Beauty & Mischief | Adam Blackman and David Cruz
Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book, hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
David Cruz: Hello, I'm David Cruz. I'm here to talk about Beauty & Mischief.
Adam Blackman: And I'm Adam Blackman of Blackman Cruz. And we're here to talk about Beauty & Mischief, The Design Alchemy of Blackman Cruz.
Suzy Chase: Known for your over the top unique creative vision, it's been said you cater to a certain kind of client with, shall I say, dark humor. You two guys are from very different backgrounds. How did Blackman Cruz, your antique and modern furniture showroom based in Los Angeles come to life?
Adam Blackman: I think it's a very interesting story. I was coming from the antique world. I was then selling in an antique market. The first day I met my business partner and my wife-to-be. About a year later, David and I found ourselves kind of thrown together in a way at another antique mall, it doesn't matter. And then we opened Blackman Cruz, and on the corner of La Cienega and Waring, it was a small shop and it grew. And now-
David Cruz: Yeah, it was a very organic business actually. It was very organic meeting. I was doing advertising and started going to flea markets and decided that I didn't care whether people bought Coke or went to Disneyland and I just started buying. And I had another partner at the time and that didn't pan out. But also, I think it's important to say that it's not necessarily the dark humor that it's important in our... It's just we cater to people that have their own identity and have courage to make their own choices. I think it's more to that effect.
Suzy Chase: Well, on your website, BlackmanCruz.com, you write, "We're merchants. We sell life enhancers."
Adam Blackman: There we go.
Suzy Chase: I'd love to hear more about that.
Adam Blackman: As I was getting here this morning and I have to walk through the showroom up here at the store, I find ourselves very, very lucky to be doing what we're doing because really that word life enhancers, it just kind of sums it up. I mean, we just look for, what a lucky job to be in here in this time in Los Angeles. We cater to designers, decorators, and like David said, people with a little courage. People think of us as, yes, there are some macabre things. We have these bronze skull lamps that we've been making for eons, but maybe it's offbeat things or things that have humor. Or really, I always think more original that you're most likely not going to see at other places brought together. People walk through and they're like, "Wow." Go ahead.
David Cruz: Because I think we provide a service for people that don't have time really. And there's individual choices that are not catering to trends. So they're just basically, yes, sometimes you get a little more of it because that's just the way the world is. But I think ultimately the service is to provide choices that are not necessarily commercial.
Suzy Chase: So this book not only celebrates a 32-year career, but it also highlights a little history of some of your favorite decorative artists in the Blackman Cruz workshop. And bonus, you take us into your own homes. So first off, Adam and David, tell me a little bit about your own homes and where they are. And, Adam, you can go first.
Adam Blackman: I have a house on the west side in an area called Crestwood Hills. It's a postman beam house and it's by A. Quincy Jones and Whitney R. Smith. And it was a cooperative. It's very interesting. My wife is very active on the board and you really see the ins and outs, it's very interesting, of this cooperative that I didn't really know about. Didn't even know the area until we ended up buying a house there. And it's a very simple house and it's simple in that it's very simple materials and we like it very much. You have a view of the ocean off of one side, kind of through some trees. But The Getty on the other and it's really up on the top of a hill. And so that's in the West Side in Brentwood. And then we just seven years, six years ago, bought a house up north in Ojai and we just love going there. And it's also, we were looking for kind of an Adobe style and we ended up buying very similar to what we have already in LA, another mid 20th century. And it was kind of thrown together. I like to say it was thrown together on a weekend. That's what it kind of seems like. The former owner who basically built the house would find a piece of wood in the street and somehow make it into a shelf in the house. It's kind of thrown together. But we like Ojai very much. It's a beautiful place and we go there as often as we can.
Suzy Chase: And, David, what about you?
