1. Elizabeth Banks will return to “30 Rock.” [AV Club]
2. Lena Dunham talks to Judd Apatow, the producer of her new show, “Girls.” [Heeb]
3. “Twins” will have a sequel, with Eddie Murphy: “Triplets.” [HR]
4. “In Living Color” will be remade, with Kali Hawk of “New Girl.” [Deadline]
5. Jerry Lee Lewis has married his cousin’s ex-wife. [Billboard]
Previously: “Game of Thrones,” Michelle Obama, “The Master,” Saturday Night Live,” and 50 Cent
On its way to London for the 2012 Olympic games, the Olympic Torch, that paradigmatic symbol of athletic achievement, is making a detour to stop at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. During the venerable international furniture fair, it’ll have its very own exhibition, complete with sketches and models that chart its development.
Award-winning London-based designers and architects Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby crafted this year’s torch with a bit of a high-tech spin: the blazing sceptre was built from an aerospace-grade aluminum alloy to function in high altitudes, at sub-zero temperatures, and in high winds (all completely necessary during its 70-day trek through the harrowing U.K. landscape). Designed to be handled by athletes, it allows for an easy grip with its tactile surface of 8,000 laser-cut perforations, representative of the 8,000 Olympians who will descend upon London this summer — and it’s also the lightest Olympic torch ever. The exterior creates a translucency that makes the flame visible at all times. And, because the best things come in threes — this is London’s third round as Olympic host city, and the games’ motto is “faster, higher, stronger” — it has a trilateral shape.
If you happen to be attending the world’s most important furniture fair and feel athe need to take a break from the furniture, drop in to La Triennale Museum to see the design in its sportier applications.
The Olympic Torch will be on view at the Triennale di Milan April 17 through 22.
Louis Vuitton. Gucci. Dior. Chanel. Fendi. Giorgio Armani. Cartier. Only the most luxurious boutiques line Paris’s glamorous Avenue Montaigne. The shops are taking things one decadent step further this weekend with their participation in “Promenade pour un Objet d’Exception,” a stroll featuring artworks and special objects at each location, presented by the Comité Montaigne. The event runs now through March 31.
The lavish eye candy includes a 1991 sketch by artist César featuring a box comprised of the boxes from Nina Ricci’s iconic perfume, L’Air du Temps. Valentino is showing a handmade Plexiglas clutch purse adorned with Swarovski studs. Caron has a fountain of Baccarat crystal accented with gold trim and opals.
Two sculptures that were part of the exhibition “Lady Dior as Seen By,” shown in Beijing and Shanghai, will be at the Dior boutique. One is a gold reproduction of the Lady Dior bag called “Gold Ceramic,” by Liu Jianhua, and the other is a multi-piece work titled “Evolution of the Lady Dior Bag,” by the artist collective Recycle Group.
More treasures will be exhibited at Barbara Bui, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Ralph Lauren, Salvatore Ferragamo, Zadig & Voltaire, and St. Dupont.
For those in Paris who are looking to be dazzled by high-end objects, the “Promenade pour un Objet d’Exception” is this weekend’s must-do walk.
Click on the slide show to see highlights from Avenue Montaigne’s “Promenade pour un Objet d’Exception.”
NEW YORK — Nonagenarian Iris Apfel, the self-proclaimed geriatric starlet, gingerly stepped on the stage with the help of a cane last night to introduce Belgian designer Dries Van Noten, the subject of the French Institute Alliance Française’s final installment of its 2012 spring Fashion Talks. The two began their relationship a few years ago when Van Noten was in town for a dinner and had to submit an invitation list. “The only one he wanted to meet was lil old moi,” said Apfel, after telling the audience that she was “awed and star-struck” by Van Noten. “Dries loves and respects the woven cloth more than anyone I’ve ever known,” she said.
Van Noten, who was part of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts’s “Antwerp Six” — a notable group of designers that included Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Marina Yee, who studied at the prestigious Belgian fashion school in the late ’70s and early-’80s — helped put Belgium on the fashion map. During the talk, moderated by Pamela Golbin, curator of fashion and textiles at Paris’s Les Arts Décoratifs, Van Noten discussed the conservative principles his teacher at the Royal Academy tried to instill in the group: no short skirts unless the knees are covered with stockings, long hair is untidy, only pants, jeans are for poor people, Chanel was the world’s greatest fashion designer... But the “Antwerp Six” soon dismissed those restrictions and set new boundaries.
