| 'The Wisteria Dining Room' debuts
Almost hidden among the 19th century galleries is "The Wisteria Dining Room," an art nouveau chamber that has languished in storage for 40 years. The room comes from a house designed just before World War I by the architect Lucien Hesse for a Parisian engineer. This wonderland of slinky organic motifs seems an unlikely setting for a man who spent his life developing engines and turbines. Walnut-inlaid panels are lush with wisteria blossoms, lamps mimic vines and canvases installed in alcoves depict herons and peacocks strutting among bloom-filled landscapes.
The Met acquired the room in 1966 and, not having enough space, only displayed it in bits and pieces. After all those decades in the vaults, a team of 15 specialists had to spend nine months restoring it. Now, in its reborn splendor, the room reminds us that the paintings in the adjacent galleries would once have hung in similarly fanciful parlors.
Art exhibits: Dec.9, 2007
ONGOING
ALLENTOWN ART MUSEUM, 31 N. Fifth St., Allentown. 610-432-4333. Arts Community of Easton Members Group Juried Art Show: Through Dec. 30. Tiffany by Design: Forty objects including lamps, a stained glass window, metalwork and related materials made by Tiffany Studios and Tiffany Furnaces, under the direcion of Louis Comfort Tiffany, between 1900 and 1925. Saturday guided tours. Through Jan. 6. Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau Extraordinaire: Posters and textile designs on loan and including works from the museum collection, of female and floral forms created by the Moravia-born artist. Accompanies the ''Tiffany by Design'' exhibit (included with special exhibit admission). Saturday guided tours. Through Jan. 6. Picasso and Delaunay: The Book as Inspiration: A rare portfolio of 13 prints by Pablo Picasso, which were the result of a collaboration with Parisian fine art publisher Ambroise Vollard to produce an illustrated edition of Honore de Balzac's novel ''Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu,'' accompanied by an unusual and compelling work, a ''simultaneous book'' created by modernist designer Sonia Delaunay-Terk and poet Blaise Cendrars.
An early look at Cunard's Queen Victoria
ABOARD THE QUEEN VICTORIA -- Okay, so you've seen my rant on the new Queen Victoria's cabin decor. What's my take on the rest of the ship? In short: It's charming. Smaller than Cunard's much-ballyhooed, four-year-old Queen Mary 2, the 90,000-ton Victoria has an intimacy and feel much more reminiscent of the soon-to-retire Queen Elizabeth 2, something that surely will please long-time Cunarders who found the 150,000-ton QM2 a tad too big and impersonal. The 2,014-passenger Victoria, to be christened later today by the Duchess of Cornwall, also is elegant. Cunard president Carol Marlow tells us the line looked to the great Cunard liners of the past to set the tone, with classical motifs mixed with art deco and nouveau touches that evoke the golden age of ship travel.
Top ten converted hotels in Europe
From former lighthouses to theaters to water towers, travelers and editors from online travel community TripAdvisor have come up with a list of the top 10 converted hotels in Europe. These unconventional buildings have been converted into hotels while retaining the spirit of the original structure and offering luxurious accommodation and modern amenities. Reuters has not endorsed this list: "With such a deep and rich history of architecture, Europe is a natural breeding ground for elegantly converted hotels," said TripAdvisor spokeswoman Michele Perry. 1. Hotel Im Wasserturm, Cologne, Germany A former aquatic hub, the Hotel Im Wasserturm was the largest water tower in Europe before its conversion to a hotel in 1990. Continue the liquid tradition by sipping a drink at La Vision, located on the circular brick tower's roof terrace.
Morocco: Sahara Weekly News Update
06.11.07 Anniversary of the "green" march In his speech, the King of Morocco declares that "whatever formula for a consensual solution should emerge from the serious negotiations, Morocco, its king and its people, will never accept anything other than autonomy, within the framework of a single and unified state". .
'Khalass,' a genre film with a social conscience
The revenge motif is common in movies but it hasn't been much in evidence in Lebanon's cinematic output over last decade. It's not difficult to fathom why. Revenge was a common feature of the country's 1975-1990 Civil War. Despite the often high-minded, ideologically colored rhetoric of the actors involved, the conflict quickly descended into tribalism - indeed, for some players, descent wasn't necessary.Enforced amnesia about the war was a common feature of reconstruction-era Lebanon and its forward-looking ideology. Calls for the sickening business of the past (and present) to be discussed - to prevent history from repeating itself - reverberated in left-leaning theaters, cafes and the cultural pages of certain newspapers, but not in public policy.Several Lebanese films of various aesthetic worth have made use of the Civil War, whether for anti-war commentaries pitched to local tastes - Jean Chamoun's "Taif al-Madina," for instance - or as a setting for more universally appealing human dramas - as in Ziad Doueri's "West Beirut." Secular humanists, these filmmakers and their contemporaries allude to the bald criminality of the Civil War but don't dwell upon it, let alone build an entire film around it.Filmmakers who are not of the war generation, meanwhile, often want to escape the narrow precincts of the conflict.
Ten must-visit European hotels
Trying to pick the top 10 among luxury hotels in Europe is like trying to pick just one from a box of Fauchon chocolates. You know anything you choose will be delicious so it's going to come down to very personal preference. Some people prefer nuts over jellies, the way some people prefer decadent thread counts over bathtub size. In Pictures: Ten must-visit European hotels "There are 10 great choices in Paris alone," says Misty Ewing, spokeswoman for luxury travel network Virtuoso. Still, if she had to pick just one in Paris, it would have to be the Four Seasons Georges V. What sets it apart from the ultra-posh pack? .
What is a big box store?
Second, when did the antler get broken off of it and does anyone know how it was broken? It was a grand piece of art; I hope it found a home and is not in a scrap pile somewhere.With Riverside Park going through landscaping, the Elks organization volunteered to take the statue. They planned to mount it outside their lodge, said Lorrie Haskins, manager of the Elks Lodge. It was originally theirs, as the Elks donated it to the city in 1902.Unfortunately, the statue fell off the carrier and broke into four pieces when they came to pick it up more than a year ago. Haskins said the Elks are hoping to have it repaired, but the material it’s constructed of is difficult to weld.As for the antler, Haskins said it was already broken before the Elks tried to move the statue.—Peter Ruggof the Muscatine Journal
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