David Cruz: I live in an old neighborhood, it's called Whitley Heights. It was developed by the studios in the '20s and then it was broken up by the freeways. But it is now historical district and they can't screw it up any further. And the house is a 1939 Paul Laszlo house, which he was a Hungarian emigrate before the war. And this international style. Also on a hill, just a great vibe to the house. Great light, great air, great. It's just a simple structure as well and it's just terrific. I'm not tired of it at all, has great view. And then I grew up in Mexico and had a very sort of thorny relationship with the place. But I've come to make friends with it and very much enjoying a house there in San Miguel de Allende. And it's an old house. It's probably about at least 200 years old in the center of town. The place is really well kept-up. I don't know if you know about San Miguel de Allende, which is a world heritage site now. Beautifully preserved. No neon lights, no stop signs, a lovely place, great food. And they just finished the main restoration of the house and hope to spend more time there too as well.
Suzy Chase: I feel like there's a story behind every single item that you sell.
Adam Blackman: There is. Every item really opens up a whole world that you really didn't know existed before you saw this thing. And then when you start looking, especially with the internet, makes it so easy to find an artist, to stumble on something and go, "Wow, I've never heard of this guy. Wow, it's a whole world." And yeah, it really is. That's kind of fascinating about what we do and we're not held back, which I think is something very lucky. And this is something I think why David Cruz and I kind of chose each other, that we don't really specialize. We're not like just French, 19th century. Not that there's anything wrong with it. But I think it's that constant, it's that drive, it's self propelling, it just...
David Cruz: And I think Los Angeles, it's a great environment for that kind of... To be able not to be specialized into any aesthetic because it has everything. And people are new to the place, most of them. And there's no historical anchor really. Like New York is a much older city and LA's a new city so you can do new stuff and investigate different things.
Suzy Chase: So when you moved into your space in 2007, you were welcomed by old booze bottles, ashtrays with cigarette butts, a few matchbooks, and memories. Like the time Chaka Khan allegedly drove her Excalibur into the front of the building. What is the story behind 836 North Highland Avenue in Los Angeles?
Adam Blackman: Oh, man. This was a notorious day club. It was a notorious everything club for I think like 30 years. There's a scene in American Gigolo, kind of a pivotal point, 10 minutes of the movie, where he goes to this club Probe and this was called Probe.
David Cruz: I went to it a couple of times and I guess it was in the late, a long time ago. I don't even want to date it. But it was dark and very happening actually. Mischievous, yes.
Adam Blackman: And there were many clubs here for years. I mean there was a lesbian club. What was it? I used to be able to go through all the clubs, but Danceteria, Paradise, Ballroom, Club AD, Ritual. It was many clubs and over a weekend it could be a few different clubs. Notorious place. And so when we got it, boy, David and I walked up to the room upstairs, which is kind of the best room in the house, and it was the VIP room, and the light was wonderful and it's like, "Oh my God." Parquet floor, gothic wood trim all around the place. And we thought, "This is going to be a great store." And it's been wonderful. It's been wonderful. So we bought the building and still people come in and remember it. And when they do, it's kind of wild because people really like, it, hits them. And I've seen the look in people's their faces many, many times. It's like, "This was Probe?" It was a wild place.
David Cruz: It's a great place to exhibit and you can create little vignettes. And you can have domestic scale or you can have this big, huge kind of ballroom thing, which was the disco space. But there are rooms where you can create more intimate spaces. It's really, it's a good place.
Suzy Chase: You say these diverse portals into other worlds are by design and happenstance. Talk a little bit about that.
Adam Blackman: There was in the book, who said that? We did.
Suzy Chase: It's in the book.
Adam Blackman: Well, I think, like I was talking about earlier, is you could be looking for something and you always stumble upon a completely different world.
David Cruz: I think it refers also to the investigation that Adam was talking about, that you find something and then you start investigating. And then you go get lost in design and you keep searching for pieces that talk to other pieces and you start investigating the history of it. I bought a piece of Rudolf Steiner cabinet from Rudolf Steiner, who I had no idea who it was. And that led me to investigate all of that, of his schools and his philosophy. And so it opens a lot of worlds that are-
Adam Blackman: Absolutely.
David Cruz: Very interesting, yes.
