ARTES

Though it lies just across the Mediterranean from Europe, barely a stone’s throw from Spain’s southernmost tip, Morocco couldn’t possibly be farther away.With its mountainous and desert landscapes, labyrinthine souks, delectable cuisine, exquisite rugs and textiles, vibrant mosaics, fragrant odors, mesmerizing music, and welcoming people, Morocco is a most alluring and tantalizingly exotic destination. Digging a little deeper into the myth of Morocco, Barbara and René Stoeltie bring us this eclectic selection of homes to demonstrate all that is most wonderful about the Moroccan style: from tiled, turquoise swimming pools and lavish gardens to carved wooden furniture and jade-colored marble fountains.With more than 500 pages featuring stunning, inspiring photographs, flipping through these fairy tale-like visions of exotic havens (ideally while sipping a steaming cup of sweet, fragrant mint tea) will instantly whisk you away.

In this stunning but sinister visual universe, beasts and birds are not mere aesthetic objects but dynamic actors in allegorical struggles: a wild turkey crushes a small parrot in its claw; a troupe of monkeys wreaks havoc on a formal dinner table; an American buffalo is surrounded by bloodied white wolves. In dazzling watercolor, the images impress as much for their impeccable realism as they do for their complex narratives.

Italian-born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564) was a tormented, prodigiously talented, and God-fearing Renaissance man. His manifold achievements in painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry, and engineering combined body, spirit, and God into visionary masterpieces that changed art history forever. Famed biographer Giorgio Vasari considered him the pinnacle of Renaissance achievement. His peers called him simply “Il Divino” (“the divine one”).This book provides the essential introduction to Michelangelo with all the awe-inspiring masterpieces and none of the queues and crowds. With vivid illustration and accessible texts, we explore the artist’s extraordinary figuration and celebrated style of terribilità (momentous grandeur), which allowed human and biblical drama to exist in compelling scale and fervor.

An encounter with Gerhard Richter, the German artist who widened horizons in the relationship between painting and reality. From early photographic paintings, along with his famous RAF cycle, to late abstract paintings, experiencing Richter’s work always offers us the unexpected and unseen. Where he once set out to liberate the medium from ideological ballast, today, faced with the overwhelming presence of digital images, he shows us the unsurpassed impact and intensity of painting. A definitive introduction to one of the greatest artists of our time spanning not only his entire career, but also 50 years of cultural, economic, and political events.

Inspired by her previous experience as an art dealer, Webb designs beautifully composed spaces. She believes in the power of light, and shadow, in creating atmosphere; a pale, luminous wallcovering may be balanced by the presence of antiques, or a chapel-like white bedroom may segue into a deep gray sitting room. As important is a sense of hand: the feeling of glazed earthenware, a worn oak farm table, the softness of fine linen. Webb is also motivated by the pursuit of joy and the power of beauty she makes sure these are rooms for living, for gathering with family, for refuge.

Studio DB, a Manhattan-based architecture and interiors firm headed by Britt and Damian Zunino, is inspired by contextual design and eclecticism—the resulting work embraces the juxtaposition of and tension between polished and playful, modern and traditional. Their projects incorporate a mix of materials, sculptural forms, and whimsical pattern and color, all anchored by a contemporary desire for domestic ease. Design details distinguish their work, with tactile materials interpreted in fresh ways. Examples include exquisite de Gournay wallpaper paired with suspended lamps in a variety of geometric forms and the terrazzo floor of a city foyer, incorporating massive chunks of stone slabs and smaller rocks from the client’s climbing adventures.

The impressionists were forever inspired by the sea, which Claude Monet considered “a wonderful teacher for landscape artists.” The movement’s penchant for plein air painting and its characteristic style, with delicate brushstrokes and incomparable color palettes, was perfectly suited to portrayals of the sea and its perpetual movement, from gently rippling waves to raging storms.

In the early 1960s a reawakening was happening on Nantucket. Into this world stepped Andy Oates and Bill Euler, one skilled in fine arts and the other in the art of hospitality. In 1968 they opened Nantucket Looms, which specialized in needlepoint, crewelwork, handwoven fabrics, and local artwork, forging their Nantucket style aesthetic. This modest homespun charm held great appeal to such style makers as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Bunny Mellon, and interior designer Billy Baldwin.

Schestowitz is a strong believer that a home should create a sense of belonging and togetherness. Growing up, she developed an appreciation for harmonizing diverse styles, placing a modern stainless steel island by an old dining area, an African dresser next to an Eames chair. Schestowitz is not a follower of design guidelines; she believes in an intuitive harmony of space, color, and light. The spaces she creates are infused with travel collectibles, art acquisitions, family pieces, and historical patterns. The rich palettes and bold patterns create spaces that feel naturally inviting and intimate, a result of her long-standing exploration of Mediterranean style.

With an in-depth knowledge of periods and styles, Watson is known for his meticulously researched designs. His rooms always make architectural sense and his work is often inspired by collaborations with architects. Watson strives to uncover and recognize the special qualities found in historic structures and furnishings, and to preserve them while moving them forward into the present. Watson’s interiors are noted for their calm and lightness of being, which he achieves through a gracious sense of proportion and a harmonious continuity via subtle repetitions in color, pattern, material, and silhouette.