He painted those fighting peacocks — the just-plain-angry ones, not Waterston's gut-wrenching birds

"She chides him about that and says, 'You know, Jimmy, a gentleman's house isn't an exhibition' — meaning: Get out there and make some money and make some things that are going to sell," says Glazer. "And so, always listening to his mother — Whistler was kind of a Momma's boy — he did invite the press in to watch him work in the Peacock Room."

and the 2,000 pounds that Whistler wanted to be paid for it (about a quarter of a million dollars today)

"Whistler talks about being up on the scaffolding at 6 in the morning and not coming down until 9 at night," says Glazer. " 'I'm blind with sleep and blue peacock feathers,' he says."

The patron asked the artist to just make some modest adjustments in his new dining room. Glazer says Whistler put a few wavy dabs of gold paint here, some metal color there, "and everyone was very happy with that."

The most vivid, even yuck-making example is what Waterston's done to Whistler's two golden peacocks; in this remix, the birds aren't just fighting, they're eviscerating each other.

Waterston says. "It is so filled with excess and this incredible consumption, this insatiable consumption of the object and of aesthetics."

Here, Waterston says he wanted to show the volatility of beauty.

"There's a sense of danger," says Waterston. He seems cheerful and sweet, but don't be fooled: "My work absolutely has a perversity," he says. "There's always an underbelly to it."

The original room feels claustrophobic in its excess. The remix feels scary as if there's been an earthquake and another tremor is coming any minute.

which means "dirty money." This "Peacock Room Remix" looks as if a wrecking ball has been slammed into Whistler's work. The priceless Asian vases in the original are smashed — their shards litter the floor.

Sackler Museum of Asian Art

Whistler paints his wealthy patron as a golden peacock, at one end of the dining room. Nearby, another peacock — representing the "poor" artist. "They're actually in a face-off," Glazer says.

The Peacock Room is a gorgeous, gilded cage. "You have no sense whatsoever of the outside world," says Glazer. "It's a world in which art has completely overtaken life."

Even though it's a room, it's really a six-sided painting that you literally walk into. ... You have no sense whatsoever of the outside world. It's a world in which art has completely overtaken life

"Blue is my favorite color, and whenever I wear jewelry it's gold,"

Freer Gallery

Peacock Room

The Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery is an actual dining room from London, decorated by James McNeill Whistler in 1876. Its blue-green walls are covered with golden designs and painted peacocks. Gilded shelves hold priceless Asian ceramics. It's an expensive, lavish cocoon, rich in beauty with a dab of menace.

Filthy Lucre

nouveau-riche

But, for a great spell that peaked in the Peacock Room, he achieved a unity of avant-garde spirit and civil decorum which, like other abandoned experiments from the artistic laboratory of the late nineteenth century—now that modernism is defunct—newly excites.

Whistler missed the express train to modernism when he moved from Paris to London, in the eighteen-sixties, and set up as a bad-boy darling of high society—suing John Ruskin for a negative review, volleying zingers with Oscar Wilde, and, having taxed the Victorians’ scant indulgence of self-promoting upstarts, becoming a frequent laughingstock.

Oscar Wilde

Japanese aesthetics

French Impressionists

Sheer sensibility, innocent of scholarship, was Freer’s ideal, as it had been Whistler’s—a solvent for the exoticism of Eastern cultures as they challenged Western imaginations. In the room’s artificial but passionate paradise, East is West, and vice-versa, without the slightest whiff of either sentimentality or condescension.

Freer’s highly varied, largely age-worn authentic pots are better art than Leyland’s china, which was, for the most part, export ware from the Kangxi period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

He closed the room’s three sets of tall shutters, and painted them and the walls Prussian blue and resonant blue-greens, gilded the shelving, covered the neo-Gothic ribbed ceiling (nearly fourteen feet high) in overlapping petals of Dutch metal (brass oxidizing to green and gold), and filled every incidental surface with freehand abstract patterns and images of peacocks in gold and blue. The whole plainly anticipates Art Nouveau, but without that style’s rote longueurs. It realizes a synesthetic fusion of dazzling spectacle and intimate touch, evoking music and something like a subliminal, ambrosial perfume. Seeing the room as the reinstallation was being completed, with the shutters open, I got to gauge the impact when they were closed. It was like the onset of a deep bass chord out of Wagner. Illuminated by eight pendant ceiling fixtures (which I wish could be gaslights again, as they were in 1877), the room seemed at once to fall asleep and to come fully alert, vividly dreaming.