Adam Blackman: Yeah. I think in our book we gave a whole section to it and I think we gave a whole section to it, and that's Carla Bugatti Furniture, and talk about happenstance. Years ago when we first opened the store, a contact of David's in Mexico City knew of a collection, didn't even have it, of Carlo Bugatti Furniture. And if you look at the book, we gave a whole section to it and it's very important stuff and very important. It was turn of the century and still I think in a way kind of encompasses what Blackman Cruz has been striving to do. You look at Bugatti Furniture and you're like, "I don't know if this is old. I don't know if this is new." And it was the Bugatti furniture that we stumbled upon, David stumbled upon. We ended up buying the collection and we still look for this stuff. And again, talking about a whole world, people are going to think, "Oh, Bugatti, I know that. That's the car." Yeah, but that's the son. This was the father who did the furniture. And his stuff is rare and it's really unique. I mean every single piece, beautiful, one of a kind stuff.
David Cruz: And it's really erratic, which I think is what appeals to us. The fact that he also didn't follow any rules. It was kind of he just did his own thing.
Adam Blackman: Yeah, still. And it's a little misunderstood, I think. I think people go, "Oh, that's Moorish furniture or that's this or that." Well, no, and it's fascinating. And his sons, by the way, one was Ettore, who became the car designer. And the other son was a Rembrandt Bugatti. Well, who was the sculptor, whose pieces still go for... And he had a very tragic life and they euthanized the animals during World War I. And he ended up killing himself because he only did the animals, they did an animal a day. Fascinating story, talking about a deep dive. And this stuff comes up and it's still considered the best sculpture of its kind. So fascinating family and many people don't know.
Suzy Chase: So I'm curious about the title of the book, Beauty & Mischief. Talk a little bit about that.
David Cruz: It kind of encapsulates what we're about in a way. Because we look for, obviously aesthetics are important, but also not important enough that we can screw around with it, or not be very serious about it and have humor with it. So there's a little bit of, it's a little bit of mischief, but also beauty being the important part of it.
Adam Blackman: I think it said it, David came up with the title and he said it. He came out when we were having these meetings, one after the other about this book. And came in one morning with the title and it was just like, "Oh my God," it encapsulated. And that's, it was simple. We wanted the photo to be provocative. We wanted people to look at it and wanted to pick it up.
David Cruz: First of all, the raven was live.
Suzy Chase: That's a live raven?
David Cruz: We hired an animal person. And the snakes are alive and the raven was alive. And the chair is a 19th century's chair, but it's upholstered in a Mennonite petticoat. That's our friends Clarke and Reilly. They designed that piece. But I think that kind of, it's kind of the story. So you get this beautiful piece, but you have upholster it with a petticoat. And it's kind of a little haphazard, but it's still very beautiful.
Adam Blackman: Yeah, no, the photo I think really encapsulates Beauty and Mischief. I mean and the design alchemy of Blackman Cruz is a little, well, I had to say something after Beauty and Mischief.
Suzy Chase: I think it's so interesting that you work so closely together, but you have such very different tastes. So, Adam, can you just talk about a piece that's in the store right now that really spoke to you?
Adam Blackman: Well, it's interesting. A little side note. I think the spark that has kept the business kind of fresh is that David and I buy interesting. We buy separately, but we also buy together. So we actually have three, we have different inventories. He has his thing. So when I say that David went to Italy or getting in things from Mexico City or his contacts, they're his, and it's very interesting. So it does kind of keep it fresh and David's very competitive with me. And so if I get something, he has to go back and go and find exactly the same thing somewhere online. It's really what's really kept it fresh. And so we do buy things collectively. Okay, I'll tell you something. We bought a pair of crocodiles that were really, really important. And they were Frank Gehry crocodiles that he did in 1983 for a restaurant that he was doing called Rebecca's Restaurant in Venice. It was a wonderful Mexican restaurant. It was a really chichi place. And with his friends, and they did interior. He did the crocodiles, he had them designed and they were lights that hung over the patrons. And if you look on, Google Frank Gehry crocodiles, they will come up. They were beautifully done, 21 and a half feet. The other one, the child was 17 feet long. We bought them some months ago at auction. Lucky to get them. We are lucky to have the space. Like David said, we have the large volume. Our ceilings are like 23 and a half feet. It's a very large space, which was the original dance floor. So we were able to accommodate both of these lights hanging up from the ceiling. These were important pieces. They were important Gehry pieces.
