Jorn Utzon dies.

Jorn Utzon, architect of the Sydney Opera House has died aged 90.

The Danish architect of the iconic Sydney Opera House, Jorn Utzon, has died at the age of 90, after suffering a heart attack.

Mr Utzon, an award-winning architect, put "Denmark on the world map with his great talent," said Danish Culture Minister Carina Christensen. ...

The Sydney Opera House planned to dim the lights on the sail-shaped roof on Sunday to mark Mr Utzon's death.

The chairman of Sydney Opera House Trust, Kim Williams, said: "Jorn Utzon was an architectural and creative genius who gave Australia and the world a great gift.

from the BBC read more...

Some images courtesy of the National Library of Australia catalogue.

Jorn Utzon, Artists' model for the geometry of the Sydeny Opera House, 1961.

Wolfgang Sievers, Sydney Opera House under construction, c. 1973.

Wolfgang Sievers, Interior of the Sydney Opera House, c.1973.

Snapshot, Melbourne and Garden visit

A gorgeous tower on Murphy St, South Yarra, Wednesday November 26th, 6:15pm.
I was dreaming about having that tower room as my study.

I also want to direct you all to the great website Garden Visit. I recently contributed some photos to the page on Villa Gamberaia and also some to a new page on Cloudehill.
There are also some interesting blogs to read there on various aspects of gardens and gardening.

JFK Memorial in the Treasury Gardens

Apologies once again for my absence, I hope to be back at least three times a week.

I had a break from my desk on Wednesday and walked through the Treasury Gardens and took some photos of the JFK memorial. It has always intrigued that it is there at all.


The memorial itself is by Raymond B. Ewers who apparently designed quite a few memorials.
More here and here.

The rest of the design is seemingly by an anonymous parks and gardens superintendent, though previously there was a Japanese garden by William Guilfoyle, better known for his design of the Royal Botanic Gardens. ome early images from the State Library collection.


It originally had water in it but has succumbed to the drought, but the plantings of grasses have been filled out to compensate and it is now a rather beautiful place to sit on a hot day. The Treasury Place and Edcuation Department buildings provide some nice borrowed landscape behind.

Some more images by the photographer Wolfgang Sievers of the monument shortly after its contruction.

The hedges are always greener...

I am very busy marking at the moment so have had no time to blog, in the meantime a neat green hedge from the garden of the Villa Farnese at Caprarola in Lazio, Italy.

Snapshot, Melbourne.

Snapshot, Melbourne.

St Vincent's Hospital, various buildings.

Exhibitions I would go to if the world was smaller

From the Village to Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith (Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York)

Model wearing Art Smith’s “Modern Cuff” Bracelet, circa 1948 (Image from the Brooklyn Museum website).

This exhibition honors the gift of twenty-one pieces of silver and gold jewelry created by the Brooklyn-reared modernist jeweler Arthur Smith (1917–1982)

Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London.)

Garden Egg Chair:
Designed by Peter Ghyczy, the chair was eventually mass produced in East Germany
and is one of the few design products of the Cold War era, sold in both East and West.
(Image from V&A website).

From the website: Art and design were not peripheral symptoms of politics during the Cold War: they played a central role in representing and sometimes challenging the dominant political and social ideas of the age.


Correggio and the Antique (Villa Borghese, Rome.)

This exhibition has actually finished already. I just love Correggio, the second image The Martyrdom of the Four Saints, is the first painting I remember standing in front of for ages, just in love with the colours, the realism, the emotiveness of the faces, and, being about 10, the grisly subject matter.

Snapshot, Melbourne.

Melbourne Exhibition Building at Dusk.