with walls covered in embossed and floral-patterned, bright-yellow leather

but his relationship with Whistler had ended in 1879—as had his marriage to Frances, perhaps partly owing to her at least emotional closeness to the artist. Further ancient gossip holds that Thomas Jeckyll was driven mad by Whistler’s overhaul of his design, but it seems that the architect’s mental illness was organic.

in a style that was notionally Oriental, to accommodate Leyland’s porcelains, and had hung, over the fireplace, his early Whistler painting of a celebrated beauty of the day, Christina Spartali, as “The Princess from the Land of Porcelain” (1864-65)

Symphony in Flesh Color and Pink

Leyland’s collection was long gone by then

Freer Gallery, a museum rich in Asian and Islamic art, in Washington, D.C.

“Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room,”

A mania for things Asian raged in England then, in concert with the aestheticist movement—a reaction, exalting unalloyed beauty, against the moralistic constraints of Victorian taste.

Frederick Leyland

James McNeill Whistler altered

James McNeill Whistler altered

Japanese philosophy/aesthetic

don’t let them crowd out your life — don’t prioritize aesthetic order over spontaneous afternoon delight on a newly upholstered sofa or having your geriatric neighbor cruise over for chocolate fondue.

Wabi-sabi should never be a rationalization to quit trying. But we all have to let some things go

There is more beauty associated with letting nature, and inevitable decay, take its course

That’s wabi-sabi — embracing the imperfect and the impermanence of nature... and life. I have a casual familiarity with this Japanese philosophy/aesthetic, but my takeaway is to enjoy the transience of everything. Perfection should never be a goal

A house is really only a stage for your life and the lives of your loved ones.

One of the reasons I always love rehabilitating “ruined” properties is because I will not obliterate the patina of age — I honor it and respect it as a reminder of what’s truly important

Generations that went through war and deprivation understand that what’s important is life, and not aesthetics

Getting everything to match and conform seamlessly to some ideal of perfection was never an option for me.

I never had to unlearn this style because I’ve never been fastidious, thank God. I’ve never let a warped floorboard ruin my life. My aesthetic yardstick is, and always has been, comfort. Who cares if the table tops are not quite true? If the scale of upholstered furniture is slightly off? If some turned table legs are cabriolet and others are claw and ball?

Earth’s bastion of hyper-personal grooming and size zeros cruising around with flutes of un-drunk champagne. The décor equivalent of this Angeleno would be a monochromatic white on white living room with blonde on blonde furnishings, everything lined up and relined up, all square, with cadres of cushions and pillows fluffed and dented, coffee table art books perfectly stacked into pyramids and never cracked. And walls mirrored to maximize the impact of perfection through infinity

If a room isn’t inviting, what’s the point? Nevertheless, people still chase those perfect rooms. (Be careful, because you can’t actually do it and it’s no fun if you can.)

“Perfect”

“drop” a glass of red wine onto the rug and then grind a little foie gras into the stain immediately, so that you can get it over with and start living.

more fear. Instead of waiting for wear and tear to happen naturally, throw something imperfect into the tableau so the wait’s over.

“Perfect” interior décor can be captivating in photographs, but underlying the flawless arrangement of drapery, wallpaper and furnishings is a palpable fear of anticipation

Visually perfect in every way,but ultimately inhospitable. No oxygen left in the composition for laughter or old people or anyone who doesn’t have perfect balance. No room for kids or dogs. No place to live.

Every now and then, a client will tell me how they want their home to look, and I cringe, because they’re describing a pristine museum-like set piece scenario.

By Kathryn M. Ireland

Wabi-Sabi

Self-checkout debuted in 1992, just a few years before the World Wide Web made online shopping widely accessible to everyone. Amazon and eBay, both launched in 1995, taught us to be even more self-sufficient shoppers—at this point, the two Internet giants offer everything you’d find at Wal-Mart and more. Other online retailers, like Zappos and ModCloth, focus on the kinds of fashion you’d find at department stores. Of course, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Nordstrom, Macy’s, JCPenney, Sears, and IKEA all offer robust selections online as well. In exchange for all this convenience, perhaps we’re less concerned making a mistake, by wasting our money ordering the wrong thing.

