The Importance of Preserving Artists’ Studios and Some of the Most Beautiful There Are
Everyone should have a room of one’s own in which to create, declared Virginia Woolf. These are some of most inspiring rooms.
Mental privacy or windows on the garden, the arrangement of a desk or the smell of dried paint on the surface of a canvas: by “snooping” in artists’ studios we learn not only the obvious –that which is revealed through space and things – but the very process of learning is different, perhaps stronger, and definitely more sensual. For this and still other reasons it is essential to preserve the studios of artists, or at least to re-create them, as they serve as a strong source of inspiration unlike any other.
––Georgia O’Keefe’s studio – Abiquiu, New Mexico
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year visit the studios of Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe and Frank Lloyd Wright because what awaits them there is a visceral experience where the full body can be projected into the space and circumstance. They may, for this time, and even later in memory, become the artist, or the hypothetical artist they form not merely with information but with all the senses. Visiting the studio of an artist, one can imagine and even feel the joys and difficulties of working in that space, and experience the “theatricality” of all of its elements.
As Wanda M. Corn points out in a recent article about the homes and studios of artists, “Some artists’ homes – especially those with personal effects – can offer aesthetic and emotional pleasures of the same magnitude as paintings and sculptures.” Here we share some of the most beautiful studios of renowned artists as an invitation to meet them in person or to feel, albeit virtually, the call to create your own space for creativity. Because, as Virginia Woolf put it, everyone should have a room of one’s own.
––Louise Bourgeois’ home studio – Chelsea, New York
––Francis Bacon’s studio – Hugh Lane, Dublin
––Alexander Calder’s studio – Woodbury, Connecticut
Related Articles
Pictorial spiritism (a woman's drawings guided by a spirit)
There are numerous examples in the history of self-taught artists which suggest an interrogation of that which we take for granted within the universe of art. Such was the case with figures like
Astounding fairytale illustrations from Japan
Fairy tales tribal stories— are more than childish tales. Such fictions, the characters of which inhabit our earliest memories, aren’t just literary works with an aesthetic and pleasant purpose. They
A cinematic poem and an ode to water: its rhythms, shapes and textures
Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water. - John Keats Without water the equation of life, at least life as we know it, would be impossible. A growing hypothesis holds that water, including the
Watch beauty unfold through science in this "ode to a flower" (video)
The study of the microscopic is one of the richest, most aesthetic methods of understanding the world. Lucky is the scientist who, upon seeing something beautiful, is able to see all of the tiny
To invent those we love or to see them as they are? Love in two of the movies' favorite scenes
So much has been said already, of “love” that it’s difficult to add anything, much less something new. It’s possible, though, perhaps because even if you try to pass through the sieve of all our
This app allows you to find and preserve ancient typographies
Most people, even those who are far removed from the world of design, are familiar with some type of typography and its ability to transform any text, help out dyslexics or stretch an eight page paper
The secrets of the mind-body connection
For decades medical research has recognized the existence of the placebo effect — in which the assumption that a medication will help produces actual physical improvements. In addition to this, a
The sea as infinite laboratory
Much of our thinking on the shape of the world and the universe derives from the way scientists and artists have approached these topics over time. Our fascination with the mysteries of the
Sharing and collaborating - natural movements of the creative being
We might sometimes think that artistic or creative activity is, in essence, individualistic. The Genesis of Judeo-Christian tradition portrays a God whose decision to create the world is as vehement
John Malkovich becomes David Lynch (and other characters)
John Malkovich and David Lynch are, respectively, the actor and film director who’ve implicitly or explicitly addressed the issues of identity and its porous barriers through numerous projects. Now