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CONTENTS JULY 2019

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ANTENNAE

What’s new in style, decoration and design, chosen by Nathalie Wilson

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ANTENNAE ROUNDUP

Our selection of the best picnic rugs

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PAPER PLANES

Even filling in your tax return will be a thrill on these divine desks. Nice work, Max Egger

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THAT’S MY LOT

After just a year at Shropshire’s Morville Hall, antique dealer Christopher Hodsoll is upping sticks and auctioning his belongings. Sophie Barling finds out why he’s going, going, gone

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THIS LITTLE PIGGERY

Elle Kemp and Martin Gane have turned a Gloucestershire stock barn into a family home.

The twist in the tail? You can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, as Jane Stacey discovers

BOOKS

Reading on art, architecture and design

COVER The full monti – in their refuge in the southern Italian mountains, an artist and a curator have embraced a radical simplicity.

To learn why it’s stripped to the essentials, turn to page 38. Photograph: Simon Upton

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SOLID CREW

Cork, grass and bark? Miranda Sinclair unearths natural wallcoverings ready to roll

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SERIOUS PURSUITS

Auctions, antique fairs and diverting activities

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NETWORK

Merchandise and events worldwide

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ADDRESS BOOK

Suppliers in this issue

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INSPIRATION

How to recreate some of the design effects in this issue, by Grace McCloud

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EXHIBITION DIARY

Swiss roles, Sol Calero’s popsicle-hued politics, plus Charlotte Edwards’s listings

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JOURNAL OF A SHOPFRONT

RECORDER A Venezuelan is photographing

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ROOTS IN THE EAST

Everything from bamboo sieves to butternut squash can be bought in this Japanese/Basque épicerie in southwest France run by a couple downsizing. Marie-France Boyer weighs in

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ALLIED POWERS

Architect Gisbert Pöppler has demarcated his Berlin flat into zones of colour, dotting it with designer pieces and Iron Curtain-era salvage. Michael Huey goes under the lintel

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SEE NAPLES AND DIVE

The city’s Stazione Zoologica offered visiting marine biologists a lab and other facilities – plus a frescoed music room. It’s an idealistic mix of molluscs and murals, says Sophie Barling

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GLAZING A TRAIL

In his eighties, Peter Twining is an interiors connoisseur, with a library and London flat befitting. Christopher Gibbs describes him as a ‘dealer’s dealer’ and ‘decorator’s decorator’

Liverpool’s retail façades before they vanish SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BACK ISSUES Receive 12

issues delivered direct to your home address. Call 01858 438815 or fax 01858 461739. Alternatively, you can visit us at www.worldofinteriors.co.uk Periodicals postage paid at Rahway, NJ. Postmaster: Send address corrections to ‘The World of Interiors’ c/o Mercury Airfreight International Ltd Inc, 2323 Randolph Avenue, Avenel NJ 07001, ‘The World of Interiors’ (ISSN 0264-083X) is published monthly. Vol 39 no 7, total 442

INTERIORS

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THEIR SERENE HIGHNESS

Echoing with the ghost of Cy Twombly and the monolithic houses of Naxos, this refuge amid Lazio’s peaks makes the view the star.

Marella Caracciolo goes above and beyond

FROM THE ARCHIVE

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PASHAS AT PEACE

This mausoleum for the beys of Tunis is decorated, in part, with pirates’ booty… and other turban legends that Marie-France Boyer unravels. First published: June 2008

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E A RT H TO S K Y - L I G H T S C U L P T U R E S BY D O S H I L E V I E N BEAUTY, LEVITY AND SKILLED CRAFTSMANSHIP

DOSHILEVIEN.COM

milanantennae Nathalie Wilson selects the best from this year’s furniture fair

1 There was a swing towards strappy lighting

at the Salone, as seen in Formafantasma’s trapeze-like prototype for Flos. ‘WireLine’ – consisting of a rubber belt and a borosilicate-glass tube that contains an led strip – can be installed individually or grouped for an elaborate composition. Visit flos.com.

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Jacopo Foggini’s mastery of methacrylate, a material more often used to produce car reflectors, shone brightly in the form of chandeliers such as this ‘Brilli’. Ring 00 39 02 5410 1409, or visit jacopofoggini.it.

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3 Fabrics were top of the bill at Cinema Arti, 2

a Rationalist-era former picture palace, where Dimore Milano screened, alongside its other products, ‘Sancarlo Blue’ (left) and ‘Dance with the Devil Blue’.

Ring 00 39 02 3656 3420, or visit dimoregallery.com.

4 There was a Japanese flavour to an

installation at L’Arabesque gallery, which was the venue for fashion designer Chichi Meroni’s official debut in interiors and furnishings. Among other things, it featured this chair upholstered in bourette silk (£2,515 approx) and lacquered-wood side table (£1,535 approx), which both have faux-bamboo legs and are from the ‘Wind Melody’ collection. Ring 00 39 02 7601 4825, or visit larabesque.net.

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5 Mandelli 1953 opened the

door on a new venture – a capsule collection of historical designs – with its reissue of the ‘PP33’ lever handle by Piero Portaluppi. It is available in six finishes, with models for windows and sliding doors, and costs from £105 approx for a pair. Ring 00 39 03 629 6991, or visit mandelli.it.

6 Laboratorio Paravicini put aside

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its brushes for the latest addition to its ‘Collections’ range of limitededition printed plates. With those rhythmic Deco-inspired patterns,

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‘Gymmetria’ (from £48 approx each) has as much appeal as the studio’s hand-painted pieces.

Ring 00 39 02 7202 1006, or visit paravicini.it.

7 When Jonathan Anderson, Loewe’s creative

director, invited Deloss Webber and 10 other artists to explore the theme of basketry and leather, he conjured up this ‘Geisha’ handbag (£4,450), an item rendered impractical by the very thing that inspired it – namely granite. This and the other one-off objets rubbed shoulders with the company’s new woven wares. Visit loewe.com.

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8 Alcova, which ‘activates forgot-

ten locations’ to showcase European design, took over an old cashmere factory for an event featuring Bloc Studios’ collaborative marble prod ucts, including Federica Elmo’s ‘Ond amarmo’ table (£12,660 approx). Ring 00 39 05 8584 5871, or visit bloc-studios.com. Also there was Nero Design Gallery with Duccio Maria Gambi’s ‘Guerra Fredda’ collection made from concrete and vintage tiles (shown: ‘N 43° 36’ 55”/E 11° 34’ 16”’ light; £4,252 approx).

Ring 00 39 05 7518 22484, or visit nerodesigngallery.com.

9 Only a hermit could have missed

that 2019 is the centenary of the Bauhaus, what with the plethora of associated exhibitions, books and reissued products. This ‘Elling’ buffet – Cassina’s nod to the occasion – is by De Stijl architect Gerrit Rietveld, who was an honorary member. Visit cassina.com.

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10 With its interchangeable

and customisable components, the ‘Dolls’ chair by Raw Edges (£12,200 approx) upholds a long tradition at Louis Vuitton of personalised pieces. Perched alongside it at the Salone was Marcel Wanders’s nest-like ‘Diamond’ seating (from £39,215 approx), made from ash slats. Ring 020 7998 6286, or visit louisvuitton.com $

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new www.paolocastelli.com | london@paolocastellispa.com

antennae roundup O, happy fête: the right picnic rug is a feast for the eyes. Miranda Sinclair rolls them out

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1 Waterproof ‘OS New Forest’, £39.99, Ordnance Survey. 2 Large zigzag blanket, £70, Lala & Bea. 3 Recycled wool throws, £18 each, The Future Kept.

4 Picnic rug, £52.50, Fortnum & Mason. 5 ‘XR342-52553’, £280, Pendleton Woolen Mills. 6 Cotton picnic throws, £25 each, Life of Riley. 7 ‘Dart’ roll, £225, Moorswood. 8 ‘Bees’, £35, Sophie Allport. All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book r

RICHMOND

NEW YORK LONDON LOS ANGELES mckinnonharris.com

antennae roundup

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1‘Lila’, by Intrepid Home, £285, Bitesize Luxury. 2 Extra-large merino ‘Day at the Beach’, £110, The Wool Company. 3 Beach/picnic blanket,

by Sunny Life, £55, Amara. 4 Waterproof tartan rug, £95, Kinloch Anderson. 5 Herringbone wool blanket, £125, Atlantic Blankets. 6 ‘Pacmat Chessboard Family’, £39.99, Rubbastuff. 7 Old Welsh check blankets, £120 each, Re. 8 ‘Multicover’, by Puebco, £26 each, SCP. All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book $

SHORTLIST 1 ‘TS’, by Gam Fratesi for Gubi, £1,890, The Conran Shop. 2 Veneered burr-poplar writing desk, £6,800, Rose Uniacke. 3 ‘Hadley Partners’, £1,995, India Jane.

4 Writing desk, by Pentreath & Hall, £3,750, The Lacquer Company. 5 ‘Bucknell’, £3,840, Jamb. All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book r

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P A P E R P L A N E S A pen, a sheet of A4 and a flat surface are all that’s really needed for work, but you can duck the drudgery by letting your imagination soar. These desks, from a businessman’s bureau to a slim secretary, will help turn reams of dreams into serviceable schemes.

But which one would fly in your study, wonders Max Egger. Photography: Neil Mersh

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1 ‘Saffo’, by Carlo Ballabio, £3,047, Porada. 2 ‘Etta’, by James Cottingham,

£895, Habitat. 3 ‘Orson’, by De La Espada, £3,702, Heal’s. 4 ‘Loman’, £7,950, Faolchú. 5 Writing table, by Gio Ponti, £4,870, Fiona McDonald.

All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book

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SHORTLIST 1 ‘Bascule’, £11,900, Soane Britain. 2 Bureau, by USM, £1,894, Aram.

3 French Bauhaus desk, £1,950, Lorfords. 4 ‘Jean’ extending table, by Eileen

Gray, £1,511, Aram. 5 ‘Scrittarello’, by Achille Castiglioni for Boffi, £1,850, De Padova. All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book r

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SHORTLIST 1 ‘Home Hotel’, by Jean-Marie Massaud, £2,595, Poliform.

2 ‘Balzac’, £9,740, Tom Faulkner. 3 ‘Toby’, £2,195, Julian

Chichester. 4 ‘Furtif’, by Daniel Rode, £4,510, Roche Bobois. All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book $

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ACCESS THE BIGGEST NAMES IN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN

design centre LONDON

To request a complimentary copy of The Guide featuring news and the latest collections, please scan here with your mobile:

120 SHOWROOMS | OVER 60 0 INTERNATIONAL BR ANDS | ONE ADDRESS

www.dcch.co.uk Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 0XE | +44 (0)20 7225 9166

Dessau disciples, legs Florentine

BAUHAUS WOMEN: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE (by Elizabeth Otto and

Patrick Rössler; Herbert Press, rrp £30) BAUHAUS IMAGINISTA (eds Marion von Osten and Grant Watson; Thames & Hudson, rrp £39.95) A century after the founding of the Bauhaus, the school’s women students remain largely unknown. Anni Albers may have hit recent headlines with her show at Tate Modern, but names such as Ruth Hollos and Etel Fodor are the stuff of footnotes. There are two reasons for this. After the Bauhaus closed in 1933, German women were forcibly recast as mothers and homemakers. Lydia Driesch-Foucar, a Bauhaus potter, spent the Nazi years baking gingerbread biscuits; Ilse Fehling, a sculptor, made frocks. This was not the only cause of their historical forgetting, though. For all its avant-garde fame, the Bauhaus had been deeply hidebound. Arriving at the school in droves – the Weimar Republic guaranteed them an equal right to education – women found themselves pushed into so-called Frauenklasse (ladies’ classes), essentially ceramics, textiles and bookbinding. Even painting was barred to them. Only one female Bauhausler, Gunta Stölzl, was ever made a master, and that of the weaving workshop.

Bauhaus Women aims to make up for this century of misogyny by showcasing these neglected women artists. Their stories are often tragic – Friedl Dicker and half a dozen others died at Auschwitz – but also leavened with a quiet heroism.

Albers, forbidden to study architecture, subverted the loom to weave herself walls; Driesch-Foucar’s cookies were Modernist artworks of a kind the Nazis were too obtuse to spot. Most astonishing of all was Ré Soupault (née

books

Niemeyer), who worked in cloth, photography and film for 70 years and in 20 countries, facing Nazi persecution in three of them.

Typically, Soupault’s name does not appear in the index to Bau­ haus Imaginista, the hefty tome accompanying the series of shows held around the world to celebrate the centenary of Walter Gropius’s school. This is, and sets out to be, an oddball book, summing up in paper form the boundary-busting mores of its subject. Some chapters are artworks, some art history: Bauhausmeister would have seen no need to distinguish between the two. Klee, a painter, was set to teach weavers. Anni Albers’s textiles were hugely influenced by him; Klee, in turn, began to make watercolours that looked like her fabrics.

As a third of Bauhaus students and most of its best-known masters were foreign – Klee was Swiss, Kandinsky Russian, MoholyNagy Hungarian – this cross-fertilisation soon crossed national borders, too. Michiko and Iwao Yamawaki, studying at the Dessau school, took its ideas back to Japan with them in 1932 and wrote the standard textbook for its art schools, one that closely followed the Constructivist teachings of Anni Albers’s husband, Josef.

The Bauhaus turns up in Indian typefaces and Taiwanese architecture; the school was ‘exceptional in allowing us to reconcile our own artistic tradition’ to Modernism, recalls one Moroccan maker. Typically, it took until the 1950s for the Bauhaus gospel to reach Britain, but the Basic Design course taught at the Central School may have marked its survival in its purest form $ CHARLES DARWENT is the au­ thor of ‘Josef Albers: Life and Work’ (Thames & Hudson) r

To order Bauhaus Women for £25.50 and Bauhaus Imaginista for £33.95 (plus £4.50 UK p&p), ring the World of Interiors Bookshop on 0871 911 1747

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books BE A PART OF A MEMBERS’ CLUB IN THE THRIVING HEART OF THE DESIGN COMMUNITY AT DESIGN CENTRE, CHELSEA HARBOUR

BOTTICELLI: HEROINES AND HEROES (ed. Nathaniel Silver; Paul

Third Floor South Dome Design Centre Chelsea Harbour London SW10 0XE

ANNUAL AND DAILY MEMBERSHIP AVAILABLE For more information: 020 7351 5842 www.dcch.co.uk

design centre LONDON

Holberton, rrp £35) It’s all too easy to take Sandro Botticelli for granted, treating him as a consummate conjuror of supple contour and ravishing beauty – but nowhere near as profound or inventive as his brooding successors, Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Look closely, however, and you are always in for a surprise, whether it be an unconscious play of the fingers or bend of the body, or a story interpreted in a memorably disconcerting way.