Eames shell chair

William Pahlmann

Eventually, malls became all about pleasure and replaced grocery stores with food courts, arcades, movie theaters, and specialized retail.

Initially, they would still expect those people to come into the city store on occasion. But by the ’60s, stores started to realize people weren’t coming in to downtown anymore; they were staying at their suburban locations. Those branches were outperforming the city stores. Sometimes companies even closed down the city stores.”

For example, Loewy employed a combination of incandescent and new fluorescent lighting, as well as spotlights, to emphasize particular items for sale. Wood says, “he created an atmosphere where people’s eyes would feel relaxed, and they could be directed towards certain products.”

“The Raymond Loewy plan wasn’t just about the aesthetics,” Wood says. “He did in-depth studies of how these department stores functioned including what managers and salespeople were doing. He’d basically present the store with a plan on the best way to run their business. He found that people wanted to be able to go into a store and not have to wait for help. They wanted to be able to see everything in stock. They wanted to be able to have it instantly, and that’s what would facilitate selling.”

most notably Jock Peters, who designed each department to reflect the emotional tone of the goods it offered. Because the experience of the design was such a priority, clothes and accessories were displayed in flat glass cases on rosewood stands or on live mannequins so that hanging racks wouldn’t interfere with the view.

A.T. Stewart

the department stores offered and displayed more, like the same purse in five colors. There was a new desire to let shoppers see and touch all the merchandise. Before this change, department stores would have everything behind the glass case, with just one sample out. You’d have to ask the salesgirl, ‘Hey, do you have any other colors?,’ and she would search the stockroom for you. The new stores would have had everything out so shoppers could walk around, see it all, and then choose something on their own and take it to the sales counter.”

Modular and movable, they could house stock within them and grow or shrink, depending on the merchandise that you wanted to display that season or that month.”

Victorian department store

Victorian department stores were not only sectioned off into myriad departments, they were also dark, crowded places, with merchandise stuffed in imposing glass cases and dense wood furniture

And Loewy’s plan wasn’t just about how shoppers experienced the space, but how the stores could more efficiently sell their merchandise.”

With the booming middle class and the introduction of credit cards, the shopping experience is much more about what you can have.”

Raymond Loewy

xBut 60 years ago, these same department stores, particularly the new branches installed in fledging suburban shopping malls, were the way to the future.

It seems that the 2008 recession and dominance of the Internet—where you can buy anything and everything with a few clicks

The once-vibrant shopping mall has one foot in the grave these days. About 20 percent of the 2,000 largest U.S. malls were failing in 2008, and by 2012, only 1,513 remained in operation. Current numbers predict more than 200 existing big malls will collapse in the next 10 years.

Sheila Levrant de Bretteville

my classroom is probably filled with 80% women. And yet when I go out into the world, or when you hear from business owners or from creative directors, it’s not the same percentage.

She names a few: oversights in the organization of jury panels, lack of female representation in anthologies and survey publications and a propagation of blogs reinforcing strict ideas of gender.

Almost every institution I’ve looked at, the women earned on average anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 less in the same positions [held by men]. So that inequality we experience generally out in the world is also reflected in education.

Denise Gonzales Crisp

Women in Graphic Design

young female designers could greatly benefit from a change in the exposure and representation of women in graphic design. “I know from the classroom that student designers are thirsty for diverse insights on design methodologies, outcomes, and advice on how to create a strong life and work balance,” Horne explains. “I’d like to see females become more confident in publishing their process, ideas, and experiences. I see this as a continuity of tradition that we have inherited from the artists and designers who fought hard for us to sit at the table

For far too long, history has either marginalised or excluded many women from being entered into the design history books and as a result, the design canon. Whilst acknowledging that over the last decade such gender concerns have begun to be readdressed by historians, educators and the design profession at large, much more can still be done

In the US, some 70% of design students are female, yet their education is scattered with gaps.

Why does design history still teach about male designers 80% more than women designers? Why do we have 80 % women in the student body (in our [RISD] department) and 80% men in the faculty?

