Findings 44
On Italian masterworks, Ikebana scissors, and insisting on flowers
This month’s collection of Findings: the things we must share, that we insist must exist.
“You learn for yourself not for others, not to show off, not to put the other one down/ learning is your secret, it is all you have, it is the only thing you can call your own. nobody can take it away…” ― Louise Bourgeois
I. Intriguing Outings
A. In New York: The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli, at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, through 5/23
B. In Portland: David Hockney: Works from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, through 7/26
C. In Los Angeles: Jonas Wood at Gagosian Beverly Hills, through 4/25
D. In London:
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A South Kensington, opens 3/28
Tracy Emin: A Second Life at Tate Modern, through 8/31
Hurvin Anderson, retrospective at Tate Britain, through 8/21
II. Inventory of Vitality
A. To consider: “I must have flowers, always, and always,” wrote Claude Monet.
B. To listen: Artist Jennie C. Jones on the Time Sensitive podcast; David Byrne on the Fashion Neurosis podcast. (Also: our spring playlist, curated by Francisca Gonçalves)
C. To read: a well-timed new book from the brain of Rebecca Solnit.
D. To feel: “Love has never been a popular movement. And no one’s ever wanted, really, to be free. The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people. Otherwise, of course you can despair. Walk down the street of any city, any afternoon, and look around you. What you’ve got to remember is what you’re looking at is also you.” — James Baldwin
E. To support: The seventeenth in our forever series of quarterly auctions: two seats to our third annual Domaine de la Romanée-Conti dinner, to be held on Saturday, February 13, 2027, in our Barrel Hall in Amity, Oregon, with all proceeds donated directly to the Vera Institute of Justice.
III. A Magpie’s Finds
A. ‘Flora’ cabinet, Model No. 852, designed in 1937 and adorned with illustrations from Danish botanist Carl Hansen Ostenfeld’s Bilder ur Nordens Flora (1905). Ostenfeld served as the director of the Copenhagen Botanical Garden and taught botany at the University of Copenhagen. An avid explorer, Ostenfeld traveled outside of Denmark to explore flora and fauna in Iceland, Greenland, the British Isles, Ireland, and Australia.
B. Odes to Trimming:
Sakagen #281 Ikebana flower arrangement shears, via Underhill Bonsai
Georg Jensen grape shears, via eBay
Tang dynasty silver shears for embroidery or cutting paper, via The Met
Allex Phantom S420 Japanese scissors, ca 1970s, via eBay Japan
C. “The Sunflower Table Lamp by Zonca Voghera was produced in Italy… made of handblown, Meyer lemon-hued glass, the bright, delightful sunflower shape evokes visual intrigue and delight….When illuminated, the vessel emits a warm, tangerine glow.”
D. A database of archival conservation resources, including these pleasing boxes.