Celebrity Life

How the most famous image of surrealism was a collaboration between a great painter and a brilliant photographer.

“There was never any competition. Dali was an artist, a painter, and my father was a photographer. Dali never wanted to be a photographer, Philippe never wanted to pick up a paint brush but together they made the most outrageous pictures,” says Irene Halsman, daughter of the esteemed photographer Philippe Halsman, one of the most respected and prolific photographers on both sides of the Atlantic before and after the second world war. “They wanted to forge something new together Dali was always full of wild ideas so Philippe really had to use his imagination and creativity. Philippe would direct Dali and Dali was always happy to oblige. It was a true, true collaboration that lasted 37 years.”

Born in Latvia, Philippe Halsman moved to Paris in 1930 at when he was 24, where he quickly established his reputation as a photographer. When the Nazis invaded the city in 1940, Halsman obtained a rare emergency visa to the United States with the help of Albert Einstein, who knew Halsman’s sister. In New York Halsman joined Life magazine when the publication was just six years old. Halsman shot 101 covers for Life – more than any other photographer – until the magazine ceased weekly publication in 1972. Halsman joined the famed Magnum Photos collective in 1951, becoming a contributing member in 1956.

Halsman most famous photographs were probably with the doyen of surrealism doyen Salvador Dalí, whom he met in 1941 and enjoyed a 37-year collaboration. The most famous of these was the iconic image Dali Atomicus, which was planned and executed at  Halsman’s apartment and studio in New York in 1948. In the accompanying 5-minute video, Halsman’s daughter Irene describes the near magic of producing an image, that had to be taken in one shot but required 26 takes, involving levitating furniture, bending columns of water and flying cats:

The post Arty Facts: Dali’s Flying Cats appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

A group exhibition co-presented by the National Museum of Art, Osaka and Singapore Art Museum titled They Do Not Understand Each Other is currently on view at Tai Kwun’s art galleries in JC Contemporary.

Taking its name from an artwork in the exhibition by Japanese artist Tsubasa Kato, They Do Not Understand Each Other brings together commissions and artworks from the collections of the National Museum of Art, Osaka (NMAO), and the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) -- two institutions that have built extensive national collections of contemporary art within their regions -- which revolve around the theme of the exchange of culture. The exhibition features works in various media such as videos, mixed-media works, paintings, sculptures, textiles, stories, performances, kinetic installations and photography and presents two new commissioned pieces and 23 artworks from the existing collections of NMAO and SAM. The selection of artists hail from Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Puerto Rico and beyond, bringing diverse and unique perspectives on representation and cultural exchange.

This is a unique chance to see some of the most contemporary works of these two major Asian museums. Taking the idea of understanding and collaboration as a foundation, the exhibition also shows how much intangible artworks like photography, video and performance entered important institutions and are now seen as an essential part of our cultural heritage. – Tobias Berger, Head of Art at Tai Kwun

[gallery ids="207332,207333,207334,207336,207337,207338,207339,207340"]

If culture is shown through representation, then cultural exchange is naturally based upon understanding. Thus, through this exhibition, viewers are able to appreciate cultural exchange in various forms and intensities; Tai Kwun explains it as speaking "to boundaries, borders, gaps, spaces, surfaces, interfaces, and divisions that exist because of – for lack of a better word – an unevenness in encounters between individuals, peoples and things”. Curator of NAMO, Yuka Uematsu, agrees with, “cultural exchange is not about perfect understanding, but rather opening up a dialogue via unique perspectives”.

This is shown through the title piece -- also named They Do Not Understand Each Other -- is a performance artwork that takes place on Tsushima islands, an archipelago that lies between Japan and Korea. Here, two figures are seen carrying out a simple task together while not being able to understand the others' native language. The piece delineates the success achieved through the cooperation of the artist and his Korean counterpart attributed not only to their mutual patience and good humour, but also to an understanding that transcends language. The artists appear as mediators in acting to intercede and reconcile disparate cultures, helping us to understand each other better.

They Do Not Understand Each Other is curated by Yuka Uematsu, Curator at the National Museum of Art, Osaka and Dr. June Yap, Director of Curatorial, Collections and Programmes at Singapore Art Museum. It is currently on view until September 13.

The post Tai Kwun’s Latest Exhibition ‘They Do Not Understand Each Other’ is Now Open appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

To adapt to the fast-changing landscape of our day and age, covid-19 being part of this, auction houses have had to swiftly change their strategies to keep up with how to best connect with their clientele. From changes in the nature and scope of artworks offered, to shifts in timing of their sales, every auction house has responded differently.