Van Noten has remained self-financed since he started his business, where he is both CEO and creative director, in 1986. “I’m still happy I’m completely independent,” he said, noting that he doesn’t have the same pressure to expand as his contemporaries who work under large luxury conglomerates.
Known for his innovative use of fabrics, Van Noten spoke of his process of creating a collection, from his search for the right materials at small mills that have large archives in England, to clothing construction. He said he thinks the notion of beauty is boring. “I prefer ugly things. I prefer things which are surprising.”
Van Noten also spoke about working with London’s Victoria & Albert Museum to procure high-resolution photographs of ancient Chinese robes, which he digitally printed onto several pieces, including a jacket for his fall/winter 2012 collection, and how he realized the drastically different paces at which museums and the fashion industry work. “Unfortunately, museums work in centuries, in years,” he said. “For fashion, it’s hours.”
Notoriously publicity shy, the designer explained that the runway is his main method of promoting his brand, from the invitations to the location, to the sound, to the makeup. “Fashion shows are really my way of communication,” he said. “I don’t go on Twitter, I don’t go to parties, I don’t often do fashion talks like this.”
He added, “Clothes is just something you put on to cover yourself ... fashion is a way to communicate.”
Click on the video below to watch Tom Chen's exclusive interview with Dries Van Noten:
Lacking the raw spectacle of the glitzy fairs that draw both celebrities and those that gawk at them, this year's edition of the Association of International Art Photography Dealers's annual Photography Show at the Park Avenue Armory had an air of relaxed, but bustling, commerce today. Most dealers reported sales, though even more noted that at AIPAD visitors generally take a look around, mull it over, and come back over the weekend. Because many photographs are sold in editions, there isn't the same sense of urgency to pounce on opening night to snag the best works.
"This fair is so civilized. People don't need to come on opening day," said Bryce Wolkowitz gallery director Heather Bell. Even so, she reported that sales were brisk. At least one work from every artist featured in the booth was sold by Friday afternoon, with an average selling price of $35,000-45,000. The centerpiece was really Jim Campbell's animated photo piece, "Fundamental Interval Rain," depicting a busy streetcorner with the ghost-like forms of cars moving through the intersection suggested by LED backlights. The installation was created specifically for AIPAD in an edition of three. Two have already sold for $75,000 each.
In addition to Campbell's moving photo installation, one of the more innovative works on display at the fair was Gregory Scott's "Dreams and Delusions" (2012) at Chicago-based Catherine Edelman Gallery. The work, finished just days before opening day, combines photography, painting, and video. The viewer sees a photograph of a museum corner; on one wall, is a replica of a Man Ray work painted onto the photo; on the other wall is a inset window playing a video of the artist himself cavorting amid various Surrealist-inspired imagery. The work is one in an edition of eight. The first is priced at $26,000, with each subsequent edition going up in price as the it sells out, according to Edelman.
New York mega-gallery David Zwirner participated in the fair for the first time, after being nominated to AIPAD last year. The booth was mostly new works from Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Two of his larger works were sold by Friday afternoon — one from his ongoing "East of Eden" series ($25,000) and one from his his "A Storybook of Life" series ($15,000). Several of his Polaroids, which he uses as studies for his larger works, sold for $4,000 each. Zwirner's marketing director Julia Joern noted that one of the reasons the gallery decided to participate — sales aside — was the opportunity to connect to new collectors and museum curators that it had not previously worked with. "We want to re-enforce the fact that the gallery has a strong photo program," said Joern.
London's Eric Franck Fine Art, situated just in front of the door, was showing several vintage Gaspar Gasparian photographs, which are being exhibited for the first time in the United States. The gallery just entered into a partnership with the late photographer's estate and was offering the Brazilian artist's vintage work for $25,000. Early on Friday the gallery was still having more luck with their Henri Cartier-Bresson works. "Queen Charlotte's Ball," a characteristically elegant 1959 photo showing ladies in white dresses and men in tuxedos swirling around a dance floor, sold for $30,000. The gallery also had a bevy of work at an incredibly affordable price point. Fashion photographer Norman Parkinson's work is priced at $3,000, with a dyptich of the front and rear views of a woman in a trench coat available for $4,000.