Botticelli: Heroines and Heroes homes in on a relatively overlooked category of the Florentine master’s work to startling effect. The informative catalogue of an ‘in focus’ exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, it explores the smaller-scale narrative paintings on classical subjects that were inserted into walnut furniture and panelling in fashionable interiors. In 1894 Gardner bought one of the best, The Story of Lucretia, for the considerable sum of £3,400 after the connoisseur Bernard Berenson wrote a teasing letter: ‘How much do you want a Botticelli? Lord Ashburnham has a great one – one of the greatest.’ It was originally paired with The Story of Virginia. Both involve female chastity and heroic death, male lust and political corruption: key concerns in patriarchal, republican Florence. We may think it odd to find such violent subjects in domestic settings, but we now lap up far worse horrors on panel TVs. Botticelli combines three episodes. On the left, Lucretia is propositioned at knifepoint by the king’s son, Tarquin. He threatens to kill her if she doesn’t let him rape her; and when he has killed her, he will kill his own servant, making it look as though he has raped her. We see Lucretia’s hands, raised in horror; her cloak slides prophetically between her legs, gripping her thigh.

She lets Tarquin rape her, as the lesser shame, and on the right, we see her staggering out of a house after she has committed suicide. Her slumped body evokes Christ when he is taken down from the cross. In the centre, her body is laid out on a bier, the sword projecting from her bare chest like Excalibur from the stone. Brutus and his armed followers swarm round her and vow to overthrow the kings of Rome.

There are extraordinary details: I love the way Botticelli has exaggerated the shadows cast on the ground by the soldiers’ feet, transforming them into long pointed blades. The architecture, decorated with sculpted reliefs and statues, seems uncannily alive, not fixed in place but sliding around, compressing and goading the soldiers. At the same time the soldiers become architectural themselves, long, bent backs roofing their bodies. Botticelli dismantles and rebuilds Rome at the same time $ JAMES HALL is research professor at the University of Southampton. His most recent book is ‘The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History’ (Thames & Hudson) r To order Botticelli for £29.75 (plus £4.50 UK p&p), ring the World of Interiors Bookshop on 0871 911 1747

London +44 (0)208 675 4808 www.indian-ocean.co.uk

SWATCH 1 Teal ‘Glynde’, £125 per 10m roll (width: 90cm), Designers Guild. 2 ‘Inyo Wood T4022’ tung-bark veneer, £468 per 7.3m roll (width: 91cm), Thibaut. 3 ‘Emerald Silk GS-30’, $1,080 per 7.3m roll (width: 91cm), Gracie. 4 ‘W3280-16’ cork, by Kravet, £396 per 11yd roll (width: 20.5in), GP&J Baker. 5 Blue haze ‘Nonsuch C001-PC83’, £703.20 per sq m, Fromental.

6 ‘Boracay Calayan 90024’, £125 per m (width: 90cm), Arte. 7 ‘Verneuil QNT70’, £262 per m (width: 91.5cm), Nobilis.

8 Forest green ‘Jade SCH-5008380’, by Schumacher, £17,221 per 300 × 99cm panel, Turnell & Gigon. 9 Rust ‘Opaline Walls 20046-05’, by Donghia, £70 per m (width: 91cm), Rubelli. 10 Moss ‘Bulu Raffia’, £65 per m (width: 87cm), Chris-

topher Farr Cloth. Straight ‘Apple’ pipe, £35, James J. Fox. All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book r

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SOLID CREW Add some earthly cheer to your sphere with a natural wallcovering. Whether cork or ‘quartz’, woven grass or even brass, you can’t beat such materials or motifs to put your home in the very best shape.

Hyperbolic? Miranda Sinclair reckons you’d be a square to think so. Photography: Anders Gramer

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BOWMAN SCULPTURE Exhibiting at Masterpiece Art Fair, 27 June - 3 July 2019

EMILY YOUNG Green Lake Head, Green Onyx, Height: 37” (94 cm), 2018

BOWMAN SCULPTURE 6 Duke Street St James’s, London SW1Y 6BN bowmansculpture.com | masterpiecefair.com

SWATCH 1 Hand-woven brass, £1,134 per 91 × 91cm panel, Tatiana Tafur.

2 Smoke ‘Oolite ZW129-03’, by Zinc Textile, £389.50 per 7.3m

roll (width: 91cm), Romo. 3 ‘Wallmica MR-SK-1601’, by Maya Romanoff, £124 per m (width: 91cm), Altfield. 4 ‘Mother of Pearl Aphrodite MR-MAS-1’, by Maya Romanoff, £204 per 45 × 45cm tile, Altfield. 5 ‘Flirt 50049-991’, £133 per m (width: 90cm), Zimmer & Rohde. 6 Charred silver ‘Scorched 2593’, £55.50 approx per m (width: 91.5cm), Phillip Jeffries. 7 ‘Eclat RM63182’, by Elitis, £527 per 6.2m roll (width: 91cm), Abbott & Boyd. 8 Handwoven bauxite, £1,095 per 91 × 91cm panel, Tatiana Tafur.

‘Cylindrical’ espresso cup, by Dibbern, £24; ‘Cylindrical’ espresso saucer, by Dibbern, £17; both The Conran Shop. All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book r

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SWATCH 1 ‘Merril Weave Twine’, £235 per m (width: 91cm), Ralph Lauren Home. 2 ‘Tiger in the Grass N9021030001’, by No 9, £1,116 for a set of three 330 × 70cm panels, Fox Linton. 3 ‘Timber Grain 38227’, £129 per m (width: 91cm), Arte. 4 Lacquer red ‘Ionian Sea Linen’, £260 per m (width: 91cm), Ralph Lauren Home. 5 ‘Tides W1006-01’, by Weitzner, £466 per 2.7 × 1m panel, Altfield. Background throughout: havana ‘Braided Walls 3152’, £61.50 approx per m (width: 91.5cm), Phillip Jeffries. All prices include VAT. For suppliers’ details see Address Book $

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Feels perfectly at home, outside or in.

CLEVER LEVITY

Call 01420 588444 www.gazeburvill.com

info@gazeburvill.com

SERIOUS

pursuits

Auctions, antique fairs and diverting activities, chosen by Magdalene Barclay

H O M E F R AG R A NC E

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1 One of a pair of royal Flemish giltwood cabinets, c1713, Christie’s, 4 July. 2 Anon, Three Marys at the Tomb, England, c1440-50, Sam Fogg at London Art Week, 28 June-5 July. 3 A Nuremberg or Silesian ‘Hafnerware’ dish, c1550-1600, E&H Manners at Masterpiece, 27 June-3 July

BRITAIN 12 JUNE-22 SEPTEMBER DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY, GALLERY RD, LONDON SE21 THE COLOUR PALACE. Clad in bright geometric patterns, the ten-metrehigh pavilion will host performances and events during the London Festival of Architecture. Details: dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk.

16 JUNE-7 JULY THE OLD RECTORY, QUENINGTON, GLOS FRESH AIR SCULPTURE.

Take a stroll around an expansive organic garden, filled with 130 pieces of contemporary sculpture. Details: freshairsculpture.com.

19 JUNE BONHAMS, NEW BOND ST, LONDON W1 THE CLIVE COLLECTION. Ticktock, find a clock at the sale of one of the finest collections of early English timepieces. The ‘222’ by master clockmaker Thomas Tompion lives up to the horological hype. Details: bonhams.com.

19-28 JUNE OLYMPIA, HAMMERSMITH RD, LONDON W14 THE ART AND ANTIQUES FAIR. Specialist dealers come together for seven days of unrivalled

decorative joy. Details: olympia-art-antiques.com.

20 JUNE-6 OCTOBER SERPENTINE GALLERY, KENSINGTON GARDENS, LONDON W2 JUNYA ISHIGAMI PAVILION. The Japanese architect, celebrated for his ex-

perimental structures, creates a pavilion from a single slate canopy emerging from the ground. Details: serpentinegalleries.org.

FROM 20 JUNE LONDON ART ON THE UNDERGROUND. French artist Laure Prouvost’s signs and slogans occupy all 270 tube stations, challenging commuters to question what they see. Details: art.tfl.gov.uk.

27 JUNE PANTER & HALL, PALL MALL, LONDON SW1 LAPADA AND JAMES PEILL.

A discussion about objects and design. Details: lapadalondon.com.

27-30 JUNE WATERPERRY GARDENS, WATERPERRY, OXFORD HANDMADE OXFORD.

All is abuzz at this contemporary-arts festival, from workshops on bee illustration to glass engraving. Details: handmadeinbritain.co.uk.

27 JUNE-3 JULY SOUTH GROUNDS, THE ROYAL HOSPITAL CHELSEA, LONDON SW3 MASTERPIECE. This year’s fair will showcase all of the expected treas-

AVAILABLE AT

ures, plus maquettes made for the new British war memorial in Normandy. Details: masterpiecefair.com.

28 JUNE-5 JULY MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, LONDON LONDON ART WEEK. Exhibitors at London

www.amara.com

galleries exceed themselves this year, with newly discovered drawings by Johan Zoffany, Hellenistic sculpture and Medieval stained glass.

Details: londonartweek.co.uk.

FROM JULY LONDON ILLUMINATED RIVER.

www.matthewwilliamson.com @matthewwilliamson

Thames bridges will be dotted with lights on summer evenings. Details: illuminatedriver.london. r

3

SERIOUS

pursuits

1 1 Hell’O, silo mural, Malagón, 2019, Titanes, until October. 2 Senufo ‘firespitter’ mask, c2000, Artcurial, 19 June

28-30 JUNE MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, LONDON MAYFAIR ART WEEKEND. Art instal­

lations, talks, workshops and tours. Details: mayfairartweekend.com.

28 JUNE-5 JULY BRIAN HAUGHTON GALLERY, DUKE ST, LONDON SW1 A COLLECTOR’S PARADISE. A plethora of porcelain. Details: haughton.com.

29-30 JUNE THE HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD, GALLERY WALK, WAKEFIELD, W. YORKS MIDCENTURY MODERN. Find early pieces by Alvar Aalto and original

aquatints by British artist Jack Coutu. Details: modernshows.com.

3-7 JULY CANDID ARTS, TORRENS ST, LONDON EC1 AUCTION COLLECTIVE. Dis­ cover new talent at the summer edition of the sale for emerging art­ ists. Details: theauctioncollective.com.

3 JULY-6 OCTOBER REGENT’S PARK, LONDON NW1 FRIEZE SCULPTURE. The fair’s third annual sculptural selection in the park. Details: frieze.com.

4 JULY CHRISTIE’S, KING ST, LONDON SW1 MASTERPIECES FROM A ROTHSCHILD COLLECTION. Top lot: a pair of giltwood cabinets of royal provenance with tortoiseshell­, brass­ and pewter­inlaid marquetry go on sale with other furniture and old­master paintings. Details: christies.com.

6 JULY-6 JULY 2020 LAKESIDE CENTRE, SOUTHMERE LAKE COMPLEX, BAZALGETTE WAY, LONDON SE2 EXBURY EGG. Stephen Turner and his floating ovoid home spend the summer moored lakeside as part of his twinned resi­ dency with Giudecca in Venice for the Biennale. Details: bowarts.org.

12-14 JULY FENTON HOUSE, HAMPSTEAD GROVE, LONDON NW3 THE IDLER FESTIVAL. Bring on a weekend of bibliotherapy. Details: idler.co.uk.

25-28 JULY ST GERMANS, CORNWALL PORT ELIOT. Head southwest for this

independent festival: words by Emily Maitlis, food from Russell Nor­ man and cabaret by Daphne Guinness. Details: porteliotfestival.com.

OUTSIDE BRITAIN FRANCE 19 JUNE ARTCURIAL, ROND-PONT DES CHAMPS-ELYSEES, PARIS THE ANDRE MALRAUX COLLECTION. A sale of the stash of the first French minister of culture, and a friend to Braque, Miró and Picasso, is not to be missed. Details: artcurial.com.

6 JULY-1 SEPTEMBER MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, NANTES LE VOYAGE A NANTES. This citywide festival returns with a giant

wooden bird’s nest by artist Tadashi Kawamata over­ looking the Loire. Details: levoyageanantes.fr.

THE NETHERLANDS FROM 8 JULY RIJKSMUSEUM, MUSEUMSTRAAT, AMSTERDAM THE NIGHT WATCH. See the physi­

cal restoration of Rembrandt’s painting in situ and in real time. Details: rijksmuseum.nl.

SPAIN UNTIL OCTOBER MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, LA MANCHA TITANES. Silos in the Spanish province

have been transformed into canvases of col­ our by 12 international street artists and 450 disabled people for this colossal mural project.

The large­scale artwork leads by example in pro­ moting social inclusion. Details: iamtitanes.com $ 2

SUMMER 2019 28 JUNE - 5 JULY PREVIEW THURSDAY 27 JUNE SPONSORS

@londonartweek_

WWW.LONDONARTWEEK.CO.UK londonartweek londonartweek

network Sophia Salaman chooses the best merchandise and events worldwide

This season Urban Electric is adding colour to its classic fixtures. From acid green to jewel tones of blue, these bursts of chroma will instantly create a focal point in a room. The new hues will enliven the company’s off-the-peg lights, and there is a vast array of colour options available for its bespoke pieces. Ring 001 843 723 8140, or visit urbanelectric.com.

Eggersmann, now in its fourth generation, is one of the world’s oldest family-owned kitchen brands. Using modern techniques, the highestquality materials and meticulous attention to detail, it strives to create kitchens that capture their owners’ character. Eggersmann Design, 555 King’s Rd, London SW6 (020 7731 4466; eggersmanndesign.com).

Founded in 1919 in Milan, Buccellati is one of Italy’s oldest jewellers and silversmiths. The company has broadened its range of home products, in particular the ‘Doge’ collection, which recalls the splendour of Venetian art and comprises everything from carafes to truffle cutters.

Buccellati, 33 Albemarle St, London W1 (020 7629 5616; buccellati.com).

Established in 2000 by Victoria Davar, Maison Artefact specialises in mainly 19th-century French and Swedish furniture, with some Italian and English pieces. Visitors to the showroom can expect objets d’art, paintings, prints and rare books among other treasures. Maison Artefact, 273 Lillie Rd, London SW6 (020 7381 2500; maisonartefact.com).

Until 6 September Liaigre, together with Albion Barn, will be hosting an exhibition by artist Henry Hudson. On show will be a series of Hudson’s ‘Jungle’ paintings – these incredible landscapes, which are built up from crafted Plasticine elements, can take six months to create. Liaigre, 52 Conduit St, London W1 (020 7287 6392; liaigre.com) $

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Abbott & Boyd, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 3096 9772; abbottandboyd.co.uk). Altfield, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, Lon­ don SW10 (020 7351 5893; altfield.com). Alton-Brooke, Design Centre Chel­ sea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7376 7008; alton­brooke.co.uk). Amara.

Ring 0800 587 7645, or visit amara.com. Aram, 110 Drury Lane, London WC2 (020 7557 7557; aram.co.uk). Arte, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, Lon­ don SW10 (0800 500 3335; arte­international.com). Atlantic Blankets, 6 Bos­

cawen Rd, Perranporth, Cornwall TR6 0EW (0845 658 5194; atlanticblankets. com). Bitesize Luxury. Visit bitesizeluxury.com. Christopher Farr Cloth, 32­33 Chelsea Wharf, 15 Lots Rd, London SW10 (020 7349 0888; christopherfarrcloth. com). The Conran Shop, Michelin House, 81 Fulham Rd, London SW3 (0844 848 4000; conranshop.co.uk). De Padova, 161 Draycott Ave, London SW3 (020 7581 7982; depadova.com). Designers Guild. Ring 020 7893 7400, or visit designersguild.com. Faolchú. Ring 0141 387 8176, or visit faolchu.com.

