Some of My Lives (16 page)
Authors: Rosamond Bernier
We showed Jackson Pollock in 1958 and during the following decade ran features on Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg (twice), Jasper Johns, Barnett Newman, and Andy Warhol.
We consistently presented articles about architects and architecture, both in France and abroad. We ran several features about Philip Johnson; he always made good copy. One was on his famous Glass House in Connecticut. Little did I know that many years laterâin 1975âJohn Russell and I would be married there.
We wrote about Paul Rudolph. I went to talk to the great Louis Kahn a number of times. (Each time he told me, “Forget what I told you last time. Everything has changed.”) He was working on that most successful of new museums, the Kimbell in Fort Worth. We did a feature on Marcel Breuer, who was designing the Whitney Museum.
I actually went with Breuer to Rotterdam to write about a department store, de Bijenkorf, that he had designed. At the time, its design and interior arrangements were the most advanced in Europe. Rotterdam had been largely destroyed by bombing in May 1940, so this inauguration had symbolic overtones. The mayor and other town worthies were on hand, and several hundred guests from foreign countries.
Center stage, as it wereâimmobile at the timeâwas a moving staircase clothed in teak. After the mayor's welcoming speech, he pressed a button, whereupon, to bursts of musicâthe triumphal march from
Aida
, no lessâthe officials took their places one by one on the staircase to be slowly lofted upward and out of sight, to loud applause.
Aida
, no lessâthe officials took their places one by one on the staircase to be slowly lofted upward and out of sight, to loud applause.
Often I wrote these articles myself, sometimes under an assumed name. In the first decade of the magazine I traveled and wrote articles from Belgium, Finland, Italy, Denmark, New York, Los Angeles, and St. Louis, and there were a number of features from England, not only London.
By 1970, I had shed my French partner and headed for almost unknown, to me, territory: the United States.
L'ÅIL
went through various convulsions. It was acquired by several publishing conglomerates. At one point a Japanese dragon lady bought it as a divorce present for her husband. For a while it disappeared
from sight. It reemerged with a capable and charming young man as editor, Jean-Christophe Castelain. When
L'ÅIL
was celebrating its five hundredth issue in October 1998, Jean-Christophe very courteously came to New York to interview me and write a generous text accompanied by my photograph.
went through various convulsions. It was acquired by several publishing conglomerates. At one point a Japanese dragon lady bought it as a divorce present for her husband. For a while it disappeared
from sight. It reemerged with a capable and charming young man as editor, Jean-Christophe Castelain. When
L'ÅIL
was celebrating its five hundredth issue in October 1998, Jean-Christophe very courteously came to New York to interview me and write a generous text accompanied by my photograph.
L'ÅIL
today is not what I had created, nor should it be. Times have changed.
today is not what I had created, nor should it be. Times have changed.
At age six on my pony Teddy, after winning a cup in my first horse show
At sixteen with my harp
Now twenty-two years old, in my Acapulco garden with my husband, Lewis A. Riley, Jr., and assorted animals, 1938
With my sister, Heather, by my Acapulco pool, 1939 (Victor Kraft)
For
L'ÅIL
I had Giacometti's
The Chariot
photographed in the Parc Monceau, Paris; the children's bicycles echo the sculpture's wheels. 1955. (Sabine Weis for
L'ÅIL
)
L'ÅIL
I had Giacometti's
The Chariot
photographed in the Parc Monceau, Paris; the children's bicycles echo the sculpture's wheels. 1955. (Sabine Weis for
L'ÅIL
)
Interviewing Chanel for
Vogue
; sketched by Eric, 1954
Vogue
; sketched by Eric, 1954
With Fernand Léger at his house in the country, 1954 (Robert Doisneau)
Picasso's sister Doña Lola de Vilató, photographed for
L'ÅIL
in her Barcelona apartment (
left
), where Picasso's boyhood portrait of her (
right
) was hanging. 1954. (Inge Morath for
L'ÅIL
)
L'ÅIL
in her Barcelona apartment (
left
), where Picasso's boyhood portrait of her (
right
) was hanging. 1954. (Inge Morath for
L'ÅIL
)
Gertrude Stein and her poodle, Basket; Eric and I are in the background. 1947. (© Horst P. Horst)
Irving Penn's magnificent portrait of Aaron Copland
Other books
The Lily and the Lion by Catherine A. Wilson, Catherine T Wilson
Enemy at the Gate by Griff Hosker
Killer View by Ridley Pearson
Comfort Object by Annabel Joseph
Openly Straight by Konigsberg, Bill
I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch
Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy by Francesca Simon
Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series #2) by Tim O'Rourke
Chief Distraction by Kelly, Stella
Plain Murder by Emma Miller
