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A
stranded shoe on 3rd Avenue. 1:15 PM. Photo: JH.
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It
was cool and rainy last night, not unlike the American’s image of London in the autumn.
And downtown in the former meatpacking district which has become
chic with the
hip, the uptown chic and their exponents were out in numbers. They
were going to the Lars Bolander NY galleries where Mr. Bolander
and his wife Nadine Kalachnikoff were hosting an opening for Rosita,
the Duchess of Marlborough who was exhibiting her paintings.
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Lars
Bolander and Rosita,
the Duchess of Marlborough
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The duchess who is the third wife of the 11th duke who is the de
facto head of the Spencer-Churchill family. She married him in
1972 when he succeeded to the dukedom and the family seat which
is Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. She bore him two
children (he also had a son and a daughter by his first marriage),
Lord Edward and Lady Alexandra Spencer-Churchill. Born in Spain,
the daughter of a Swedish diplomat, the duchess devoted the first
twenty years of her marriage to her family.
In 1992 she returned to painting for which she had studied years
before in France, America and Sweden. She had her first solo exhibition
in 1995 in the West end in London. It was entirely figurative comprising
romantic portraits, horses and dogs depicting human emotion and
movement. That year she was also accepted with two paintings at
the Annual Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.
In 1996 she traveled to Morocco where she was suddenly inspired
by the color and the light. And thusly, color is it for the painting
duchess. Vibrant reds, oranges and yellow, muted tones of grays,
browns and reds, be they landscapes, an abstract or a portrait,
color, color, color, is everything.
She has enjoyed numerous commissions since 1992 and her paintings
and sculptures can be found in collections both here, in Mexico
and Canada, and abroad. |
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The
view from above at Lars Bolander NY
galleries
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Among
the guests last night were Duke and Duchess
of Marlborough and their children: Lady Alexandra
Spencer-Churchill and Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, Princess
Michael of Kent,
Prince Princess Mimi Romanoff, Kenneth J. Lane, Tobie Roosevelt,
Jean Kennedy Smith, Edwina Sandys, Arianna zu Hohenlohe and
Dixon
Boardman, Terry Allen Kramer, Hilary Geary and Wilbur Ross, Wendy
Vanderbilt Lehman, Kathy and Bill Rayner, Grace Meigher, Pat
Patterson, Liz Fondoras, Adriana Cisneros, Anne Jones, William
Ivey Long, Monique Van Vooren, ASPCA president Edwin
Sayres with his wife Michele Sayres, Gillian
Atfield, Duane and Alexa Hampton,
Somers Farkas, Jack Bass, Debbie Bancroft, Anson McBeard, Bettina
Zilkha, Alexis Gregory and Nan Kempner, Joanne and Roberto de
Guardiola, Michèle Gerber Klein, Yanna Avis Karl Wellner,
Virginia Burke, Alvin Valley, Christopher Mason, Diana Heye,
Nancy and Joe Missett, Catherine Cahill, Bill Bernhard, Sharon
Hoge, Peter Lyden, Luigi Tadini with his grandparents Luciano
and Carla Tadini, Richard Kaplan, Annika Caswell, John Mashek,
Maggie Norris, Joe Yiucho Cheng, James Sherwin, Cynthia Frank,
David Astor, Steve and Christine Schwarzman, Heather Cohane,
Ann Rapp, Jill Spalding, Patricia Burnham, Liz and Damon Mezzacappa,
Harley Baldwin, Helmut Koller, Ellen and Ian Graham, Peggy Siegel,
Robert Felner, Elizabeth Thompson, Tony and Dawn DeLorenzo, Percy
Steinhart, Colette, Anton Perich, Christopher Kalachnikoff and
Kusum Lynn.
The tone of the guest list tells you a little something about the expectations
the art world has of the work. While within that list there are major collectors
and discerning possessors, for the most part they are a lot who are attracted
to the notion of being in the company of a duchess or, as it was the night before
over at the Porcelain Company, a royal princess (Princess Michael of
Kent). Yet, despite all that, it must be said that the duchess’s
pictures are very good, even at times astonishing in their quality and pleasure
to the eye. The disadvantage of being a painter and also a duchess is a difficult
one to overcome but Rosita has succeeded. |
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Examples
of the Duchess' work
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You
can see for yourself – Rosita
Marlborough’s
paintings are on exhibit at the Lars Bolander Gallery at 72
Gansevoort Street between Ninth Avenue and Washington Street
until November 9 – from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can also
visit her website: www.rositamarlborough.com
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L.
to r.: Lars Bolander, Rosita,
the Duchess of Marlborough,
Duane Hampton, and Liz Mezzacappa, Nancy and Joe
Missett.
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Catherine
Cahill, Bill Bernhard, and Sharon
Hoge
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Lady
Henrietta Spencer-Churchill and Peter Lyden |
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Roger
Webster and Yanna Avis |
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Edwina
Sandys, Christopher Mason, Richard Kaplan,
and Annika
Caswell
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Joanne
de Guardiola with Wilbur Ross and
Hilary Geary
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John
Mashek and Pauline Pitt
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Lars
Bolander and Yanna Avis
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The
Duke of Marlborough and David Astor
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Alvin
Valley, Maggie Norris, and Joe Yiucho
Cheng
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Heather
Cohane and Liz Fondaras
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Edwin
and Michele Sayres
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L.
to r.: Ann Rapp and Patricia
Burnham showcase
two of the Duchess' paintings, and a third.
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