David Cruz: I think they were one there for his first commissions actually.
Adam Blackman: Absolutely, they were. They were the first time he had done animals and he went on to do fish lamps. And which by the way, there were fish lamps in the restaurant in Rebecca's, as well as an octopus lamp. They all hung from the ceiling. It was really kind of wild stuff. We had the opportunity to buy them. We stepped up. I kind of thought they would fall through the cracks. They didn't exactly, but they were huge. We got them. They hung here for a while and they went to a Gehry home in Connecticut where it's kind of exciting that they're going all the way across country. The guy who originally built them, who worked with Gehry, who still works with Gehry, and he actually did these back in '83. And told us that it was the first things that Gary had done animal-wise. And he's going to be working on these and they need a little touch-up. And we just recently sold those and that's pretty cool.
Suzy Chase: Now, is it like when you adopt a pet and they really want that pet to go to a good home? Is that you? That you want the person who purchases the item to be the right fit?
Adam Blackman: Yes.
Suzy Chase: Or does it just not matter?
Adam Blackman: Oh, look-
David Cruz: It matters depending on the piece, I think. It was great that the crocodiles went to a Gehry house, that was ideal. I mean, some pieces you don't care, but the pieces that you become sort of emotionally attached to, you do. I think most of the time I'm happy to let the pieces go. It is much better if they are going to a place that it's right for them. But the fun part is getting the pieces and letting them go. It's just part of the process.
Adam Blackman: It's funny, I'll have something at my house and go, "I really love this." And enjoy it for a while. Once I bring it into the store, once it crosses that threshold, bam, it's for sale. But David was right on. I mean there are some things that, not everything, but there are some things you go, "God, I hope..." We once had this Dupré-Lafon desk. It was a desk covered with leather and you buy it for the leather because it's beautiful. And I do mean covered with leather, top, bottom. And the people who bought it wanted to change the color and it's like-
Suzy Chase: No.
Adam Blackman: They wanted to. That's-
David Cruz: Those people don't deserve them.
Adam Blackman: Yeah. So something like that comes to mind. Or if someone had bought the Gehry crocodiles and wanted to put them outside at their deck. You go, "Oh." But we're merchants after all.
Suzy Chase: When I think of show-stopping furniture or lighting, decorative arts, artifacts, et cetera, et cetera, I think Blackman Cruz. On page 84, I am obsessed with the Clarke and Reilly sofa upholstered with antique, hand-embroidered Manton de Manila. And two things. The color palette isn't something I think you'd be drawn to. It's light blue. The arms and down the side is pink. So what's the story with this sofa?
David Cruz: Clarke and Reilly, they're very inventive and they're kind of rock and roll furniture because they're more furniture as art as supposed to functional.
Adam Blackman: Right.
David Cruz: So a lot of them, you can barely sit on them.
Adam Blackman: It's all comfortable though.
David Cruz: It's very comfortable because they use a lot of old frames and they use only terrific textiles. And it's more of an art piece than a functional object.
Adam Blackman: I think they really like pushing the envelope, and I'm looking at the picture right now. What is intentional? What's original? What's not? It's all intentional. And they use these natural fabrics and they're all antique fabrics. And everything is put together like sewing someone into a suit. Everything is hand done, everything is hand stitched. The fabric they use, the dyes. I mean it's like to the nth degree and this is their poetry. And like David said, every piece of theirs. And I'll tell you practically every piece of theirs has gone to, talk about going to good homes. People who really appreciate their pieces. And people who want to flex their financial muscle a little bit and buy really a beautiful thing and really believe in it. Because we always have believed in their stuff. And we look at it if that's not... It's funny, like David said, we-
David Cruz: A few years ago they did a whole series of antique chairs and they exposed them to the elements for several throughout. I think they went to London and Hong Kong and New York and different cities. I forget quite how many. And then afterwards they did an exhibit of the pieces and what the time and the elements had done to them. So it's all para conceptual stuff.
