Via California - January/February 2020 - 22

Sands Hotel & Spa.

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Palm Springs Art Museum
Founded in 1938 to present natural science,
Palm Springs Art Museum today showcases
world-class modern and contemporary art
at three locations: a main space downtown,
a stand-alone architecture and design center nearby, and a satellite gallery in Palm
Desert. The museum rotates works from its
permanent collection of 11,000-plus sculptures, paintings, and objects by 20thcentury greats Alexander Calder, Henry
Moore, Robert Motherwell, and others. It
also mounts lively temporary exhibits, such
as the first major solo show (Jan. 18-May 31)
by artist and cattle rancher Gerald Clarke, a
tribal leader of the Cahuilla Band of Indians
whose work often strives to debunk stereotypes about indigenous peoples.

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Ace Hotel & Swim Club
Desert Void, the flamboyant 2019 mural by
Chaz Bear-aka singer, songwriter, and producer Toro y Moi-brought vivid abstract
shapes to an outdoor wall of the Ace Hotel
& Swim Club in Palm Springs. Like the everchanging landscape from which it drew
inspiration, his masterpiece is fleeting:
Every April, the hotel unveils a new largescale work on the side of its Commune
building to coincide with Coachella Valley
Music and Arts Festival events. No word yet
as to what's on deck for the next installation
(the ninth to date), but you can bet it won't
be any wallflower.

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Frey House II
In designing his 1963 Palm Springs abode, prominent Swiss architect
Albert Frey created a bold hillside pavilion of steel, glass, and corrugated metal physically wedded to the land, with a boulder dividing the
living and sleeping spaces. You can visit the still-startling landmark,
now known as the Frey House II, as an optional add-on to the Modern
Tour, the official tour of the Palm Springs Art Museum's Architecture
and Design Center. The three-hour guided excursion by SUV features
two to four stops for viewing the interiors of private homes in neighborhoods packed with gems of midcentury modern architecture.

Sands Hotel & Spa

Palm Springs Art Museum.

V I A | J A N UA RY+ FE B R UA RY 2 0 2 0

Morocco meets modernism with a big splash of whimsy at the new
Sands Hotel & Spa in Indian Wells. What was originally a late 1950s
hotel has been reimagined by Los Angeles interior designer Martyn
Lawrence Bullard, a star of Bravo's hit TV series Million Dollar
Decorators. You don't have to stay overnight to sip a refreshing Ginger
Kicker in the Pink Cabana restaurant (where the decor offers a groovy
mint-green-and-pink riff on a midcentury Palm Springs tennis club) or
schedule a hammam-style treatment (with a body mask of jasmineinfused rhassoul clay sourced from the Atlas Mountains) in the spa.

TOP: TIM STREET-PORTER; BOTTOM: LANCE GERBER

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Via California - January/February 2020

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