Curio Cabinet

Welcome to our Top 18 of 2018 countdown! As the year comes to an end, we're looking back at this year's most loved Curios across all categories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane in your entire Curio Cabinet .
 

Roll, Forrest, roll! This image captures snow rollers as they make their way down a slope in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. If the icy wheel looks unfamiliar, it's because it only appears under a special set of circumstances. The snow's temperature has to be a couple degrees above freezing—otherwise, it'll be too hard to form a shape. A layer of ice or packed snow should be topped with a dusting of flakes, making it easier for the snow to stick to itself as it tumbles down a gentle slope like the one above—just like icing might be used to hold together a rolled pastry. Though it's easier for this phenomenon to take place on a hill, rollers have also appeared throughout the Midwest. Snow rollers often leave long tracks behind them, which makes it look like humans have been involved with their creation. But make no mistake: only Mother Nature can take credit for these mysterious formations.
 

Below: snow rollers on a roof in the Giant Mountains range in eastern Europe; the strange phenomenon turns up in the fields of Scotland.
 

Image credit & copyright: Eunice Clark / SWNS.com
 

Welcome to our Top 18 of 2018 countdown! As the year comes to an end, we're looking back at this year's most loved Curios across all categories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane in your entire Curio Cabinet .
 

Title: Cat playing a piano in front of a psychedelic background
Artist: Louis Wain (1860–1939)
Medium: gouache
Dimensions: 22.5 x 17.5 cm (8.9 x 6.9 in)
 

When did Keyboard Cat get so groovy? In the 19th century, English illustrator Louis Wain critiqued Victorian society with his tea-sipping, anthropomorphized felines—but it seems his kitties added something suspect to their brew. Born August 5, 1860, Wain likely painted this furry pianist in one of the many psychiatric hospitals he was shunted to later in his life, after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. To achieve such rich color and thick strokes, Wain painted with opaque watercolors called gouache. He never dated his doodles, but art historians tend to sort this jazzy feline amongst his earlier works, for as he aged, the cats gradually disengaged into wonderful psychedelia: vivid abstractions that give Buddhist mandalas a run for their technical money. He experienced what he called "visions of extraordinary complexity," but retained much of his artistic training, even as he wholly lost autonomy. Thanks to a petition by sci-fi author H. G. Wells, a fan of Wain's, the artist was allowed to live in an Edenic garden amongst a colony of cats during his prolific final years.
 

Below: more of Wain's mind-bending meowmers.
 

Image credit & copyright: Artnet / Chris Beetles Ltd. / Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
 

Title: Carlton Room Divider
Artist: Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007)
Created: 1981
Medium: Wood, plastic laminate
Dimensions: 76.75 x 74.75 x 15.75 in (194.9 x 189.9 x 40 cm)
Current location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
 

Can a single art show be responsible for a decade's worth of style aesthetics? It's easy to make the case for Ettore Sottsass' Memphis Group, which formed on December 11, 1980, and introduced the world to its quirky aesthetics a year later at the furniture fair in the Salone del Mobile of Milan, Italy. Sottass' Carlton room divider no doubt would have been an odd duck among finely crafted carpentry and upholstery. The clashing colors, laminate plastics—not to mention the odd Jenga-like balancing act and Sottsass' Bacterio print in the base—must have made for an unusual first impression. The whimsy, anti-minimalist angles, and squiggly nature of Sottsass' work found immediate fans in Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld and musician David Bowie. As for the rest of us, if we enjoyed any moment of Beetlejuice, Saved by the Bell—or more serious '80s fare like Miami Vice—it's worth noting there was definitely a fan of Sottsass and the Memphis Group's aesthetics behind set designs and costuming!

 

Below: we originally couldn't see Sottsass' Carlton as a room divider, until we found the right room for it—one decorated entirely in Memphis art pieces. The name of the group also stems from a Bob Dylan song Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, a track that played on repeat at the first Memphis Group meeting.
 

