Eric Gaskins Vol 12: Required Reading 2
Coffee table fare is just as rich and exciting as fiction and non-fiction literature. I like to be transported to another place and time whether it’s through the lens of a photographer, traveling to exotic places by way of homes or landscapes, through the eyes of a great artist, and by way of objects that are so beautiful and magical I find I cannot live without them. Coffee table books, first and foremost, are for your own enjoyment. They are also for the edification of your friends who are likely to look through them, as well, so choose them with both ideas in mind.
I’m CRAZY for a book on the greatest contemporary jeweler alive today, “Buccellati Timeless Art” published by the Moscow Kremlin Museums. It is the book that accompanied a museum exhibition that took place at the Kremlin in 2008-2009. I won’t say more except it is almost as beautiful a book as the actual jewels. You learn and train your eye as to what constitutes quality, craft and exceptional beauty in the art of jewelry design. Jewels, as you may know, are a passion of mine. I collect books on great designers of the past and present as well as volumes on gems and minerals.
I like my coffee table to be more than just well-dressed; I want it to teach me something about the things I love. Like relationships and people who fascinate, I want to know and understand them and not just admire their surfaces. These books on jewels say something about the culture and times we live in. Some are relatable to a simpler life and others are a window into the lives of monarchs and the wildly rich. It’s all interesting to me. A favorite of mine is “The Queens’ Jewels” by Assouline publishers. It is a dramatically photographed volume on design for the vast number of titled and royal women from the turn of the century to present. Many designer’s works are included that are quite surprising. It’s not all “rocks” but ingenious uses of precious metals and unorthodox materials. Imagine a tiara made of anodized steel (blackened) set with obliquely cut diamonds of varying sizes and shapes, more a modified helmet than delicate headpiece, and created by Cartier in the 20’s? It’s a favorite of mine because it’s insanely beautiful and light years ahead of its time.
Grand volumes on more exotic worlds have recently been published such as “Maharaja” an imprint of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and edited by Anna Jackson and Amin Jaffer. This glorious book shows us many sides of life in pre-colonial and colonial India and the lives of several Maharajahs and Maharanis. It is all about the splendor of the royal courts from the palaces, to the wealth of comforts and the way life was lived in this otherworldly environment designed to amuse the senses. It may have been India and hot as hell, but they made “life and comfort” an art form that money today can rarely replicate. It’s a magic carpet ride to Paradise, no round trip ticket required!
“Paris 1962 Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior The Early Collections” is a way to see where what we know as fashion today came from. It’s KILLER! While I’m on the subject of Yves Saint Laurent, there is an amazing, lush book that takes you on a private tour of his and his partner, Pierre Berge’s homes. When the auction of the century took place a year ago, where records were broken for art and objet d’art from there various homes, we were given a birdseye view of what true connoisseurship means. This book, “The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge” by Robert Murphy and Ivan Terestchenko is a crash course on the art of interior design. Their apartments in Paris, the Chateau Gabrielle in Normandy and their various homes in Marrakesh are all studies in maximalist and minimalist design. I never tire of looking at those rooms and marveling at the collections of paintings, furniture and objects that both men obsessively collected.
Fashion and photography are difficult to separate but they make up two very interestingly combined and separate worlds. “Avedon Fashion 1944-2000” published by Abrams shows us his genius in capturing the worlds of fashion, style and the people who were architects of contemporary culture in purely visual terms. This is not only an informative book, but also an absolutely elegant, gorgeous tome to gaze upon, thumb through or READ.
Other photographers that chronicled people, life and fashion have new books recently published that are very much worth having. “Lillian Bassman, Women”, is one such book. She is still working at the age of 93 and after years of painting became a friend and protégé’ of Dick Avedon and Irving Penn. She came to photography late but made up for lost time working for many great fashion magazines. Unlike many of the greats, she never quite took it seriously, which has everything to do with her desire to experiment and create her own aesthetic. This is a beautiful book filled with painterly images of women, beautiful clothes but most importantly, she’s captured that rare bird: Style. Look, study and LEARN.
There’s a true collector’s item that Hirshleifers has recently acquired that every coffee table of consequence should possess. The collection of photographs of Linda Eastman McCartney, the first wife of Paul and mother of Stella id a chronicle of so many things that made up her life and the family she nurtured and loved. It is a BIG BOOK that will take you down a road of familiar images and many intimate and private ones. Linda was a prolific photographer and chronicled the daily lives of her family and friends. This one comes under the category of an “Investment” at a cool $1k, but it’s signed by Sir Paul McCartney and is one of those books that define our culture, our place in time and it’s incredibly beautiful. Like you well-dressed closets, this book is essential to your well-dressed coffee table.
I could go on for days and keep you chained to your computer monitors but summer is here and the living should be easier. Hirshleifers has a great selection of books for your coffee table, library, and bedroom: wherever you enjoy curling up and getting lost. Life is so short. We should all do and see and read as much as we can. Experience can be found in the comfort of our own homes as well as out in wide-open world. I hope that this will give you all something to enjoy as you pass the time.
The best part of all is that they all give you something that will stay with you forever: KNOWLEDGE. For me, knowledge is one of the sexiest attributes a person can have. Why not have more than less. In this case, size does matter…. The more the merrier!
Eric Gaskins ….. The Emperors Old Clothes
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