May 26 2012
∞
Michael Ayrton
Siren.1963
Bronze
Conceived in 1963 and cast in an edition of 9
9 1/2 x 4 x 2 1/2 ins
+
∞
Maze Player, 1965
Michael Ayrton
+
∞
Figures on a Wharf by English artist Michael Ayrton (1921-75)
+
∞
A unique 18-carat-gold bracelet in the form of two acrobats. Designed by the U.K. artist Michael Ayrton in 1960, it was formerly owned by Elizabeth Taylor.
+
∞
“When Michael Ayrton, the painter, and the goldsmith, John Donald, succeeded in reproducing the legendary golden honey-comb of Dedalus, they were asserting a truth about the past which was new to many people. Most of us are inclined, when we come face to face with one of those great examples of the art of the goldsmith, wrought in ancient times, to wonder how such things could possible have been accomplished by primitive smiths, using primitive tools and labouring in primitive workshops. Those who challenged Michael Ayrton’s statement in his biography of Dedalus, that a golden honeycomb ‘was a far less miraculous achievement to a metal worker than to an historian’, were guilty of just this sort of misapprehension. They were completely underestimating the inherited skills, resourcefulness and technological know-how, of the ancient craftsmen, in particular, the goldsmiths.”
—Kenneth Blakemore
May 23 2012
∞
12 More Duets
+
∞
Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall photographed by Ron Galella, 1983
May 21 2012
∞
“ One the one hand, experience had taught me that situations of crisis appear more dire and dangerous from a distance than they do up close. Our imaginations hungrily and greedily absorb every tiny bit of sensational news, the slightest portent of peril, the faintest whiff of gunpowder, and instantly inflate these signs to monstrous, paralyzing proportions. On the other hand, however, I also knew something about those moments when calm, deep waters begin to churn and bubble into general chaos, confusion, frantic anarchy. During social explosions, it is easy to perish by accident, because someone didn’t hear something fully or didn’t notice something in time. On such days, the accidental is king; it becomes history’s true determinant and master.
— Ryszard Kapuściński, The Shadow of the Sun
May 09 2012
∞
Peter Fischli & David Weiss, The Way Things Go (1987)
RIP David Weiss, 1946-2012
May 08 2012
∞
Guillermo Kuitca, Heaven, 1992, mixed media on mattress, 74×75 x 4 ½”.
