everyday wonders

Yesterday, somehow, I happened upon a citation for Everyday wonders: Luigi Caccia Dominioni and Milano: the Corso Italia complex, the catalog for a show at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. His name is most enjoyable to say and the buildings he designed are also pretty special. The catalog is particularly focused on the 1957-1961 mixed-use (commercial and residential) complex he designed on the Corso Italia in Milan. I stupidly missed it, or perhaps vaguely missed it, when I was walking up the Corso last year.

https://blog.urbanfile.org/2016/11/18/milano-luigi-caccia-dominioni/

I didn't realize I was supposed to be looking across the Corso as I walked up to find the 1951-1956 mixed-use (offices and apartments) building designed by Luigi Moretti, a block or so further into the center of town.

Note that the Torre Velasca is peeking over the upturned roofline at the left. My t-shirt with the Torre Velasca is just another everyday wonder. Its caption is "Milano loves design."

All of this was coursing through my brain (and heart) as I walked the loop this morning and "everyday" reminded me of Vija Celmins who did many sculptures of ordinary objects, natural and manmade, in her early career. She shifted to drawings later and there is a retrospective on at the Met Breuer now. Ends soon; I'll probably miss it ... but I didn't miss this pencil at a 2010 show at the Brooklyn Museum of women in pop art.

It's about three feet long. She also did some wonderful painted bronze "stones" which are displayed with the original natural objects. I enjoyed the review by Cigdem Asatekin of the Celmins show, entitled "Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory at The Met Breuer." I don't know: does "fixing the image in memory" play well with "everyday wonders"? Sure, as long as you leave space for tomorrow's wonders.

all things pencil

When I was at the Amon Carter, archivist Paula Stewart and I loved exchanging pencils from our travels. She had picked up the habit from the photography department where she worked before her years as archivist. My pencil-philia extends to sharpeners, erasers, pens, and other related objects. Even art ....

Vija Celmins

Pencil, 1966

(on view at Brooklyn Museum)

or cartoons ....

Hankin, in The New Yorker, May 27, 2014

And of course everything relates back to cataloging. When I was checking for the title of the Vija Celmins work which I saw at the Brooklyn Museum several years ago, I happened on an article that also included her Flying Fortress. Wouldn't you know that yesterday I submitted a SACO proposal for "Fighter planes in art" for the Erik van der Weijde book I was doing for MoMA.