DIGEST 69: No Swimsuits Allowed

At Auction May 38-June 3, 2025

I am back from Fire Island (I stayed with my friend Chris who purchased a house there) and am experiencing Biden '24 levels of cognitive decline, so an abbreviated above-the-fold this week. The house is rather major: 1970s cedar-clad modernist pavilions forming an L around a large pool (it apparently had a strict no swimsuits allowed policy at one point). My favorite design detail: the two bedrooms in the guest pavilion share a jack-and-jill shower suite that also has a sliding door to the pool. (One could imagine a number of scenarios in which that might be helpful.) The house’s signature detail is the rounded corners of its colonnades; they soften all the rectilinearity. With its floor to ceiling glass, the house feels less peek-a-boo in terms of what’s exposed and more full monty. It still feels a little jarring that this house belongs to a peer (in a generational and social sense—as you may have surmised from the “getting evicted from my rat-infested tenement” storyline, a Fire Island summer house is not on the horizon for me). I imagine this is what generational churn feels like—as the apple bottomed gogo boys of yore become the uncannily taut-faced homeowners of tomorrow in the great cycle of gay life. I for one am delighted to go along for the ride.

Selling this print at Maiden Name. Eric Fischl (American, born 1948) rose to prominence in the 1980s as a neo-expressionist painter, adjacent (at least in the market) to collectible, bro-y New York artists of that market-driven period. He is known for his waterside scenes, often depicting wealthy members of the Sag Harbor set. But both the frivolity of the society portraiture and his ham-handed "political" work are beside the point. Where he excels in in psychosexual narrative painting--reconstructions of a memory, saturated with longing, fear, shame, and desire that are both overt and oblique. This is one of those.

I am selling this and more at Maiden here. For my precious new subscribers: Landed cost (the final cost you pay) = the hammer price (the highest bid) + the premium (a set percentage added to the hammer price that the auction house takes) + shipping (you’re always on the hook for this) + sales tax

1. 8 Foot Tall Tinker Bell Prop

This was made as a prop for a Tinkerbell meet and greet set. It’s 8' feet tall and fiberglass. I would buy it but it’s in California. Paging

Rotting On The Vine

!

2. Sheaf of Wheat Occasional Table

So Coco Chanel famously had one of these in gold in her apartment. They’re around. I’ve never seen a silver tone one though and I like it.

3. Lipstick Print (1965)

Mystery print. But good!

4. Jack Cartwright Birch Cabinets

This is actually a volume of storage that is very tricky to find. Could be very helpful in an apartment.

5. 1920s Dutch Arts and Crafts Dining Suite

I think Westport is bringing in shipping containers from the Netherlands and I’m glad. These are cool.

6. Osvaldo Borsani for Tecno Desk

Heavy gay guy furniture. Borsani (1911-1985) founded Tecno with his brother in 1953. They made fabulous Italian modernist furniture. Feels very Neapolitan Patrick Bateman to me.

7. Sunburst Coffee Table

I am ideating about Chris’ coffee table. Someone clearly stepped on the one in the house and broke the acrylic. The benefit of this glass one would be that no one would be stupid enough to do that (as I type that out I can already see some G’d out 24 year old climbing on top of this as a remix of Britney’s Circus blares…).

8. John Baldessari, Stairway, Coat, and Person (2011)

Nice. Kind of late Baldessari but still very good.

9. 19th C Marble Venus de Medici Statue

I was just watching youtube videos of winches thinking about how I would move this other insanely heavy sculpture. Gonna let you guys figure this one out.

10. Joe D’Urso for Knoll Sofa

I can’t see Joe D’Urso’s apartment for Calvin Klein one more time but it is very much like this. I will say—single bottom cushion and lots of back cushions is actually a nice design decision.

May the hammer fall ever in your favor!