A surprising find while meandering through the fair's maze was a large, wide-angle photo of an adoring crowd of concert fans. Upon closer inspection, ARTINFO noticed the photo, in the booth of Los Angeles dealer Paul Kopeikin, was taken by Moby. Kopeikin pointed out that Moby has been a photographer longer than he has been a musician (this passion predates his turn as an architecture critic, for the record). "Sweet Apocalypse" (2011) is a rare view into the life of a rock star — few concert photographers can even get a few people in the crowd to look their way, let alone the whole arena.
After chatting for a bit, Kopeikin said that he'd had quite a lot of interest in the Moby photograph ($9,500, fourth in an edition of five), but had yet to close the sale. He had, however, helped the neighboring booth across the way sell some Robert Adams photographs to a collector he knows from Los Angeles. It's just that kind of fair.
AIPAD continues through April 1 at the Park Avenue Armory.
Related:
In our weekly roundup, our U.S. editors have picked out some recent highlights from five of ARTINFO's seven international sites: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, and United Kingdom. (For those who speak other languages, be sure to check out ARTINFO China and France as well.)
AUSTRALIA
– How Australian Artist Heath Franco Infiltrated Art Fair Tokyo 2012 Using His Very Own Door
– World First Thomas Demand Project Turns Historic Sydney Building into "The Center of the Galaxy"
– Tim Storrier Wins Australia's Prestigious Archibald Prize for Portraiture With Faceless Figure
CANADA
– AI Interview: Douglas Coupland Reveals Canada's Secret Handshake
– The Power Plant's 25th Anniversary is All About Memory, and New Blood
– Luis Jacob Discusses His Timely "Commerce by Artists"
HONG KONG
– From Masterpiss to Mocumentary, an Imaginary Film Festival in Hong Kong
– The Best and Worst of Art Dubai 2012
– Film Festival Brings Rampling, Reeves, and Love in the Buff
INDIA
– SAHMAT Issues a Statement Against the Shut-Down of Sunil Gupta’s Show
– Just Unlike a Woman: Radhika Vaz’s Stand-Up Routine Explores the Unfeminine Mystique
– Photographer Yamini Nayar on Her New Show at Amrita Jhaveri Projects
UNITED KINGDOM
– British Design in 8 Key Pieces From the V&A's Exhibition
– Anthony Caro On Chatsworth's Grounds
– Duchess of Cambridge Portraitist Nicky Philipps Shares Insights
Every Friday ARTINFO video editor Tom Chen, photo editor Micah Schmidt, and performing arts editor Nick Catucci choose five of the most visually engaging music videos from the previous week. Here are descriptions and a slideshow of stills linking to the full clips. Today ...
The-Dream shows just how much you slow it down before you turn the lights offs. (Watch below.)
Tanlines go tinker, tailer, soldier, spy on the irresistible “All of Me.”
Shearwater makes clear what’s in the woods with “You as You Were.”
Regina Spector goes both pop and arty on “All the Rowboats.”
A fan-made clip for a
song is a crowd-sourced collage.
Our most-talked-about stories in Art, Design & Fashion, and Performing Arts, March 26-30, 2012:
— Kyle Chayka round up a list of the 20 most-innnovative artists' Web sites, including those of Tauba Auerbach, Keith Tyson, and Andrea Zittel — as well as Damien Hirst's brand new in-studio live-stream, of course.
— Ben Davis talked to auteur director David Lynch on the occasion of his exhibition of new paintings at the Upper East Side's Jack Tilton gallery, though the filmmaker was characteristically difficult to intepret.
— The Welsh painter Nicola Jane Philipps told ARTINFO UK that she's anxious about the portrait of Kate Middleton that Prince Charles has comissioned her to paint, because "beautiful people are always more difficult."
— After Art Dubai ended last weekend, Madeleine O'Dea selected the best and worst from the Middle East's most glamorous art fair, which this year saw record attendance and a rush of early sales.
— Friends of the High Line announced that one of the designs for the third and final section of New York's elevated park involves fabricating and installing Jeff Koons's infamous and enormous $25-million suspended locomotive sculpture "Train" dangling over the walkway.
— The exhibition “Helmut Newton 1920-2004” opened in the photographer's long-time hometown of Paris at the Grand Palais, with more than 200 works curated by the artist's widow, June Newton.