Of all the heavyweight auction houses, Phillips is the first to present an online auction which includes all categories that are traditionally separated into individual sales. Titled Refresh:Reload, the mix of collecting categories is enticing at the very first glance. Curated in two complementary parts, Refresh embodies a more lighthearted and romantic aesthetic, bringing together colourful and fun contemporary artworks such as works by Katherine Bernhardt and Genieve Figgis along with elegant jewellery and timepieces by jewelers such as Graff. The second part, Reload, will unveil cutting-edge jewellery and watches presented alongside fresh, trend-setting art, editions and collectibles, with the standout piece being a KAWS x Ikepod Horizon Watch. Phillips’ response has been almost exclusively digital – “our global Spring calendar this year is made up entirely of online-only sales and we have seen strong participation already.” According to Delissa Handoko, Head of Online Sales at Phillips Hong Kong, they “have seen a great deal of cross-category collecting as collectors’ tastes continue to evolve globally.” Perhaps this sale, then, will be the answer to collectors' concerns as auction houses and art galleries turn to online solutions.

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Refresh:Reload includes 180 lots and selected highlights will be exhibited in Phillips’ Hong Kong Gallery (by appointment only) and bidding is currently ongoing and will close on May 28^that 6pm HKT. The entire collection is available to browse on their website.

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Discover Andy Warhol’s Work Through This Virtual Tour ⇒ Despite closing down indefinitely just five days after opening the “Andy Warhol” exhibition, London’s Tate Museum did not let the pandemic stop the public from getting to know this iconic artist better, having filmed a walk-through of the exhibit and a discussion on the subject by Tate Museum’s curated, which you can now watch from the comfort of your home.

Continue reading Discover Andy Warhol’s Work Through This Virtual Tour at Luxxu Blog.

To find out the story of one of the world’s most iconic paintings, and how it keeps yielding its secrets, you should visit a small museum in the Dutch city of the Hague.

The compact Mauritshuis (Maurice House) is dedicated to artists of the Dutch Golden Age, from roughly 1580 to 1670, when this small nation facing the North Sea was a major maritime power on the top of its game in trade, science, military and art.

The collection covers most of the masters of the era, notably Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer. Rembrandt, who died at about age 60 in 1669, mastered not just painting but drawing and printmaking. In contrast, Vermeer left only 34 known paintings, of which three are in the Mauritshuis – including the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Vermeer spent his entire but relatively short life, from about 1632 to 1675, in the Delft in the western Netherlands. In this, leafy canal city famed for its tapestries, porcelain and breweries, the artist painted scenes of middle class life. Not only did he not venture far from Delft, he produced all of his paintings in two rooms of his house. Only three paintings were of outside scenes, including the much acclaimed landscape, A view of Delft.  The fact that Vermeer had at least 10 children, that he spent many months completing each painting and preferred to paint with expensive pigments, meant that he died in debt – all of this the midst of the six-year Franco Dutch War.

Following his death Vermeer remained largely forgotten in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Many of his works were included in important collections and fetched high prices, but were often attributed to other artists, a state of affairs that did not change until about 1850, when Vermeer was rediscovered by the German museum director Gustav Waagen and the French journalist and critic Théophile Thoré-Bürger.

Girl with a Pearl Earring remained unknown until 1881, when it appeared at an auction in The Hague. The art collector Arnoldus Andries des Tombe bought the neglected painting for a mere two guilders, plus the buyer’s premium of 30 cents. Des Tombe died in 1902, and with no heirs,  bequeathed 12 paintings to the Mauritshuis, including Girl with a Pearl Earring.

To this day, the painting continues to raise questions among art lovers and historians. New research discovered that Vermeer made changes to the composition as he painted: the position of the ear, the top of the headscarf and the back of the neck were shifted.

“The research identified and accurately mapped Vermeer’s colour palette in this painting for the first time,” says Abbie Vandivere, Head of The Girl in the Spotlight project and conservator at the Mauritshuis, on the museum’s website.

“The raw materials for the colours came from all over the world: regions that today belong to Mexico and Central America, England and possibly Asia or the West Indies. Vermeer’s liberal use of high-quality ultramarine in the headscarf and the jacket is striking.

“Made from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli that came from what is now Afghanistan, the preparation of natural ultramarine was time-consuming and laborious. In the 17th century, the pigment was more precious than gold. One discovery from the recent project is that the stone may have first been heated at a high temperature, which made it easier to grind and produced a more intense blue colour.”

At the time Vermeer painted, the Dutch were a major maritime trading nation, and such pigments would have been available in Delft, although lapis lazuli – of which he used a fair amount to paint the girl’s turban –  would have been extremely expensive.

Technically Girl with a Pearl Earring is not a portrait, but a type of study referred to in Vermeer’s day as a tronie. They depict a certain type of character, not a specific person, often caught in a candid moment. In this case the girl is wearing an oriental turban and an enormous pearl in her ear.

