://bit.ly/2haE6ID

2016年12月21日 星期三

Stanley Spencer: Looking to Heaven,...Letters and Writings. BBC:Stanley Spencer: Letters offer a portrait of the artist as a young man


Stanley Spencer: Letters and Writings Paperback – March 1, 2001

Stanley Spencer is recognised as a British artist of singular vision, but he was also a prolifc and highly individual writer. In moments between painting, Spencer wrote thousands of letters. He filled notebooks, diaries and scraps of paper, recording his daily thoughts and future plans in a distinctly Spencerian manner. This book brings together for the first time an extensive selection of Spencer's key letters, notes and theoretical writings. Adrian Glew has selected from the wealth of Spencer's unpublished manuscripts in the Tate Archive and includes important sections of Spencer's autobiography which remained unfinished at the time of his death. Spencer always believed that his writings were as important as his paintings, and this volume offers a unique insight into Spencer as writer, thinker and artist.

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The three volumes will be published by the Unicorn Publishing Group. The first, titled Stanley Spencer: Looking to Heaven, focuses on his early years, including his service in the first world war. Having been a hospital orderly, he was a soldier on the Salonika front in Macedonia.


BBC:http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37521627

Stanley Spencer: Letters offer a portrait of the artist as a young man

  • 1 October 2016
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Stanley SpencerImage copyrightAP
Image captionSir Stanley Spencer: One of England's most celebrated 20th Century painters

At 90, Shirin Spencer can still recall her father Stanley painting one of his masterpieces - the World War One murals at the chapel in Burghclere in Hampshire. Now she's looking forward to new light being shed on his war as the family publishes the correspondence of the artist as a young man.
It is 57 years since the painter Sir Stanley Spencer died. Interest in his work and his sometimes tangled private life has, if anything, grown since then.
When he died, his eldest daughter Shirin was already working with a view to publishing his correspondence.
But she did not have the heart to continue, and decades later her nephew John has taken up the job.
There are some five million words to work through. The first of three volumes, covering the early years and a war spent mainly in Macedonia, comes out this autumn.
Shirin says people often know two things about her father - that he grew up in Cookham in Berkshire and that he painted the murals at the Sandham Memorial Chapel.

Unity and Shirin SpencerImage copyrightJOHN SPENCER
Image captionUnity and Shirin Spencer hope the books will give a more accurate picture of their father

"My father loved Cookham deeply and people will see that again in the letters," she says.
"Probably he'd barely been further than Maidenhead until he went to the Slade School of Art in London when he was 17."
Towards the end of his life, the BBC filmed Sir Stanley walking around the village looking slightly eccentric with a pram. The image has defined what some people think of him.
Shirin is sitting next to her younger sister Unity. They now live close to one another in Wales, though in separate houses. They are good company but Unity does not hesitate to make clear how much she dislikes talk of their father as an eccentric.
"There were shots of Daddy taking the pram over Cookham Moor with an artist's easel in it, which probably did make him look odd," she says.
"But I don't think he was at all eccentric - he got up and shaved and had his breakfast and got on with his work. The eccentricity was something invented by people who didn't know him at all. In many ways he was a normal bloke."
Around the time of Shirin's birth, Sir Stanley began work on the interior of the new chapel in Hampshire - work which took five years.

The chapel in HampshireImage copyrightNATIONAL TRUST
Image captionSir Stanley decorated the interior of the Sandham Memorial Chapel

From the outside, the building is not especially attractive - some said it resembled municipal offices or a biscuit factory.
But Sir Stanley covered the interior with 19 colourful and extraordinary images, inspired both by the great masters of Renaissance painting and by his own war years.
He had spent most of the war in the Royal Army Medical Corps, at home and in the eastern Mediterranean.
The pictures range from the homely to the wildly dramatic.
The dominant central image, over the altar, is The Resurrection of the Soldiers. It shows fallen servicemen after the war, emerging from their graves in Macedonia and sending the white wooden crosses tumbling across the canvas.
In the middle of the picture, two mules lie on the ground. Almost insignificant in the middle distance, Christ looks on.

World War One murals at the chapel in BurghclereImage copyrightBRIDGEMAN IMAGES
Image captionThe Resurrection of the Soldiers is regarded as one of his masterpieces

Shirin can remember being taken when small to see her father at work at Burghclere.
She was especially fond of the mules then, and today she thinks the Resurrection is the greatest and most inspiring of all her father's pictures.
"The major themes of his life were redemption and resurrection," she says. "So he had everything in his mind before he even started.
"People ask why Christ is such a small figure in The Resurrection of the Soldiers but if you see it in the context of the chapel it all works marvellously.
"Christ is welcoming the soldiers but I think he's doing it almost man to man - he's chatting with them. Our father was interested in ordinary things which to him were almost sacramental - they had a life of their own."

'Happy memories'

Unity says her father thought a lot about religious belief but never had a standard view of Christianity.
"But in the picture there's a lovely line of trees stretching up the hill and an amazing sense of eternity. Daddy thought Jesus was an interesting and a good man - but I don't think he quite knew what he thought about God."
Sir Stanley brought his children to live in Cookham in 1932, but five years after that his marriage to their mother Hilda ended in divorce.
The family broke up and he quickly married Patricia Preece. It was a relationship, apparently unconsummated, which has baffled biographers.
A major film company has approached the family about turning the tale into a biopic.
John Spencer is still studying some of the letters from and to his grandfather in the years when the marriage was under pressure.
They will appear in the second volume he's currently editing, and John says the anger is striking.

Stanley SpencerImage copyrightPA
Image captionThe artist at work in his studio in Cookham in 1932

Shirin saw little of her father between the ages of six and 13.
"I wish I had seen more of him but there were happy memories too. I can remember going with him to Odney Common and playing ducks and drakes - skimming stones over the surface of the water.
"And I remember him getting me a scented rush to smell. There were times when he was an ordinary father and a good father."
Unity recalls being upset when she first went to the chapel at Burghclere when she was aged 10 or 11.
"It simply had never occurred to me that he was famous," she says. "But when I saw the chapel I realised he was a public figure and I came away with my head low - I felt I had lost my Daddy."
The three new volumes of correspondence will contain a few images of paintings, but there are previously unseen little sketches which Sir Stanley sometimes drew on his letters.
Shirin says she hopes the books will give people a more accurate picture of her father.
"He had a real interest in people and he was a very kind man. There was a time when Unity and I didn't see him but he was kind. And I hope that people will know that because it's very important."
Stanley Spencer - Looking to Heaven is published in November by the Unicorn Press.
Witness: Stanley Spencer is available on the BBC World Service website.