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\u201cA Taste of Beauty: Spoons of Africa\u201d is based on the collection of La Jollan Richard Ulevitch. (Richard Ulevitch)<\/p>\nLong before he embarked on a career in science, La Jolla resident Richard Ulevitch had an interest in \u201cnon-traditional\u201d art and artifacts from around the globe.<\/p>\n
Now, in his retirement from a 50-plus-year career at La Jolla\u2019s Scripps Research, he has published his first book, \u201cA Taste of Beauty: Spoons of Africa,\u201d to showcase some of the artifacts he has accumulated in his life.<\/p>\n
With a planned release in September, the 240-page book features more than 100 photos of African spoons from Ulevitch\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have collected African art for 30 years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to collect artifacts such as masks and figures, but there are lots of fantastic spoons that were carved by the same carvers as those that made the masks and figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey represent a high level of carving expertise. Each spoon is a work of art. The amount of artistry in these spoons is incredible, and there is no room for error for the carvers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spoons often are made of metal, bone and\/or wood, he said. \u201cWhen I started looking at them \u2026 I was fascinated by them. They represent a refined aspect of African art.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA Taste of Beauty: Spoons of Africa\u201d is based on the collection of La Jollan Richard Ulevitch. (Richard Ulevitch)<\/p>\n
Two years ago, Ulevitch started thinking about turning his passion for African spoons into a book.<\/p>\n
Having loaned several objects over the years to the Mingei International Museum in San Diego\u2019s Balboa Park, he developed relationships with some of the curators and photographers there.<\/p>\n
Through those relationships, Ulevitch also connected with a book designer. He approached a colleague about being the book\u2019s author, and his dream team was assembled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI collected the spoons and funded the project, but without the team, there is no book,\u201d Ulevitch said. He called the finished product \u201cfantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA Taste of Beauty: Spoons of Africa,\u201d written by Bruno Claessens with contributions by Patrick Girard and Tamara Schild and photographs by Ron Kerner, features stories about the role the spoons played throughout history and in various villages.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you don\u2019t care or know anything about African spoons, you are not going to be able to put it down,\u201d Ulevitch said.<\/p>\n
Ulevitch\u2019s interest in global art goes back decades. He grew up in Cleveland, where he spent \u201ca lot of time\u201d at The Cleveland Museum of Art and taking art classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an interest in art by great artists, so that was always part of my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\""A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ljl-l-taste-of-beauty-1.jpg\")
\u201cA Taste of Beauty: Spoons of Africa\u201d features more than 100 photos of African spoons from the collection of La Jolla resident Richard Ulevitch. (Richard Ulevitch)<\/p>\n
He moved to San Diego in 1972, bringing his burgeoning collection of artifacts with him. Once here, he taught classes about what was then called \u201cOriental rugs and textiles.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the 1990s, he had discovered African spoons as collectibles and soon shifted his focus to gathering them.<\/p>\n
Now with a collection of more than 100 spoons, Ulevitch said he \u201cwanted to do this book to expose people to these amazing forms of art.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book will be released on Amazon, and Ulevitch hopes for a release party in La Jolla or elsewhere in San Diego. \u2666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long before he embarked on a career in science, La Jolla resident Richard Ulevitch had an interest in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,276,171,3548,7354,19284,7355,3549,3550,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-135469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-la-jolla","12":"tag-la-jolla-light","13":"tag-la-jolla-light-news","14":"tag-la-jolla-light-things-to-do","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-county","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115006943030033240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}