— On the occasion of the "Mad Men" season 5 premiere, Ann Binlot and Sarah Kricheff looked at the most notable outfits sported by the show's women in their first episode back.
— The son of famous architect Richard Neutra, Raymond Richard Neutra, decided to sell a one-of-a-kind design by his father, but it's for a good cause: To save his childhood home.
— Ann Binlot looked at Denver's move to become a major cultural destination, centered on the Denver Art Museum's new blockbuster retrospective of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.
— Meanwhile, all is not well in the house of YSL, which recently lost long-time creative director Stafano Pilati. Speaking at New York's French Institute Alliance Française on Tuesday night, Pilati assured the crowd: "I’m really happy."
— The city of Paris is trying a new tactic for dealing with noisy nighttime revelers: Roving squads of noise pollution-reducing mimes who will seal offenders within invisible boxes.
— ARTINFO film correspondent J. Hoberman went to see "The Hunger Games" one week after the rest of America, and reports that he "wasn’t unduly bored."
— The busy, busy German auteur Werner Herzog, fresh off an acting gig opposite Tom Cruise in the upcoming thriller "One Shot," revealed details of another three movies he has in the pipeline.
— Unfortunately none of those projects are the just-greenlighted fictionalized version of Brit-rock band The Kinks' rise to fame, "You Really Got Me," which will be directed by Julien Temple but has yet to cast its the roles of frontmen Ray and Dave Davies.
— Graham Fuller considered the implications of a recent bidding war for the film rights to the "mommy porn" book trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey."
A blue diamond necklace known as the Heart of the Ocean played a major role in James Cameron’s epic Titanic, where it belonged to Kate Winslet's character Rose. Now a “modest” replica worth $15,000 is to be sold online at auction.
LONDON — The recent frenzy surrounding Damien Hirst's "Complete Spot Paintings" show at Gagosian galleries around the world might have seemed like the paragon of media hysteria, betweeen with the dot lovers, the dot haters, and the critics imagining the artist dead. But let's brace ourselves for a new wave of Hirst hype, because the "first substantial survey" of the artist's work in Britain opens at Tate Modern tomorrow.
Calling it the "first substantial survey" is almost amusing. A Martian landing in London might think we are talking about an underrated genius, until now grossly overlooked. That is, clearly, not the case. Or is it? Auction houses, commercial galleries, collectors, and the artist's own corporation Science form a powerful circle around Hirst, united by the need for the artist's prices to grow, or stay stable at the very least. Yet museums have been slow to grant the former enfant terrible of British art genuine recognition, and with it scholarly credibility.
Will the Tate manage to clear away the hype muddying the endless stream of Hirst-related press, and offer a fresh view of the work? "Throughout his career, Hirst’s work has been experienced by the majority of people through the filter of photographic reproduction and headline reportage," exhibition curator Ann Gallagher told ARTINFO UK. "This exhibition will be an important opportunity for everyone to examine the works themselves at first hand and to appreciate why they became such iconic images."
Tactfully, the exhibition isn't called a "retrospective," but it nonetheless covers most of Hirst's voluminous production since his days at Goldsmiths College — with the notable exception of the embarrassing "Blue Paintings," pilloried when first shown at the Wallace Collection in 2009. The show gathers pieces first shown in the now-legendary "Freeze" exhibition Hirst curated in London Docklands in 1988; the shark, or rather "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Young" (1991); spot paintings (again); spin paintings; medicine cabinets; and a small herd of pickled animals. Oh, and the £50-million diamond-encrusted skull "For the Love of God" (2007) — said to be owned by a conglomerate of businessmen including the artist — is displayed in a separate, highly guarded viewing room in the Turbine Hall.
"Damien Hirst" will also include "In and Out of Love" (1991), a rarely seen two-room installation first presented in a vacant shop on Bond Street, involving live pupae stuck onto canvases which hatch in front of the visitors. "Amazingly, the butterflies hatched on schedule," Hirst's former tutor Michael Craig-Martin remembers of the original in his catalogue essay. "As Hirst now acknowledges, if they hadn't, the anticlimax and loss of credibility might have jeopardized his whole subsequent career."