Fiona McDonald, 323 Fulham Palace Rd, London SW6 (020 7731 3234; fionamcdonald.com). Fortnum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly, London W1 (020 7734 8040; fortnumandmason.com). Fox Linton, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7368 7700; foxlinton.com). Fromental, 2 Kimberly Rd, London NW6 (020 3410 2000; fromental.co.uk). The Future Kept. Ring 01424 814968, or visit thefuturekept.com. GP & J Baker, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7351 7760; gpjbaker.com).

Gracie, Suite 1411, 979 Third Ave, New York, NY 10022 (001 212 924 6816; graciestudio.com). Habitat, 196­199 Tottenham Court Rd, London W1 (0344 499 4686; habitat.co.uk). Heal’s. Ring 0333 212 1915, or visit heals.com. India Jane, 121 King’s Rd, London SW3 (020 8799 7166; indiajane.co.uk). Jamb, 95­97 Pimlico Rd, London SW1 (020 7730 2122; jamb.co.uk). James J. Fox, 19 St James’s St, London SW1 (020 7930 3787; jjfox.co.uk). Julian Chichester, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7622 2928; julianchichester.com). Kinloch Anderson, 4 Dock St, Edinburgh EH6 6EY (0131 555 1390; kinlochanderson.com). The Lacquer Company, 224

World’s End Studios, 132­134 Lots Rd, London SW10 (020 7460 9599; thelacquercompany.com). Lala & Bea. Ring 07769 704379, or visit lalaandbea. com. Life of Riley, Brice’s Yard, Butts Green, Clavering, Essex CB11 4RT (01799 551813; lifeofrileyonline.co.uk). Lorfords, 30 Long St, Tetbury, Glos GL8 8AQ (01666 505111; lorfordsantiques.com). Moorswood. Ring 01647 277446, or visit moorswood.com. Nobilis, Design Centre Chelsea Har­ bour, London SW10 (020 8767 0774; nobilis.fr). Ordnance Survey. Visit ordnancesurvey.co.uk. Pendleton Woolen Mills. Visit pendletonwoolenmills. co.uk. Phillip Jeffries, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7351 3333; phillipjeffries.com). Poliform, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7352 0046; poliformuk.com). Porada, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 3155 3065; porada.it). Ralph Lauren Home. Ring 020 7535 4600, or visit ralphlaurenhome.com. Re, Bishops Yard, Main St, Corbridge, Northum NE45 5LA (01434 634567; re­foundobjects. com). Roche Bobois. Ring 020 8874 9818, or visit roche­bobois.com). Romo, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (01623 756699; romo.com).

Rose Uniacke, 76­84 Pimlico Rd, London SW1 (020 7730 7050; roseuniacke. com). Rubbastuff. Ring 020 3393 8404, or visit rubbastuff.com. Rubelli, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7349 1590; rubelli.com). SCP, 135 Curtain Rd, London EC2 (020 7739 1869; scp.co.uk). Soane Britain, 50­52 Pimlico Rd, London SW1 (020 7730 6400; soane.com). Sophie Allport, 26­27 High St, Stamford, Lincs PE9 2AY (01778 560256; sophieallport.com). Tatiana Tafur, 572 King’s Rd, London SW6 (020 7731 3777; tatianatafur.com). Thibaut, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7351 6496; thibautdesign. com). Tom Faulkner, Chelsea Reach, 79­89 Lots Rd, London SW10 (020 7351 7272; tomfaulkner.co.uk). Turnell & Gigon, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7259 7280; turnellandgigon.com). The Wool Company, Higher Hill Farm, Cardinham, Bodmin, Cornwall PL30 4EG (01208 821118; thewoolcompany.co.uk). Zimmer & Rohde, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 (020 7351 7115; zimmer­rohde.com) $

Cube covered with charcoal/dove ‘Woodhall Sisal’, by Stroheim, £88.75 per m (width: 86cm), Alton-Brooke.

Background: havana ‘Braided Walls 3152’, £61.50 approx per m (width: 91.5cm), Phillip Jeffries. All prices include VAT

THE ART & ANTIQUES FAIR O LY M P I A

l o n d o n

19-28 JUNE 2019 Discover 160 leading British and international galleries and dealers offering an inspirational choice from furniture, art, sculpture and objects to jewellery, textiles, glass and ceramics.

Plan your visit & book tickets

olympia-art-antiques.com Preview Day: 19 June 2019, 11am – 9pm Follow

Every piece for sale is vetted by a committee of experts to ensure quality and authenticity enabling you to buy with confidence.

Hanging on the kitchen wall is a drawing of mushrooms

by Robert Jakob, who designed the property with houses in Naxos in mind. The antique cupboard – used to store crockery – is Alsatian in origin, while the sink is travertine and the table 19th-century Italian

THEIR SERENE HIGHNESS Up in Italy’s Aurunci mountains, artist Robert Jakob and curator David White have built a beautifully calm home with a painterly quality befitting its exquisite elevated setting. Eschewing all unnecessary adornment, for fear it would distract from the view, the two men luxuriate instead in a sparseness worthy of Morandi. You can’t fault their grasp of perspective, tonal subtlety or composition, reckons Marella Caracciolo. Photography: Simon Upton

Top: surrounded by wicker chairs, the custom-made dining table with iron legs and wheels doubles as a workspace. The other seats are a mixture of Gustavian and 18th-century Neapolitan. Above left: cushions made from centuries-old San Leucio silk – a rare concession to decoration here – sit on the sofa. In front of it is an iron-and-wood side table by Anthony Gammardella. Above right: a painting by Robert Jakob leans against the wall.

Opposite: a poster for one of Cy Twombly’s last shows is propped on an 18th-century Swedish table, with an African fertility urn just seen to the left

41

Top: cotti cover the terrace just outside the kitchen. The hand-painted majolica tiles on the perimeter bench came from an antique warehouse nearby. Above left: the main house and guest wing, a converted stable, enjoy views of a valley and the Mediterranean beyond. Above right: a mattress set on old iron trestles provides an extra guest bed in a room in Robert’s studio, though here it actually accommodates some of his works on paper. Opposite: the painting leaning against the cabinet (a local find) is also by him. All the metal window frames were made in the vicinity

43

Top: this bedroom is typically crisp and sparse, with little by way of furnishings except for a Louis XV French chair, a table topped with Carrara marble and a bed that the owners have given the same treatment as elsewhere. The door leads to an adjoining studio. Above left: a French 18thcentury side table supports a monochrome painting by Robert Jakob. Above right: designer Anthony Gammardella helped to create the pool area and transform the old stable into guest quarters. Opposite: the four-poster, which was made locally, is a copy of an 18th-century Italian model

MONTI AURUNCI,

a mountainous wilderness in southern Lazio overlooking the sea, is best known for its 50-odd varieties of wild orchids, its rare salamanders and, a few generations back, the fierce nature of its brigands. Discovering this landscape so far away from the beaten track was a life-changing surprise for David White, curator of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Robert Jakob, a garden designer and a painter.

As David recalls, in 2000 while travelling through Italy, they visited Cy Twombly in Gaeta (WoI June 2004). ‘He mentioned a piece of land nearby was up for sale. “It’s bucolic,” he added. We went to see it that same afternoon: the property had glorious views and contained a century-old stone refuge for a pastore and his animals.’

This unplanned Italian adventure offered Jakob and White the opportunity to create a home from scratch. Jakob, a German native who moved to New York in the early 1960s where he worked as a graphic designer for three decades before turning to painting, has an instinctive knack for creating rational, unencumbered living spaces that are in tune with their surroundings. Back in the 1980s he and White acquired a property in East Hampton that was supposedly used by Willem de Kooning as a studio 30 or so years before; then just a shell of a building, it is now a well-honed interior sparsely furnished with a diverse mix of 18th-century Swedish and French furniture, Americana and modern artworks immersed in a luxuriously overgrown garden (WoI July 2004).

The crumbling refuge and animal sheds on the property in Monti Aurunci proved an equally inspiring starting point. White and Jakob chose the spot where the main house should rise: one that offers stunning views across the valley below and to the Mediterranean beyond. The project was jotted down by Jakob on a paper napkin. ‘David is not inclined to design himself,’ says the painter, ‘but he is an excellent critic and knows exactly what he wants. Essentially, the making of this project was a joint venture.’

The shape and layout of the main house, a whitewashed structure of archaic simplicity with glass and iron fixtures and a shaded portico overlooking the valley, could belong to a Giorgio Morandi

landscape, where buildings are reduced to bare geometric essentials. White and Jakob’s ideas on how to live coincided: no unnecessary luxuries, no redundancies. ‘Comforts are not a priority,’ says Jakob, ‘huge bathrooms, luxurious sofas and under-floor heating systems seem so unnecessary. Running water is already an achievement and if it comes out hot it’s a luxury.’

The real luxury, here, is space. A path leads from the main house to a retaining wall made of stones from the surrounding fields.

Up some steps is Jakob’s painting studio and a small guest house.

Ensconced within the perimeter walls of a large room in what used to be a dilapidated building, also in stone, is the swimming pool. That’s a welcome addition given that summer temperatures here can rise to 40 degrees. The designer Anthony Gammardella, who first came to this property with White and Jakob in 2007, has been closely involved in the making of this raised area. Virtually hidden from sight, the pool – a rectangle in cement surrounded by cotto tiles – has a timeless elegance that evokes the troughs or ancient washtubs one occasionally comes across in this area.

Gammardella has also transformed the century-old refuge into the kitchen of the guest quarters.

When he scribbled down his first ideas on how to build this place, Robert Jakob says all the houses he had ever liked during his travels kept flooding his mind. These included country houses in Naxos, monoliths with tiny windows that, he says, look like sculptures dropped in a landscape. Another influence was the Glass House in New Canaan. When Philip Johnson invited White and Jakob to stay there years ago, it was a mind-blowing experience for Jakob. He remembers the surprise of walking into a bathroom lined with leather tiles. Another influence was self-taught furniture and interiors designer Ward Bennett, a one-time neighbour and friend in East Hampton. Jakob admired his style, an experimental oxymoron of restrained efficiency and grandiose proportions. Then, of course, there were Cy Twombly’s homes in Rome, in Bassano in Teverina (WoI June 2018) and in Gaeta: open-ended structures that embodied the artist’s sense of sprezzatura, his disregard for mundane comforts in favour of space, light and an impermanent display of artworks and objects.

In White and Jakob’s Italian interiors, with their whitewashed walls and untreated yellow cotto tiles from nearby Minturno, the only overtly decorative elements are the old hand-painted Neapolitan majolicas lining the kitchen and bathroom walls. Furnishings have been kept to a bare minimum: a few weathered 18th-century Neapolitan chairs; iron beds found in local antique warehouses; working tables; one single sofa in front of the mantelpiece in the living room; and a handful of Jakob’s own botanically inspired works on paper. The living room’s two handsome tables in wood and steel are a rare concession to modern design. They are designed by Anthony Gammardella and handcrafted locally. A few colourful cushions made with fabric from the silk factory in San Leucio (founded by the Bourbon king Ferdinand in 1789) are the only attempt at light-hearted decoration.

In the end, however, it all boils down to the sweeping views over rugged mountain peaks, the sunburned valleys and pristine coastlines in the distance. Jakob agreed with White to curb his phenomenal green fingers in order to avoid distracting from the view. With the exception of some fruit trees – citruses, pomegranates and almonds – herbaceous borders and a few potted plants, this minimalist garden, like the architecture and interiors, pays tribute to that rarest and noblest of luxuries these days: the bucolic landscape $

Top: although simple, this small studio off a bedroom shows an artist’s appreciation for sprezzatura in the carefully considered composition and colour. Opposite: a folding garden table and wicker chair provide a quiet place to work. The ‘sculpture’ on the wall is displayed just as it was found

THAT’S MY LOT Little over a year after embarking on a new life there, Christopher Hodsoll and his wife are bidding farewell to their rural idyll in Shropshire’s historic Morville Hall. But ever the antique dealer, he’s decided against calling in the removal men – and is instead minded to ‘clear the decks’. As his cherished chattels go under the hammer, he tells Sophie Barling why fresh pastures are beckoning. Photography: Tim Beddow

Opposite: in the entrance hall, Ceylonese and Indian ebony furniture sits around the fireplace. Hanging above the mantel is a 19th-century Russian mirror, its surround carved with vines.

Above: a rat head – part of an opera or ballet costume – perches on a camel-back sofa upholstered in gaufrage velvet from Claremont

Left: in the drawing room, a huge horse portrait by Thomas Bardwell hangs above an 18th-century silver coffer from South America. Top: Soane’s ‘Vine Tendril’ fabric covers the Howard sofa. Above: a collection of plaster mathematical solids surrounds a mahogany-and-glass case containing a model of a brick portico

Left: in the book room, a sculpture of Clara, an Indian rhinoceros that toured Europe in the 18th century, peers from the far wall, while a gourd vase filled with rosebuds forms a lamp base. Top: Morville viewed from outside. Above: the convex gesso mirror is by Christopher Hodsoll himself and based on a Carolean design

MORVILLE HALL in Shropshire has seen dealer, ‘when I saw this amazing ad.’ He and his wife, Sarah, had

many come and go in its time. There were the monks first of all, Benedictines from the abbey of Shrewsbury, who built a priory on the site in the 12th century, and a new church. For 400 years they were here, tending their orchards and vegetable gardens, fishing carp out of their stewponds, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries caught up with this corner of England, and in 1540 the priory was shut down. The land was sold to a local merchant, Roger Smyth, who, reusing the demolished priory’s stone, built the E-shaped house at the core of the present building. Then came various owners, one of whom remodelled and extended the Elizabethan house in the mid-18th century. Other occupants included seven Victorian sisters, none of whom ever married, but were here to the end of their lives. In 1965, Morville was given to the National Trust.

Today there are nine households – in different wings of the main house, in two Georgian pavilions, in the gatehouse; the garden historian and writer Katherine Swift has been a tenant at the Dower House since 1988 and has spent decades making a garden here. Her beautifully lyrical book, The Morville Hours (part memoir, part history), takes its structure from her work on the garden through the seasons, to the quiet rhythm set by the church clock.

It was the chance to rent the main part of the hall itself that caught the attention of Christopher Hodsoll in late 2017. ‘I was sitting in the bath, reading the Sunday papers,’ explains the decorator and antique

just sold their house in Notting Hill, and here, for £2,000 a month, was an opportunity to live the rural dream. ‘I’m a real city person,’ Sarah says, ‘but after so many years I’d done London and it had done us.’ They arrived at Morville at the beginning of last year to a bitterly cold spell; snow found its way into the entrance hall, and didn’t melt for four days. But this was all part of the adventure – particularly, one suspects, for Christopher, whom the late Christopher Gibbs recently described as ‘ever youthful, neatly Apollonian, hospitable and merry’. He was immediately full of plans to set up a ski run on the slope that rises to the west of the house (though he admits he ‘never quite got round to it’).