Image credit & copyright: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Zanone
 

'80s nostalgia never looked as good as it does with Charlotte Love. The London photo stylist and prop designer composed the above still life with print combinations and heavy color blocking (pairing multiple solid colors) for the online Heart Home magazine, with photography by Joanna Henderson. With such a whimsical imagination that also brings us veggies and household items with silly faces on her Instagram feed, it's no wonder Love gravitates toward the fun aesthetics of the Memphis Group. But it's Love's keen eye that makes her more than just an imitator; she applies muted colors and soft shapes to the arrangements in her commercial photography that create a reimagined version of '80s art, which makes for some cozy interior decorating. In any case, we know that pink banana would be quite the conversation starter at parties!

 

Below: more of Love's work from the Eye on the Ball series with Alex Edwards, and styling Clarks Shoes with Bill Bradshaw's photography.
 

Image credit & copyright: Charlotte Love
 

On December 8, 1980, the world lost a musical icon and counterculture hero in John Lennon. In the days following his assassination, thousands of fans flocked to the Dakota Apartments in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and nearby Central Park to pay their respects. Monday Night Football sports commentators took time out of their play-by-play action to notify viewers of Lennon's shooting; radio stations like WNEW-FM 102.7 in New York suspended their regular programming to take calls from listeners and devote time to Lennon's musical legacy. Things became so overwhelming that Lennon's widow Yoko Ono sent word to the grieving crowd that their overnight singing had kept her awake, and that they should reconvene at Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell for ten minutes of silent prayer. Following Ono's instructions, a crowd of over 225,000 people converged on Central Park on December 14th, with local radio stations in accord going silent for the 10-minute memorial, and the above image was taken in commemoration of the event. The massive gathering was evidence of how Lennon's music had touched so many lives with its themes of peace, love, and open-mindedness.

 

Below: more images from the days immediately following Lennon's shooting at the Dakota.
 

Image credit & copyright: Keystone, Joe McNally, STF, AFP, Getty Images
 

Title: Flintham
Artist: John Piper (1903-1992)
Created: 1977
Medium: Screenprint on paper
Dimensions: 20.6 x 27.6 in (52.4 x 70 cm)
Current location: Tate Gallery, Westminster, London, England
 

With John Piper's versatile body of work, one can practically visualize the history of Britain during the 20th century. The above depiction of Flintham Hall in the village of Flintham in Nottinghamshire, England, was from his late period, when he took to promoting the architecture and pastoral appeal of his native land. Piper, like many artists of his time, was heavily influenced by Picasso and the avant-garde, and initially painted abstractions. It was during World War II when Piper moved to figurative representation, sometimes even capturing war-torn buildings while they were on fire from night raids. Some would argue his creativity peaked during those years, though there is a lot to be said for his print illustration of Flintham and its intact structure. As if the decimation of one era did not have to overshadow the peace and architectural stability of the latter era. And what a relief to any of us to know that kind of hope and resilience exists in this world.

 

Below: more of Piper's buildings, including Jazeene, Charente, the archways of Holdenby, and Covehithe Church.
 

Image credit & copyright: John Piper, Artnet, Tate Museum
 

For those who are serious about their ho-ho-hos, mistletoes, and World War II history, there is the city of Rovaniemi in Lapland, Finland—otherwise known as "The Official Hometown of Santa Claus." It's a location where Mr. Claus can be found in all seasons, along with reindeer and an official Arctic Post Office where half a million letters addressed to Jolly Old Saint Nick are received each year. While the entire construction of Santa Claus Village might seem like a winter's fever dream, its origins are heavily bound to World War II. Rovaniemi was the site of an important transportation hub at the time and became a site of contention between the Germans and Finns during the Lapland War in 1944. The Germans destroyed the area with scorched earth tactics and landmines; after World War II, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Lapland to monitor the recipients of the first pre-UNICEF aid. The "Arctic Circle Cabin" was built for her, signaling the start of growing tourism in the area—which eventually lead to the development of Santa's Village around the original cabin site. Now that's what we call spreading the holiday cheer!

 

Below: more images of Santa's village and the Arctic Circle Cabin built for Eleanor Roosevelt's stay in 1950.
 

