American artist Cy Twombly made the kind of art that celebrates what it is to be an artist, with wild scribbles, streaks and swipes applied with a raw and primal energy. Twombly made his name during the 1950s as a leading member of the second-wave Abstract Expressionist school, alongside Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler and Robert…
All posts by Rosie Lesso
In 1933, an art school like no other was founded near the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina: its name was Black Mountain College. While the experimental and progressive art school only lasted for 24 years, its legacy has survived far longer. Black Mountain modelled a new, open-ended and unstructured way to teach liberal arts,…
Cold, luminescent shades of silvery grey like PERFECTLY PALE ripple through British painter Paul Nash’s surrealist art, creating the ethereal atmosphere of a dream. Nash was one of a generation of English artists who brought European ideas around Cubism and Surrealism into Britain during the 1930s and 1940s, but Nash interpreted European styles of art…
From remnants of antique rugs to recycled denim and swatches of old cashmere, Uruguayan-American designer Gabriela Hearst demonstrates how high-end fashion can be made in the most sustainable and ecologically aware way. Along with her eponymous fashion house, Hearst is also creative director of the established fashion house Chloe, and in both ventures, Hearst wants…
Jenny Saville’s raw and physically direct paintings are all about the true reality of human bodies. Flesh is her primary subject, and she paints it creasing, flopping, squishing and folding over itself in a way that is all too familiar to anyone who has given birth, or experienced the visceral process of raising young children….
Bright, hot pinks like BOUGAINVILLEA burst forth from the abstract art of post-war British artist Patrick Heron, illuminating space with the radiance of summer flowers. A true colourist, Heron dedicated much of his life to the exploration of how one tone could bounce of another, and create sonorous or discordant sensations. His compositions and colour…
Vincent van Gogh was one of the greatest colourists of the 19th century, and his legacy lives on today. While he painted from life, his colours were heightened, elevated versions of reality, bristling with the anticipation and excitement he felt while observing the minutiae of the world around him. BASILE’s pale, fresh and minty green…
American fashion designer Mara Hoffman launched her eponymous brand in 2000, showcasing loose, easy-wear dresses, one-piece swimwear and trouser suits emblazoned with bold colours and wild, Matisse-like prints. Fifteen years later, her brand had become an international hit, with offices spread across the globe. But by now Hoffman was painfully aware of how wasteful and…
BEET RED Linen’s deep crimson burrows through Joan Mitchell’s paintings like the roots of an ancient tree, twisting and turning with a live, pulsating energy. Leader in the second generation of Abstract Expressionists throughout the 1950s, Mitchell pioneered a daring and adventurous approach to painting, allowing wild tangles of paint to become dense networks of…
Personal relationships were integral to the pioneering 20th century sculptor Louise Bourgeois, so perhaps it is no surprise that themes of motherhood crept into many of her most famous works of art. Whether addressing her relationship with her own mother, who died when the artist was 21, or her own shifting role as she herself…
FRENCH LILAC is soft, delicate and mysterious, conveying foggy skies or pale shadows flickering on the surface of water. Artists over the years have introduced this subtle, enigmatic colour into their art to bring in layers of poetic meaning, or even just a hint of tart freshness. Three very different artists who demonstrate the potent,…
Cold, calm and fresh, HEDGE GREEN is the colour of fresh summer herbs or sprinkled sunlight catching the tops of trees. Its soft, hazy undertones make this colour a surprisingly versatile choice that can be worked into a range of colour pathways. Next to vivid bright hues it is as cool and fresh as a…
Light, airy and weightless, Korean-born contemporary artist Do Ho Suh’s ephemeral architectural constructs are made from great swathes of sheer fabric and thread. He reconstructs the many different places he has lived around the world, recreating distinctive features, rooms and even staircases of places he has passed through during his nomadic life. Do Ho calls…
American quilts, Japanese kimonos, French linen and African strip-weave: these are just a handful of the vintage sourced fabrics that are gathered and upcycled by menswear designer Emily Adams Bode for her eponymous menswear brand Bode. This radical American designer is one of a generation who are transforming the face of the fast-paced fashion industry…
Cool and dark with just a hint of green, BLUE APATITE is a mysterious, naturalistic colour that has dominated some of the most famous artworks in the world. We particularly see this teal blue crop up in the art of many modernist artists, from the Impressionists to the Fauvists and the Abstract Expressionists. More often…
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