As for the interiors, the National Trust’s paint choices (chalky 18th-century colours by Edward Bulmer) were, luckily, to Christopher’s taste. They provide a suitable foil for the statement furniture, objects and art that define his style. Those things have been liable to shift occasionally – selling things on is an occupational hazard when you’re a dealer – but much of what furnishes the rooms are things he’s been reluctant to give up over the decades, including items inherited from his mentor, the great decorator Geoffrey Bennison. A still life of a rack of lamb, for instance, once hung in Bennison’s kitchen at the top of an 18th-century building in Golden Square. Christopher worked with him for six years in the late 1970s and early 80s, before setting up on his own (‘Geoffrey was fabulous and I loved him – but he drove

Opposite, top: a piece of 17th-century Florentine tapestry given to Christopher by his friend Geoffrey Bennison hangs above the dining-room door. Bottom: the plasterwork on the kitchen ceiling is Elizabethan. This page: the leather ‘Casino’ chairs are

by Soane Britain, while the still life is early 18th-century Dutch

Top: a Chinese huanghuali desk sits in the window of the garden bedroom. Above left: flanking a Russian architectural model in ivory, a pair of ebony palm candlesticks pick up the position of the lotus plants in an early 20th-century landscape. Above right: the cupboard in Sarah Hodsoll’s dressing room is Chippendale. Opposite: a Robert Kime carpet covers the blue bedroom’s floor

me insane, like a mother can’). Bennison’s story is, he says, worthy of a book that some day he intends to write. ‘It’s phenomenal, and involves East End armed robbers and the Rothschilds, so it’s got everything – film stars, Jackie Onassis… it’s the maddest story of all time.’ For now, smaller anecdotes must suffice, such as the time there was a mix-up sending some objet to Nureyev in Paris, and Christopher had to field his wrathful phone call; in the end the dancer was placated, ‘but the screaming and the shouting, wow!’

There is evidence of more recent collaborations too. A set of red-leather chairs in a drawing-room window was designed by Christopher and Lulu Lytle for Soane, which they set up in 1997.

Fabric from her collection was used for curtains, ditto bed hangings upstairs. Most brilliantly, he has used a Soane trellis design to paper what serves as a loggia just off the hall.

Christopher’s taste for oversized paintings, many of them animal portraits, has been given free rein here. A lion that once belonged to Gianni Versace looks magnificent against the hall’s oak panelling (complemented momentarily by one of the Hodsoll whippets, who strikes an equally regal pose below it). An oil by Wootton records a celebrated hunting dog who saved the life of his master. Sadly, however, these and other fantastic beasts won’t hang here much longer. The Hodsolls are not the first to be unpleasantly surprised by the running costs of an old house, and must abandon this short-lived rural dream. Newer pastures beckon, and despite the ‘enormous sentimental value’ of some of his chattels, they’re

headed for auction. ‘I’d rather clear the decks and start again,’ Christopher explains.

As he sits at his desk in the library, plans for a client’s house spread before him, the view out of the window beyond is the very definition of pastoral idyll: lambs dotting a velvety green meadow that sweeps down to the church, built 900 years ago. The set-up at Morville may no longer be cloistered as it was then, but a sense of community lingers. And the support the Hodsolls have found has been exceptional. Upstairs I meet Ian, who was born at the gatehouse when the hall was still privately owned and is head bellringer at the church. ‘He hung that massive horse picture on his own,’ Christopher says. ‘We couldn’t have done this without him.’

Meanwhile, Christopher’s assistant, Bridget, was in forensics at the Met for 14 years before spending as many years running the major-crime unit in Telford. She’s currently on the scent of a man who stole a carpet from Christopher (I wouldn’t want to be that man).

Christopher seems remarkably unfazed by another upheaval, so soon. ‘We’ve done it before, in Morocco,’ he says. ‘We took a lease on a battered old French-colonial house. It had a wonderful 18-acre garden with around 300 palm trees.’ And then I notice the motto on the Hodsoll coat of arms, for now still hanging over Morville’s old kitchen range: Resurgam $ ‘The Contents of Morville Hall: the Christopher Hodsoll Collection’ will be sold at Bonhams, Montpelier St, London SW7 (020 7393 3900; bonhams.com), 1 Oct

Opposite, top: the bed is Anglo-Indian, while the studded-leather wardrobe was custom-made. Bottom: a Palladian gesso mirror on one wall of the loggia reflects an Arts and Crafts lantern. This page: the Moroccan ebonised side chairs came from the Villa Taylor in Marrakesh, and the palampore from Afghanistan

Above: Martin Gane is seen outside his Cotswold-stone former piggery in Gloucestershire. The original oak gable-end door, which had rotted after years of exposure to porcine pee, now hangs at the entrance to the shed. Opposite: tongue-and-groove features even more prominently in the kitchen, where an old scaffolding board forms a high shelf. Jake Loveless, a joiner based in Bath, made all the doors

THIS LITTLE PIGGERY When this little West Country piggery went on to the market it made a very nice home – eventually. For first the new owners had to undo all the damage done to timber and masonry by the previous inhabitants’ wee, wee, wee over the years. Still, their efforts weren’t in vain. Where there was once muck, there’s now an air of sty-lish rustic charm.

Jane Stacey could squeal with delight at a Gloucestershire old spot transformed. Photography: Huntley Hedworth

Top: the dining room’s floorboards are scaffolding planks that have been sanded and oiled. Above: the couple bought the desk on Ebay and found the stone fireplace in pieces in the barn. The screen features a botanical photograph by garden designer Isabel Bannerman. Opposite: supported by the wood partition wall, the ceiling provides valuable storage above while also creating a more intimate space beneath

This page, clockwise from top left: the metal window frame in the hall originally graced a cell in a local police station; the bedspread in the owners’ bedroom is made from sari fabric; Farrow & Ball’s ‘Clunch’ on the woodwork tones well with the bathroom’s exposed-brick wall; the tapestry behind the bed is an Ebay buy. Opposite: as well as making the stairs, Martin fashioned a handrail from copper pipe

ELLE KEMP

and Martin Gane were having lunch together on their very first date back in 2004 when the conversation turned to design and she happened to mention that she would like to build her own house one day. ‘This was followed

by Martin saying, “I’ll build you a house,” which was followed by us getting carried away scribbling enough designs for a whole village,’ she recalls. ‘That’s when I knew he was the man for me.’ They didn’t have much money between them, but they did have bucket loads of ideas and determination.

Martin had come over from New Zealand, first as a pig farmer, though by this time, having answered an ad for a live-in gardener/ handyman, he was working at Hanham Court just outside Bristol (WoI Oct 2008), where he met Elle. She was just starting out in fashion design, by coincidence having not long returned from New Zealand herself. Some years later they started looking for land to buy but soon realised it’s not so easy: it’s expensive and a lot of people are doing the same thing. Then Martin spotted a dilapidated barn in Gloucestershire for sale, the couple having decided to switch tack from the creative challenge of building to renovation.

Of course it’s ironic that it should be an actual piggery – albeit a handsome Victorian Cotswold-stone one – that our former pig farmer found. ‘It had a decent roof, internal brick walls and the concrete floor had been dug out by the farmer’s son, who was intending to develop it himself to sell on, but we think he got fed up with the hassle,’ explains Elle. That said, it was still just a shell with a mostly bare-earth floor, and all the bottoms of the wooden doors and the first two feet of mortar on the walls had disintegrated after decades of exposure to pig urine.

Determined to preserve what they could, Martin spent a long time cutting away the crumbling masonry inside and out until he hit unaffected solid parts. ‘We’d sold our house in Stroud to raise the cash by this time and were renting nearby. I was pregnant and every day I came to see progress Martin was still digging,’ recalls Elle. Martin’s father then came over from New Zealand and helped with the insulation. ‘We found a Welsh company that sources sustainable material. In the roof is sheep’s wool and cork. It’s breathable and deals with the damp,’ says Martin. They used lime hemp plaster in the corridor for the same reason although, he adds, it was ‘like plastering with stewed rhubarb’.

While the building is listed, and therefore required sensitive treatment, it also had to function as a family home. The conservation officer helped steer many of their decisions to reconcile what might have been competing demands. ‘We couldn’t get rid

of the original doors, although they didn’t have to hang in the same place; we had to keep the cobbled floor in what became our bedroom; we weren’t allowed living rooms upstairs because of fire regs; and we couldn’t add a floor anyway because we couldn’t knock through the internal brick walls,’ says Martin. This last point presented the couple with the biggest conundrum, as there are five of these walls at regular intervals, each extending right up to the steeply pitched roof; these originally divided the building into six bays – five for the pigs and a sixth, with a fireplace, where their feed was heated. All the bays have their own external door and are linked by a corridor running the full length of the barn on the opposite side, probably to distribute the feed.

‘We appreciated [the council’s] concerns, sharing the same passion for preservation and enjoying the challenges the constraints posed us,’ says Elle, who came up with the idea of freestanding gantries. ‘Perhaps because Martin is also a gardener and the idea is essentially a solid version of a pergola.’ This allowed them to create storage above the dining room and a bathroom above their bedroom while keeping the brick walls intact. Bathrooms are permitted ‘upstairs’ as they are not classed as living rooms. A second bathroom was also added at the far end of the barn. Elle, meanwhile, sourced cheap furniture and building materials on Ebay and in skips, junk shops and markets. ‘The joy is making things look like they’ve always been there,’ she says. She and Martin are especially partial to tongue-and-groove. ‘We were lucky to find a quantity of reclaimed beadboard. It’s become one of the defining characteristics of our home,’ she says. ‘It instantly gives character and charm. I’m also a big fan of mouldings but the understated charm of a bead gets me every time.’

Despite being on a tight budget, the couple – who have now made similar restorations their business – were fastidious about their home being exactly as they wanted it. ‘We’re too driven by aesthetics to let the small matter of finances get in the way of living in style,’ Elle says. However, while she admits bargain-hunting is a way of life for them and while Martin did all of the building work himself, there were some key areas where they agreed that investing in quality would make an important difference. Elle rattles off the list: decent insulation, bespoke oak doors and windows, large reclaimed flagstones, a woodburner, range cooker and kitchen taps.

Having initiated many of the interior-design decisions, Elle recalls being keen for Martin to have a say in the paint colours.

‘He plonked his old tweed jacket down and said: “I’d like it to feel like this.” Lovely browns, mustards and creams. That’s what we’ve gone with.’ There was another influence at work too: their love of a pub. ‘English country pubs with their dark nooks and settles and well-worn timber furnishings,’ she says. This is particularly evident in their kitchen, where walls of black-glossed beadboard surround the table. The dining room, too, feels like one you might come across at the back of a village pub serving a Sunday roast. ‘It’s extremely satisfying to tread carefully over the past and live with it day to day,’ says Elle. ‘We have brought plenty of vintage stuff into the house, but the greatest historical artefact on show is still the barn itself’ $ To contact Martin Gane and Elle Kemp, visit ridgeandfurrow.co.uk Top: built in the 1850s, the piggery is attributed to Benjamin Bucknall, an eminent architect in the Southwest and Algiers. Opposite: Martin built the box-beds with toy storage underneath for the couple’s two young children. ‘It felt like the solution to them each having their own bedroom when we actually only have space for one,’ says Elle

This page: two slabs of inscribed marble ‘protect’ the occupant of each grave in Tourbet el Bey’s Queens’ Room.

Opposite: this wall is a patchwork of tiles: brown-andblue Tunisian and Italian, which probably provided ballast on pirate ships

PASHAS AT PEACE The Tourbet el Bey mausoleum in Tunis’s ancient medina marked a new beginning – or rather end – for the dynastic rulers when it was built 250 years ago. Completed as their country emerged from centuries of strife, it became the final resting place for generations of beys and their pirated booty. Marie-France Boyer is awed by both the treasure and the tranquillity. Photography: Christoph Kircherer. First published: June 2008

The mausoleum’s Pasha Room is reserved for the most important dignitaries, whose graves were originally covered

with silk velvet, damask and gold trimmings. The last grave on the right belongs to Ali Bey II’s tutor, who is considered a saint

This page, clockwise from top left: outside, each corner of Tourbet el Bey is punctuated by a column in the composite order; the elaborate eight-pointed star in the Queens’ Room is a symbol of happiness; in a break with tradition, one bey was buried next to his seven wives behind a lattice screen; parts of the building show signs of wear and neglect – it was squatted for a while and restoration only began in the 1990s; the Pasha Room

This page, clockwise from top left: the stucco dome in the Pasha Room is patterned in the Turkish style; here an 18th-century marble turban sits on a cippus, or monumental pillar, above a grave; the black-and-white marble entrance is typical of buildings in the medina of Tunis; a panel of hand-painted ceramic tiles from Naples depicts birds; this headstone in the Queens’ Room is engraved with a poem in praise of the dead

THE TOURBET el Bey, in the heart of

the medina of Tunis, is an 18th-century turba (a mausoleum enclosed within buildings in a city centre) erected to house the tombs of Tunisia’s Ottoman rulers and their retinues.

Historically, Muslims buried their dead in cemeteries outside the city walls and sometimes at home if they were rich.

Then, in the 11th century, a wealthy family from Mesopotamia built a turba. Although they did not catch on at the time, family mausoleums of this kind, belonging to the privileged classes, started to appear in towns two centuries later. But it was with the arrival of the Turks in the 16th century that this practice, already common in the Ottoman Empire, became widespread in Tunisia. There are many turbas in the old town of Tunis, but the Tourbet el Bey, with its 18thcentury Italianate grace and Ottoman proportions, is undoubtedly the finest example.

Tunisia gained independence in 1956, but since the dawn of history has been hotly disputed by its neighbours.

Originally Berber, it became Phoenician when Carthage was established; then Roman, before the Arabs invaded it in ad670 and introduced Islam. They built one of the world’s finest mosques in Kairouan and ruled the country for nine centuries. In the 16th century, Tunisia was once again torn, this time between Arabs, Spanish and then Turks. It is the last who eventually prevailed, settling for three centuries.

Initially the ties to Istanbul were very close. The pashas, later called deys and then beys, were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, controlling the country and collecting taxes. Gradually they freed themselves from centralised power and ruled as they saw fit, receiving fewer and fewer subsidies and, as a result, living more and more from piracy – the great scourge of the Mediterranean.

In c1628, the powerful and free Murad Bey created the first dynasty and started to endow Tunisia with a Turkish identity. But the country owes its next major development to Al-Husayn I, who inaugurated the Husainid dynasty in 1705. He was responsible for building many monuments, and his successors went on to establish an army and a navy, abolish slavery, open schools and give the country its first constitution. However, the 19th century, when the entire Mediterranean region started trading with the wider world, saw the beginning of the beys’ decline, unable as they were to maintain a stable economy in the face of growing Italian and French influence. France installed a protectorate in Tunis in 1881, but, despite giving the beys an honorary role, right up until independence the beys were in constant opposition, continually but unsuccessfully trying to regain power.