Lucinda Hitchcock is

Design history has long overlooked women in our narrative, despite continuously having a large group of women active in the field of graphic design over the past century

There is a line of forgotten women in our history. I argue that sexism is somewhat less obvious in our workplace today, far subtler than it might have been in the 1950s and 60s, but perhaps we still accept some mores of old, underlying currents that flow through our design culture, much like that lecture in 2011.

sinister pressures of socially-accepted sexism and segregation discouraging, or even disqualifying, the career ambitions of capable women.

In a basic sense, women’s careers have rarely followed the same path of men’s, since there has historically been immense pressure placed on women to be solely homemakers and nurture families (s

In the design field, many women may have been assistants or “office girls” and so few held the top titles, such as art director or creative director.

Forty or fifty years ago, the workforce was overwhelmingly a man’s world. In the design field, many women may have been assistants or “office girls” and so few held the top titles, such as art director or creative director. In a basic sense, women’s careers have rarely followed the same path of men’s, since there has historically been immense pressure placed on women to be solely homemakers and nurture families (see: Beyond The Glass Ceiling: an open discussion, Astrid Stavro, Elephant #6) with more sinister pressures of socially-accepted sexism and segregation discouraging, or even disqualifying, the career ambitions of capable women.

three hundred and twenty-three independent designers listed — twenty-two women. In the history of graphic design, my classmates and I were learning about just twenty-two women. That was only 6% of the overall canon. Surely this was a mistake.

Tori Hinn, of Women of Graphic Design

Combining new transportation methods that encourage the principles of a healthy life style with traditional roads can raise land values, attract investment and activate the urban environment

Active transportation routes and linear parks, on the other hand, regenerate their surroundings, bringing activity and value to blighted sections of the city. They also radically alter the political situation for the suburb and its inevitable commute. Of course, the creation of these green networks need not be at the expense of the motorist. On the 10th July London’s Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy launched a study for London that envisaged burying sections of the North and South Circular ring roads, and stretches of road close to the Thames. The initiative would create linear parks overhead, much as the Big Dig did for Boston

“Park + Jog” was treated as a curiosity; we still describe it as a “ utopian scheme.” But nowadays, it seems less and less fanciful.

Fietsenstalling,

Imagine that the Boris Bike docking stations outside railway stations and in key public spaces might incorporate general cycle parking.

Imagine: whilst it may not be possible to ban the car outright, it ought to be possible to keep HGVs and delivery vans out during the day, when their impact on the physical environment and the safety of pedestrians and cyclists is most evident.

This monumental feat of engineering offers us the best precedent for the impact the bicycle might have on London or any city for that matter. Cycling offers us, for the first time in more than a century and a half, the chance to build an infrastructure that will bring with it significant public health improvements. In our auto-centric world, we have unprecedented levels of health problems - obesity, diabetes, etc - all associated with our sedentary lifestyles. Cycling should mean a fitter population and a longer life expectancy, which would take pressure off the National Health Service and bring huge economic benefits. It would of course also reduce energy consumption.

For much of its history London had been associated with poor living conditions and disease. By the late 1850s the scale of the city was making things worse: London’s sewage was deposited into the River Thames, out of which the city’s drinking water was being collected.

An Act of Parliament was passed that introduced building inspectors to ensure that buildings be built from brick and not timber (a law which predated the fire, but that hadn’t been enforced)

the Great Fire of 1666.

Towards the end of my trip, it occurred to me that this explosion in cycling, ought to be put into an historic context, in order to enable the politicians and the public to recognize the scale of the opportunity, the change it might bring to our cities and our lives. Save this picture!

. Indianapolis had recently completed their “Cultural Trail,”

Indianapolis had recently completed their “Cultural Trail,”

When we were in Chicago at the end of June, the city launched its own bike share scheme

city-cycling culture and the political initiatives that are emerging in the US.

I believe so. I believe that cycling might just be the catalyst for a 21st Century urban renaissance.

Wikipedia reports that there are 535 cycle-share schemes in 49 countries, employing more than half a million bikes worldwide.

“Boris Bike” - London’s cycle hire scheme,

There are now more than 8,000 Boris Bikes and 550+ docking stations in Central London. And the trend’s not anomalous to London: Wikipedia reports that there are 535 cycle-share schemes in 49 countries, employing more than half a million bikes worldwide.