Tate is no doubt hoping to cash in on the thousands of visitors London is expecting this summer for the Olympic Games. But their choice isn't to everyone's taste. Former museum director Julian Spalding recently told the Independent: "The emperor has nothing on. When the penny drops that these are not art, it's all going to collapse. Hirst should not be in the Tate. He's not an artist." Spalding is, however, a good businessman and he did not shy away from opportunistically launching his own book "Con Art — Why You Ought To Sell Your Damien Hirsts While You Can" on April Fools' Day, 48 hours before the Tate show opens to the public.
Like another globally famous British product, people seem to either love Hirst or hate him. Whatever your position, it can't be denied that this emotional outpouring matches the impact the artist and his gang have had on British art. There will forever be a "before" and an "after" the YBAs in the UK. "I believe that what Hirst had achieved was not just to bring its young participants to international attention," writes Craig-Martin, "but to establish for himself and for them a clear sense of context, a realization that they were part of something larger than just their individual selves: a common cause. 'Freeze' felt fresh and exciting, announcing the arrival of a new and very different generation of artists, not afraid to assert themselves or willing to wait for an invitation to the table."
To preview some of the famous artworks in "Damien Hirst" at Tate Modern, click on the slide show.
This is a version of a story that first appeared on ARTINFO UK.
Last week, ARTINFO style editor Ann Binlot and deputy managing editor Sarah Kricheff offered thoughts on some of the standout costumes in the much-anticipated season five premiere of “Mad Men.” The style rundown continues here with notes on six of the looks from last night’s episode.
Episode three fell flat for me. The storyline was bland and oddly disjointed, as if the writers had a number of random of ideas – a cancer scare, a Rolling Stones concert, a neurotic Jewish copy writer who wears bad ties (as Ann notes below) and channels Woody Allen – that they attempted to link together until they amassed 45 minutes worth of script. The Betty weight-gain-cancer plot felt forced, vapid, and transparently manipulative. It was a disservice to one of the show’s most fascinating characters, who has been portrayed as vain, spoiled, controlling, and “profoundly sad” and who, I believe, would never have allowed herself to gain an ounce no matter how bad things got. The best part of the episode was Roger’s already-famous, heart-breaking question, posed to Don: “When are things going to go back to normal?” I was wondering the same thing.
In keeping with the tone of the script, the costumes were similarly disappointing. But since it is still “Mad Men,” even the dullest episodes have notable fashion highs and lows.
Most Incongruous Look
In the opening scene, Sally struggles, unsuccessfully, to squeeze Betty into heavy, gaudy, blue-and-silver patterned dress that looks like something she borrowed from her mother-in-law. The frock, with its bejeweled neckline and cuffs, is worlds apart from some of my favorite Betty looks, like season two’s pink silk taffeta halter dress and chiffon polka dot spaghetti strap number.
Hottest Summer in the City Look
Megan’s floral-print bikini top and high-waist white shorts were a much-needed shot of smart summery fashion. She wore the outfit with ease – providing sharp contrast to the scenes with Betty in her pink and floral-print housecoats – and it was a fun look for the ferry ride to Fire Island. I just wish they’d been more specific about which town they were going to (I’m guessing Saltaire).
Best Bedclothes
Betty had one redeemable fashion moment in this episode – her dusty purple, ruffled silk nightgown was spot-on. The character’s bedtime ensembles, including some amazing '60s maternity lingerie, have been big hits with audiences throughout the show, and this episode did not disappoint.
For me episode three was like drinking gin at a party not because you like gin, but because it’s the only option available. I was amazed at the detail they put into creating Betty Draper’s weight gain, from the stretch marks on her arms to her fuller face. If this was the way they wanted to hide January Jones’s pregnancy, then it left me with a lukewarm feeling. I wanted something more believable, even another bun in the oven! The contrast between her girth and Megan’s slim figure and effortlessly put-together look made me feel sorry for Betty. Copywriter candidate Michael Ginsberg’s ensemble made me want dislike him more, despite the fact that he’s a qualified candidate for the job. The show’s fashion, meanwhile, had its hits and misses — my favorite being Peggy Olson’s forest green office ensemble.