It is to the son of the founder of the Husainid dynasty, Ali II (r. 1759-82), that we owe the Tourbet el Bey, a tomb that was conceived for him and his successors. After suppressing several revolts, he devoted himself to peace, architecture, science and the arts, and built public housing and laid water pipes. It is thought that the main building of his turba was constructed between 1765 and 1776. Drawing inspiration from Ottoman architecture, Ali II erected it in a residential area near other places of cultural interest, including palaces such as the Dar Ben Abdallah, which is now a museum of decorative arts. It was also close to the mosque built by his father and the site of the Madrasa Hussaniya el Kobra, which he would build a little later.

The building has a fine Cap Bon ochre stone façade that looks on to the street; it is carved with Italianate floral frescoes, and has pink limestone and marble columns in the composite order at each of the four corners. Most importantly, this astonishing building is topped with a series of spectacular domes covered with glazed green tiles. Inside, around several open-air courtyards, are a series of interconnecting funerary chambers in which all of the Husainid beys – with the exception of the first three and the last two – are buried with their families and retinues.

The Pasha Room is reserved for the most important dignitaries, except for a tomb set into a painted wooden chest that houses the remains of Ali II’s doting schoolteacher, and three other tiny ones – those of Hammuda Bey’s children, who died in the early 19th century. The other 14 beys lie side by side like sardines under a massive dome resting on four huge pillars. The walls are decorated with panels of marble inlay originating from a Sicilian palace, which probably found their way to Tunis through piracy. The white plaster dome is chiselled and decorated with the image of a cypress, the tree of eternity, surrounded by eight-pointed stars and European-style vases bursting with flowers. Each carved marble tomb is surmounted by a column on top of which stands a turban or a fez, according to the fashion of the period and the rank of the dignitary below. The tombs, shaped like canted boxes, are finished with upright tablets on which are engraved passages from the Koran or poems.

The closing lines of the chosen excerpt are a coded reference to the date of death according to the Islamic calendar.

Originally, all the tombs were covered in gold-fringed green or red damask.

The remains of the princesses, wives and mothers face the Pasha Room. Reminiscent of a large convent dormitory, their room has white marble tombs – without turbans or fezzes, but with two inscribed plaques instead of one – that look even more like neatly made little beds than those of the beys. Here, as in the other rooms, a patchwork of exquisite ceramic tiles covers the walls, a cool, glistening mixture of Italian and Tunisian.

All the other rooms are vaulted or topped with plaster domes of a different kind, chiselled with Fatima hands, fish or geometric lacework picked out in a delicate pale green.

They house concubines, princes of the same dynasty, servants, ministers or viziers, arranged according to title. Some of these rooms, added in 1920 and as late as 1938, are much less ornate. Ahmad II (r. 1929-1942) is buried in one such chamber, close to the women of his harem, in an enclosure resembling a green-and-gold four-poster bed.

In the ceramic or marble-paved open-air courtyards, orange trees have been planted in reference to the Tunisian custom of washing the dead with orange-flower water. The trees are surrounded by butterflies and the muezzin’s voice can be heard. Some of the open-air tombs are carved with flowers, and pigeons and sparrows drink out of the hollows before carrying, so it’s said, the souls of the dead to heaven.

The attendants love to tell fantastic tales about the dead moaning in their tombs after being buried alive. But this is a place of peace and poetry that owes its unusual charm to the blending of cultures in an atmosphere of veneration $ Tourbet el Bey, 60 Rue Tourbet el Bey, Medina, Tunis 1008

Dating from the early 20th century, the room for ministers and friends of the ruling family has tombs marked by cippi

that are topped with tarbooshes – an indication of the rank of the occupants. These were originally red with gold tassels

An array of freshly down to chat with picked organic the owners. A vegetables occupies sliding wooden the space in front of a partition separates cane sofa, made cosy the shop floor with a quilt, where from the office and regular customers sit sewing area beyond

ROOTS IN THE EAST There can’t be that many shops where you can buy both organically grown leeks and indigo batik, celeriac and ceramics. But in this Japanese/Basque delicatessen south of Biarritz, Aï and Cédric Bihr, downsizing from high-octane careers in the USA, have pooled their mixed heritage to conduct a rare retail experiment and, in the process, get closer to the land. Marie-France Boyer introduces the couple’s miso-en-scène. Photography: Ivan Terestchenko

This page, clockwise from top left: on the main road down to the sea, the Yaoya deli is located on the ground floor of a traditional house. The living quarters lie above; before a surreal photo

by Tatsumi Orimoto sits a loaf of country bread, sold by the slice; rather incongruous Staffordshire dogs guard a table in the office holding a still life of butternut squashes; a noren, or traditional Japanese curtain, is fastened to a tree branch at the entrance of the deli. Lemon trees usher customers in

This page, clockwise from top: a refrigerated cabinet containing locally made dairy produce sits on the counter; Aï and Cédric Bihr. Wearing their other hats, she works as a fashion designer and art consultant, he as a photographer for top brands such as Hermès and Swarovski; purchases are wrapped in fabric and fastened with a pretty bow; a cluster of customer reward cards edges an alcove containing fresh baguettes and the results of a glass strength test done by Aï for a commission

IN THE SMALL French fishing village of lage of 1,300 people where Cédric, who hails from the HautesGuéthary on the Atlantic coast south of Biarritz, Aï and Cédric Bihr have opened Yaoya, a ‘Basque-Japanese deli’ that perfectly reflects the preoccupations and mindset of today’s 40-year-olds.

This modest shop is out of the ordinary. The doorway, framed by potted lemon trees, is half covered with a traditional Japanese fabric curtain called a noren. In the middle of the shop floor, a generous mass of seasonal vegetables is set out like a still life with an Oriental carpet as the backdrop. Nearby is a wooden counter topped with cheeses, yogurts and Basque butter. Further back, an old bed frame is covered with citrus fruits. On the walls are photographs by Cédric, along with pictures picked up, like the furniture, at car-boot sales. But most noticeable of all is the vast sofa. It gives the impression of a ‘vegetable salon’, not unlike those gatherings in the 18th century when chocolate newly arrived from the Americas was all the rage.

As in every big city in Europe, shops selling picked-that-day organic vegetables are opening up all over Paris, from the 10th to the 20th arrondissements. They go by names such as Au bout du Champ (At the Field’s Edge) or Terroirs d’Avenir (Lands of the Future). The popularity of local produce has even given rise to a new word: locavores. Other shops such as La Trésorerie sell simple homewares for kitchen or bathroom. The same goes for this Franco-Japanese épicerie.

Cédric is in London on the day I visit, leaving Aï alone with their Basque sales assistant, Hugo. A very beautiful woman in her forties, Aï greets customers in her sophisticated French. Her bearing, style, courtesy and elegant simplicity give her away: this is no ordinary greengrocer.

After growing up in Japan in a family of artists (who worked in sculpture and film) she studied neuroscience – the same discipline as Cédric – at MIT then Stanford.

She served time in research, and then in industry, but returned to Japan to study fashion design because she wanted to work with her hands. All this quickly resulted in many contracts. But this woman, who has played violin since the age of eight, as well as the piano, had long been fascinated by the ‘music’ of the French language she had chanced on in a film. Europe haunted her.

After arriving in Paris in 2000 she studied at the Studio Berçot fashion institute and became Uniqlo’s first employee in the city, directly adapting the Japanese brand to European tastes. ‘I liked the idea: making simple, beautiful clothing, useful to everyone,’ she says. Agnès B and many others then began to seek her out.

One evening over Christmas in 2006 she met Cédric in the house of some friends in Guéthary. A specialist in oceans and whales, he had turned photographer for National Geographic and the New York Times’s T Magazine and today works for top brands such as Hermès and Swarovski (when he is not lovingly photographing the sea by their home). Cédric was keen to join Aï in America, which he did for several years, from Los Angeles to New York. Everything seemed to be going well for them, and yet they soon realised that this wasn’t the life they wished to live.

They were approaching their forties. Europe was calling them back. They decided to move to the Pays Basque, to this small vil-

Pyrénées, had enjoyed surfing. Although it’s empty and barren in winter, the waves and a few celebrities attract a cosmopolitan crowd in summer. But there was no local shop, only a small supermarket on the road between Guéthary and Spain.

Aï was pregnant when she and Cédric were developing their deli project. ‘One way of life was over,’ she says. ‘Now we were looking for a quality of life in which to bring up our child. We wanted to be useful, to establish simple connections with others and try to be environmentally responsible.’ The plan was to sell local vegetables and work two days per week with the grower so they could keep prices low, be in contact with the earth and ‘stay in touch with the seasons’.

Basque honey, cheese and yogurts share space on the shelves with Japanese specialities, from vinegars to seaweed, as well as sundry health and beauty products. There are also Japanese artisanal goods such as ceramic bowls, bamboo sieves, brushes, ladles, sponges and indigo batik napkins. In the back room, separated by a glass wall, Aï sews patchwork quilts and cushions. Every object, right down to a €3.50 spoon, is wrapped in fabric and ribbon like a work of art and presented with a small bow and a smile.

At 4.30pm, mothers turn up with their children after school. They are joined by a surfer who has just got off the plane, a shy young woman who is learning Japanese and another keen to try the ‘natural antibiotic’ buckwheat tea. Ko, the couple’s three-year-old daughter, is playing with their dog on the carpet.

‘People come for the first time because they’ve enjoyed the vegetables at a friend’s dinner,’ Aï says. ‘The second time we get to know them, and they buy organic oil.

The third time we sit down on the sofa for a chat. It’s quite magical. Locally people encourage and support us. Other customers now come from other towns. Actors such as Charlotte Gainsbourg (WoI Feb 2014) or Vincent Cassel will drop in out of the blue. There are loads of Michelin-starred chefs along the Basque coast. People are pretty switched on about food.’

Even so, the business is far from profitable a year after opening.

‘We have barely enough to pay Hugo, our only employee,’ says Aï.

‘As soon as we close in the evening I go upstairs to fulfil my contracts as a fashion designer or art consultant [notably for the Glenstone museum in Maryland], while Cédric goes off on another photo mission. We are aware of the contradiction in what we spend on aviation fuel… and the paradox of living two lives.’

In 1976 Agnès B opened her first boutique in a largely untouched former butcher’s shop in Rue du Jour in Paris. There were birds flying loose, a child’s swing, graffiti on the walls where staff pinned up newspaper cuttings about Che Guevara and posters about unknown painters. Today the company has 251 shops worldwide. While equally idealistic and talented, Aï and Cédric don’t want to grow. They want the business to retain its human scale; they have no website and do not sell by mail order.

Utopians or brave participants in a changing world? They are giving themselves a year to see how it goes $ Yaoya, 251 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 64210 Guéthary, France

Opposite: to the left topped with citrus of the counter, old fruits of all shapes and family photos sit in a sizes. The couple work niche flanked by indigo alongside their supplier batik napkins. This two days a week page: celeriac, Swiss so as to keep prices chard and carrots down and ‘stay in surround a bed frame touch with the seasons’

ALLIED POWERS In a shared endeavour with longtime associate Remo Lotano, architect Gisbert Pöppler has brought an instinctive colour sense to bear on his own Berlin flat, using it to ‘highlight threedimensional relationships’. His artist friend, meanwhile, has an eye for the city’s found objects, from a Sputnik light to armchairs of GDR bureaucrats. Michael Huey analyses their creative unification. Photography: Fritz von der Schulenburg

In the kitchen, the long travertine table with heavy brass legs came from the premises of a Berlin gents’ clothes shop, Selbach’s (now defunct). The chair is an orchestra conductor’s seat from the Berlin State Opera, an object unearthed in a skip

This page, clockwise from top left: the brass cupboard doors here are also from Selbach’s – they once enclosed a dressing room; the living-room rug is a re-edition of a Christian Bérard carpet, ‘Idylle’, by La Manufacture Cogolin; overlooking the dining table, found at Berlin’s Evangelical Academy, is a painting by Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke; made of one sheet of folded metal, Mario Bellini’s 1964 ‘Chiara’ floor lamp has been christened ‘the nun’. The limited-edition ‘GP01’ cupboard was designed by Pöppler. Opposite: the velvet armchairs once graced an early-1960s GDR office building for government high functionaries

IN A CITY of legendary – and legendarily brutal – divisions and sectors, German designer Gisbert Pöppler and his longtime American associate Remo Lotano have created an apartment where colour demarcates and separates and at the same time unifies the whole with exqui­ site refinement, ‘highlighting’, as Pöppler puts it, ‘three­ dimensional relationships’. The entrance hall, a Wedgwood blue, is darkest; to its left begins an enfilade of rooms laid out parallel to the hallway, at the end wrapping around it towards the kitchen and the bedroom beyond, their relat­ ed tones shifting subtly from warm blue to cool grey to greenish hues as they run its length, their ceilings in vary­ ing shades of pale yellow. Not far from the historical Check­ point Charlie, this corridor, with its putty­grey doorframes, offers perspective on to four distinct spaces that visually vibrate with it, each in its own unique way: it is as much a border – a viewing platform for differences and similarities – as it is a passageway. Here, as in colour­field painting, the colour itself becomes the subject.

Pöppler moved to Berlin from Bremen in 1989, some two months before what is referred to as the ‘opening of the East’. He settled into this apartment in the city’s former communist zone in 1995. At that time the c1890s building was missing its two top floors, Pöppler relied on coal stoves to heat the place (tending to them in the winter was ‘like having a dog’), and, as for temperature, the kitchen was extremely intransigent: from late November until March the chill so persisted that refrigeration became redundant.

(He unplugged the fridge and just left its door open dur­ ing that season, thus learning to embrace a novel three­ dimensional relationship with his icebox.)

Lotano originally intended to spend about four months in Berlin; more than a decade on, he is still in town. He grew up not far from Lynchburg, Virginia – a 20­minute drive from Appomattox, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant, bringing the American Civil War to an end – and only after some time in the city did he really become aware that part of what draws him to it might be termed ‘reunification issues’. He and Pöppler have now been working together for 13 years.

Pöppler’s colour sense is something I have written about before (WoI May 2008). It is a gift that, when it comes down to it, he prefers not to examine too closely (‘I would never want to give a colour seminar’): in building his dramaturgy of pigment he goes by intuition and experience, turning a blind eye to supposed rules. He seems to know that he can leave theory to others; colour speaks out all around him in his apartment, posing and answering its own questions, even when he sits there in complete silence. His associate, meanwhile, recounting his own ‘curious connection with the history of things’, reveals himself as the source for many of the found objects and fixtures in the place – the Sputnik light in the kitchen, for example, as well as the long traver­ tine table on emphatic brass legs, which came from Sel­ bach’s, a now­defunct men’s outfitter’s on Kurfürstendamm

Top: the library, with its low-slung chaises-longues and long pendant lamp, has double doors on three sides and windows on the fourth. Above: in this spare bedroom, the 1956 glass vitrine was once installed in the Schiesser underwear company on Kurfürstendamm. Opposite: on a 1920s Chinese rug, an export piece, sits a custom-painted ‘Chinotto’ armchair, designed by Luigi Caccia Dominioni in 1973 for Azucena. The colour-matched cupboard and bookshelves were designed by Pöppler

– as did the two brass-trimmed closet doors, originally used for dressing rooms.

