Hutton Wilkinson * Tony Duquette Inc. is a full service interior design firm based in Beverly Hills with current projects in Los Angeles, New York, Palm Beach and Thailand with completed projects in Paris, Venice, Hawaii and Saudi Arabia.
Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park, 1972
A Personal Culture
From December 1972 through January 1973 Tony Duquette was invited by the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park to present an exhibition which Duquette called “A Personal Culture". The exhibition which included new works as well as retrospective pieces, was viewed by record number of visitors to the gallery. Above, a photograph of Duquette’s giant sea anemone light fixture which he created for the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, used here as a background for the exhibition poster. Duquette called on one hundred and fifty volunteers to help him create and install his works at the gallery. It was as a volunteer, working on this exhibition that Hutton Wilkinson met Tony and his wife Elizabeth. Wilkinson who was eighteen years old at the time went on to become Duquette’s protege, apprentice, and later his business partner until Duquette’s death in 1999.
A full scale model of Tony Duquette’s Primal Sun sculpture made of wooden dowels wrapped with gold foil and Lucite rods on an iron framework with convex mirror. Tony seated on the floor in front of this giant work before it’s installation at his personal culture exhibition. This piece was later commissioned in Lucite and anodized aluminum by Arthur Spitzer and donated to UCLA where it hung for years against a gold mosaic wall in the lobby of Schoenberg hall.
The Primal Sun sculpture by Tony Duquette, c. 1972
A detail from one of many abalone encrusted panels created by Duquette and used for an underwater pavilion which was one of the centerpieces of his “Personal Culture”. His prodigious use of nacre in his works caused hi friends to call him “Tony Abalone”.
Detail of the Sea Samurai. The Sea Samurai were a group of turning towers constructed for the exhibition out of greeting card racks, mounted on old wheel drums which were rigged with electric motors and pulsating lights. The greeting card racks had been gilded and hung with mirrors, sea shells and scraps of felt and gold lames. This assemblage was a scale model for what could have become giant turning towers for a public installation.
A Tony Duquette assemblage incorporating a sand dollar, a saw fish snout , a star fish and and the eye of a Buddha with black and white bird feathers.
“a shamans mask” created from the pelvis of a cow with paint , gold leaf, sea shells and feathers assembled by tony duquette c. 1972 for his personal culture exhibition at the municipal art gallery at barnsdall park, los angeles.
A design by Tony Duquette for an enormous window for the proposed Astoria theater in New York c. 1960. This model to scale (each square was to be 5 x 10 feet) was created using plastic hair combs and paint. It was also viewed as a mandala and exhibited at Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles.
A Tony Duquette designed group of macrame leaf furniture set in front of a suite of fabric mosaic tapestries constructed on scrim and lighted from behind with a pair of narwhal and tortoise standard lamps. Note: the iridescent quilted insect pillows.
The Encompassed Egg, a multimedia sculpture, comprised of an antique wood cared frame, polished steel and a lighted resin egg (the egg shape symbolizing rebirth and continuance, a recurring theme in Duquette’s work). Duquette paired his symbolic egg with a 19th century carved wooden frame made by conics and mounted on a steel and leather stand. The sculpture was later purchased by Fauchon in Paris and used for the cover of their catalog.
The Encompassed Egg.
A fragment of a priestess’ robe or as Duquette jokingly called it, “a specimen of rhinestone disease”. This three-dimensional wall hanging was mounted on a window screen and backed by a quilted silver lame panel. Between the quilted panel and the window screen was a row of lights for effect. The fragment of an opera cloak with its giant sequins and diamante crystals was mounted on gauze and applied to the screen so that it appeared as if it were floating in air.
“The Winter Sun” a prototype for a lighted wall mounted sculpture (to be made any size as per architect’s specifications) comprised of metal sun rays, and plastic bubble wrap petrified in resin and a halo made of radiating circular hoops and wire rays all lighted from behind.
A macrame Leaf Chair created for this exhibition with its quilted seat cushion and embroidered butterfly pillow. The chair was one of a suite of furniture which included a large sofa and two chairs. The suite comprised a grouping in the exhibition which included a fabric mosaic tapestry titled “butterfly intrusion”, a leaf carpet and lighted narwhal and tortoise shell standards.
The Sun Toad was one of many “lighted” mandalas at the exhibition. Toads and the sun were recurring themes in Duquette’s work.
“Games of Chance” four mandalas by Tony Duquette c. 1972 photographed as they were displayed against blue velvet at the exhibition. Duquette created these four objects using sliced rubber sandals, horse shoes, the thong from a rubber sandal, sea shells, bits from a white plastic waste paper basket, strips from a gold plastic purse, drift wood, bird feathers and other detritus washed up on the beach in Palm Beach where he was house guesting with his wife Elizabeth and his hosts Jean and Maggie Louis.
“The Sea Samurai” a group of turning towers made by Tony Duquette incorporating greeting card racks, wheel drums, sea shells, leather, wooden fans, yarn, gold lame and mirrors. The towers turned on electric motors with pulsating lights underneath.