Fine Jewelry Inspired by Centuries-Old Paintings at the Met

New York Times

15-05-2025

Venice's Hotel Cipriani Gets a Glamorous Renovation by Peter Marino
Since it opened in 1958, Venice's historic Hotel Cipriani — set away from the crowds on Giudecca Island, with great views of the floating city and its waterways — has long been a paragon of life well lived, the sort of place where you might've seen creative luminaries like Sofia Loren, Catherine Deneuve and Yves Saint Laurent hanging around. But like all good old hotels, the 67-room property eventually needed a refresh, one that reflected Venice's more contemporary architectural and artistic character and a new era of luxury; as far as its owners at Belmond saw it, the person to do that was the Queens-born architect Peter Marino, who first started renovating projects in Venice some three decades ago. 'You see pictures of Gloria Guinness at the hotel, her hair teased up past heaven, and I wanted to get that feeling here of almost impossible glamour,' he says. 'It's not palazzo glamour or old Venetian glamour but a very 1960s look.' Indeed, unlike many of the city's other esteemed hotels, this one was installed not into a former palace but was built from the ground up, with squarer proportions that Marino wanted to loosen up with graphic midcentury paintings by the likes of the Italian American artist Conrad Marca-Relli and handblown Venetian vanity mirrors. Although he kept the handsome original lobby intact — 'Over 50 people grabbed my arm in town and said, 'Please don't change it,'' he says — Marino will fully reconceive the interiors during the off-season over the next few years. The first phase of it, including a new airy, double-height lobby and 13 suites that feature lots of glass and gold-toned detailing, will open May 27, just in time for summer. 'I'm not doing walls of brocade,' he says, 'but hopefully people in Venice will think it's hip.' From about $2,000 a night, belmond.com.
The Abstract Work of Two Pioneering Japanese Artists, on View in New York
'Atsuko Tanaka, Yayoi Kusama,' a recently opened exhibit at Paula Cooper Gallery in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, features a selection of works on paper and canvas by the two Japanese artists. They're from the same generation — Kusama was born in 1929, Tanaka in 1932 — and both 'hit their stride with abstract painting using repetitive motifs,' says Anthony Allen, a partner at the gallery who organized the show, but 'they likely never met.' Kusama, who is famous for her polka dots and weblike 'Infinity Nets' series, arrived in New York's downtown art scene in her late 20s, whereas Tanaka, who fixated on circles and lines (which were prominent shapes in her 1956 'Electric Dress' performance), stayed in Japan and became a core member of the avant-garde Gutai movement. Both used performance, textiles and installations in their oeuvres and 'dealt with similar obstacles,' Allen says. By showing Tanaka and Kusama together, he hopes to 'dislodge each artist from the context in which they're usually presented.' On display are several of Kusama's early career pieces, including one of her lesser-known sticker collages, and a broader selection of Tanaka's works spanning 1956 through 2001. The show also includes three short films — two of Tanaka's, one of Kusama's — and a series of documentary photos that capture each artist at work. 'Atsuko Tanaka, Yayoi Kusama' is on view through June 14, paulacoopergallery.com.
The Jewelry Designer Reimagining Renaissance Accessories
For the Los Angeles jewelry designer Jess Hannah Révész, a stroll through the painting galleries at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is a treasure hunt. Where some might linger over the blue silk dress in Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's 'Princesse de Broglie' (1851-53), Révész zooms in on the subject's stack of gold rings. One of these, a weighty band like coiled rope, has now been reimagined in wearable form as part of a new J. Hannah jewelry collaboration with the Met. 'I've always taken inspiration from the past,' says Révész, who previously created a capsule collection for the museum focused on the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut. In addition to the Princesse ring — offered in brushed 14-karat gold or polished silver, as well as a hoop earring version — Révész has reinterpreted jewelry from three additional masterworks. 'Judith With the Head of Holofernes' (circa 1530), Lucas Cranach the Elder's dressed-up take on the biblical tale, sees the heroine in a gilded collar decorated with tiny pearls, one of which Révész transposed onto her Quatrefoil pendant. The pile-up of rings in 'Portrait of a Woman of the Slosgin Family of Cologne' (1557), by Barthel Bruyn the Younger, manifests as two designs: the dainty two-gem Diptych and the Quatrefoil, available as an engravable signet or with a single rectangular stone — 'unisexy,' the designer quips. Hans Memling's wedding portraits of Tommaso and Maria Portinari (circa 1470), who are shown with hands clasped in prayer, inspired J. Hannah's Devotion rings, with puffy gold bands and one or two prong-set stones. The pieces in the collection are made to order with era-appropriate carnelian cabochons or faceted sapphires. Révész added recycled diamonds as a third option — for fun, she says. 'That was a me thing.' The Subjects of Adornment collection launches May 25; from $440, jhannahjewelry.com.