Lotano says he is always picking up things he finds in the streets, sometimes combining them into assemblages: his Swiss Weapons of Minimal Destruction, which consists of a traditional webbing-seated wooden toboggan and an old bamboo-and-leather ski pole, stands in a corner of the main bedroom. Elsewhere, too, are velvet-covered armchairs from the Staatsratsgebäude, a GDR building for highranking officials whose interior décor Chancellor Helmut Kohl left unchanged in the early years after the ‘turnaround’ in 1989. Lotano continues: ‘I like to keep something from every project.’ To which Pöppler brightly responds: ‘And I love to throw things away.’ He adds, dryly, but not without warmth and gratitude: ‘Remo sometimes saves them.’ Above the kitchen sink with its custom-made brass fixtures hangs the better part of a repurposed farmhouse wardrobe, painted white. ‘I tried to sell it several times,’ Pöppler tells me, ‘but somehow it didn’t want to leave.’

Throughout the flat, scarcely one door handle matches another, and the differences between them, as one navigates it, create a visual and sensual history of the decorative arts from the late 1890s on. Similarly, the pulls on the Pöppler/Lotano-designed kitchen cupboards (in arsenic green) and library bookcases (in dusty rose) are meant to remind one to feel what one is touching. The oversized, unpainted, oiled wooden knobs of the latter’s cabinet doors contrast with the indentations in the upper drawers, designed to be opened with a come-hither tug of forefinger and middle finger; in the first case, the knob presents itself as a soft handful of something, in the second, inserting the fingers feels a little bit like one is giving the furniture a physical examination.

While a Chinese-export rug from the 1920s sets the tone in the library, in the living room this is done by a reedition Christian Bérard carpet – Bérard worked for the Ballets Russes and, in the 1930s, with Jean-Michel Frank – with a background of grey tending towards lavender and humming with colourful vegetal shapes that resemble Matisse’s cut-outs. Pöppler’s bedroom is anchored in another way: in each of its four corners hangs a different-yetsimilar light fixture with a coloured glass globe, each one determinedly holding its place like a mighty Allied power.

On one side, the windows of the apartment look out on to a ferocious prefabricated slab construction building from the still-recent Eastern bloc past in this quiet, somewhat forgotten corner of Kreuzberg. Pöppler admits that it was not his favourite thing in the beginning, but over time he has found a way of mentally integrating even this into his sophisticated interior world, mostly by seeing it for what it is: an assemblage of colour and shape that stands for itself and has something to contribute to the ongoing conversation of colour that is unfolding – sensually, sensitively – within his four walls $ Gisbert Pöppler. Ring 00 49 30 44 04 49 73, or visit gisbertpoeppler.com

Top: one of four light fixtures in the corners of the master bedroom hangs next to a stuffed Eurasian jay on a perch, given to Pöppler on his tenth birthday by his grandmother. Above: in the central hallway, the little sewing chest was found at the headquarters of the textile chain Ebbinghaus (now shut down) in Berlin, and in the distance can be seen ‘Paparazzo’ tripod lamps designed by Erik Hofstetter. Opposite: the floor piece, called Swiss Weapons of Minimal Destruction, is by Remo Lotano

This page: the Stazione has been extended several times since the first building of 1873. Like the frescoed music room upstairs, the aquarium (the oldest still in operation in the world) is part of the original building, and was meant to generate income from the paying public. Opposite: iron gates at the courtyard entrance are wrought with marine motifs – Neptunian tridents and octopuses

SE E NA PL E S A N D DI V E Marine biologists have since 1875 been washing up at the Stazione Zoologica in Campania’s capital. But in dreaming up a ‘station’ offering library and laboratory facilities to travelling scholars, the young Darwinist Anton Dohrn envisaged ‘a rare union between the arts and sciences’. That’s why, says Sophie Barling, he incorporated a music room and had his friends paint it with frescoes of bay life. Photography: Roland Beaufre

The first-floor music room looks out to the Bay of Naples, the views framed by frescoed scenes of figures in an orange grove. Before the construction of the Via Caracciolo in 1900, the building was located right on the water’s edge

Top: the main fresco on the east wall features (from left) Dohrn, Kleinenberg, Grant, Von Marées – the lead painter of these scenes – and Hildebrand at their regular evening haunt, a waterside osteria in Posillipo. Above left: Dohrn’s Fauna and Flora of t e Gulf of Naples featured high-quality illustrations by artist Comingio Merculiano (1890s), which are held in the station’s archives. Above right: an original watercolour of 1901 by Merculiano of Astrospartus mediterraneus, or the basket star. Opposite: a bronze bust of Darwin by Hildebrand

Top: this photograph from a field trip to Heligoland in 1865 shows Anton Dohrn standing on the far left and Ernst Haeckel on the far right.

Above left: a bust of Reinhard Dohrn, son of Anton and director of the Stazione from 1909 to 1915. Above right: Hildebrand’s trompel’oeil architectural framework is enlivened by marine creatures and putti. Opposite: on the north wall, steering a course towards Hildebrand’s bust of Karl Ernst von Baer, is Von Marées’s group of standing rowers. Many of his large-scale oil studies are held by German museums

EVEN IN our troubling era of diminished biodiver- study and paint frescoes’, as Dohrn reported to Marie. While

sity, the fish markets of Naples are a sight to behold. Along Via Pignasecca, or at Porta Nolana, great pools of shellfish look and sound like pebbles in the ocean as the mongers scoop them up with big plastic claws. Here are countless variations on what most of us would just call vongole: cocciole, lupini, maruzzielli, taratufi, mandorle, telline… the list goes on, and that’s just the clams.

Occasional arcs of water shoot from the basins; glossy black eels writhe; little sea snails wriggle. Life seethes in all directions.

It was this wealth of marine life that drew the young German zoologist Anton Dohrn to the Gulf of Naples in 1870. A Darwinist who had studied under Ernst Haeckel at the University of Jena, the enterprising Dohrn had had the idea for a ‘station’ where scientists – whether independent or attached to institutions – could arrive and find all they required for research, observations and experiments, before moving on to a similar set-up elsewhere. Dohrn’s Naples station would attract, he envisaged, ‘a family of scientists from all over the world’, with laboratories, a library and, to fund a full-time lab assistant, an aquarium for the paying public.

The Neapolitan authorities were won over not so much, it seems, by the idea of playing host to an international centre of research and scientific exchange, as by the elegance of Dohrn’s preliminary sketch for his zoological station (his initial inspiration for the façade was that of the city’s church of Santa Maria della Sapienza). In any case they gifted him a prime plot of land in the Villa Comunale, a former royal park on the very edge of the bay, only recently opened to the public after the unification of Italy. Dohrn – who had to fund the project himself, via wealthy family and friends – employed the services of a Neapolitan architect, Oscarre Capocci, and construction began in March 1872.

Anton Dohrn had grown up in an atmosphere sympathetic to Goethe’s philosophy of marrying art and science. His father was an entomologist with a passion for literature, his godfather Felix Mendelssohn. While the zoological station was still at the planning stage, Dohrn had written to his sister: ‘The house will be large and spacious, the external and internal plans are mine. For one, there will be a music room 10m long, 5.5m wide and tall, with two large doors that lead to a loggia 2.4m wide that surrounds the entire first floor and is supported by columns.’ By the summer of 1873, dimensions and details had changed, but Dohrn had his first-floor music room, with a series of south-facing french windows opening on to a veranda. And there, the water almost lapping at the building, was the bay, curving round to Vesuvius in the east, the island of Capri visible on the horizon.

While the rest of the building was completed, Dohrn commissioned two young German friends to decorate his music room. As he wrote to the father of his fiancée, Marie von Baranowska: ‘The arts have now finally made their entrance […] My friends Hildebrand and Von Marées, sculptor and painter, arrived the other day and shortly will transform the large room facing the sea into a studio. The Stazione will become more romantic and certainly will be a rare union between the arts and sciences.’ Adolf Hildebrand was an architect as well as a sculptor, and had already assisted with the building’s design. It had been Hans von Marées’s idea, meanwhile, to fresco the music room with scenes expressing, as he put it, ‘the fascination of life at sea and on shore’.

And this the two artists did over the next six months, ‘without pay, as friends, and because they are happy to have the chance to

Hildebrand painted the architectural framework and assisted in the making of cartoons for the main scenes, Von Marées seems to have painted the scenes themselves, working in giornate while the plaster remained wet. On the south wall, framing the views of the bay, figures in an orange grove work the land. On the north side, broken up by trompe-l’oeil statue niches, are marine scenes: weather-beaten rowers heaving on their oars in choppy waters; a distant sailboat passing a vertiginous, rocky island. The dramatic Campanian coastline dominates the west wall’s mural, its grottopitted cliffs towering over fishermen launching their vessel.

With its heroic, naked figures in a timeless Mediterranean setting, such scenes as this clearly nod to the tradition of mythological painting. But the particular charm of these murals lies in their deceptively personal nature. They are the record of a long summer a group of friends spent together, inspired by the surrounding area. The orange-grove frescoes represent several trips to Sorrento, where the artists made sketches of their friends among the trees. Visits to Pompeii, too, would have offered up material for Hildebrand’s classical friezes. Closer to hand was the city’s great archaeological museum, whose House of the Faun mosaic seems to have provided the model for a tragic mask in one painted garland on the south wall. On the east wall, Von Marées painted himself with Dohrn, Hildebrand, the zoologist Nicolaus Kleinenberg and the British writer Charles Grant at their favourite drinking spot in an old waterfront palazzo. It serves as a more formal counterpart to the picture Dohrn paints in another letter to Marie that summer: ‘I hardly do anything. I live only to eat, drink, swim, go out in the boat, play at bocce with the rest of the “café society” in the osteria in Queen Jeanne’s old palace [Palazzo Donn’Anna in Posillipo], where last time we ate oysters…’

The indolence Dohrn claims for himself must have been shortlived. For his zoological station opened officially in 1875, with outstanding infrastructure and equipment in place. Thanks to his links with Jena, where the optician Carl Zeiss was perfecting lenses for scientific instruments, the station had the most up-to-date microscopes of the time. In a ‘bench’ scheme anticipating our current trend for flexible co-working space, marine biologists – some of them women – could rent study tables at the station for an annual fee. At their disposal were not only laboratories, assistants and a library but also a dedicated fishing department equipped with the kit and local knowledge necessary for the gathering of specimens. The preservation methods of what was harvested at sea were also something the station came to excel at, thanks to the skills of a Neapolitan, Salvatore Lo Bianco, who was trained in house from the age of 14 (he was the son of Dohrn’s doorman).

Samples and collections preserved at the station were sold to institutions and individuals around the world, some of them serving as models for the glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.

Anton Dohrn’s legacy has been long-lasting. The Stazione Zoologica operates to this day as a biological research institute, and its aquarium, currently undergoing renovation, is the oldest in the world still in use. As for the fresco room, it was requisitioned as a library not long after completion. In recent years, however, it has occasionally been used as Dohrn originally intended – filled with the strains of Neapolitan chamber music, played by the delightfully named ‘Musicians of the Aquarium’ $ For more information, visit szn.it

Opposite: illustrations by Comingio Merculiano from Fauna and Flora of t e Gulf of Naples, one of several monographs and journals on the Stazione’s findings published by Dohrn. The floor tiles have a Greek-key design and a crackled effect that alludes to classical mosaic

GLAZING A TRAIL It’s not only in his distinguished career as an antique dealer, decorator and designer that Peter Twining has proved himself to be a bold maverick. With its expanses of tiled and mirrored surfaces, his 1930s flat in northwest London shows a fair bit of flouting – and grouting – too. In his last piece for WoI, Christopher Gibbs salutes the singular taste and pioneering spirit of a dear old friend. Photography: Ricardo Labougle

Opposite: the latticed mirrors offer teasing glimpses of rooms leading off the hall. The generously proportioned doors still have their original handles, though the corbelled shelf above one is a more recent addition – a handy perch for larger tomes from Peter Twining’s extensive library. This page: tiles from Olympus in east London even cover the ceiling of the kitchen, which houses just some of the owner’s collection of magazines

PICTURED HERE is the north London lair of Peter Twining, seasoned dealer, decorator, designer. It’s been his home for nearly 25 years, a small first-floor apartment in a building raised the year of his birth, back in the 1930s, with something of the vigour and boldness of that time echoed in his more recent creamy mouldings that frame and anchor the blue-tiled and mirrored surfaces that gleam around us. His challenge always is to keep pace with his continually expanding library, with its complete runs of The World of Interiors, FMR magazine and Connaissance des Arts and the mounds of books about history, architecture and the decorative arts that must be negotiated before sitting down on the low bolstered sofa that was inspired long ago, Peter informs us, by a drawing of the divan in Liotard’s Istanbul quarters.

There’s a whisper of the fanatic about this quiet, silver-haired old master. In the 60 years I’ve known him his zeal and thirst for knowledge of the world of museums, salerooms, collectors, creators and patrons have remained undimmed; likewise, his memory is still exacting, his passion inspiring and his surprise wide-eyed that so few fellow initiates share his detailed recollection of the appearance and adventures of paintings and furnishings spied decades ago in London, Paris or New York auctions. He doesn’t forget, and his grasp of 18th-century gossip and story remains also vivid and informative.

Peter is an Oxford boy, raised between the Cherwell and the Thames and schooled at St Edward’s. Military service took him to the East, opened his eyes to the Oriental vision that remains with him, although he has made no return visits. Back at Oxford he read law at Hertford, Evelyn Waugh’s college, and then for a twinkling moved on to Middle Temple. However, fascinated always by decoration, design, things beautifully made, he was soon buying and selling, almost immediately offering up glamorous, elegant juxtapositions of 16th-century portraits, William Kent consoles and great carpets from Oushak and Ghiordes.

Soon he had a shop in the King’s Road, well supported by George Sherlock, who went on to become a dealer whose taste and spirit are still mourned by many, and by Mrs Parry Jones, a charming silver-haired matron.

Later on he dealt from lofty apartments close to the park, trading in wonderful pieces, opening the eyes of many to unimagined marvels and conjunctions. These were the days when Christie’s and Sotheby’s had weekly sales, both of old-master paintings and the trappings of great country houses, which were being hard-pruned or toppled at the gallop. His bold judgment and knowledge of history made him a trailblazer among less brave, more conventional confrères. While music pulsed in raunchy late-night bars, he would describe wonders glimpsed or purchased, often with a witty garnish of his-

Top: Peter recalls a French interiors magazine telling readers in the 1960s not to neglect their ceilings. He has heeded that advice, in the sitting room and elsewhere, by adding panelling. Above: a portrait by Jean-Etienne Liotard, whose divan inspired the plump sofa. Opposite: the mirrored and latticed doors, which were made by joiner Thomas Bickerdike, are redolent of Chinese Chippendale. Like them, the rubber floor helps to reflect light

Turquoise – Peter’s favourite colour – is complemented by muted yellow in the bedroom. What was a walk-in cupboard is now an alcove, lit by a Moroccan lamp and guarded by a 19th-century Indian ebony chair, housing yet more magazines

torical gossip from Versailles or Sanssouci. He’s seen and read and reflected about so much.

