by Raci | Books
Cecil Beaton Photography Cecil Beaton photography will never go out of fashion and his name will always be associated with the very pinnacles of glamour. The usual highs and lows in the careers and reputations of most creatives have never applied to him, even now 35...
by Raci | Interiors
Lines of Beauty – Rococo Plasterwork and Revival of a Lost Art It was William Hogarth who in the 18th century put forward his theory that a serpentine or ‘S’ shaped line is a ‘Line of Beauty’. He stated what many widely believed before...
by Raci | Exhibition
Pierre-Paul Prud’hon – the Terrible Beauty As the Dulwich Picture Gallery is always keen to exhibit great masters that are not quite so well known today, we are fortunate that they are presenting this small but stunning exhibition on Pierre-Paul Prud’hon...
by Raci | Architecture, Books
New Sri Lanka House Designs – Legacy of Geoffrey Bawa Living room entrance of Siva and Vasuki House Sri Lanka house designs are once again justifiably attracting world attention with a new generation of talented architects. The inescapable shadow of one man is a...
by Raci | Exhibition
Sonia Delaunay Tate Modern Retrospective This first UK retrospective at Tate Modern of the groundbreaking and extraordinarily varied sixty year career of Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979), finally rights a long standing wrong. Sonia Delaunay was a key figure in the Parisian...
by Raci | Books, Features
Marble Mania Antiques and Collectables for the Latter Day Roman Empire If whilst wandering around the statue lined halls of many an English country house, you may have developed the impression that they were built around their priceless antiques and collectables, then...
by Raci | Books, Interiors
The Drawing Room – what’s yours called? But is it a ‘drawing room’, ‘living room’, ‘sitting room’, ‘front room’ ‘reception room’ ‘family room’ or ‘lounge’? These days it is...
by Raci | Books, Features
I always feel a sense of deep disappointment when I think of Art Deco. It happens whenever I drive by the Express building on Fleet Street or when The Great Gatsby comes up, or another book like Jared Goss’s French Art Deco is published. It’s as if there...
by Raci | Features, Interiors
We Need To Go Deeper One of today’s most popular and rapidly growing interior and product styles is the ‘natural home’. Ironically for such a modest and unshowy design style, it is richly represented in endless publications, and interiors magazines...
by Raci | Books, Exhibition
SILENT PARTNERS: Artist and Mannequin from Function to Fetish The history of these elaborately made mannequins – or ‘lay figures’ as they are also known – has indeed been largely silent these last 500 years, during which time they have been...
by Raci | Exhibition
Rubens and ‘Rubenism’ ‘Rubens and His Legacy: Van Dyck to Cézanne’ at the Royal Academy is the first major exhibition in the UK to examine Rubens’ influence on art history. Bearing in mind that over the centuries there has been so much...
by Raci | Features
Can something good emerge from something bad? That’s the question I asked myself two summers ago at a garden party at Harrowden Hall in Northamptonshire – now the Wellingborough Golf Club – my addled thoughts darting between the fascinating story I...
by Raci | Interiors
Osterley Park House – ‘Palace of Palaces’ Once described by Horace Walpole as ‘the palace of palaces’, Osterley Park House, the great 18th century neo-classical pleasure palace, is the lusciously juicy fruit of Britain’s incipient...
by Raci | Features
Can the way you design or decorate your home be life changing? Can interior design make you a happier, healthier, more productive person? As an interior designer I would say that the answer is… a qualified yes. I mean it can’t perform miracles like fix...
by Raci | Exhibition
Beaton at Brook Street – An Exhibition Presented by Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler Cecil Beaton has never gone out of fashion and in 2014 alone there have been three exhibitions and a book launch. His magical ability to make anyone appear utterly glamorous...
