<![CDATA[Valleywag: Money Can't Buy You Taste]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/valleywag.com.png <![CDATA[Valleywag: Money Can't Buy You Taste]]> http://valleywag.com/tag/money can't buy you taste http://valleywag.com/tag/money can't buy you taste <![CDATA[ Google's Marissa Mayer appointed to board of local modern art museum ]]> Marissa Mayer's high opinion of her own good taste will be getting that much more insufferable now that she can tell people that she's on the board of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Call it Mayer's latest attempt to play the role of Peggy Guggenheim. Thing is, Guggenheim actually collected contemporary art (and contemporary artists, if the rumored romances are to be believed). The press release names Sol Lewitt, Robert Bechtle and Robert Rauschenberg as Mayer's three favorites. Only Bechtle is still breathing — at age 76.

But throw enough money around and you, too, can pretend to have taste! Worked for the Gap's Donald Fisher, who's opening his own ironically named Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio (or "CAMP") because he didn't want SFMOMA to meddle with his precious collection. No wonder Google chose the Gap building with its godawful Richard Serra sculpture for the company's newly opened San Francisco office. (Original photo by Steve Rhodes)

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Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:40:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5025099&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Gurbaksh Chahal's swingin' bachelor pad in the sky ]]> When we heard that BlueLithium founder Gurbaksh Chahal bought a $6.9 million penthouse, we figured he'd go with something tastefully modern to match the building and his taste in slim suits and slimmer ties. But no, oh no. Think animal skins; a headboard and coffee table monogrammed with his signature "G;" and actual chintz upholstery on the dining room set, which a cheap-looking but showy chandelier hovers over. It's like a pileup on the midcentury-minimalism and rococo-inspired Gucci decadence highway.

His self-aggrandizing website is muted and subued in its design by comparison, and that's saying something. Seems Chahal didn't bother to spend any of his millions on a subscription to Architectural Digest or Wallpaper. (Photo via SFLuxe)

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Mon, 19 May 2008 13:40:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=391809&view=rss&microfeed=true