Adam Blackman: Yeah.
Suzy Chase: I love the idea about thinking of a piece of furniture as artwork.
David Cruz: That kind of is because they give you a lot of pleasure and they're visually great. I mean I always thought of them as that.
Suzy Chase: But you could still sit on it though, right?
Adam Blackman: Absolutely.
David Cruz: Yeah. No, you can. But you know what, if you do sit on them and you use them, then you got to realize that, especially that piece that you mentioned, they're ephemeral. So you use it and you use it until they fall apart. And then you have the picture, I guess.
Adam Blackman: Yeah.
Suzy Chase: You have the book.
David Cruz: Yes.
Adam Blackman: You have the book. Exactly.
David Cruz: Exactly.
Adam Blackman: You have the archive. Look, it existed.
Suzy Chase: Then on page 52, you have a pair of mirrored 19th century brothel chairs. I never heard of brothel chairs and I've never seen any chairs like this. Could you describe these?
David Cruz: Well, neither had I. I found them in London and they're just funny. I mean there's a mischief. So they were used in a brothel. So the courtesans would sit on them and they can appreciate themselves in different angles.
Adam Blackman: And they were extremely heavy chairs. They were all mirrored. It's maybe hard to see that they are. Mirrored on the back and on the seat, and it's not thin little. These are, I think it was at least, I want to say three-quarter, but I actually think it was an inch-thick glass. So these were extreme. They were framed in bronze and they were really wild. Very sturdy, very, very heavy, and kind of amazing.
David Cruz: It was probably just the one brothel. I don't know if they were mass-produced.
Suzy Chase: That was going to be my next question. Were they a thing, brothel chairs? Or did someone just make a couple?
David Cruz: The proprietor probably said, "Why don't we do this?" And-
Suzy Chase: What a great idea.
David Cruz: Yeah.
Adam Blackman: I have seen other individual mirror chairs, not as good as these. These were really... You never find a pair.
David Cruz: They were sold to a New Yorker.
Adam Blackman: Correct.
Suzy Chase: So now to my segment called Home, where I ask you to describe one memory of your childhood home. And please start by telling us where it was. And, David, you can start.
David Cruz: Well, I grew up in Chihuahua and my parents had, my father was a modernist, so the house was kind of a mid-century house. And he had those glass brick walls and had a nautical theme even though it was in the middle of the desert. But my parents also had a cabin up in the mountains, in the high desert in Chihuahua, and that was terrific. So we would go spend the summers there. There was no media at all there. There was one phone for the whole community. And we spent the whole summer there and it was just glorious.
Suzy Chase: And, Adam?
Adam Blackman: First 10 years of my life, lived in Neptune, New Jersey. And I remember very distinctly we would make go-karts and be pushed. And it was really great because the driveways, that every house looked exactly alike. It was, wow, what a development that was. We were like the first owners. And I remember being pushed through the streets by usually my younger brother, I guess. My older brother never liked to push. To the streets of Neptune, New Jersey. And I remember, oh, this is a good one. I remember very distinctly being pushed on a go-kart and seeing smoke in the distance and it was the riots in Asbury Park.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Adam Blackman: BlackmanCruz.com.
David Cruz: And the Instagram is also Blackman Cruz.
Adam Blackman: Correct.
Suzy Chase: Life enhancers is such a fabulous description of what you've been doing for 32 years. Thanks for putting out this stunning, seven pound book, I weighed on my scale. And thanks for coming on Decorating by the Book Podcast.
David Cruz: Thank you.
Adam Blackman: Thank you very much. This was a pleasure. Thanks, Suzy.
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