Paper

Jennifer Krauss
Untitled, 2000, 2000
abaca paper, Slinkys, rust
20 x 16 inches
collaborator: Paul Wong

I recently went to the Dieu Donné paper mill and artist workspace with my Christie's class. We viewed several works by artists that create works made both with and on handmade paper produced in the studio.

Paper is such a wonderfully tactile medium. I wanted to touch and nuzzle the sometimes gloriously thick and meaty and sometimes veil-like and gracefully thin sheets of handmade paper.

After the tour, we had a chance to create our own paper to take home. Dipping screens into soupy troughs of snowy cotton pulp, we pulled thick paper sheets out of the water. I could totally get into this.

Keeping with the paper-theme of the day, I arrived home to a package of custom letterpress stationary that I had ordered a few weeks back from Lunalux in Minneapolis. They do such a lovely job. Nice thick paper. So simple and such high quality.

Just in time for Valentines day.

Brassy.

I really love this pair of 1950's brass steamer trunks. I found them on the antique website, 1stdibs. I would use them as lovely little bedside tables. They have a nice "Out of Africa" feel to them.
I would put them on either side of the Ghost slipcovered bed by Paola Navone, available at The Conran Shop.

Nice.

Agnes Gund is too cool for school.

This fall, I moved to New York to study with Christie's. Their certificate program, Modern Art, Connoisseurship and the History of the Art Market, has taken me all over the city. We tour museums, galleries, artist's studios and my favorite; Agnes Gund's home on Park Avenue.

Agnes Gund is president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art and chairman of its International Council.

This notable philanthropist and collector of post-war art an impressive home and an even more impressive art collection: Mark Rothko in her living room, Jasper Johns above her Sofa and countless others tucked away in hallways and as quiet little shrines in offices and guest bedrooms. These are pieces that draw immense crowds at historically important museum shows. These very artworks are loaned out for exhibition all over the world.

This woman literally lives with some of the most important post-war contemporary works of art. She eats her cereal by a Lichtenstein, brushes her teeth near a Rauschenberg and shoos her pups away from the Wolfgang Laib work consisting of slabbed marble and graceful white rice piles in the front hallway.

This was one of those experiences that changes you. This woman has some serious art all wrapped up in a seriously spectacular apartment.

It felt spiritual.

Silly as it may be, with all that amazing art and exceptional design I felt really proud of humans. Even in the unnatural world, the man-made world, we are participating in the creation of beauty.

Mother Nature does not have a monopoly on beautiful design.

I realize this isn't news to most people, especially artists and designers, but it was a "moment" for me. A happy epiphany. Art is not just stuff. It's really, really beautiful stuff.



Read more about Gund's home here.

For the End of the Bed

Throw by Susan Shalom for Holly Hunt

I'm not one for a million boudoir pillows on a bed, but I do adore something at the foot.

It's been done a million times before, but for very good reason. An Hermes blanket at the foot of a bed looks so attractive.

There is also more affordable, but no less desirable, Hudson Bay Blanket. So cozy.

Small Packages

I have fallen in love with the MINOX DCC Leica M3 5MP Digital Camera.

It is tiny and beautiful. It is like a high quality European toy.

Just the thing for taking pictures in an inconspicuous manner. But on the other hand, I wouldn't mind getting caught with it. It's just so very handsome.