Hermès and the Glass House are honored to introduce Centered Rhyme, a limited-edition 90x90cm silk twill scarf featuring a design by the late American artist Elaine Lustig Cohen (1927-2016). The design is based on a large-scale 1967 painting by the artist.
To purchase, please contact the Glass House Design Store via phone at 203-594-9884 x0 or email at [email protected]. A portion of the proceeds from the sale the Centered Rhyme scarf will go towards the preservation of the Glass House.
Elaine Lustig Cohen was highly regarded as a graphic designer, artist, and rare book dealer throughout her career, which spanned over fifty years. In 1955, she began her design work in New York by extending the idiom of European modernism into an American context for her diverse clientele of publishers, corporations, cultural institutions, and architects. Her first client was Philip Johnson – architect of the celebrated Glass House (1949) in New Canaan, Connecticut – who commissioned her to design the lettering and signage for the iconic Seagram Building. The two forged an important bond that resulted in a variety of projects for the Glass House, Yale University, and Lincoln Center, among others. As a painter, Lustig Cohen developed a hard-edged style in the 1960s and 1970s that asserted the canvas’ flat surface. She continued to experiment with bold colors, linear patterning, and abstract shapes in a variety of media including collage and three-dimensional objects.
Following a 2015 exhibition of the artist’s early paintings and graphic design at the Glass House, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermès, met the artist at her Manhattan home and conceived of a scarf based on her painting Centered Rhyme (1967). Pierre-Alexis and Elaine discovered a deep intellectual and philosophical connection while touring her remarkable personal collection of eclectic art and artifacts, including ancient printed silks.
The project was made in collaboration with the Glass House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, that in alignment with Hermès values is dedicated to the promotion of cultural and architectural preservation, artistry and craftsmanship.
The limited-edition Hermès 90cm x 90cm silk twill design, $395.00, will be presented in Lustig Cohen’s original coloration; crème/jaune/rose, and sold at the Glass House Design Store and Hermès boutiques.
The Glass House, 199 Elm Street, New Canaan, CT 06840
More information: theglasshouse.org
