Bronze Required, Leather Optional
via 1stdibs
1stdibs never ceases to amaze me. This time it's not because of some ridiculously overpriced but must-have sideboard. No, I'm talking about Peter Marino: Architectural Digest profilee, retail-starchitect and now, apparently, leather daddy with a penchant for petite bronzes. He's a man of many colors no doubt, but with the Huntington's new exhibition, Beauty and Power: Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes, Peter shows us how much he can liven things up at a staid old library and gardens.
Laocoön, 17th Century
via 1stdibs
Samson and the Philistine, about 1650-60
via 1stdibs
Apollo and Marsyas, about 1710-20
via 1stdibs
I'll be the first to admit that I'm no expert on bronzes, but Marino's collection looks pretty top notch which is ostensibly why it's the subject of an entire exhibition that will be showing in California through late January and then head to Minneapolis. But that's not what's got our heads turning. Please, take a look at Peter in 2006:
via Architectual Digest
And then somewhere in between designing Tokyo's Chanel Flagship in 2007 and London's Louis Vuitton in 2010, this happened:
via 1stdibs
via 1stdibs
Is this what designing uber-luxe retail establishments for the better part of a decade does to your wardrobe? It certainly solves the problem of figuring out what to wear in the morning. Marino told the Los Angeles Times of his bronzes, "My collection has always been very, very discreet. Very few people knew about this." I beg your pardon? Uh, that's not the only thing they didn't know about.
As far as I could tell from scouring the internet for a total of five minutes, no one is really sure what prompted Mr. Marino's identity crisis, but he's still designing gorgeous buildings, collecting aforementioned bronzes and appearing in tons of society spreads standing next to uncomfortable-looking socialites.
Beauty and Power runs through January 24, 2010 at the Huntington Library and Gardens and moves to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts February 6, 2011 - May 15, 2011.