The Girl with a Pearl Earring was title of a 1999 novel by Tracey Chevalier and was adapted to film in 2003, starring Scarlett Johansson as Griet, a young servant in the household of Vermeer, played by Colin Firth. It received generally favourable reviews and grossed US$31.4 million worldwide. It was nominated for 10 British Academy Film Awards, three Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

One mystery that still remains, perhaps forever, is the identity of the girl – or if indeed she ever existed. But such is its fame that staff at the Mauritshuis refer to the painting as “she”. The museum has been closed during the coronavirus crisis, but plans to reopen on June 1.

The post Arty Facts: The Search for Vermeer’s Pearl Girl appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Christie's introduce a new series of thematic online auctions featuring works from Post-War and Contemporary Art departments.

Titled Vice + Virtue, the new online auctions are reflective of the two opposing sides of human nature. In a statement, the auction house explained "Vice captures the myriad ways of worldly escape in its selection, reflecting our long-held humanistic tendency to chase pleasure, while Virtue turns inward, featuring art indicative of hope, wisdom, happiness and warmth from worlds both real and imagined"

[caption id="attachment_207176" align="alignnone" width="1582"] Damien Hirst, Beautiful Shattering Shuddering Can You Feel the Earth Move? Painting, household gloss on canvas | Image: Christie's[/caption]

Vice opens for bidding from 12 May to 12 June, while Virtue opens later from 29 May to 12 June 2020, both of which feature some incredible pieces of art from the likes of KAWS, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Damien Hirst, Jean Dubuffet and more.

[caption id="attachment_207173" align="alignnone" width="1398"] Roy Lichtenstein, Ceramic Sculpture 13 | Image: Christie's[/caption]

Vice

Highlights from Vice section include a signed and dated KAWSBOB (Open Mouth), Package Painting Series which is expected to fetch up to HK$1.16 million (US$150,000); as well as a glazed ceramic sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein, entitled Ceramic Sculpture 13, which is estimated to go under the virtual hammer for HK$2.32 million to HK$3.87 million (US$300,000 and US$500,000).

Two works by Andy Warhol are also hitting the Vice auction block: Work Boots (Positive) is estimated to sell for up to HK$2.71 million (US$350,000), while Electric Chair (Retrospective Series) is estimated to go for a more accessible HK$387,000 (US$50,000).

[caption id="attachment_207172" align="alignnone" width="1265"] Andy Warhol (1928–1987) Chris Evert [Sixteen Works], acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, in sixteen parts | Image: Christie's[/caption]

Virtue

This part of the auction will focus on the idea of virtue as a creative escape. Virtue will include a selection of works that play with visual iterations of themes like prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice, faith, hope, and love.

The legendary pop artist's silkscreen portrait of Chris Evert, entitled "Chris Evert [Sixteen Works]," is rumoured to fetch between HK$2.32 million to HK$3.87 million (US$300,000 to US$500,000), while a painting by French artist Jean Dubuffet --  Cafetière et petit chaudron avec clef -- is likely to fetch up to HK$2.71 million (or US$350,000).

[caption id="attachment_207175" align="alignnone" width="1458"] Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) Cafetière et petit chaudron avec clef, vinyl on paper mounted on canvas | Image: Christie's[/caption]

The full catalogue of the digital auction will be released in the coming weeks on Christie's website, where the Vice + Virtue viewing room is currently available.

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Socialite and fashionista Denise Lo invites us into her home to discover how she makes her trinkets and objects the stars of the show.

Perched above Kennedy Road, the balcony of Lo’s Christian Dior-inspired home overlooks the heart of Hong Kong. A self-proclaimed hoarder, Lo has made her residence a museum of personal likes, souvenirs and artworks amassed from her extensive travels. Her previous home, a little further uphill on Bowen Road, was an exercise in minimalism – “completely concrete and graphite, with dark-grey and light-brown tones” – but after a tenant moved out of Lo’s Kennedy Road space, she took the plunge and moved in. The move coincided with her new role at Dior at the time, which seemed reason enough to make the change.

[caption id="attachment_211027" align="alignnone" width="1055"] Socialite and fashionista Denise Lo invites us into her colourful, eclectic home.[/caption]

Her stint at the brand appears to have influenced her home decor quite heavily, with light grey coloured walls and white panelled trims reminiscent of the signature colour of the maison’s stores. Paired with these are light, warm wooden floors that are the opposite of the concrete aesthetic she describes at the old home. When it comes to the layout, practicality is Lo’s priority: the kitchen at Kennedy Road used to be three times the size, but since Lo doesn’t cook, she slashed the area to make room for a study and guest bathroom – she has guests over often. Lo also installed extensive storage space behind three of her panelled walls to store her treasures.

The living room features a large, pale grey plush sofa, a light grey rectangular ottoman and two white chairs from Restoration Hardware surrounding a large wooden coffee table. When designing her home, Lo considered the overall feel before deciding how to decorate it, wanting a very comfortable, light and airy setting. Most shelving, aside from the two ceiling-length bronze shelves flanking her television, are painted white to keep the atmosphere light.