He’s a dealer’s dealer, decorator’s decorator, obsessive, scholarly, inspired, and his tastes have changed naturally over these long years. It’s an aesthetic so purged and pared in the way he now lives that misty memories of former glories remain only in five Indian ebony chairs from the first half of the 19th century and what some of us think of as Peter’s signature: the garnish of metal vessels chiefly from India, bold forms that he has always used to enliven the horizon and evoke the colonial adventure – us and our Empire, as it were.

The lighting is subtle and varied and, once one’s lolling on Liotard’s sofa, a screen can descend from above and we are in movieland, soothing otherworldly refuge from humdrum getting and spending. He and we can forget the thousands of glorious objects, stalked, displayed, disposed of, and experience and share the universal dreamland.

The silvery sage of Willesden shows us that we can do without almost everything that we once held so dear. Less is more is the fine old cry. But hop on the bus to Pimlico Road and you’ll find Peter is still at work, as he has been for many years, with Lulu Lytle of Soane, designing with her lamps and basic furnishings and indeed still prowling around salerooms and the handful of dealers he admires and inspires. On Saturdays there is a

ritual visit to Portobello Road. Initiates know well his pattern – who he’ll visit and encourage, where tarry a while, often bearing newly acquired lotas, the water pots of India that are his signature. Then there’s a late breakfast or early lunch with old friends.

His rhythm is predictable, relished by the handful of connoisseur dealers who still just survive among the tides of modish garbage – and still he makes brave investments, usually in remarkable paintings of dogs or horses, sometimes repatriating from America for a London season until a new buyer can be found.

Long may he flourish.

His firmly held notion that where one lives and how it’s dressed should tell as little as possible about the passions of the proprietor is shared by few. Eschewing splendour and grandeur in favour of comfort and harmony is understandable, even acceptable as a standpoint. In the way he has arranged his warren of tiled and mirrored rooms, inscrutable, mysterious Mr T reveals surprisingly little of the enthusiasms that spur and spark him, but he needs scant encouragement to state his surprising case.

Still enjoying a wrangle about these mysteries and holding fast to opinions that others might question, he is stimulating if mildly deranging company, and the hub of a brave little band of incorrigible aesthetes. Long life and showers of brazen water pots to the Willesden Wonder! $

Top: two mid-19th-century Indian campaign chairs, bought from Westenholz, flank an ebony column candle-holder bearing a palm. Above: the ‘rusticated’ bedhead echoes the turquoise glazed tiles set into the door. Opposite: inspired by his wartime memories, Peter himself created the whitebox wall lights, which emit downward strips of light – evoking the Blitz in this Byzantine corner. Lulu Lytle of Soane had the chair made as a one-off gift

inspiration Some of the design effects in this issue, recreated by Grace McCloud

1 It’s possible that the mix of Italianate tiles

in the Tourbet el Bey made their way to Tunis in the pockets of pirates. To get the patchwork ef­ fect without the pillaging, raid Balineum’s ‘Ser­ ies S’ range. ‘Ponza I’ (left; from £11.35 each) and ‘Lampedusa Embellished’ (from £13.15 each) are the most like those on page 75. Ring 020 7431 9364, or visit balineum.co.uk.

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Got the hump because you haven’t found your dream sofa? Follow Christopher Hodsoll’s lead with a camel­back number (page 49). George Smith’s fixed­seat ‘Chippendale’ (from £5,055) would be a great match, not least if covered with green gaufrage; take a look at Tassinari & Chatel’s ‘Mansart 1681­01’ (£322 per m).

Ring George Smith on 020 7384 1004, or visit georgesmith.com. Ring Lelièvre on 020 7352 4798, or visit lelievreparis.com.

3 Hawk­eyed readers might have no­

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ticed that the ‘trellis’ on the wall of the loggia in Shropshire’s Morville Hall is, in fact, a wallpaper (page 58). One of Soane Britain’s, emerald ‘Espalier Square’ costs £380 per 10m roll. Ring 020 7730 6400, or visit soane.com.

4 The best things in life are three – look at the glass triple­gourd lamp in Morville Hall’s book room if you don’t agree (page 52). While you can’t fill Porta Romana’s large ‘Pasteur’ (£1,488 without shade) with rosebuds à la Hodsoll, the crackled texture lends an interest of its own.

Ring 01420 23005, or visit portaromana.com.

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nod to the Japanese heritage of this Guét­ hary grocer’s (page 80). If you like the look but haven’t got a break in Biarritz (or a jaunt to Japan) coming up, why not make your own with Pierre Frey’s indigo ‘Yuan Dye’ linen? It’s yours for £122.40 per m. Ring 020 7376 5599, or visit pierrefrey.com.

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6 Aï and Cédric Bihr’s cat

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cushion makes the sofa in their deli the purrfect place for shoppers to curl up on (page 76). Costing £100 approx from the Claska

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PHOTOGRAPHY: LIAM STEVENS (2 RIGHT, 5, 10)

5 The batik napkins on the wall of Yaoya

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hotel shop in Tokyo, it’s one of many animal designs by Tomotake, including bears and owls.

Ring 00 81 3 5773 9667, or visit claskashop.com.

7 Admiring the Sputnik-style chan-

delier in Gisbert Pöppler’s Berlin kitchen (page 85), we launched a mission to find something with a similar satellite-like look.

The winner of our space race? Rosie Li’s ‘Paloma’, $10,800 from Remains Lighting. Ring 020 3056 6547, or visit remains.com.

8 The German architect’s metal kettle is just

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our cup of tea (page 85). Yours too? Get a handle on this Korean makgeolli number. Made of golden anodised aluminium and available from Objects of Use, a two-litre version costs £39.

Ring 01865 241705, or visit objectsofuse.com.

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9 We had a whale of time exploring the myri-

ad marine illustrations in the Stazione Zoologica in Naples (page 90) – a perfect fusion of science and art. So too are Present Indicative’s prints of educational charts of sea life, which are available as wrapping paper (from £2.99) or posters (£3.99). Visit presentindicative.com.

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Candy’s simply dandy when it comes to stripes – just look at the curtain in a guestroom in Robert Jakob and David White’s Italian home (page 42). Fancy jumping on the bandwagon? Schumacher’s red ‘Andy Stripe’, £136.60 per m, will hit the sweet spot. Ring Turnell & Gigon on 020 7259 7280, or visit turnellandgigon.com.

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11 Green Italian splatterware brings a

touch of colour to the cool and calm interiors of the house in the Monti Aurunci (page 38). Traditional in Italy, such painterly pottery is also available from Montes & Clark; its bespattered platters cost £48 each. Ring 01747 228861, or visit montesandclark.co.uk.

12 A bright-red wicker chair forms part of the

artful interior arrangement of a studio in Robert Jakob and David White’s alpine abode (page 47).

Considering your own domestic compositions?

Culture Vulture’s ‘Casa’ armchair, £195, might be the fiery focal point you’re after. Ring 0333 240 6167, or visit culturevulturedirect.co.uk $

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Alpine shadows, strangers and neighbours, plus Charlotte Edwards’s listings

OPPOSITE: PRIVATE COLLECTION, SWITZERLAND. PHOTO: © FONDATION FELIX VALLOTTON, LAUSANNE. THIS PAGE, TOP LEFT: KUNSTMUSEUM BERN. HAHNLOSER/JAEGGLI FOUNDATION, VILLA FLORA, WINTERTHUR. © RETO PEDRINI, ZURICH. TOP RIGHT: MUSEE CANTONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS DE LAUSANNE. ACQUISITION, 1896. INV. 620. PHOTO: © NORA RUPP, MUSEE CANTONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS DE LAUSANNE

EXHIBITION

diary

Félix Vallotton: Painter of Disquiet ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS Piccadilly, London W1 ‘Like pulling down a curtain as slowly moving as one of his Swiss glaciers’ is how Gertrude Stein described Félix Vallotton painting a portrait, from the top of the canvas down. The image is shrewd, for although Vallotton left his native Lausanne for bohemian Paris aged 16, and later gained French citizenship, he remained fundamentally, temperamentally Swiss, his sober and often im­ placable vision reflecting his austere Protestant upbringing.

I first became aware of Vallotton when a friend sent me a post­ card showing a sea of upturned faces beneath a sort of serpentine meteor shower: this turned out to be Fireworks, one of his Expo­ sition Universelle woodcuts of 1900. Later I came across the painting Le Ballon (1899), a foreshortened picture of innocence (a child runs across a sunlit park after a red ball) and menace (shadows encroaching on a summery afternoon) seen as though from a window a long way up. Beyond this, there did not seem to be much Vallotton around, because the majority of his works are held in private and public collections in Switzerland: the artist ap­ pealed from the first to a Swiss sensibility, and to this day remains little known outside the land of his birth.

This is surely about to change, as the Royal Academy is staging the first exhibition of Vallotton’s paintings and prints in the UK since 1976. Organised thematically, the show will include 100 works illustrating this singular, disquieting artist’s career, works that range from portraits and nudes to landscapes and still lifes, as well as many distinctive woodcuts. A frequent illustrator for the innovative periodical La Revue Blanche, he produced, on soft pearwood, a record of contemporary street scenes, many of which, especially the anarchist uprisings he witnessed, anticipate the im­ mediacy of news photography. Black, heavily massed, dominates

in these prints, showing a new understanding of space, where fig­ ures dissolve into silhouettes and require deciphering.

Vallotton’s paintings are no less startling. The 1898 Le Bon Marché (Triptych) applies a traditional religious format to a com­ mercial subject – a fashionable department store. The White and the Black (1913) shows two women, tired prostitutes probably and possibly also lovers; one of them, white­skinned, reclines in the nude while the other, black­skinned and wearing a blue wrap, smokes a cigarette. It’s a dispassionate, emancipated and egalitar­ ian variation on Manet’s Olympia and Ingres’s Odalisque with Slave.

The artist is said to have wept in front of Ingres’s Turkish Bath, but other influences include Cranach, Holbein, Hodler and, for palette, plunging perspectives and subject matter – the fleeting contemporary – Japanese ukiyo-e prints. Vallotton’s art is voyeur­ istic: ambiguous domestic scenes are acted out in chiaroscuro, suggesting adultery and other sins amid an haut­bourgeois milieu that became his own after his marriage to a member of a prominent art­dealer family, Gabrielle Rodrigues­Henriques. The isolation pervading his airless interiors foreshadows Edward Hopper; the air of menace gestures towards Hitchcock.

Overall, Vallotton is distinguished by linear clarity allied with a Symbolist sensibility. His landscapes in particular, with their startling stillness and unearthly saturated colours, give a sense of suppressed narrative and, in the words of his biographer Julius Meier­Graefe, the sparest form for the greatest content. Conceptual avant la lettre, Vallotton wrote: ‘I dream of a painting free from any literal respect for nature.’ FELIX VALLOTTON: PAINTER OF DISQUIET runs 30 June­29 Sept, Mon­Thurs, Sat, Sun 10­6, Fri 10­10 $ MURIEL ZAGHA is a freelance writer and broadcaster on the visual arts

Opposite: Woman Searching Through a Cupboard (detail), 1901, oil on canvas, 78 × 40cm. This page, top left: The White and the Black, 1913, oil on canvas, 1.14 × 1.47m. Top right: Self-portrait at the Age of Twenty, 1885, oil on canvas, 70 × 55.2cm

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EXHIBITION

diary

TOP: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST. PHOTO: GUNNAR MEIER. BOTTOM: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Sol Calero: El Autobús TATE LIVERPOOL Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool This summer, Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock will harbour a little piece of paradise. For her first solo outing in a British museum, Berlin-based Venezuelan artist Sol Calero promises to transport visitors to a tropical destination where they can experience new sensations, enlivened by colour, music and the thrill of adventure.

Surrounded by a painted mural that combines abstract landscapes with exotic fruit and plants, they will be enticed into a buslike structure reminiscent of the ornamented vehicles that ferry people around in Latin America. The lure of faraway lands and life-changing experiences is the currency of the tourism industry; but not all those who travel do so for the sheer fun of it.

In 2016, Calero told the New York Times that ‘having left Venezuela for Spain when I was 17, my approach is always with the eye of an immigrant’. She works on an ambitious scale, often replicating architectures of commerce and convenience by fashioning visually stimulating versions of set-ups including cyber cafés, language schools and hair salons. These locations provide services to their users, but they also tend to operate as social hubs for immigrants. Casa de Cambio, 2016, a pastiche of a Venezuelan bureau de change, is decorated with dazzling wallpapers and tiled flooring, and furnished with artworks, palm trees and chairs upholstered in fabrics designed by Calero. The installation was created at a moment when the ongoing social and political turmoil in the artist’s home country was

reaching a crisis point. The Casa de Cambio sold limited editions of Calero’s drawings hidden in stacks of paper at wildly fluctuating prices, mirroring the volatility of the Venezuelan currency.

This engaging take on the problem of economic insecurity is typical of Calero’s work, which handles serious issues with intelligence and a remarkable lightness of touch.

For El Buen Vecino, 2015, Calero revisited President Roosevelt’s ‘Good Neighbor’ policy of 1933, intended to improve diplomatic relations between the USA and Latin America – and to enable Washington to capitalise on trade opportunities. Calero constructed a multicoloured Caribbean-style house in the yard of the Swiss arts space Salts, complete with a wooden porch, a favela-style roof of corrugated plastic and a makeshift swimming pool. She installed customised chairs and sculptures draped in multi-layered fabric flounces reminiscent of mambo skirts.

Visitors were invited to make themselves at home here, and perhaps meditate on ideas of neighbourliness, nationalism and identity.

In Liverpool, El Autobús will include a video composed of footage Calero shot on her travels, accompanied by an audio description of alluring destinations. No doubt it will transport visitors to a place that melds fantasy and reality, and that may just be too good to be true. SOL CALERO: EL AUTOBUS runs 14 June-10 Nov, Mon-Sun 10-5.50 $ ELLEN MARA DE WACHTER is the author of ‘Co-Art: Artists on Creative Collaboration’ (Phaidon)

Top: El Buen Vecino, 2015, installation view at Salts, Basel. Above: Solo Pintura, 2016

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EXHIBITION

diary 1 1 Crowd control – LS Lowry, An Open Space, 1965, at Crane Kalman.

2 Head for heights – Peruvian (Quechua) man wearing llamawool chullo, from Max Milligan’s book Realm of the Incas, 2001, at the Fashion & Textile Museum.

3 Shady character – Alexandre Calame, Forest Scene, Handeck, c1850, at John Mitchell.

LONDON

JOHN MITCHELL FINE PAINTINGS AVERY ROW, W1

ANNELY JUDA FINE ART DERING ST, W1 Until 6 July.

27 June-5 July. Mon-Fri 9.30-5.30. Fjord focus:

Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 11-5. Caro’s painted or rusted steel sculptures: on tabletops, on the floor, or threatening to slide from one to the other.

an array of Nordic and northern European landscapes, on view for London Art Week.

BERNARD JACOBSON DUKE ST, ST JAMES’S, SW1

Until 29 June. Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 11-2. Coinciding with the release of a new book and a ‘cardboard vérité’ movie, sculptor Bruce McLean is fêted with a two-part career retrospective.

