Genadii Berёzkin's collages

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Section Two of New York's High Line

A previously abandoned and derelict railway running between West 20th and West 30th in New York, has recently been given a makeover by landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and planting designer Piet Oudolf. The 1.5 mile long elevated park winds its way from Gansevoort Street to West 30th Street, connecting the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Midtown West. This is the second phase of the work to the High Line, with the first being coined 'architect's row', after attracting new buildings by the likes of Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel. The original railway, constructed in the 1930s, was used to lift dangerous freight trains off the street, but was left unused and wasted since 1980. 

The regeneration of the High Line has created a urban garden and skywalk with stretches of grass, art installations and seated platforms. "Inspired by the melancholic, unruly beauty of this postindustrial ruin, where nature has reclaimed a once vital piece of urban infrastructure, the new park interprets its inheritance." The elevated park forms a green pathway, which weaves through the industrial cityscape of New York's red brick buildings and glass skyscrapers. 

Images: Wallpaper

Elle Fanning, Chloe Moretz and Hailee Steinfield for Love magazine's Issue #6

Natalia Vodianova for Stella McCartney Autumn/Winter 2011 Campaign by Mert & Marcus

Footwear by Victoria Spruce

Royal College of Art graduate, Victoria Spruce presented the following sculptural and sky-high shoes at the graduate show at the beginning of the month. The architectural shapes are formed with plastic and feature a soft leather insole and lining, that creates a smooth support for the foot within the hard curves.

RIP Lucian Freud

Lucian Freud in 1947 aged 25

'I paint people', Freud has said, 'not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be'. 

Lucian Freud, the foremost figurative artist in the 20th Century art world, renowned for his intense realist portraits depicting the vulnerability and humanity of his sitters, died last week at the age of 88. He was the grandson of psychoanalysist Sigmund Freud, born in Berlin in 1922 and moved to England with his Jewish Family in 1933, where he gained citizenship in 1939. Freud came to redefine British painting, with his stark portraiture showcasing what it is like to be human. Freud's subjects were often the people in his life; friends, family, fellow painters, lovers, children. As he has said 'The subject matter is autobiographical, it's all to do with hope and memory and sensuality and involvement really'. His works have been increasingly sought after at recent auctions and his portrayal of an overweight nude woman, Sue Tilley, sleeping on a couch sold in 2008 for £20.6 million - a world record for a work by a living artist. He is also famous for his portrait of the Queen, which he refused to paint in any other style but his own, and the supermodel Kate Moss, who posed for him in 2002. 

Naked Man Back View 1992-1993

Reflection (Self Portrait) 1985

Portrait with Whippet

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping 1995

Nude with Leg Up 1992

Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril- Beyond the Moulin Rouge

Today I paid a visit to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition at Somerset House, which is on until 18th September 2011. The exhibition explores the work of artist Henri de Toulouse-Latrec and his muse and dancer Jane Avril. Toulouse-Latrec gained fame with his evocative paintings and posters of Parisian nightlife featuring dancers and singers of the famous Moulin Rouge. He sought to capture their expressions, gestures, dress and movements through sketches, paintings and lithographs. 

Instantly recognisable by her vivid auburn hair and her alluring persona, Jane Avril propelled to instant stardom following the popularity of his striking posters. Both a close friend of the artist, and a renowned figure in his work, their partnership came to define the world of the Moulin Rouge. 

The exhibition at The Courtauld carefully puts together study sketches, showing a quick economic use of line and finished paintings and posters, with fluid brushstrokes. In the vibrant paintings he perfectly depicts Jane Avril's distinctive character, with dancing, kicking legs and wild revealing dresses. She was diagnosed with the movement disorder 'St Vitus' dance', which caused her dance to take on an erratic movement, recalling to mind the images of nervous contractions that proliferated at the time in Paris. Placed next to these celebrated paintings are lesser-known studies capturing the dancer off-stage, as a private person, with hunched up shoulders, walking unrecognisable down the street and sipping coffee in his studio. The exhibition offers a view behind the public persona of this famous performer, revealing both the spectacle of bohemian Paris in the 1890s, and the close partnership between two very talented artists. 

At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Lautrec

Portrait of Jane Avril, by Toulouse-Lautrec 1892

Jane Avril at the Moulin Rouge

Jane Avril in the Entrance to the Moulin Rouge, by Toulouse-Lautrec 1892

Jane Avril Leaving the Moulin Rouge

Jardin de Paris: Jane Avril by Toulouse-Lautrec

Walking City dresses by Ying Gao

This is just the sort of thing I like; pleats, folds, fashion and architecture coming together to form complex geometries and sculptural shapes. Montreal fashion designer Ying Gao has created these folded dresses, containing hidden pneumatic pumps which help the fabric move as if it is breathing, "They draw the viewer’s eye, inflating, unfolding, transforming while protecting the virtual body they cover". The project is currently on show at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Canada. 

Images: Dezeen