Most Likely to Cause an Acid Flashback
The punchy blues and purples of the print on Megan Draper’s dinner dress were so '60s. It almost had me going on a psychedelic trip
What Not to Wear to a Job Interview
Michael Ginsberg arrived at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce for a copywriter job interview in a loud ensemble. Not just loud – screaming. The white, orange, and turquoise plaid blazer with that dotted button-up white collared shirt and clashing patterned forest green, burgundy, and gold tie just did not go together. Luckily for him, Peggy and company weren’t so concerned with the appalling outfit, and he got the job anyway.
Best Unexpected Element
Peggy Olson looked minimally chic at the office with that sleeveless forest green dress. The white Peter Pan collar and green-and-bright-orange tie accent made the piece feel like a refreshing break from Peggy’s usually dowdy wardrobe.
PARIS – A chance to shine for some, a real challenge to others, the PAD Art & Design fair in Paris demands mise-en-scène. This year, three approaches seemed to bring about success: a strong conceptual back story, an arresting centerpiece, or careful scenography that avoided overstatement. Several galleries heeded these rules of thumb with strong, inspired showings. Others did not, making for a well-sold but uneven 16th edition, with only occasional glimpses of the luster that makes a TEFAF or a Biennale des Antiquaires shine.
François Laffanour took prime position just inside the white pavilion, where the Tuileries’ bright midday sun gave way to mood-lit obscurity. The Paris dealer had rebuilt the idiosyncratic bedroom of a certain “Madame V,” an ensemble commissioned from the 1980s French design duo Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti to fill the bedroom of a Moscow apartment in the early 1990s. When the owners moved, Laffanour bought the entire set. “Since it was a unique commission, with works adapted and custom-crafted for the clients, it made sense to create such an exhibition,” said the gallerist, who had added a cherry-blossom tree and the towering, long-legged fish sculpture “Iniziazione” by Aldo Mondino to the branch-like patinated bronze of the “Beaux Rêves” master bed, the tentacle curves of a plush red armchair and, overhead, Ingo Maurer’s immense dome lamp.
“I wanted to show that in the history of furniture, there are dreamlike moments of the baroque and the surrealist, which all are important for these pieces. There is almost even a Louis XV element. It has a floral side, an almost rustic side, there is a poetic side to it. And a good sense of humor,” said the dealer. The “Beaux Rêves” bed, a horizontal branch iron chandelier with glass flowers, and a mirror in an almost candy-like red-studded frame, had sold at prices ranging from €30,000 to €150,000 ($40,000-$200,000).
“I think there is a larger audience for this, a classic client base that wants something a bit different. Also, houses today are much more white-walled and minimalist. When you place a bed like this in the middle, it achieves something spectacular,” added Laffanour, whose only regret was that the room would not stay together. “It would have been great for a museum, as an exhibit of the 1990s. But nowadays, museums have little credit — and I don’t have time to wait.”
Across from Laffanour, Carpenters Workshop went for cool and grey-toned minimalism, with a landscape of hanging black knit lamps by Japanese designers Nendo, a playful reverse desk by Vincent Dubourg, and a bubbly couch and chair by Robert Stadler, the latter two priced €25,000 and €22,000 ($33,000 and $29,000), respectively. The gallery has been making a splash on the Paris design scene since it opened a 6,400-square-foot, three-story branch in the Marais last year, and at the PAD, the show-stealer was Mathieu Lehanneur’s “Daylight Dome” (2011), a 25.6 x 64.4 inch setting of dozens of fluorescent light rings. The gallery had sold a handful of the delicately imposing lamps, at the PAD and beyond, for €24,000 ($32,000) — and revealed that mega-collector François Pinault had recently acquired a much larger version as a special commission, at an undisclosed price.
Classic Scandinavian pieces sold well at Stockholm gallery Modernity’s booth, which marked its fourth year at the PAD and looked like the underground lair of a mad super-villain — one with exceptional taste in design. The faux concrete walls were, in fact, inspired by the architecture of Tadao Ando and the booth was set with several early, patent-applied Poul Henningsen lamps, an Otto Schulz sofa group, a Hans Wegner desk, Michael Young’s dizzying “Chinese Times” clock made of newspapers, and a seldom seen 1930s Frits Henningsen “High Back Wing Chair”, priced at €60,000 ($80,000).
“We always sell well here,” said Modernity’s Isaac Pineus, revealing that the gallery had parted with several armchairs, a rare 16-orb ceiling light by Ayala Serfaty, and a colorful red Fernand Léger tapestry woven in Aubusson by Gisèle Brivet, France’s only weaver to be designated a Master of the Art.
