Forty-Seven Rōnin
Discover more from Blood & Champagne
Hello again. Congratulations. You’ve made it through another week and into this week’s newsletter. Lots of the usual architecture, design, and art links this week, as well as some local (for me) NYC stuff. I want to thank everyone who reached out to say they were glad the newsletter was back. It was nice to meet some new people as well as connect with some old friends. In an effort to not take up too much time, I’ll get right into it.
In response to an increasingly coordinated and effective effort to remove books tackling a wide range of topics from library shelves, the Brooklyn Public Library is offering a free electronic library card to any person ages 13 to 21 anywhere in the US
A Chicago-based independent nonprofit book publisher is offering free Black History books to combat book bans
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has created an interactive map of more than 200 sites related to significant people, events, and movements involved in civil rights history
Historians Benjamin Holtzman and Claire Dunning discuss their recent books tracing the uneasy relationship between community groups, nonprofit organizations, and austerity politics
Philly’s infamous police headquarters faces an uncertain future as a symbol of brutality
Why you either love or hate Brutalism
The social housing and the open and public spaces of Parisian suburbs
A movie-inspired apartment in Paris
French oyster bar creates the impression of diving into an aquarium
Tour an LA home that went from beige to bold
A secluded home in San Francisco beautifully captures its owners’ appreciation for global design
A former YWCA row house with a stylish makeover can be yours for $2.1M
Frank Lloyd Wright’s final design is on the market for $8.5M
Architect couple’s 19th-century Brooklyn home gets a 21st-century makeover
An abandoned house redone with eco materials and plenty of color
After 25 years, an artist’s home reopens as an art gallery
Japanese artist’s house offers mind-bending curb appeal in a Tokyo neighborhood
A soothing retreat in bustling Tokyo
A tiny skyscraper lists for $1.5M in a Japanese forest
Japanese and Nordic influences in new getaway in rural Canada
Marie Kondo is messy now (lol)
This book-filled Swedish cabin is a bibliophile’s dream
A tiny timber cabin touches down on a private island in Norway
A wood-covered house hovers above the hillside in the forest
A rest station on a mountaintop
A Midcentury Duluth home straddles a woodland creek
A Sydney home inspired by Midcentury modern architecture
Tour artist Kehinde Wiley’s quiet creative haven in Lagos, Nigeria
A unique and playful structure of mushroom-shaped columns in the Ivory Coast
A minimalist residence in Portugal explores the duality between solid and void space
Seven lunar-style habitats architects are mooning over
The people who live inside airplanes
Eero Saarinen’s masterpiece at JFK Airport
Completed in 1932, Alvar Aalto’s Paimio tuberculosis sanatorium was revolutionary
Danish design brand turns 13th-century Italian palazzo into a pop-up hotel
New Art and Climate Change book presents an overview of ecologically conscious contemporary art that addresses the climate emergency
Illustrated Black History book honors the iconic and the unseen
Black Film Archive showcases Black films made from 1898 to 1989, currently streaming online for free
28 overlooked Black artists to discover
Self-taught Ethiopian artist’s satirical work bursts with humor and wit
Umar Rashid’s exhibition at PS1 draws on both history and fantasy to create epic narratives that examine how political and cultural power is established and might be undone
Afro-Cuban artist Javier Castro’s solo NYC exhibition questions the broken promises of a postcolonial world
Rijksmuseum’s ‘Slavery’ exhibition will travel to UN Headquarters in New York
Gordon Parks’s strident vision of Stokely Carmichael and the Black Power movement
New Crenshaw sculpture park, which will display more than a hundred pieces of art from local Black artists, is set to debut this fall
High school AP African American Studies course to include a focus on art
17 Black-owned stores for home decor you should know
Founded by Kehinde Wiley in 2019, this multidisciplinary residency brings international artists together to live and work in Dakar, Senegal, for one- to three-month stays
W. E. B. Du Bois sculpture project – open call for sculptors
MTA Arts & Design is currently accepting submissions for a new site-specific permanent artwork in Manhattan
New residency in the Berkshires gives visual artists a $3,000 monthly stipend, art supply reimbursement of $2,500 for art supplies, a cabin, a studio, and more
Early-career Native artists are eligible for $10,000 grants to support the development and realization of new projects
Located at a historic house museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, this residency in Buffalo, New York, comes with a $5,000 stipend to help give creative individuals time and space to develop work
Investigation finds that artifacts from the Kingdom of Benin in Swiss museums were likely looted
A Metropolitan Museum of Art security guard has written a book
The largest forger of artwork in the US has written a memoir
New Lichtenstein documentary explores whether he was a great artist or a rip-off artist
Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein
Anish Kapoor’s Manhattan Mini-Bean is an eyesore that no one asked for (seen above)
Manhattan’s first public beach will open this summer
Why is everything so ugly?
The Supreme Court’s ruling in a privacy case over Tate Modern’s 360-degree viewing deck is part of a depressing trend toward London’s views becoming increasingly controlled and commoditized
Getting to the bottom of a COVID-era real estate mystery of why NYC rents went up so much
Watch historic PBS documentary Style Wars from 1983, which tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s
K11 Musea to bring history of street art to Hong Kong
NYC exhibition sheds light on the art and activism of the Amazon’s indigenous Yanomami people
Let’s stop making design festivals for designers and make creativity available to everyone
The Pentagon has reversed a Trump-era ban on the release of art created by Guantánamo Bay detainees
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is helping to digitally render Wright’s unbuilt structures and reintroduce office furniture pieces pulled from the archives
Hermès-backed program teaches schoolkids how to make things themselves
Spanish designer develops low-cost, easy-to-assemble school furniture for students in developing nations
Lastly, it’s time to stop arranging your furniture around the TV
That’ll do it for this week. I know how busy everyone is, so I appreciate you for taking the time to read this far. Thank you, and I’ll see you next week. In the meantime, please share this email with a friend. They’ll thank you later.
Thomas