His latest teetering vessels and jugs with Stoke potters 1882 (WoI Oct 2017) are also on show at Paul Smith in nearby Albemarle Street.

BRITISH MUSEUM GREAT RUSSELL ST, WC1 Until

21 July. Mon-Thurs, Sat, Sun 10-5.30, Fri 10-8.30.

Munch’s angsty art. See May issue. Until 4 Aug, Rembrandt prints and drawings. Until 26 Aug, be ‘manga-fied’ in a special photo booth in this survey of the Japanese comics industry.

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CARDI GALLERY GRAFTON ST, W1 Until 26 July.

Mon-Fri 10-6. Monumental sculptural instal-

lations in organic materials from Japan’s Mono-Ha (‘School of Things’) movement.

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4 Mellow yellow – Anthony Caro, Autumn Rhapsody, 2011-12, at Annely Juda. 5 Look sharp – LR Vandy, Porcupine, 2015, at October Gallery.

6 Floral haul – Bertha E. Jaques, Wreath Golden Rod, 1906, at Sarah Wheeler.

7 Dress to impress – Barbara Karinska and Natalia Goncharova, Le Coq dÕOr costume, 1937, at Tate Modern

Spidery ceramic sculptures cluster on shelves and walls in this potter’s house and studio, once owned by William de Morgan.

LONDON MITHRAEUM BLOOMBERG SPACE WALBROOK, EC4 Until 13 July. Tues-Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5.

In response to this gallery’s location directly above a third-century Roman temple, Claudia Wieser has made tiled thrones and benches, wooden vessels and collaged wallpaper that splices photographs of antique statuary with stills from the BBC’s I, Claudius.

MAYOR GALLERY CORK ST, W1 Until 26 July. Mon-

Fri 10-5.30. Geometric and grid paintings in

enamel by members of the Pécs Workshop, an experimental group of the 1960s and 70s named after the Hungarian city they lived in.

OCTOBER GALLERY OLD GLOUCESTER ST, WC1 Until

CRANE KALMAN GALLERY BROMPTON RD, SW3 14

29 June. Tues-Sat 12.30-5.30. Exploring trans-

June-27 July. Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-4. Paintings by

portation, migration and human cargoes, LR Vandy’s wall sculptures are made of modelboat hulls studded with fishing floats, porcupine quills or acupuncture needles.

the Modern British and international artists who have shown here over the years are reassembled to mark the gallery’s 70th anniversary and the centenary of its founder Andras Kalman. An enterprising Hungarian chemistry student, he first set up shop in a former air-raid shelter in Manchester, and took out an ad for it in the Guardian; when typesetters misread his scrawled ‘new gallery’ as ‘Crane Gallery’, an entirely silent partner was born.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART KENSINGTON GORE, SW1, HESTER RD, SW11 & LAMBETH HIGH ST, SE1 29 June-7

July (closed 3 July). Mon-Sun 12-6. Red alert: don’t

miss the annual graduate show across three locations, with the architects occupying a former fire-engine garage in Lambeth.

SARAH WHEELER GALLERY THE STUDIO, GLEBE PLACE,

DOMO BAAL JOHN ST, WC1 21 June-20 July. Thurs-

SW3 10-19 June. Mon-Fri 10-6, or ring 07932 735829

Sat 12-6. Artists Neil Gall and David Gates

for appointment. Early photographers’ ap-

curate a group show of ‘backyard sculpture’ (displayed in these elegant rooms, in fact, as well as out front and back) celebrating a handmade aesthetic; as they put it, ‘sculpture that might actually be junk alongside sculpture that is well made but looks like junk’.

proach to floral subjects ranged from the scientific to the lyrical, while in the 1920s Karl Blossfeldt vowed to honour the plant’s ‘totally artistic and architectural structure’. This show of vintage prints supplies a root-andbranch history of botanical photography.

FASHION & TEXTILE MUSEUM BERMONDSEY ST,

SIMON LEE GALLERY BERKELEY ST, W1 Until 13 July.

SE1 21 June-8 Sept. Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat 11-6, Thurs

Mon-Sat 10-6. The culmination of his long pre-

11-8, Sun 11-5. Macaw-feather tunics, a quipu knot record and a seventh-century fourcornered hat are highlights of a celebration of Peruvian textiles, costume and fibre art.

HAZLITT HOLLAND-HIBBERT BURY ST, ST JAMES’S,

occupation with the relationship between message and medium (his father was a signpainter), Mel Bochner’s new word paintings are splattered and smudged, making us question their confrontational phrases.

SW1 Until 12 July. Mon-Fri 10-6. Joint

TATE MODERN BANKSIDE, SE1 6 June-8 Sept. Mon-

venture: charting a pivotal decade in the art and lives of Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, this show unites his paintings with nine of her marble and alabaster sculptures, dating from 1930, the year they met, to 1939, when they left London to live in St Ives. 7 6

KATE BRAINE STUDIO CHEYNE ROW, SW3 27-30 June 10-4. 1-31 July, ring 07595 463015 for appointment.

Thurs, Sun 10-6, Fri, Sat 10-10.

Described by her partner Mikhail Larionov as inclining towards ‘everythingism’, Natalia Goncharova’s avantgarde practice embraced painting (on bodies too), printmaking and designs for theatre sets and costumes, as well as fashion.

EXHIBITION

diary

1 OUTSIDE LONDON BATH VICTORIA ART GALLERY Until 7 July. Mon-Sun

SALISBURY SALISBURY MUSEUM Until 29 Sept.

Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5. Fine lines: first shown

10.30-5. Nymphs and shepherds, come away: Poussin’s The Triumph of Pan (1636), on tour from the National Gallery, is surrounded here by works reflecting on the spa town’s Roman and Georgian heritage.

at Poole Museum last summer, this handsome Augustus John survey focuses on his work between the wars, and his talents as a draughtsman and portraitist in particular.

BIRMINGHAM EASTSIDE PROJECTS Until 27 July.

Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 11-4. Cold front: prints, birchbark baskets, glass art and ceramics from Nordic countries and inspired by their landscape, on loan from the British Museum.

Wed-Sat 12-5. Monster Chetwynd – the artist

formerly known as Spartacus and Marvin Gaye – devises a new spectacle of lo-fi sculpture and performance inspired by heavy metal, Birmingham’s greatest export.

BROUGHTON GARDEN GALLERY Until 6 July. Thurs-

Sat 11-5. Better out than in: a summer show celebrating 25 years of Rachel Bebb’s space for garden sculpture, ceramics, and engraving and lettering on stone, slate and glass.

CAMBRIDGE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM Until 4 Aug.

Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5. Groundbreaking pic-

torial posters designed by J&W Beggarstaff, aka brothers-in-law William Nicholson and James Pryde, whose commercial partnership also sheds light on their individual practices as painters. Until 12 Jan 2020, it’s a breeze: fans from the 600-piece Lennox Boyd Collection.

HENLEY-ON-THAMES RIVER & ROWING MUSEUM

Until 14 July. Mon-Sun 11-4. A river runs through

it: how William Morris was influenced by the Thames and its tributaries.

MALDON HAYLETTS GALLERY 15 June-13 July. Tues-

Sat 10-5. Michael Rothenstein’s avian prints.

MANCHESTER CFCCA Until 21 July. Tues-Sun 10-5.

Rage, an international collective formed under the aegis of artist Peter Kennard, explores censorship, surveillance and protest in the digital age in a film and sound installation based on footage of 1989: the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square protests – and the invention of the world wide web. Plus, He Xiangyu’s Lemon Project, an exploration of the significance of the colour yellow in 24 different countries.

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE LAING ART GALLERY 29 June-15 Sept. Mon-Sat 10-4.30. The thousands of

watercolours commissioned or painted by keen collectors and practitioners Victoria and Albert to document, in her words, ‘the excitement & the bustle we are living in’.

SHEFFIELD WESTON PARK MUSEUM Until 28 July.

WOLVERHAMPTON WIGHTWICK MANOR Until 24 Dec. Mon-Sun 12-4. Pre- the Pre-Raphaelites: a

new acquisition of 52 early drawings by the young Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Oct. Mon-Sat 10-6.30. This Franciscan monastery an hour’s ferry-ride from Dubrovnik hosts Renaissance gold and silver, tapestries and other treasures from the ThyssenBornemisza collection – begun in 1900 when rich-as-Croesus industrialist August Thyssen commissioned seven Rodin sculptures in a fit of enthusiasm at the Paris Exposition.

FRANCE PARIS LOUVRE Until 12 Aug. Mon, Thurs,

Sat, Sun 9-6, Wed, Fri 9-9.45. Relics of the Hittite

empire, including monumental sculptures from King Kapara’s palace at Tell Halaf, newly restored by Berlin’s Pergamon Museum.

SWEDEN STOCKHOLM NATIONALMUSEUM Until 21

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July. Tues, Wed, Fri-Sun 11-7, Thurs 11-9 (until 30 June); Tues, Wed, Sat, Sun 11-5, Thurs 11-9, Fri 11-7 (from 1 July). Martinus Rørbye’s crisply ren-

dered views through windows are the stars of a survey of Danish Golden Age painting.

USA EVANSTON BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART Until 21

July. Tues, Sat, Sun 10-5, Wed-Fri 10-8. A new picture of the Medieval world, with Africa at the centre, emerges from this fascinating study of trade routes across the Sahara.

NEW YORK COOPER-HEWITT Until 27 Oct. Mon-Fri,

Sun 10-6, Sat 10-9. Whizz through the nature-

themed design triennial to pore instead over the collection objects that the museum has assembled for historical context. This summer, there are displays of Japanese katagami stencils (made from mulberry bark treated with persimmon juice) and 18th-century French waistcoats festooned with flowers.

DIENST & DOTTER ANTIKVITETER Until 30

Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5. Drawing on European portrait traditions and meeting art history’s white, male gaze head on, Claudette Johnson paints sensual supersized portraits of black sitters that escape the confines of the canvas.

Aug. Mon-Fri 9-6. Hare today, gone

14 July. Mon-Sun 10-5.30. Mat’s entertainment: contemporary rug design. Plus, embroidered and appliquéd figurative vignettes by Primmy Chorley.

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CROATIA LOPUD OUR LADY OF THE CAVE Until 13

OXFORD MODERN ART OXFORD Until 8 Sept.

RUTHIN RUTHIN CRAFT CENTRE Until

1 Lay lady lay – Claudette Johnson, Reclining Figure, 2017, at Modern Art Oxford.

2 Overall effect – Augustus John, Lady Dorothea Head, c1932, in Salisbury.

3 Present company – James Roberts, Queen Victoria’s Birthday Table at Osborne House, 1861, in Newcastle upon Tyne.

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4 Winging it – Hittite orthostat relief, ninth century bc, in Paris. 5 Seeing red – the Beggarstaff Brothers, A Trip to Chinatown poster, 1895, in Cambridge.

6 Flower power – French embroidery sample, c1770, in New York. 7 Mane attraction – reliquary bust, Germany, 1350-70, in Lopud

tomorrow: spot sculptor Margit Brundin’s whimsical outsized leporids among the antiques.

THE FRICK Until 14 July. Tues-Sat

10-6, Sun 11-5. Spirits in the sky:

Tiepolo’s preparatory work for his ceiling frescoes of cavorting gods in the Palazzo Archinto, Milan, completely destroyed during World War II. Until 1 Sept, Whistler prints: a sweet 16 from a promised gift of 42 $ 7

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JOURNAL OF A SHOPFRONT RECORDER

SHOPS TILL THEY DROP

My wife and I came to Great Britain in 2014. Our home country, Venezuela, had become a dangerous place to live, with soaring crime rates, widespread protests and a shortage of basic goods.

Not the best place to raise a family. So off we went looking for pastures new. We arrived in Liverpool during the summer (the best time to avoid a shock to our tropical souls). With its grand Victorian architecture, the city looked totally different to anything that I was used to. Coming with fresh eyes, I admired not only the tourist draws like St George’s Hall and the Three Graces but also the more common buildings that locals don’t give a second glance to.

I started exploring, grabbing random buses and wandering around with my camera. This was my way of adapting to a new reality.

The first façades I captured were in the city centre. One, the Irish American Bar in Lime Street, caught my eye. The black-andwhite mock Tudor is not what you’d call beautiful, and its most distinctive feature was a mini-Statue of Liberty above the sign.

Frequented by American seamen during the Great War, the place was later allegedly visited by Jack Kerouac. Little did I know that it would be demolished within a year, along with other striking buildings nearby like the Futurist Cinema, despite heritage campaigners’ objections. Now a £39 million soulless modern development occupies this block. Some façades are less at risk. Take 102 High Street in Wavertree. Situated in a row of Grade II*-listed shops, it is Liverpool’s last-surviving Georgian bow-windowed shopfront. When I photographed it in 2015, it was a one-man wood-turning business called The Baluster. Now it is closed.

A book I discovered online, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York, by James and Karla Murray, inspired me to press on.

Liverpool, like New York, is suffering the effects of gentrification, so I made it my mission to document these places before they mutate or disappear altogether. Whenever I can take a break from

my work as a commercial photographer, I go to different areas and simply follow my gut instinct. The biggest source of frustration is parked cars. My only weapon is patience, and if they leave, sometimes I have just a few seconds to capture a façade before the next car arrives. Often, I just have to come back another day.

I’ve discovered true gems. The art supplier’s R. Jackson & Sons, which might as well be on Diagon Alley from Harry Potter, is one of them. On peeling black paint, its signage proudly displays: ‘Established in 1866’. Phil, the owner, told me that the business had been in his family since then. Past customers include Augustus John and Stuart Sutcliffe, one-time Beatles bassist. Its previous premises were bombed in the blitz of May 1941. Wandering around Lime Street Station, I found the cream-and-black front of Ma Egerton’s, a Victorian pub named after its longest-serving landlady, Dublin-born Mary Egerton. She and her family ran the pub – called The Eagle then – from the 1930s to the 60s. It was the very first establishment in Britain to use a cash register. Among its clientele have been many entertainers performing at the nearby Empire Theatre, from Judy Garland to Harry Houdini.

In April 2015, I decided to post my pictures on Instagram. So far, I’ve taken over 120 photos in different neighbourhoods: Old Swan, Wavertree, Aintree, Aigburth, Bootle, to name just a few.

The project has a resonance for both local people and nostalgic Liverpool expats. Sometimes I get messages like: ‘My father handpainted that sign’ or ‘My mum’s uncle owned that bar’. In May, my project was featured in the Guardian, then publications like Architectural Digest Russia and Jornal de Notícias in Portugal picked up the baton, and so it has now become international. My longterm goal is to publish a book. In the meantime, I’m keeping myself immersed in this journey of discovery and documentation $ Visit @liverpoolshopfronts or antoniofranco.net

ILLUSTRATION: JOHN GALL

DEVELOPERS ARE CHANGING THE FABRIC OF LIVERPOOL’S STREETS, AND ANTONIO FRANCO, A VENEZUELAN PHOTOGRAPHER, HAS MADE IT HIS MISSION TO DOCUMENT THE CITY’S HISTORIC RETAIL FACADES BEFORE THEY VANISH. SOMETIMES AN OUTSIDER SEES WHAT LOCALS MISS

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