Lines of Communication | At first glance, Piet Mondrian’s “Composition No. II” and Egon Schiele’s “Standing Female Nude in Blue Robe” seem to have little to say to one another. One reduces painting to black lines and primary color; the other renders the body with nervous sensuality. Yet side by side, they begin to rhyme. New York-based curator and writer Philip Larratt-Smith, who devised the juxtaposition, sees the “exposed vertebrae of Schiele’s sinewy bodies” echoed by “the geometric regularity of the Modernist grid.”
That kinship is one of many in “The Scorpion and the Frog: Masterworks from the YAGEO Foundation Collection,” curated by Larratt-Smith and opening November 20 at Taichung Art Museum, Taiwan, where it runs through April 4, 2027. Selected from holdings assembled over five decades by collector Pierre Chen, the 60-plus works are by artists ranging from Artemisia Gentileschi to Picasso, Rothko, Richter, Bourgeois, Koons, Warhol, Hockney, Kiefer and Sanyu. Taichung Art Museum is part of SANAA’s Green Museumbrary, the Japanese practice’s largest cultural commission, which opened in December 2025.
The collection’s range invited Larratt-Smith to look beyond chronology, particularly after his discovery of its Old Masters. He has constructed “imaginary conversations” across centuries. “Ideally it forces meanings to the surface that might otherwise go unnoticed,” he says.
If Mondrian and Schiele reveal affinities, the encounter between Tintoretto and Bacon is more confrontational. “Portrait of Cardinal Marcantonio da Mula” will meet “Study for a Pope VI,” setting the cardinal’s regalia of office against what Larratt-Smith calls the “raw psychosexuality” of Bacon’s screaming pope. Bacon’s animality points to the show’s title, drawn from a Russian fable first recorded in Lev Nitoburg’s 1933 novel “The German Quarter” and later popularized by Orson Welles in “Mr. Arkadin.” A scorpion persuades a frog to carry it across a river, then stings it midway, unable to escape its nature. That contest between reason and instinct opens onto the exhibition’s broader concern with mind and body.
“It’s less of a binary and more of a problem,” Larratt-Smith says. For him, the proof is in the looking: “Above all else, the connections between the artists have to function visually.” tcam.museum —James Haldane
Scents of Place | The new perfume label Commentary aims to create art that engages with our sense of smell. Its debut fragrance, The Reckoner by Belgian-American artist C.B. Evans and perfumer Mark Buxton, imagines the scent of a reinvented world.
The Reckoner, €200; commentary.co
Writing Life | Claude Monet wrote to Émile Zola seeking advice on his son’s schooling, to Gustave Courbet requesting a loan, to Auguste Rodin to make lunch plans. Amid the discussions of art, literature and politics that dominate Monet’s epistolary output, these details give more than just an impression of the man behind the legend. Gathered together for the first time in English, more than 400 of the artist’s letters comprise the forthcoming book “Claude Monet: A Life in Letters” ($40; thamesandhudson.com), which brings the “father of impressionism” to life 100 years after his death. Through hardship, insecurity and loss, Monet’s focus remained his art. As he wrote to art historian Raymond Koechlin during World War I, “work…is the only way to keep from dwelling on these sad times.”
Tuscan Stun | La Réserve has opened its first Italian property, in Florence’s Oltrarno neighborhood. A grand palazzo from the 15th century, La Réserve Firenze is part of the brand’s Private Homes collection and features six apartments restored by French design firm Gilles & Boissier. Guests have access to the villa’s gym, library, game room and roof deck, and room service is provided by beloved local trattoria Cammillo. The surrounding bohemian quartiere is less touristed than the city center across the river. lareserve-firenze.com
Focal Points | Henry Leutwyler got his first camera at age 6, and by the time he was a teenager, photography was his passion. “Seeing an image appear on paper after I’d captured it on film was pure magic,” he writes in the introduction to his new book, “Swiss Camera Museum” (€45; steidl.de). In honor of the 200th anniversary of photography’s invention, the volume comprises about 200 shots, each featuring items from the Vevey-based museum’s archives, fascinating artifacts from the medium’s history. Among the expected holdings—flashbulbs, bottles of darkroom chemicals, lenses, tripods—are some more unusual discoveries, such as a circa 1935 camera for attaching to a homing pigeon, and an 1899 photochrome image of Norwegian whalers with their kill. “Opening boxes, not knowing what I would find and often being stunned by what I saw,” Leutwyler writes, “transported me back to that moment in the darkroom, watching my first image appear.”
