I’m seeing Art Deco everywhere I turn. I didn’t think it was my cup of tea, but every time it enters a room, well, it’s just so rich and sleek and glam. Hard to argue.
Emile Jacques Ruhlman Nicolle chest, 1926, image courtesy of DeLorenzo Gallery.
Deco Rate
That's certainly a good example, I'd be worried if you weren't taken with it.
Totally agree – not always my cup of tea either, but as in your example, totally chic and would work with so many other styles!
I had a passionate love of Art Deco some years ago which evolved into my current passion for 40's style which I find more "handsome" less fragile, less delicate. Having said that the materials used and the craftmanship of that era is beyond belief.Love your blog!
I love Art Deco! Always have….if it's the real thing and not some schmaltzy Miami Vice/1980s wanna be.
I remember seeing Ruhlman's furniture for the first time (back in the stone age) in a book in college and was completely blown away.
Love all the accoutrements that were designed in that period…ashtrays, iron gates, cigarette cases, barware… They really got into it.
Of course movies like Top Hat that are famous for Art Deco by Hollywood have me watching the set design more that the wonderful dancing.
Best,
Amy
We have all seen mediocre vintage pieces tricked up with automotive lacquer and ho-hum reproductions, but it takes an example like this E J Rulhman masterpiece to remember why Art Deco became a symbol of chic modernism.
indeed
That is my fav style. Lovely cabinet.
Patricia that piece is indeed glorious!! It would fit in with any decor!
Do come and enter my Artful Offering!
xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
I love French or Austrian Deco–really elegant. The woods, lines and overall feel make me extremely happy.
Love to mix in a few pieces with other styles. The image is a perfect example of something you could mix. Also, wanted you to know that I thought about your post yesterday, all day. It had a ton of impact on me. Really makes you think about how you spend your time and what you are teaching your kids (even when you are not trying to teach them)! M.
No comment on this post. But, a big BRAVO on the deep, real and meaningful one prior!
Thank you for so eloquently leading the way toward the much need conversation regarding authentic active compassion.
Those you can offer real actual-time assistance without the comfortable buffer of the abstact are indeed heros.
You are now one of mine!
Art Deco leaves me cold but I wanted to tell you I thought "Undone" was an amazing piece of writing and I hope to God someone gives you a book deal. Your observations on fabrics and furniture are certainly entertaining, but it is your insight into human nature which really puts you into the league of Serious Writing. Great stuff.
I so agree! I hate how so often you see many pieces of art deco in one space, but its so glam – love just one piece like this one! I am a huge fan of your blog!!!!
Hi! I just think of that as a lovely, classic…..and interesting lovely little console table. It is beautiful. It has some tortoise shell…….(hope not real….but never mind, long ago) and ivory or bone inlay…
I had no idea it was "deco" nor would I care. I just really like it a lot! It is elegant!
(that's how I buy things; in a nutshell)
Love deco. What presence! What lines!
And on the subject of lines, thank you for yours in yesterday's post. It took guts. It also took insight, eloquence and a grasp of our shared vulnerability.
Ok. I come here from time to time because I like you and I love good writers…regardless of the topic. Like my blog to you…yours to me is one of topics foreign mostly. But I still come by. And when there is a post that I can comment on…mostly to let you know that I lurk from time to time…for the writing…since the topics are such that I can't really comment…I comment.
But then you post such a robust…rich story about the "Edge"…and you exclude commentary. You preclude participation–in such a rich and chewy topic. One that others for certain, would want to participate in…dump…opine…prescribe and declare woe.
The best advice I got when on "the Edge" …with snot streaming from my nose and floods of tears shrouding my declaration that I had been wronged…was when a woman who loved me told me that "I wasn't special"…and then she told me again…that she loved me.
Don't hog your effing journey Patricia. If you are going to take the time to share publicly your tempest…if you are going to pull that damn much from your reservoir by writing such a galvanizing post, then let others in. Don't restrict comments.
Geez…I can't believe I let your story hit such a nerve. I haven't been to your blog in two months and this is what happens!
Be brave like I know you are. Post my comment.
Onward.
ADG
The "I bet no one knows" marathon has now been run, you finished! In other words, you bested yourownself. Here is a GoMrsBlandings banner for you from a fellow marathoner.
Lovely!
Appletree said it….smiles.
I liked that piece too, but my interest slackened when the pants-less guy disappeared from the story. I wanted to hear more about him, and was less interested in how everyone reacted to him in the wake of his appearances. I am also not convinced he had "come undone," which implies he'd once been fine, and then fallen. That might not be the case.
Anon – at the time I wrote this I did not know more about him. The focus of the piece was not really a profile, though that could be interesting. Interesting, too, your perspective that that state of unbalance could be "fine," normal. That will tumble around in my head all day and I keep trying to make the comparison to physical health, and if one is born with it or not, and how that affects one's definition of "healthy."
He had, at the time that I met him, gone off of his medication. Once the school contacted the police he quit coming to the church. They had contacted his father to let him know that he needed help, but his father did not respond. I have seen him a couple of times on warmer days, I think, riding a bike and he looks significantly better.
"a woman who loved me told me that 'I wasn't special'…and then she told me again…that she loved me"
Oooh baby, hit me again like that, it hurts so good I gotta have more.
Everybody loves Max including me, but abuse by any other name is still. People who are coughing up pain and tears need to be told something they never got told wayyy back: that inside the family, inside the home, inside the heart of close relationships, inside the community, each of us is very special, special to each other, irreplaceable, telling someone he/she isn't special does nothing but silence that person, the wound stays the same. The LAST thing a sufferer needs is to have a cold negative judgment put on their relative status in the world.
Mrs. B, you don't owe us an enabled comments feature. Authors publish their works every day, they bravely put their content out there with no comment feature, maybe a few of them will go on a book tour and sit at a signing table in Barnes & Noble, maybe they won't; their call, not ours. You alone get to make the rules around the condition of your heart, all the time, every day.
You ARE special, Mrs. Blandings. We are very lucky you are here, that you share your life and your wide open heart with us so intimately.
An Art Deco piece has its place…and…has its place in many hearts. Even sometimes in mine.
Your story from "Undone" has also found a place in my heart. Although, your commenter, “ADG” spoke for me, I understand your desire for limiting discourse. How ironic that you start, in your italicized preamble, by saying you’re fine. Hopefully, it's not because you think “The world wants [you] to be fine.”, but rather that like many of us, you use your strength and gifts of insight, to hold your place in the Realm of Fine.
I, too, have visited both Undone and Fine.
B
Wow ~ this little piece has unleashed a torrent of thoughts from love to chilly rebuttal of Art Deco.
Well, I have to add that I love your example here of a very fine piece of dramatic beauty. The spindly legs are especially elegant with the richly textured detailing on the front. But then, I love Deco too ~ for the sensuous detailing and rich materials mostly.
Just as well there is something for everyone in this world of design!
I want to tell you I loved your "Undone" post. It completely hit home.
Flo – Mr. Minimus and I are old friends so he can cross a line now and then. But she was wrong; he is special.