PaperCity Magazine

May 2016 - Houston

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Mamounia Sky DALÍ DOUBLE Above: Salvador Dalí's L'homme poisson, 1930, at the Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University Salvador Dalí's Oeufs sur le Plat sans le Plat (Eggs on a Plate without the Plate), 1932, at The Menil Collection Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) hardly needs an introduction. One of the most iconic modern artists in the world, this gent (born after Picasso and before Warhol) with the outrageous antics and signature moustache captured the public's imagination and to this day remains a touchstone of the Surrealist movement (as well as a performance and installation artist par excellence). The early Dalí launched a fervor with a diminutive canvas all about a melting watch and a distended head, which foreshadowed his native country's Spanish Civil War as well as the pending darkness of World War II: The Persistence of Memory, 1931, now in the collection of MoMA. To this day, it produces a visceral thrill out of proportion to its tiny size. Now, two more small-scale Dalí masterpieces from that pivotal era are on view in Texas, the subject of focus exhibitions at the Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, in Dallas and The Menil Collection in Houston. The former unveils a stunning recent acquisition — the only Dalí painting owned by a Texas museum and one of the most important additions ever to the Meadows' trove of Spanish art: the 1930 L'homme poisson (translated as "the fish man" for its central figure, a man's head formed from a school of fish). Signature Dalí-isms in the canvas include a melting watch, a lone shoe and a desolate landscape. In Houston, the slightly larger Oeufs sur le Plat sans le Plat (Eggs on a Plate without the Plate), 1932, adds eggs to the equation, while also featuring a limp watch and eerie landscape setting. Borrowed from the artist's eponymous museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, its showing is amplified by the Menil's other Surrealist-tinged holdings including two contemporary works: a deliciously creepy sculpture by Robert Gober and a Dalí- inspired watercolor portrait by Houston's COLLECTION MEADOWS MUSEUM, SMU, DALLAS. PHOTO BRAD FLOWERS. © 2016 SALVADOR DALÍ, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ / ARS, NYC. COLLECTION SALVADOR DALÍ MUSEUM, IMC., ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA. © 2015 SALVADOR DALÍ, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ / ARS, NYC. Above: Caroline Astor Left: Caroline's Four Hundred room spray The Smell M. NAEVE Old MIX MASTER MONEY of C aroline Astor famously invited the only 400 people in New York City that mattered to her Patriarch Ball in 1892. Unacceptable parvenus and new-money folk not on the list pleaded deadly illnesses and unavoidable sailings to Europe for the month. But, alas, the crème de la crème Four Hundred list was printed in The New York Times, and those not on it were exposed. Quelle horreur! Now, the St. Regis Hotels, another swell nabob, has envisioned what scent wafted through Caroline's infamous Four Hundred Ball — perhaps a heady mix of the exotic woods of the ballroom's carved paneling, the sweet, green scents of potted palms and apple blossoms that lined the walls, the light, crisp essence of the champagne that flowed and the unmistakable musk of old money. Arquiste conjured the scent for the St. Regis, and you can purchase a spritz of New York's Gilded Age — Caroline's Four Hundred room spray and Caroline's Four Hundred candle — for $80 each, at stregis.com/boutique. Holly Moore own David McGee. "Salvador Dalí, An Early Surrealist Masterpiece," at the Meadows Museum, meadowsmuseumdallas.org; "The Secret of the Hanging Egg: Salvador Dalí at the Menil" at The Menil Collection, menil. org; both exhibitions through June 19. Catherine D. Anspon ART DIRECTION MICHELLE AVIÑA. PHOTOGRAPHY MAX BURKHALTER. M argaret Naeve was 25 years old when she opened M. Naeve, the much touted home furnishings emporium on Westheimer that celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. "I had intentions of moving to New York and going to Parsons," she says. Instead, she bought the French antiques store where she'd been working. Over the next decade, Naeve brought Swedish, Italian and Spanish antiques into the mix from her European buying trips. The 2014 move from Bissonnet to a larger space on Westheimer allowed her to explore even more options. "Over time, your style changes," she says. "I love antiques, but on the flip side, I've had an interior design business where I've been mixing antique furniture with contemporary and vintage art and lighting for clients." The store has evolved into Naeve's personal design aesthetic, with contemporary lines by small makers in Europe and the U.S. rubbing elbows with fine antiques. Few have as interesting an eye for mixing periods and styles as Naeve, and she spends a lot of time on the hunt for things no one else in the country carries. "I love finding established lines who are willing to take a risk on a tiny store in Texas," she says. New inventory includes exquisitely crafted sculptural accessories and furniture by New York-based Egg Collective, a group of female architects and furniture designers; blown glass from under-the-radar Belgian design house Sempre; and a sumptuous curved sofa discovered in a Paris shop that had been meticulously copied from a circa-1946 Polar Bear sofa designed by legendary French designer Jean Royère, and is covered in soft pink Pierre Frey silk velvet. It all meshes brilliantly with Swedish Gustavian Klismos chairs, 19th-century painted French club chairs covered in mohair and a 1940s French faux bois table. "I'm obsessed with shape and material and scale," Naeve says. "But overall quality is the number-one thing I look for." She cites Antwerp architect and designer Axel Vervoordt. "What I do isn't exactly like him, but he uses really pure organic things to create a sophisticated environment. He's a master of combining materials," says Naeve, whose store is peppered with organic elements such as Sycamore tree-stump tables, shell-encrusted terra-cotta vases from Belgium and an 18th-century Italian moss-covered stone pedestal. M. Naeve's website is under construction, but you can check out their goods on 1stdibs.com or pop by. M. Naeve, 1911 Westheimer Road, 713.524.0990, mnaeve.com. Rebecca Sherman Brass-front and white- lacquer credenza by Egg Collective. Louis XVI-period trumeau from South of France. Lily, Margaret Naeve's bichon-poodle mix, sits on a 20th-century Danish stool. Brass lantern circa 1970s. Cheryl Donegan, Untitled (white leather), 2013, through David Shelton Gallery. Margaret Naeve, wearing Rochas shirt and Preen skirt, from Laboratoria Jean Royère-inspired sofa, 19th-century French bleached table, newly made vases from the Paris flea market and Egg Collective Haynes mirror. Artwork, from right: Cheryl Donegan's Untitled (black leather cross cuts), 2013, and Untitled (beige and rose), 2013, through David Shelton Gallery.

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