Patricia Zohn

2 months ago | airmail.news | Patricia Zohn

In 1948, on BBC television, the artist Ithell Colquhoun demonstrated mysterious methods of summoning the spirit world into her work. For fumage, she passed a sheet of paper above a lit candle to create smoky trails. For parsemage, she sprinkled chalk over water to capture the patterns on paper. For décalcomanie, she achieved Rorschach-style images by pressing paint between papers. The exhibition “Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds” opens today at the Tate seaside branch in St. Ives, Cornwall.

Dec 13, 2024 | airmail.news | Patricia Zohn

“Would you like an adventure now, or would you like to have your tea first?” wrote J. M. Barrie. Now you don’t have to choose. The Iconic Houses network, home to nearly 200 20th-century-design houses open to the public, proposes overnight or weekly stays in private residences that storied architects made for their own families or notable clients.

Nov 8, 2024 | airmail.news | Patricia Zohn

One of the only surviving photographs we have of Lillie Bliss—fashionable in a fur-collared coat and a satin hat with a flourish of feathers—is by all accounts misleading. This elegant ensemble was likely one of only two owned by Miss Bliss, who despite her great wealth was a modest, intensely private spinster. Lively, wide-open eyes and a Mona Lisa smile hint at what friends described as her “radiant spirit.” A co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art, Miss Bliss was also a stealth rebel.

Oct 4, 2024 | airmail.news | Patricia Zohn

“Believe in change. Do not hold anything fast,” said Jean Tinguely, a rebellious artist who was anti-museum yet has an entire museum devoted to his pioneering audio-kinetic work, in Basel, Switzerland. For all that, Tinguely is not as well remembered as he should be.

Aug 30, 2024 | airmail.news | Patricia Zohn

Stockholm is known for its natural beauty as well as its historic civic buildings and monuments. Lesser known are the 20th-century artists’ house and studio museums, including those of the Pippi Longstocking author and two Swedish sculptors, Carl Milles and Carl Eldh. Two of the city’s architecturally significant dwellings range from the earthbound—the Markeliushuset, the first apartment building to prioritize working women—to the heavenly, the Woodland Cemetery, where Greta Garbo is buried.