2 posts tagged "Sotheby’s"
Venus Rising
After the fluorescence of Frieze, last night’s cloistered and barely candlelit opening of Venus Over Manhattan was a shock to the art system. The new gallery at 980 Madison Avenue is the latest passion of Adam Lindemann, and if it seems strange for an art writer and collector to turn dealer at age 50, well, strangeness is part of the aim. “I was fascinated with the novel À Rebours,” Lindemann said, referencing Joris-Karl Huysmans’ decadent classic. “It means ‘against the grain,’ and it’s about a debauched nineteenth-century aristocrat who destroys his life with drugs and art.” (It also gave him the title of his inaugural exhibition.) He was offering a modulated version of excess: a late, 10 p.m. start time (the better to coexist with Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale, one of the big events of the auction house’s year) and a different drink from the usual gallery-opening Champagne. “Have you tried the absinthe yet?” he asked the crowd, which included Linda Evangelista, Rita Ackermann, Hope Atherton, Charlotte Kidd, and Richard Kern.
Elise Øverland had not. “I can’t do hallucinogenics,” murmured the designer (pictured), just back from sabbatical in India. “It’s trippy enough just being in the dark,” added art world impresario Yvonne Force Villareal. “I think this is my first candlelit art opening, and I love the mystery, the feeling that anything could happen.” Erin Fetherston felt it, too. “It’s been so long since I did anything spontaneous,” she said. “I love it. My friends said let’s go to this art thing, and now I’m in a haunted house.”
“Isn’t it so weird here and wonderful?” sighed curator Stacy Engman. “I hardly know what time it is or where I am, but it could only be New York.”
Franco Fronts Gucci Campaign, Kate Moss Statue Brings In The Big Bucks, Olympia Le-Tan And Spike Jonze Collaborate, And More…
James Franco is the face of Gucci’s new men’s made-to-measure service. Starting at the end of the year, Gucci shoppers can pick from 178 different color and fabric combinations for the custom suits, available in 11 boutiques worldwide. Unfortunately, we can’t promise you will look as good as Mr. Franco in your custom Gucci. [Telegraph]
A gold sculpture of Kate Moss in a yoga pose sold for $908,245 at a Sotheby’s auction this weekend. The 18-karat gold sculpture by Marc Quinn was on the chopping block next to artwork by the likes of Lucian Freud and Leon Kossoff at the London auction (which ultimately raked in $28,020,681). [Huffington Post]
Designer Olympia Le-Tan cut 3,000 pieces of felt for Mourir Auprès de Toi, the short film she enlisted Spike Jonze and Simon Cahn to co-direct. In the video, the felt figures and Le-Tan’s clutches come to life in a Parisian bookstore with stop-motion animation. [Nowness]
Academy Award-nominated costume designer Ray Aghayan died October 10 at age 83. Aghayan worked with famous Hollywood stars, including Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Julie Andrews, and Diana Ross. [WWD]