It’s hammock season. The Victorians and Edwardians brought this 16th century maritime necessity to bourgeois backyard, where they swung with abandon. The item neatly enmeshes several threads running through Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: the illicit thrill of reclining, and of swinging, and the sweetness of doing nothing at all. It was—and is—the perfect spot to flirt, [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=719
I’ve been deeply impressed by an academic article I recently stumbled across all about the legendary laziness of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). His readymades—found-object sculptures like the infamous urinal “Fountain”—hint at this. Still, Duchamp managed to find the patrons to support him throughout a provocative career, while expanding the definition of art as a whole. In [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=147
I can’t wait to put my hands on a copy of this reprint of Honoré de Balzac’s Treatise on Elegant Living , just out from Wakefield Press and translated into English for the first time. It’s a guide for the 19th century’s dandy on living the poised life, just like the legendary Beau Brummell, who is [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=123
