Japanese Sex at the British Museum

Tue Dec 4 2012

You’ll need to choose your companion carefully before heading off to the British Museum’s latest show. You’re obliged to leave the kids at home (the exhibition has an over-16s age restriction), but you might also consider arriving without your grandma, new boyfriend or work colleague, for ‘Shunga’ promises to be one of the museum’s most socially awkward displays.
A sexually explicit feast of paintings, prints and illustration, the exhibition celebrates an erotically charged style known as ‘shunga’ or ‘spring pictures’. It was produced in Japan between 1600 and the mid-1800s, a time when the country was secluded from the rest of the world, and enjoying its own internal order and culture. It wasn’t seen as taboo (though it was notionally illegal for a time, and is certainly seen as distasteful in Japan now), nor was it designed to feed the imaginations of a particular sort of gent: it was created by celebrated artists and lapped up by men and women from all classes as art, not porn.
Seen together, the artworks offer a window into a culture that saw sex and sexuality in entirely different terms to polite European society, and the show itself demonstrates a brave move on the part of the British Museum, whose duty it is to explore the history of human culture, no matter how uncomfortable. So arrive with an open mind, and be prepared for ‘Shunga’s sometimes funny, sometimes tender, sometimes shocking (there are enlarged genitals, masturbation and even an amorous octopus involved at one point) works of pure art.www.britishmuseum.org  
Article courtesy of Time Out

Louis Vuitton's Trunk Show in Moscow!

LV's two story giant trunk in Moscow's Red Square, designed to house a Vuitton exhibition, is to be dismantled.  Locals and politicians complained about it obscuring the Kremlin and being too close to Lenin's grave.  Pity as it was a pretty eye catching stunt!

The Parisian luxury menswear brand Berluti is breathing new life into Tati’s universe: To mark the opening of its boutique store, the shop’s awnings bear the work of illustrator Sempé, collaborator on Tati’s original animated films; Berluti is also helping in the restoration of the star’s acting debut, Soigne ton Gauche. “What characterized his work is the attention to detail in each frame, costume and color,” says Mallez. “He had a sense of humor and tenderness. Everything was done with a craftsman’s approach.”

 Jacques Tati on Nowness

Marilyn stars in new Chanel No.5 Campaign - Move Over Brad!

http://www.luxuryculture.com/home.html?gotourl=LN/features/0001178/luxury-now/490_ln
We knew that Marily had said it but we had nevery actualy heard her say it.  Now for the first time we can hear Marilyn's teasing statement on how she sleeps in Chanel new ad campaign.  Sign in to Luxury Culture (link above) to hear the audio ...

Isabella Blow at Somerset House

THE wardrobe of Isabella Blow will go on display at Somerset House this week from November 20 , as part of a new exhibition. Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! - in partnership with The Isabella Blow Foundation and Central Saint Martins - will feature 100 pieces from the style maverick's personal collection.
"The exhibition will be bittersweet," said friend and heiress Daphne Guinness, who bought Blow's wardrobe in its entirety at an auction in June 2010. "Showcasing her clothes is what she would have wanted."
The dedicated showcase is set to feature pieces by Alexander McQueen and Philip Treacy - including the headdress that the milliner designed for her wedding, Stylist reports.
Blow is known for having discovered some of fashion's most well-known names, including McQueen (whose entire graduate collection she bought for £5,000), Sophie Dahl and Stella Tennant. A fashion editor, consultant and muse, she was renowned for her bold, daring and extrovert style.

Schnabel Retrospective in Greenwich

The last major survey of Julian Schnabel’s work was in 1987 at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. Peter Brant was already keen on the artist before then, but after the big show he began collecting him in earnest. Artist and Film Director Schnabel was first established as a star of the Soho art scene in the 80's.

Now The Brant Foundation Art Study Center  in Greenwich, Conn. USA, has organized what it bills as the first comprehensive exhibit of Schnabel’s work since then, comprised of close to 50 abstract and figurative paintings and sculptures stretching from the late Seventies to the present day, the majority of them, like “Accatone” (1978), from the Brants’ own collection.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Female Photographers

She Who Tells a Story: A Window into the World of Female Photographers in the Middle East

The perception of Middle Eastern women by the rest of the world is challenged, dissected and put into context in an expansive new show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, featuring twelve leading female photographers from Iran and the Arab world. Curated by Kristen Gresh, “She Who Tells a Story” focuses largely on women photographers from Iran, chronicling the work of Jananne Al-Ani...   more... 

Isabel Marant - 7 Days and Counting

We must say, we have had difficulty in understanding the fashion packs idolisation of French designer Isabel Marant.  However, we will be queuing for the first time in our lives outside H&M in seven days time.  The collaboration collection looks absolutely covetable and we WANT!  May we bite our tongues and be forgiven

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Avedon's Women in LA

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•  Avedon: Women is the first solo exhibition of the late photographer’s work in Los Angeles in 37 years, showcasing the visceral and transformative imagery of women underscored by minimalist backdrops that became one of Richard Avendon's calling cards. New York-born Avedon began his interest in photography by observing women in his own family, and looked to capture the nuanced emotions behind the act of dressin up, before being snapped up by Harper’s Bazaar in 1944. Conceived almost a decade after his death, Gagosian’s Beverly Hills show spans six decades and includes over 100 photographs drawn from The Richard Avedon Foundation's extensive archive, including his works as the first staff photographer of The New Yorker, who wrote of his authoritative motif, “As long as people remain curious about life in the 20th century, they will turn to Avedon’s photographs to see how it looked, and what it meant.”
  
  Avedon: Women at Gagosian Beverly Hills runs from November 2 through December 21.  Story taken from Nowness