Esoteric Survey

The Art and Design of Howard Smith at The Palm Springs Art Museum The exhibition was curated by Steven Wolf Howard Smith (1928-2021) was from New Jersey but is mostly known for his work in Finland. He worked in pretty much every medium in both fine art and design for production. mith had over 40 solo exhibitions during his life, mostly in Finland.  This is his first retrospective in the United States.  My first exposure to him was from friend and legendary design dealer, Ken Erwin. Howard and Ken met in in the 1980s at a Art Deco shop on Melrose called Jazz. Ken said, at the time, it was rare to see another Black person in a design shop. They became instant and lifelong friends. Howard moved to Helsinki in 1962 to participate in  aUnites Staes government sponsored festival called Young America Presents. There was an exhibition of modern art, architecture and jazz concerts. Unbeknownst to Howard, it was a CIA operation to counter a Soviet sponsored event that was happenin...

Art and Ikebana.  Tony Paul tray and other iron. Gaetano Pesce Fish Design clock, David Stewart and some Scandi things.  Tork! and The Primitives.

The Mitchell Residence, Buff, Straub & Hensman (1959) I was up in Palos Verdes area a few weeks ago and stopped by to see Nate from  Modern California House  at his listing. This is the second time the house has been for sale. He sold it the first time for the family of the original owners. After ten years, he's selling it again. Fortunately, it's still in almost perfect original condition. That's a big feat in high cost per square feet neighborhoods like Rolling Hills Estates.   A lot of the furniture is original to the house and was purchased at Frank Bros . That includes this Morredi set, the Frank Bros-owned line named after “Maurice” and “Ed” Frank.  The original orange plastic laminate is used throughout the house.  The Micthells and a young Donald Hensman. According to the invoice below, these light fixtures were $8 each. They're in the interior as well.  In addition to that, there are blueprints, landscape plan by Richard P. Gawne and ...