A Unique Opportunity on Saturday

Tomorrow, Saturday, August 18, Hudson Hall invites the public to visit the charming Livingston home of Bruno Pasquier-Desvignes for "The Unicorn Party," a late summer garden soiree and open house celebrating the work of this iconic Hudson Valley artist. Visitors have the opportunity to purchase any of the thousands of artworks on display and even the house itself.

A special preview showing for friends of Hudson Hall takes place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow, followed by an open house and public sale from 2 to 5 p.m. To make a reservation for the preview, click here. For more information about the event, including the location of the house, click here. 

Update: Online reservations for the members-only preview have closed. Current friends of Hudson Hall and those seeking to become friends to attend the preview are asked to see a member of the Hudson Hall staff upon arrival.

Filled with wonderfully expressive sculptures made from found and recycled materials, paintings, etchings, murals, and musical whirligigs, Pasquier-Desvignes' home is a one-of-a-kind installation of this unique artist's life work.

 

Pasqueir-Desvignes is of the same generation of artists who sparked Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art, and other "isms," while being fully attuned with the less genre-bound artistic experiments of the early Modernists. Born in the village of Saint-Lager, near Lyon, France, in 1930, he has lived in Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, and Asia. His home encapsulates, through his art, many of these experiences, and his larger than life presence.

In 1995, Pasquier-Desvignes was approached by his famous film producer neighbors, Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, to create paintings and drawings for their film Surviving Picasso. An artist and friend, R. O. Blechman explains: "When Merchant-Ivory asked Bruno to create Picasso-like drawings for their film Surviving Picasso, little did they guess that they would get Picasso-Plus drawings. And when I saw his little metal sculptures, little did I guess that I would be looking at several Calder-Plus sculptures."

Pasquier-Desvignes' work is of infinite creativity and playfulness. He made an animated version of the French epic poem The Song of Roland with corks and toothpicks, filled Grand Central Station with his sculptures, and created a short-lived but much heralded installation of Rube Goldberg-like contraptions at the Emerson Resort in the Catskills, home to the world's largest kaleidoscope. For the anniversary of Robert Fulton's first steamboat on the Hudson, he created a junk barge that sailed the river.

The special preview takes place tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; the public sale is from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Click here for more information.
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