BELLAS ARTES

JLF Architects, based in Bozeman, Montana, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, believe first and foremost that architecture should be rooted in its particular place, responding in a meaningful way to the natural or built environment. Using local materials and partnering with the best local craftsmen, JLF Architects seeks to create buildings that are tactile and modern, environmentally responsible and authentic, artful and crafted. Now more than 30 years since its founding, the firm has grown along with the range and complexity of its projects, and still considers the desire to build in part-nership with the land to be an approach that remains valid and increasingly resonant. JLF Architects’ first projects were houses and these projects excite the firm still. JLF Architects have found that by exploring the inti-mate relationship between family, place, and building they can create unique living environments that possess a compelling authenticity and beauty.

A wide-ranging book on the timeless, elegant interiors of the versatile Frances Elkins, the grande dame of early twentieth-century design who influenced so many important designers of our time. Called “the most creative designer we have ever had” by Billy Baldwin, Frances Elkins has been revered for her classic, erudite, and multidimensional decor. Ahead of her time, Elkins became a successful decorator who by the early 1930s had reached the top of her profession and was considered the only rival to Elsie de Wolfe. Working throughout the United States, Elkins brought an international perspective and architectural sensibility to her work. Elkins traveled widely with her architect brother David Adler, educated at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and he was a strong influence on her. Her social circle included interior designer Jean-Michel Frank, couturière Coco Chanel, aesthete Charles de Beistegui, arts patron Misia Sert and painter Salvador Dali, For her clients, she brought a modern European chic as well as a melding of the best of American, English, French,, Asian and Mexican traditions. A talented furniture and fabric designer as well as interior designer, she collaborated with many luminaries, including Frank; architects Adler, Gardner Dailey, and William Wurster; weaver Dorothy Liebes; decorator Syrie Maugham; the artist Bruton sisters; and furniture maker Myron Oliver. Her carefully planned interiors were known for their distinctive sophistication and polish, and an inviting sense of comfort.

En 1959 tres álbumes fundamentales de Miles Davis, John Coltrane y Ornette Coleman llevaron a sus últimas posibilidades el jazz de su época, frente al que surgiría el free jazz. Este nuevo estilo musical exacerbaba la negritud, rescataba las raíces africanas, explotaba la ancestral polirritmia y al mismo tiempo conectaba con las vanguardias artísticas de su tiempo, generando un tipo de improvisación nunca oído hasta entonces. Era un jazz más radical, tanto en lo musical como en lo político. Los músicos que lo abrazaron eran exploradores de nuevas sonoridades, que podían resultar ásperas y violentas. Era el sonido de la libertad.

Brillante, pionera, artista, icono de la moda, Frida Kahlo era realmente única. Fuerte, apasionada, talentosa y decidida a partes iguales. Desde sus primeros días creciendo en Coyoacán y su enfermedad en la infancia; su etapa escolar como una de las pocas mujeres que asistieron a la renombrada Escuela Nacional Preparatoria de Ciudad de México (donde conoció a Diego Rivera), y el trágico accidente que la llevaría a una vida de dolor y ambición artística; su ascenso hasta convertirse en una de las artistas más importantes y célebres de México, su relación con Diego, su amistad con los surrealistas europeos, la sensación que causó con su primera exposición en Nueva York, su contribución a la cultura en general y el fenómeno sin precedentes en el que se ha convertido. Frida de la A a la Z conmemora la vida, el arte, las amistades, la política, la belleza y la agonía que rodean a una de las voces artísticas más distintivas e importantes del siglo XX.

La belleza de la naturaleza y la soledad del hombre son temas dominantes en la obra de Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). El artista con frecuencia dispone una pequeña figura humana en un amplio paisaje, como en sus famosos lienzos Monje a la orilla del mar y El caminante sobre el mar de nubes. Durante mucho tiempo, la importancia y la influencia de este gran pintor romántico fueron subestimadas. Cuando murió, Friedrich había sido olvidado ya por sus coetáneos y no fue redescubierto hasta principios del siglo xx. Actualmente, se le considera el pintor alemán más importante de su generación y un precursor del expresionismo.

Beauty and elegance mingle with extravagance in the Palm Beach style of architect Marion Sims Wyeth, a kind of home design that takes the standard fixtures of paradise palm trees, ebullient fountains, glistening pools and gardens, views of the sea and mixes them with a dash of the exotic a Moorish-style balcony or doorway, Venetian archways, fanciful courtyards in the Spanish style, and spiralling staircases in stone and iron. Featured here are the legendary abodes of Marjorie Merriweather Post and Doris Duke Mar-a-Lago and Shangri La, respectively as well as the less well known but equally spectacular Hogarcito and La Claridad, to name but a few. For those unfamiliar with these dream palaces, intimate homes of repose and reflection, for the enjoyment of life and the living of it, the book serves at once as a revelation and an inspiration.