Off the Wall: Geometric

Intern at Large Karli Hendrickson just wrote me about a fantastic book she’s reading: “Off the Wall, Wonderful Wall Coverings of the Twentieth Century”  by Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker. In the second section of this book “Circles and Squares- Geometrics, Abstracts, Op Art, Minimalist Art” the book explains that geometric motifs were typical of the 1950’s. Post World War II, low-cost screen printing inspired the production of more experimental and avant-garde patterns. Also during this time, an upwelling of ranch homes in the growing suburbs inspired the wallpaper industry to create bold patterns wallpaper to accent and jazz up the simple, open, and modern design of these ranch houses. Textile designs at this time were also very bold and featured prisms, grids, doodles, and loops of geometric inspired design.

Fairey in Detail

Finally had a chance to see the Shepard Fairey mural on Houston & Bowery  and snapped these photos of the most wallpaper-like elements of the piece:

Fairey on Houston

Shepard Fairey just put his mark on the wall Keith Haring made famous, on Houston and Bowery.  Like Haring, Fairey covers surfaces with his signature style and activates spaces that were previously neutral, unnoticed, or forgotten.  But unlike Haring, Fairey’s work draws direct inspiration from traditional wallpaper– his oft used, repeating floral pattern looks like it came right out of a baroque living room.  By conjuring wallpaper right beside images that evoke posters, newspapers, stickers, and flags, Fairey creates the illusion of paper layers and toys with the idea of surface itself.

To me, Fairey’s mural on Houston highlights the perhaps obvious but nonetheless dramatic transformation that has happened to New York since Haring painted his mural on the same spot in 1982.  “The corner of Houston and Bowery was a desolate area to begin with,” Haring once recalled, “so we decided that we didn’t have to ask permission.  We thought that if we cleaned up the garbage then no one was going to ask us whether we had permission to paint it.”  How times have changed!

New York Magazine has a terrific slide show of the installation process.  I’m looking forward to seeing the show at Dietch.

[Images from Tom Slaughter]

Awesome Parents, Awesome Wallpapers

I was browsing one of my favorite websites, MyParentsWereAwesome.com and noticed some great vintage wallpapers. The website is so charming. I love the wallpaper shots!

William Morris

More eye candy from William Morris, wallpaper innovator for the ages.

Fabulous Fabrega

An amazing image of Miky Fabrega, one of the artists in Cavern’s Artist Edition Series, with a window display he designed for Life furniture store in Panama. Stunning!

Vintage Wallpapers from Better Homes and Gardens

Eye candy from my favorite design source, the Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Books from 1961 and 1975.  There’s something about these images that really grabs me.  Whether the room is spot on perfect, hilariously dated or even flat-out hideous, I can’t help but enjoy their unique visual attitude and charming vintage quality.  For better or worse, they always make me think, “I can’t believe people actually lived like this.”  Enjoy!

1961:

1975:

Shaw Mansion Wallpaper

From Intern at Large Karli Hendrickson:

The New London County Historical Society, located in the Shaw Mansion, is renovating the old servants quarters into an educational space. During these renovations, cool old wallpapers are being revealed. As they work on the walls, they are discovering layers of papers ranging from an original 1850’s paper to many reproduction papers from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. Executive Director Edward Baker gave me a tour of the rooms with the best wallpaper examples.

Awesome. Thanks Karli!

State of the Wallpaper, Wallpaper of the State

Watching the State of the Union last night, my eye kept going to the wallpaper!  I sent a research inquiry to the art and history division of the Capital — they have lots of information online about the stuatues, friezes, and paintings in the building, but I didn’t see anything about this pattern.  Will let you know what I find out.

[photos from nytimes.com]

Damien Hirst Wallpaper

Last month I posted about Damien Hirst’s work, and I just realized (via one of my favorite blogs, The Year in Pictures) that he has done wallpaper!  I don’t know how I missed it when I was at the Gagosian gallery shop; maybe it’s relatively recent.  In any case, talk about graphic wallpaper- wowzer.  The pattern seems perfect for a retail or public space; I can’t really imagine it in most home environments.  But it’s nice to see digitally printed wallpaper in a high-end context.  Well done Mr. Hirst!  (And thanks for taking the on-the-sly pictures, James!)