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Duane Hampton, author of ‘Mark Hampton: An American Decorator’ at Rural Residence
July 10 @ 6 - 8 p.m.
The interior designer Mark Hampton (1940 - 1998) was almost as highly regarded for his writing (a column in House & Garden) and painting (watercolors, one of which is in the collection of London’s V & A) as he was for his chosen field, which he and a few others dominated the highest reaches of throughout the seventies, eighties and nineties in New York. His clients valued his unerring eye and sense of proportion, both literal and figurative. The press adored him, as well; in part, because he was simultaneously pithy and down to earth, less prone to grand pronouncements delivered in italics than some of his more self-important peers. Instead, the midwestern farmboy in Hampton shone through such comments as, “When things get rough, I think, ‘Well, at least I’m not back in high school in P.E.’ ” He loved his work. “Whether you are in Birmingham, England, or Birmingham, Alabama, you cannot have a bad time because the food is awful or it’s raining or you don’t like the hotel. There is always something to see.’’ And was impatient with those who ruined the fun. “Those people who can say, ‘I love Winterthur but I hate Lyndhurst,’ people who have these enormous, refined senses of hate.”
Now a new book, Mark Hampton, An American Decorator (Rizzoli, 2010), has been written by someone who did more than interview the subject from time to time. His wife of nearly forty years, Duane Hampton, has returned to her roots in journalism with this compendium of Mark Hampton’s best work and words, plus plenty of her own insights, as well. She will be at Rural Residence in Hudson on Saturday evening to talk about and sign her book.
Rural Residence
316 Warren Street
Hudson; 518.822.1061
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/06/10 at 03:02 AM • Permalink