Image credit & copyright: Santa Claus Village, Discovering Finland
 

Title: Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)
Artist: David Hockney (b. 1937)
Created: 1972
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 7 x 10 ft (2.1 x 3 m)
 

Going once… going twice… sold for $80 million to the man on line two! David Hockney's painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) fetched $90.3 million with fees last month at Christie's Rockefeller Center—absolutely shattering the record for most expensive living artist. (Sorry, Jeff Koons!) The richly-colored acrylic painting, which depicts Hockney's ex-boyfriend and artist Peter Schlesinger watching a man swim underwater, quickly drew a bidding war between three people in the room and five callers, all anonymous. The resulting price point marks an unprecedented leap towards diversity in the fine arts world, as openly gay artists and their artworks—though hardly taboo in galleries—have struggled in the past to achieve such monumental feats. Five African-American artists, including surrealist Robert Colescott and color-field painter Sam Gilliam—who both sold for $912,500 and $2.2 million, respectively—also hit new personal highs at the auction, rounding out a remarkable night at Christie's. In recent years, there's been a lot of reason to call out the art world as insular, prone to gimmicks, and out of touch, but last month, we witnessed a shining light of hope in the darkness—one refracted off of Portrait of an Artist's rippling pool!
 

Image credit & copyright: Christie's / David Hockney
 

Nobody is as creative as Mother Nature. German photographer, sculptor, and professor Karl Blossfeldt believed as much and tailored his photography accordingly. Shown above are coils of maidenhair fern, or Adiantum pedatum, that Blossfeldt placed on plain cardboard and magnified with a custom camera; elegantly whirling upward into tight baubles, they give an indication of how Blossfeldt pinpointed beauty in the microscopic world. Having died on December 9, 1932, he was a member of the Neue Sachlichkeit, or "New Objectivity": a group of photographers who argued that the camera should only be used to authentically replicate reality, rather than serve an expressive, aesthetic function. Blossfeldt, who taught sculpture at the Royal School of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin, believed that limitless visual beauty already existed in the world, and that only objective photography could unveil it and, therefore, inspire artists working in other mediums. In this way, Blossfeldt exalted photography as an unrivaled window into the unseen, but also derided it as being inferior to sculpting, painting, and other conventional forms of art. However, photographers get the last laugh—because Blossfeldt is more remembered today for his photography than his sculpting!
 

Below: more of Blossfeldt's sinuous plant photos, including: shots of carex grayi; cucurbita (tendrils of a pumpkin); and papaver.
 

Image credit & copyright: Karl Blossfeldt Archiv / Stiftung Ann und Jürgen Wilde, Pinakothek der Moderne, München
 

Title: Statue of Unity
Artist: Ram V. Sutar (b. 1925)
Created: 2015-2018
Medium: steel framing, reinforced concrete, bronze cladding
Dimensions: 597 ft (182 m)
Current location: Narmada River, Kevadiya, Gujarat, India
 

Move over Lady Liberty because the Statue of Unity now occupies a prominent place on the Narmada River in India. Recently dedicated in a ceremony lead by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the finished statue featuring the visage of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stands at an impressive 597 feet high—making it the world's tallest statue. Patel was an obvious choice for the monument because of his role in unifying India in the mid-20th century; he was a leader of the Indian independence movement, then became the first Deputy Prime Minister and unified over 500 princely states under India's borders. A smaller bronze version of Patel's statue is located at the International Airport in Ahmedabad, though when the specially appointed team of artists, historians, and academics chose Ram V. Sutar to recreate his work, they went with a redesigned model, which would require 3D scanning of the clay mold with bronze cladding imported from China. The final statue took 33 months to complete, with a budget of $430 million, and an unusual architectural slenderness ratio of 16:19 to compensate for the slim base and massive overall height. Patel's ironclad stare is said to inspire onlookers to greatness—which could somebody result in even more grandiose statues!

 

Below: a closer detailed view of the Statue of Unity, and a visual comparison of other prominent statue's heights around the world.
 

Image credit & copyright: Prime Minister's Office of India, News 18, CNBC TV 18