2009 January « my design fix

Josh Agle (aka Shag)

January 29, 2009 at 2:06 pm | Posted in architecture, art, houses | 3 Comments
Tags: art, harry seidler, john lautner, lowbrow, pierre koenig, pop surrealism, robin boyd, Shag

Josh “Shag” Agle is one of my favourite lowbrow artists. Hailing from America, Shag is best known for his flat perspective, vivid colour paintings depicting lounge and tiki-themed scenes.

His paintings are visually influenced by avant-garde animation of the early fifties and sixties and usually have a subtle sense of humour to them leaving the viewer asking the question, “What’s actually going on in this scene?”

To me his paintings have a cool nostalgic feel, depicting the jet-setting high life of the 1950’s. Another great subtle feature in some of his paintings is his reference to classic mid-century modern houses. A number of his paintings have featured the work of Australian and American mid-century architects such as Robin Boyd, Harry Seidler, John Lautner and Pierre Koenig.

For more info visit www.shag.com

Above: Robin Boyd House II – Robin Boyd

Above: Rose Seidler House – Harry Seidler

RoseSeidlerHouseSulmanPrize Above: Rose Seidler House – Harry Seidler

Above: Malin Residence “Chemosphere” – John Lautner

(I’ll put money on it that the photographer in this painting is a nod to the modernist architectural photographer Julius Shulman who famously photographed the Stahl House)Above: Stahl House (Case Study House #22) – Pierre Koenig (Photo – Julius Shulman)

Related Post:

Stahl House (Case Study House #22) (1960) – Pierre Koenig

James-Robertson House – Casey Brown Architecture

January 13, 2009 at 4:06 am | Posted in architecture, houses | Leave a comment
Tags: architecture, australia, coastal, houses

jamesrhouse1

This has been one of my favourite Australian houses for quite a while now. Designed by Casey Brown Architecture, the house is located on a steep 45 degree slope at Mackeral Beach in NSW. It consists of three pavilions; the upper housing the main bedroom, the lower two housing the living and kitchen and beneath those are the guest bedroom and bathroom. I really like the use of materials (stone, steel, timber, glass and copper) allowing the building to blend nicely into the surrounding environment. The slender black steel structure and extensive use of glass creates a beautiful glowing ‘lantern like’ structure at night and I particularly like the frameless glass of the upper windows at the corners each pavilion.

For further reading visit The Cool Hunter

www.caseybrown.com.au