Traces through time
Culture
the trouble with modern art
Who decides what great art is — the artist, the critic, or the market? We explore the fragile authority behind the modern canon, tracing the tangled relationships between originality, repetition, expertise, and commerce — and asking whether the occasional sceptical museum-goer might sometimes be asking the right questions.
THE ART OF NONCHALANCE
In an age allergic to trying too hard, effort has become the ultimate faux pas. We explore the way in which looking effortless became fashion’s most enduring strategy, migrating from courtly codes to contemporary cool — and why studied indifference now signals authority, influencing everything from the red carpets to the political stage.
HOW WE PERCEIVE LUXURY
Luxury, once synonymous with opulence, became in the twentieth century a language of restraint. Today, it’s increasingly a language of narrative. We look at the way in which cultural power shifts from craftsmanship to concept, from atelier to algorithm, and ask whether the rise of the “creative curator” signals decline — or simply a new logic of status. If everything is singular, who decides what’s exceptional?
PEOPLE
SHAPING THE VISUAL UNIVERSE
We spoke to Alexander May about SCALE, his exhibition at Magen H Gallery, which unfolds as part of his ongoing sculptural practice. Rooted in an intuitive handling of form, void, and material weight, May repositions twentieth-century French design within a restrained, all-white space, inviting viewers to slow down and reconsider scale, rhythm, and atmosphere.
ELEGANCE IN REVOLT
In conversation with Edgar Jayet, design emerges as narrative, craft as philosophy. Every object, every interior gesture is deliberate — a dialogue with history, literature, and human scale. Spaces unfold with subtle intelligence, where beauty and thought converge, and furniture and interiors become vessels for reflection, emotion, and the enduring resonance of creation..
the business of art
New York’s gallery scene has always been more than white walls — it’s been a crucible of power, myth, and seduction, from Castelli’s salons to Basquiat’s street-to-salon ascent. Our latest feature traces that lineage and explores how the theatre of the gallery still shapes cultural memory —including an interview with gallerist Patrick McGrath on the tactile power or presence in a digital age.
TRAVEL
At Sloane
Upon entering the burnt-brick hues of the hotel’s Neo-Greek lobby, one quickly loses all sense of the outside world, entering a richly layered mise-en-scène, a throwback to a golden age of luxury. Beguiled by its inherent charm, I met the designer, François-Joseph Graf, for a tour, after which, we discussed his influences and inspirations, the decorators he most admires, and more pressing concerns, such as where to get the best steak tartare and frog legs in Paris.
Atmospheric intent
“Hotel Château Voltaire is anything but a decoration,” explains Thierry Gillier, “It is a place of today to be experienced today by people of today.” With that in mind, we spoke to Charlotte de Tonnac and Hugo Sauzay of Festen architecture, not only about their design for this 32-room five-star Paris hotel, but also their likes, dislikes and, in the case of the former, a long-harboured desire to moonlight as a dancer.
Home Away From Home
We spoke to Andrea Bokobsa, co-founder of Pied-A-Terre Paris, about his passion for art and design (in part inspired by his mother, a former designer for Baby Dior and Bonpoint) and where he hopes to take the company in coming years
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