Member Spotlight: Rachel Gould
Rachel Gould
Copywriter at The Metropolitan Museum of Art store
New York City/Upstate New York
@thearttouristchannel (Instagram), @TheArtTourist (YouTube)
Fine Objects Society Member since 2024
Cabinet of Curiosities
Gilt or patina?
Gilt
Gothic Revival or Renaissance Revival?
Gothic Revival
Favorite museum in the world?
If I must… The Cloisters
One material you wish people appreciated more?
Carved coconuts!
Favorite account to follow on Instagram?
Can you describe the first object that truly captivated you—and what it revealed to you about beauty or craftsmanship?
Phoebe Anna Traquair’s tapestry series The Progress of a Soul (1895–1902) at the National Galleries of Scotland totally recalibrated my thinking about what constitutes a work of art. Previously, the scope of my interest was largely limited to painting, but the skill and care and dimension of Traquair’s handiwork completely enchanted me. From there, I discovered her enamel jewelry, and further uncovered my latent obsession with the decorative arts. These pieces illuminated the world of artisanship, and of treasures designed to be worn, cherished, and imbued with narratives of their own.
What’s one piece in your collection or experience that has an unexpectedly scandalous or eccentric backstory?
Hanging above my couch and creeping out my guests (much to my delight) is a chaotic painting of an esoteric intergalactic scene: skeletal figures peek out of two huge, hovering eyes; strange creatures rest in the craters of an erupting planet; and in the upper center of the composition is a window-like portrait into a melting scene of two human-esque figures.
The painting was leaning on its side against a pick-up truck when I noticed it at a flea market in Connecticut, and I was almost cosmically attracted to its weirdness. It turns out (as a little plaque on the frame clued me in) that it was made by the 20th-century Yugoslavian artist François Mitic-Spiridon, who was notably championed by Salvador Dalí after the two met in Paris in the 1970s. Despite Dalí’s efforts, Spiridon’s work never caught on—I suspect he was too late to the Surrealism party, though he certainly seems eccentric enough for his predecessors. He was apparently blind until the age of 5, which might explain why his paintings are such an eyeful.
How has your eye evolved over the years—are there things you once loved and now find less compelling, or vice versa?
After years as a closeted maximalist, I’ve become increasingly comfortable admitting—if not boasting!—my fondness for outrageous, ostentatious objects. Particularly since I began working at The Met, I’ve found myself drawn to the more ornate, even borderline ridiculous works of art in the collection: heavily jeweled snuff boxes and pendants with monstrous baroque pearls, etc. Of course, there’s much to be said for luxurious materials, but beyond that, these pieces satisfy my appreciation for what seems like the lost art of bonkers craftsmanship.
If your taste had a material signature (e.g., lacquer, bronze, glass), what would it be and why?
Glazed earthenware.
I have a small but ever-growing collection of Victorian and Art Nouveau–era glazed earthenware tiles, most of which I suspect were intended for fireplace surrounds. There’s something so mesmerizing about the way the glazes spread and pool, lending depth and dimension to these otherwise unassuming objects. It’s exhilarating to stumble upon them, cast aside in various states—I’ve fished them out of old cardboard boxes in architectural salvage shops, and rescued them from the far reaches of dusty antique store shelves. The fact that they almost never even have price tags suggests they’re a generally disregarded item, but I really value them.
I say this particular material embodies my taste because it’s aesthetic but modest. I try to live by William Morris’s famous philosophy: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful (or some variation on that sentiment), but my budget is far humbler than my wishlist!
Follow Rachel on Instagram at @thearttouristchannel and on YouTube at @TheArtTourist.