AFA 22nd Anniversary

2021 Antiques & Fine Art 57 at left: In a nook below the staircase, The Gio cabinet by Italian designer Achille Salvagni (2014) is a unique piece in Royal Oak with high gloss and nickeled top. The design pays homage to architect, furniture and industrial designer Gio Ponti, a seminal figure in Italian modernism. The bronze sculpture by Jaume Plensa, Who Are You VII (2016) creates a meditative moment with placement in an intimate niche. Plensa’s work is special to this Chicago collection as he is known for his public commission, Crown Fountain in Millennium Park (2004); both works focus upon the human experience of time, memory and meditation. Over the staircase, Robert Polidori’s photograph, Crucifixion with Longinus by Fra Angelico, Museum of San Marco Convent, Florence, Italy (2010) captures the range of human psychology and activity within the context of architecture, a moment captured in natural light. Suzanne and her team take exceptional care in the sensitive placement of artwork, and this installation is one of exceptional beauty, creating a window, both pictorially and symbolically. this page: The dining room is the stage for a dramatic and highly significant suite of furniture from world-renowned Irish designer-maker Joseph Walsh. For these avid collectors and patrons of his work, Walsh created the Erosion Table VI in ebonized and lacquered walnut, paired with a suite of wonderfully curved and engineered Enignum VIII chairs in ebonized walnut. The Enignu m series, which includes the extraordinarily kinetic wall shelf placed in the entry of the home, was inspired by the work of British furniture maker John Makepeace, whose work inspired Walsh to try his hand at steam-bending. The first experiments were so successful, he began to push the process to its limits, creating forms that surpass technique and evolve into the realm of art. The Erosion series is the result of experiments with a material removal process resulting in a final fluid form that resembles the erosion of wood by water, time and sand. Since these initial acquisitions, Suzanne and team members traveled with the clients to Walsh’s studio in the countryside of County Cork, Ireland, to meet with him and commission an additional piece for another of their residences. Irish painter Elizabeth Magill is known for integrating photographic materials and processes to create effects of mood and atmosphere. This monoprint, Anterior (2) (2017) was acquired directly from the artist’s solo touring museum exhibition.