Making Waves | Among the many extraordinary aspects of the Hawaiian wellness retreat Sensei Lanai, a Four Seasons Resort, is its sculpture garden, which mixes pieces by artists like Fernando Botero, Claude Lalanne, Anish Kapoor and Joel Shapiro among the lush island greenery. Owned by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Sensei Lanai continues to expand this collection, with a commission from Damien Hirst arriving recently on site. “Larry visited my studio in London whilst I was working on the ‘Cherry Blossoms’ paintings,” Hirst recalls of their first conversation about the project. “He asked me to visit Lanai and see if I had any ideas for an outdoor sculpture, as he had seen several other large-scale works I had made.” Once there Hirst was taken by the story of the island’s original settlers, who traveled thousands of miles by boat from Polynesia. In his vision, two small rafts of seafarers face a monstrous phalanx of marine life, with tentacles rising from the sea and a shark baring its over-sized teeth. “I made this huge ambitious sculpture called Overcoming Adversity,” Hirst explains, “as it’s a universal truth for us all as human beings to learn and take on board what challenges we may face.” sensei.com
Fuzzy Logic | German artist Cosima von Bonin, best known for her amusing, unsettling stuffed-animal sculptures, applies her playful sense for the uncanny to a collection of fall accessories for Loewe.
Loewe x Cosima von Bonin Medium Flamenco clutch in mosaic intarsio, $6,500, loewe.com
Long Exposure | From 1944 to 1965, the photographer Richard Avedon made Harper’s Bazaar his laboratory for the freshest, chicest fashion imagery in the business: enigmatic model Dovima posing with elephants at the Cirque d’Hiver; Suzy Parker and Robin Tattersall on roller skates at the Place de la Concorde. He shot Donyale Luna when most designers refused to have their clothes photographed on a Black woman. The new book “Richard Avedon: The Harper’s Bazaar Years” ($150; abrams.com), with contributions from Derek C. Blasberg and Samira Nasr, shows how Avedon’s audacity and perseverance allowed him to go from taking Merchant Marine ID pictures to transforming one of the world’s top fashion magazines.
Leading Role | Designer Vincent Van Duysen has reimagined Ferragamo’s Rodeo Drive store, emphasizing the brand’s Italian heritage and its Los Angeles roots. Salvatore Ferragamo opened his first shoe store in the 1920s in Hollywood, catering to the nascent movie industry’s stars, before returning to Florence to establish his business there. The flagship’s abstracted Florentine-style facade gives way to sleek interiors punctuated by a custom glass table with an azure ceramic base, by Milan’s Analogia Project design studio. ferragamo.com
Point of View | A retrospective covering British photographer David Sims’ 35-year career opens in November at the Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation in A Coruña, Spain. Titled “The Hamster Becomes the Problem,” the exhibition highlights Sims’ ability to pivot among different genres, from fashion editorial to reportage to personal snapshots. themopfoundation.org
Give It a Whirl | Spinning tops are the inspiration for Vhernier’s classic Trottola line, which sees a fresh iteration this fall. The new pieces feature an eye-catching combination of rose gold and jet, with pavé diamonds making a dramatic appearance as well.
Trottola pendant by Vhernier, $5,900; vhernier.com
Vision Quest | When photographer Gioncarlo Valentine discovered the work of fellow lensman Gerald Cyrus in an old zine, it was a revelation. He reached out to Cyrus on Instagram, and the two became friends. Valentine soon immersed himself in Cyrus’s archives, editing a selection of his ’90s and ’00s shots of people in Harlem into the book “Uptown Odyssey” ($45; tbwbooks.com). Of the experience, Valentine writes, “it became clear to me that I was in the presence of the real thing, a true genius.”
Elements of Style| Catherine and Nathan Bruckner’s design studio Casalta brings an old-world elegance steeped in art-historical references to residential and hospitality projects alike. “We scour auctions every day for our interior design projects, and the pieces we encounter inevitably seep into our work,” say the New York City-based couple, who have applied their debonair idiom to a new line of homeware, dubbed—simply and appropriately—Objects. The first offering is inspired by 20th-century modernism, a movement the pair has come to know intimately by inhabiting a modernist townhouse. Keen observers may note some art nouveau influences as well, which hark back to Nathan’s childhood in Brussels.
“As the collection grows, the references will broaden,” they say.
Questions of materiality are central to their approach. “We think about how a material looks, how it catches the light and how it feels to the touch,” they say. “We also consider weight, balance and how a material will age.” They want the Objects range to fit into their clients’ routines, whether it’s drinking their morning coffee from the Eileen cup or watching flames refracting through the Colonna candlesticks. “We hope people live with these pieces as we do—lighting candles, putting flowers in vases and making their homes beautiful.”
Sphere Vase in Smoke crystal glass, $850; casalta.nyc