London’s FUMI made its first PAD appearance with a dark forest plywood screen by Zoé Ouvrier and Alex Hull’s much-noticed “Parabolic Cabinet” for Studio Silver Lining, the artist’s proof in an edition of eight, priced at €80,000 ($106,000). “It’s a labor of love. It’s takes a long time, about five months, to make one,” said Valerio Capo, co-owner with Sam Pratt of the Shoreditch gallery. “We’ve been selling well and we’ve met new clients. It’s a great ‘début’,” he added.
At Gabrielle Ammann, of Cologne, visitors were sizing up the “Fossil Table,” a single-piece resin cast by Studio Nucleo. The PAD lighting, too faint to show the table lit up across its air bubbles and geometrically distressed lines, did not do it justice. Still, at €90,000 ($120,000), it garnered a great deal of interest. “It’s a very big table, people have to measure. And not just inside the house,” noted a gallery assistant, hinting that lifting the 29.1 x 148 x 49.6 inch table up a flight of stairs would not be easy.
Modern and contemporary art was also well in evidence, with smaller paintings and drawings by Jean-Michel Basquiat appearing throughout, alongside a handful of Fernando Botero pieces, a “Brussels Tower” by Wim Delvoye, and at least three different sizes of Robert Indiana's “LOVE” sculptures, unavoidable at any fair blending art and design. Monaco’s Sem-Art Gallery offered an “Untitled” Donald Judd block and Ron Arad chairs. Sales in this sector appeared slower, though Barcelona’s Mayoral were negotiating over a life-size, sitting “Auto portrait” (2006) marble dust sculpture by Jaume Plensa, complete with the artist’s trademark alphabet.
A handful of dealers failed to make their booths much different from your average furniture store, while others went for over-the-top opulence. London outfit Francis Sultana’s mirror backdrop, glittering gold furniture and fur-covered chaises resembled the apartment of an '80s Miami drug lord, while Thoiry’s Galerie Minet Merenda managed to drown a sumptuous set of antique Chinese nature-themed screens in an overdone garden landscape with blandly decorative sculptures by Li Chen.
Click the slide show to discover the best booths and works from the PAD Art & Design in Paris.
This is a version of a story that first appeared on ARTINFO France.
A Herb Ritts image is unmistakably recognizable. Those of a certain age who aren’t closely familiar with the late photographer’s work will easily remember his most iconic shots: the 1979 portrait of Richard Gere at an auto shop, the 1986 album cover for Madonna’s record “True Blue,” and the 1989 nude supermodel group photograph, “Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood.” Ritts also directed the music video for Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” where the singer romps with a nude Helena Christensen in the sand, and Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do (Without You),” with cameos by shirtless hunks Antonio Sabàto Jr. and Djimon Hounsou. Ritts’s oeuvre will be the subject of a J. Paul Getty Museum exhibition, “Herb Ritts: L.A. Style,” on view from April 3 to August 26 in Los Angeles.
The exhibition follows last summer’s Getty acquisition of Ritts’s work. The show traces several themes: The first section explores the Los Angeles-based photographer’s celebrity portraiture, including shots of Gere, Madonna, Britney Spears, and Mel Gibson. The second part centers on Ritts’s fashion photography, which was featured in Elle, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as ad campaigns for Versace, Chanel, and Calvin Klein. Two memorable works here are photos of Cindy Crawford posing in a gorgeous dress on the beach and Christy Turlington’s décolletage. Ritts’s talent for capturing the human body is well represented, from nude portraits to photographs of athletes like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. Visitors will also get to watch Ritts’s work as a music video and commercial director.
“Through hard work and an imaginative vision, Herb Ritts fashioned himself into one of the top photographers to emerge from the 1980s,” said the exhibition’s curator the museum’s associate curator of photographs, Paul Martineau, in a release. “This exhibition will reconsider and broaden our understanding of Ritts’s career, particularly in the areas of fashion and figure studies.”
Sadly, Ritts’s life was cut short in 2002 at age 50, due to pneumonia complications and AIDS. Through exhibitions like “Herb Ritts: L.A. Style,” his spectacular black-and-white images will live on.
Click on the slide show to see highlights from “Herb Ritts: L.A. Style,” on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from April 3 to August 26.
