Let there be no doubt about it, suave as he was, with his bespoke suits, slicked-back hair and patrician good looks, David Nightingale Hicks (1929–98) was a committed revolutionary. Composing rooms of arresting opulence through his magisterial orchestration of cacophonous colors and patterns, Italian modern mixed with Louis XV furnishings and counterintuitive plays of scale, he forever rocked the stately world of interior design.
As a zealot of style, he took no prisoners. “Dedication to design means ruthless criticism and losing friends,” he once declared. He was not exaggerating. His wife claimed that he conceived his signature high-gloss brown walls as a result of her throwing glasses of Coca-Cola at him during their alarmingly frequent marital spats.
By the time he was 25, Hicks, who had attended London’s Central School of Art and Design and endured a couple of arid years in the art department of the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, had the crème de la crème of London society as clients — and he was being entertained by them! Within a few years, he was courting Lady Pamela Mountbatten, the daughter of Lord Mountbatten, the last British viceroy of India, and the uncle of Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband. They married in 1960 and acquired Britwell, a Georgian pile in Oxfordshire, which became the family seat, design lab and showplace.
The first truly modern interior Hicks ever designed was Lord John Cholmondeley’s penthouse overlooking Hyde Park, in 1967. The graphic boldness of the scheme — brightly colored walls outlined in dark hues and dynamic geometric-patterned carpets — echoed the energy and attitude of the hard-edge painting that was then at the fore. Here, as in all his interiors, he included what he called “tablescapes,” vignettes of artfully arranged objects and artworks that added interest and life to the room. They were soon widely copied. Another landmark interior came in the early 1970s, when he revived Baronscourt, a grand neoclassical house in Northern Ireland, by giving it an entirely contemporary decor.
In addition to his immense creative talent, Hicks had a keen entrepreneurial acumen and vision. While he could have made a fine business simply designing grand homes for the wealthy and titled, he expanded his studio to include offices, boutiques, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs. He had showrooms all over the world, and he embarked on licensing agreements for ranges of vividly hued, geometric-patterned sheets and towels, clothes, umbrellas and bags.
The British designer was as daring as he was debonair, deploying a brazen mix of colors and patterns that came to define the groovy-glamorous interiors of the Swinging Sixties.
Find David Hicks furniture on 1stDibs.
"David Hicks On... Bathrooms, Decoration With Fabrics, And Decoration- 5" w/ DH
By David Hicks
Located in Bristol, CT
(1) David Hicks on Decoration- 5 [168] pp. Britwell Books 1972 (2) David Hicks on Decoration- With Fabrics World Publishing 1971 (3) David Hicks on Bathrooms [151] pp. Britwell Boo...
Paper
$1,665Sale Price|20% Off
H 31.5 in W 23.63 in
"Nude I&II" - limited edition finest quality - color photograph - set of two
By Ksenia Kokovashina
Located in Winterswijk, NL
Kseniia Kokovashina - "Nude I&II" set of two. Beautiful limited edition art photography. Printable in colour or black/white. Editions: 20. Tec...
Photographic Paper
Night music , 65x49cm, acrylic on paper
By Ivan Nesvetailo
Located in Yerevan, AM
Night music , 65x49cm, acrylic on paper
Paper, Acrylic
$750Sale Price|25% Off
H 46.46 in W 33.08 in
Wolf and Crow Guard, 118х 84 cm, acrylic on pay
Located in Yerevan, AM
Wolf and Crow Guard, 118х 84 cm, acrylic on pay
Acrylic, Paper
$320Sale Price|20% Off
H 12 in W 9 in
Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibition Catalog Serpentine Gallery London 1996
By Jean-Michel Basquiat
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Basquiat Serpentine Gallery London 1996: A rare, highly collectable 1990's Basquiat exhibition catalog published on the occasion of Basquiat's first major London exhibition: Jean-Mic...
Paper
$340Sale Price|20% Off
H 9 in W 9 in
Basquiat exhibition catalog France, 1999 (vintage Basquiat)
By Jean-Michel Basquiat
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Rare 1990s Basquiat exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of: ‘Basquiat The Transcendental Voyage, at L'Espal;’ Le Mans, France, 1999. Ba...
Paper
$233
H 11.82 in W 9.06 in D 0.08 in
Le Rire - Illustrated Magazine after Pierre-Georges Jeanniot - 1906
Located in Roma, IT
Le Rire is a Comic Magazine published in june 1906, reproducing in lithographs the drawings by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot (1848–1934).
Paper
"Codex Asien" Small Collage by Michael Pauker
By Michael Pauker
Located in Soquel, CA
Small abstract paper collage in chalkboard black by Bay Area artist Michael Pauker (American, b. 1957). This piece is created from a few pieces of antique paper, assembled in an aesthetically pleasing ratio, with a stark contrast between codex marks on a black background. These are all numbered sequentially, into the thousands - Pauker created a series of these pieces over the course of a decade. Numbered and titled, "Codex Asien," on verso . Acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Presented in a new mat with foamcore backing. Paper size: 7.75"H x 4.75"W Mat size: 13"H x10"W “I’m driven by curiosity...where it comes from I can’t tell you; it’s just there. And early 20th-century modernist art is the thing that I keep returning to.” - Michael Pauker Bay Area artist and art educator Michael Pauker was born in New York in 1957 and knew he wanted to be an artist from the age of 15. He earned a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at SUNY Purchase in his native state of New York. In 1989 he went on to earn an M.F.A at Mills College in Oakland and was awarded the City of Oakland Artist Fellowship in Painting. He has been a Bay Area resident since 1988. His work has been exhibited widely across the U.S., as well as in Japan and Costa Rica, and is included in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exhibitions include: 2007 Contemporary Art Museum, San Jose, Costa Rica 2007 “The Ebay Art Project,” Works/San Jose, San Jose, CA 2003 “Found Imagery: The Art of Collage,” Fresno Art Museum,Fresno, CA 2003 “Cut, Copy, Paste,” De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA 2003 “20th Annual Exhibition,” Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA 2002 “40 by 40,” Adam Baumgold Gallery, N.Y., NY 2002 “Works on Paper,” Bryant St. Gallery, Palo Alto, CA 2002 Dolby Chadwick Gallery...
Paper, Ink, Printer's Ink
$340Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.75 in W 3 in
Andy Warhol Chelsea Girls 1971 (announcement)
By Andy Warhol
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls: Rare 1971 invite published on the occasion of a screening of Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls in Oxford, England: “Admit one to: Andy Warhol's THE CHELSEA GI...
Paper, Offset
Untitled , 29x21 cm, watercolour, paper
Located in Yerevan, AM
Untitled , 29x21 cm, watercolour, paper
Paper, Watercolor, Pencil
Love, 29x21 cm, watercolour, paper
Located in Yerevan, AM
Love, 29x21 cm, watercolour, paper
Paper, Watercolor, Pencil
Still life, 29x21 cm, watercolour, paper
Located in Yerevan, AM
Still life, 29x21 cm, watercolour, paper
Paper, Watercolor, Pencil
$2,632
H 10.63 in W 9.06 in D 1.19 in
The Illustrated Long Walk to Freedom, limited edition book, Nelson Mandela, Bio
By Nelson Mandela
Located in Knowle Lane, Cranleigh
The Illustrated Long Walk to Freedom, Limited Edition Autobiography of the life of Nelson Mandela. A leather-bound book in a presentation box with an original pencil signature insert...
Archival Paper