The Musician Swamp Dogg Collects Recipes and Memories in a New Book
When his peers were playing football, Swamp Dogg — the 82-year-old singer, songwriter and producer — was in the kitchen. 'The first thing I remember is wanting to lick the bowl,' says the man formerly known as Little Jerry and born Jerry Williams Jr. That early appetite finds new expression in 'If You Can Kill It I Can Cook It,' a cookbook that he started drafting in the 1970s and whose publication now coincides with the release of a documentary on his life. Swamp Dogg shares childhood recipes, all of which he's given playful names — T-Bone (Steak) Walker, referring to the blues musician, and the Devil Went Down to Georgia for Eggs, a nod to the 1979 country song — in tribute to the fellow artists, record executives and family members who have shaped his life. 'Mostly good things, good times and good people that I've met,' he says. 'At least two were complete downers.' The recipe for Bo-Diddley Baked Beans, for instance, is sparse and short on seasonings, reflective of his unfriendly meeting with the singer that Swamp Dogg recounts in the headnotes. Old photos and archival materials — concert fliers, newspaper clippings and even a Cadillac registration — are interspersed with Swamp Dogg's writing, making the book more of a visual autobiography or scrapbook than a standard cookbook. The musician hopes it will influence others to live with the same sense of purpose and creativity, in the kitchen and beyond. 'When I'm cooking, just like when I'm making music, I'm in my own little world,' he says. 'If You Can Kill It I Can Cook It' will be released May 20; $45, store.pioneerworks.org.
Curvy, Colorful Furniture, on View for New York's Design Week
Hundreds of events are scheduled during this year's NYCxDesign Festival, which takes place throughout the city from May 15 through 21. A number of exhibitions highlight colorful, curvilinear pieces that feel apt for spring. At TriBeCa's R & Company gallery, the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based ceramic artist Jolie Ngo is showing vibrant 3-D-printed lamps that resemble psychedelic trees, as well as mirrors and side tables made from plastic in addition to her usual medium of extruded clay. The London-based designer Faye Toogood has installed her hand-painted pieces across two galleries: at the Future Perfect's West Village townhouse, furniture includes a quartet of raw fiberglass dining chairs, each one splashed with gestural brushstrokes, while Tiwa Select, in TriBeCa, features lighting crafted from wrought iron and crumpled paper adorned with fluid line drawings done in Japanese ink. At the New York designer Danny Kaplan's recently opened showroom in NoHo, the collection on display includes the whimsical resin Divot mirror, a collaboration between Kaplan and the interdisciplinary designer Joseph Algieri that's lined with bonbon-like spheres. And in a Sutton Place penthouse, Galerie Gabriel presents an exhibition that reconvenes pieces from the 1980s by the designers who were once represented by the pioneering gallery Néotù — one standout is Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti's red velvet-and-bronze Corbeille sofa, which debuted in 1989.
A Luxury Resort Opens on a Low-Key Greek Island
The Cycladic island of Folegandros is often described as what Santorini must have felt like 50 years ago — a collection of whitewashed cliff-top villages overlooking the Aegean Sea where a visitor might get swept up in a festival spilling into the main square. The island has no airport, and much of its land is classified as a protected forest. But its relative remoteness has also meant that there aren't many places to stay, and the existing small hotels book up quickly, which is why island-hoppers are so excited about Gundari, Folegandros's first luxury hotel. After a soft opening last summer, the 30-room property is now complete with a trio of new villas and a three-seat wine bar with a picture window overlooking the ocean. Rising from the copper-red cliffs on the southeastern coast of the island, the resort is designed to reflect its surroundings, with unpolished marble floors and an earthy palette. Each of the rooms has a pool that's solar heated, and over 600 indigenous seedlings, including olive and fig trees, were planted on the 100-acre property. On-site, guests can visit the subterranean spa for facials and massages, wade to the sunken swim-up bar, then sample produce from the hotel's organic farm at Orizon restaurant. But they're encouraged to explore Folegandros by borrowing one of Gundari's electric bikes or the electric Mini Moke to visit churches and coves, chartering the speedboat for a sunset sail or hiking the 35 miles of trails. Still, the highlight of a trip just might be a visit to Chora, the capital village two miles from the resort, to soak up the ambience or take a cooking class with Yia Yia Irene, the owner of Irene's Restaurant, which has fed the island for over 70 years. Rooms from $540 a night, gundari.com.
The Chiffon Cake Is Standing Tall Again