Travel is a large source of inspiration. “I’m a shopaholic,”Lo admits. “I love to travel and buy different things but somehow whatever I buy looks good in my house. Sometimes it’s ethnic, sometimes it’s a Dior-esque sort of thing, or sometimes it’s just cute.

“I’m definitely eclectic and buy so many things, but they all mean something and bring me joy – that’s why I can never get rid of things.” Not surprisingly, she’s looking for a bigger place to make room for her ever-expanding collection.

Lo adores elaborate table settings. Occupying almost half of her home, her long rectangular dining table seats up to 12, with plush light-grey chairs to match the rest of her house. For our shoot, she sought the help of good friend Monica Cheung to style her home.

As a result, her dining table was bursting with an assortment of flowers in a variety of vases, all from French brands such as Astier de Villatte.

[caption id="attachment_211028" align="alignnone" width="927"] Denise Lo has a penchant for flowers and vibrant trinkets.[/caption]

“Elaborate table settings make me so happy,” she says. “Even looking at all the pictures again after entertaining, as well as putting it together, makes the entire living experience more pleasurable. I just love tableware. I have four complete settings, but the problem is where to store them all.” Most of Lo’s tableware including the coloured crystal glasses are from Dior. She’s also a fan of kitsch designs and quirky decor, such as the Señor and Señorita vases displayed on the dining table.

Lo’s design mantra revolves around how she feels: “Everything in your house must be something you like. You could be buying the most expensive furniture, but if you don’t feel like you’re at home, then it’s a problem,” she says. “I like my home to be comfortable, to have things that I love, so that when I look at them it brings me so much happiness. All the things here, I don’t get tired of them – even pieces I’ve had for more than 20 years. That’s why it’s very hard to practise the Marie Kondo method. How can you throw everything away? That’s not me.”

One of her favourite pieces is a decorative foldable screen by Coquecigrues that’s hand painted with bamboo leaves and figurines, which she bought at La Boutique Living on Shelley Street. Art is also a large decorative element in Lo’s home, which she mainly credits to Sotheby’s Asia chairwoman, Patti Wong, who introduced her to art collecting.

“My favourite artist is Yoshitomo Nara,” she says. “I love anything Japanese. Takashi Murakami and Ayako Rokkaku are also among my favourites. I like girly, colourful things.” Lo also has two colourful and cartoonish paintings by American pop artist Mr Likey, which add bursts of colour to her living room.

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Following last year’s announcement of its global representation of Tu Hongtao, lovers of Chinese modern art will be pleased to know that Lévy Gorvy will present a solo exhibition of his key paintings from the past decade and a half.

Occupying the entire space of Lévy Gorvy’s Hong Kong gallery on the ground floor of St. George’s Building, the exhibition will showcase the development of Tu’s practice ranging from his early cityscapes to his recent works which synthesise Chinese and Western painting traditions. Boasting a selection of paintings loaned by museums as well as by important private collections from China and Hong Kong, the exhibition includes his earlier urban landscapes and the expressive abstractions that make up his current works.

With his academic background specialising in oil paintings from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Tu began his career during an era of rapid transformation in his country – one that saw the end of its collective economy and the rise of the market economy and globalisation.  Observing the social and environmental changes in his hometown of Chengdu, he began to compose sardonic cityscapes featuring piles of human bodies and dolls that reflect contemporary feelings of confusion, tension, and desire. In addition to manifesting the anxieties of Tu’s generation, these early canvases established his ongoing engagement with cross-cultural histories of landscape painting, using the density of these landscapes as, in his own words, “both an abstract background and a real space".

[caption id="attachment_206889" align="alignnone" width="1847"] A Horse of All Things, 2014-18. Oil on canvas, 82 11/16 x 126 inches (210 x 320 cm). © Tu Hongtao.[/caption]

A highlight of the exhibition, -- A Horse of All Things -- takes its title from Daoist philosopher Zhuang Tzu's aphorism that "everything passes like a galloping horse," and demonstrates how Tu presents the concept of time in Chinese literature onto his canvas in a purely abstract expression. In fact, Tu has described his relationship with painting as “finding philosophical insights from traditional poetry". Inspired by the landscape poems of ancient Chinese literati, these paintings constitute a unique view of the Chinese landscape, capturing poetic qualities and allowing time to be traced back within his works.

In addition to oil paintings, several works on paper will also be exhibited to outline Tu’s conceptual process as well as guide viewers to better understand of his aesthetic. The exhibition also features a short film directed by Taiwanese actor and film producer Wang Yu which provides insight into Tu’s creative process, personal background, and striking works of art. The exhibition is currently on view until June 30.

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