ARTES

The impressionists were forever inspired by the sea, which Claude Monet considered “a wonderful teacher for landscape artists.” The movement’s penchant for plein air painting and its characteristic style, with delicate brushstrokes and incomparable color palettes, was perfectly suited to portrayals of the sea and its perpetual movement, from gently rippling waves to raging storms.

De Castellane turns her eyes to the gorgeous garden of her own private residence in the French countryside to offer insight into how she makes nature her muse. From delicate spring blossoms to vibrant summer bouquets starring on sun-kissed tables, autumnal herbariums, and enchanting winter fetes, each chapter is about a color of her favorite flowers and is complete with informative captions and texts uncovering her tips for living and entertaining à la française. De Castellane offers her recipes for bouquets and perfect tablescaping with examples from her own house: readers discover the journey of a flower from the garden to the tabletop. This book is a must-have guide on how to imbue every day with flair, beauty, and joie de vivre.

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar Kaufmann Sr., his wife, Liliane Kaufmann, and their son, Edgar Kaufmann jr., Fallingwater is lauded for its architectural daring and drama. Here the Kaufmanns sought to live in harmony with the natural world. The rooms of the house reflect this ideal and remain suffused with a natural aesthetic that embraces stone and wood, handwork and craftsmanship. In the living room, the great stone floor flows riverlike toward the horizon of Wright–designed built-in sofas and large-paned casement windows, where views open to balconies, to forest, and to cascading falls. From here “the hatch” opens to the flowing stream below. Pools and the waters of Bear Run were beautiful and for swimming. Relaxed elegance was the order of the day. Delicacy, softness, tactility are everywhere in evidence.

Whether it's cocktails at the Carlyle, taking in a show at Lincoln Center, traveling via subway, or flying out of LaGuardia's venerable Marine Air Terminal, uptown to downtown to the outer boroughs, the art created for the walls of New York City's bars, hotels, offices, government buildings, and schools have themselves created the identities of the rooms they live in. Murals of New York City was the first book to curate more than thirty of the most important, influential, and impressive murals found within all five boroughs. Full-color images of works such as Paul Helleu's Mural of the Stars on Grand Central Terminal's ceiling, Robert Crowl's Dancers at the Bar at Lincoln Center, Edward Laning's New York Public Library McGraw Rotunda, José Maria Sert and Frank Brangwyn's Rockefeller Center murals, and work by artists such as Marc Chagall, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Maxfield Parrish, and more are accompanied by informative and historical commentary.

In the early 1960s a reawakening was happening on Nantucket. Into this world stepped Andy Oates and Bill Euler, one skilled in fine arts and the other in the art of hospitality. In 1968 they opened Nantucket Looms, which specialized in needlepoint, crewelwork, handwoven fabrics, and local artwork, forging their Nantucket style aesthetic. This modest homespun charm held great appeal to such style makers as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Bunny Mellon, and interior designer Billy Baldwin.

Schestowitz is a strong believer that a home should create a sense of belonging and togetherness. Growing up, she developed an appreciation for harmonizing diverse styles, placing a modern stainless steel island by an old dining area, an African dresser next to an Eames chair. Schestowitz is not a follower of design guidelines; she believes in an intuitive harmony of space, color, and light. The spaces she creates are infused with travel collectibles, art acquisitions, family pieces, and historical patterns. The rich palettes and bold patterns create spaces that feel naturally inviting and intimate, a result of her long-standing exploration of Mediterranean style.

With an in-depth knowledge of periods and styles, Watson is known for his meticulously researched designs. His rooms always make architectural sense and his work is often inspired by collaborations with architects. Watson strives to uncover and recognize the special qualities found in historic structures and furnishings, and to preserve them while moving them forward into the present. Watson’s interiors are noted for their calm and lightness of being, which he achieves through a gracious sense of proportion and a harmonious continuity via subtle repetitions in color, pattern, material, and silhouette.

Ottavi enjoyed a rare degree of open and candid access to Lagerfeld in his later years, and this biography offers an unparalleled look into the iconic designer’s complex personality and wide-ranging creativity. Lagerfeld himself wanted this to be a frank, honest, serious account that would be an invaluable resource for fashion lovers and admirers of his incomparable legacy. Unlike other recent books, this intimate portrait deftly reveals his true inner nature in his own words.

Much more than a resort destination, Palm Springs has served as a laboratory of the Modern; here so much architectural innovation and design took form. From the steel-and-glass boxes of Richard Neutra to the earthy organic homes of John Lautner, and everything in between, the solutions of architects and designers—including notably William F. Cody, E. Stewart Williams, and Albert Frey were diverse and are ever more relevant in the face of contemporary challenges. Their answers addressed questions that still hold urgency: How to design sustainably in harsh climates? How to use technology efficiently and creatively to meet those challenges? How to build affordable and high-quality mass-produced housing? How to reflect a region’s culture, economy, and distinctive atmosphere?

New York City, arguably the world’s Art Deco capital, is well known for its striking and still iconic towers that were early expressions of the style writ large most famously the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, both of which still speak so eloquently of the future and the machine age that continues to move us all forward. Art Deco is drawn in steel, in tile, in brass, in bronze, and in stone upon great buildings and small and in the details, as so engagingly shown here. The reader is brought, for example, into the extraordinary Fred F. French Building at 551 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a treasure house of the form whose ornate lobby is a wonder of sparkling seduction in all directions: racing above is a fan palm and fleur de lis decorated architrave, and golden Assyrian equestrian archers on a field of onyx take aim while stunning chandeliers set with crystal feathers and bronze shoot out their own thin arrows of illumination.