Celebrity Life

When the reform-minded government of Gough Whitlam came to power in Australia in 1972 after 23 years of conservative rule, it embarked on an agenda of polices that ranged from the high-minded ­­– recognising the People’s Republic of China, returning indigenous lands, abolishing the death penalty and axing university fees ­– to more prosaic but urgent matters like connecting the sprawling outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne to a modern sewerage system. Cultural investment was also given prominence, with Queen Elizabeth opening Sydney’s iconic Opera House in October 1973 following two decades of construction – a rancorous project that saw Danish architect Jørn Utzen head home to Denmark, never to return, while cost overruns hit tens of millions of dollars. That fateful year also saw the start of the Gulf State oil embargo and the mid-70s recession. So when it emerged that the also new National Gallery of Australia in Canberra had paid AU$1.3m (HK$6.5m) for a painting by an American artist, Jackson Pollock’s 1952 work Blue Poles, which looked someone had laid the canvas on the floor and poured, dribbled and flecked house paint all over it, the public and popular media reacted as if they’d just learned that someone had strangled the Queen’s corgies. (After forking out for Blue Poles, the NGA acquired another work, Woman V, by the Dutch-born US painter Willem de Kooning, for a more modest US$650,000. Both painters were colleagues from the so-called New York School of Abstract Expressionism that formed after the second world war).
Fast forward to the present, where times, and attitudes, have of course changed. In a short video at the NGA’s website, Christine Dixon, senior curator of international painting and sculpture, describes why the painting today is the gallery’s most popular exhibit, starting with its sheer size: “People forget that when they see reproductions of works of art, everything looks flat. But when you come to this beautiful work, you’ll see that it’s nearly two metres high and more than five metres long.”

[caption id="attachment_206825" align="alignnone" width="1762"] Blue Poles Jackson Pollock[/caption]

And, yes, Pollock did paint on the floor – his paintings were just too damn big to lean on the wall ­­– where he “used any implement he liked to pour and dribble and fling paint to the canvas”. And yet, Dixon adds, “he could draw so subtly with such intricate ideas about the lattice work and three dimensionality of the painting. The more closely you look at the work, the more deep it becomes. If you move away it becomes a surface again.”
And therein lies one of the most intriguing features of Blue Poles (and Pollock’s other works from that period): that, according to some mathematicians, the painting is composed almost entirely ­of fractals, something Pollock was probably not even vaguely aware of. Fractals are patterns formed by congregations of exactly, or very similar, patterns. For example, imagine an equilateral triangle that itself is comprised of four smaller triangles with exactly the same pattern. Or take the original one and stack three more the same size to get a new triangle that is four times that size. Fractal patterns are ubiquitous in nature in shapes as diverse as snowflakes or biological structures ­­­– indeed they are the patterns of life. Look closely at a snail shell or the veining of leaves. They are also found in art, especially in East Asian imagery of water and clouds: think Hokusai’s famous woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and notice how the shapes of the giant waves and the breaking foam at their tops are fractals of each other.

Meanwhile, it’s been nearly five decades since the NGA paid what was then a world record for a work by an American painter. Was it taken for a ride, or did they get a bargain? In September 2016, the Australian Financial Review reported that the painting had an insurance valuation of about US$350 million (HK$2.71 billion), some 300 times the 1973 price tag ­– a frenzy of fractals at a fraction of the price.

The post Arty Facts: Seeing Red Over Jackson Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’ appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Internet shopping just got a lot more interesting.

The post Sotheby’s launches new boutique online auctions appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Internet shopping just got a lot more interesting.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

For the last quarter of a century, the bespoke New York-based publishing house of Assouline has served as what's appropriately been called a "librarian of luxury". Although starting out with compact, hand-size volumes devoted to famous names in fashion and luxury goods that sold for a mere handful of dollars, the company quickly moved on to specialise in huge, lavishly photographed, printed and bound tomes that could cost upwards of four or, in the case of limited editions, even five figures.

Still a family business today, the company was founded in Paris basement by a couple with extensive experience in the luxury ecosystem: Prosper Assouline headworker in an advertising agency, while his wife Martine had served as head of communications for the house of Rochas. So it was perhaps inevitable that when they began their own publishing venture they didn't stray too far from terra cognita, with a catalogue of beautiful books devoted to the grand maisons of French fashion and luxury, names such as Cartier, Chanel and Dior -- one that's expanded in magnitude along with the physical dimensions of the publications themselves.

[gallery ids="206677,206678"]

In addition to fashion and luxury -- subjects with which the company has served as several brands' semi-official biographer -- Assouline explores other subjects likely to be of interest to a readership that is by definition affluent and globally aware. Art, design,  architecture, automobiles and high society naturally figure prominently, but at the other end of the scale the publishing house is perfectly happy to engage with elements of  culture that are less obviously elevated.  So far it's produced five monumental collaborations with Coca-Cola, while a 2008 enquiry from the toymaker Mattel resulted in a pair of equally enormous publication, one devoted to the Barbie Doll and the other to Hot Wheels.

[caption id="attachment_206680" align="alignnone" width="1927"] The Beachside Bar Le Club 55 in St Tropez, France[/caption]

The post Assouline Takes Us on a Journey of the Imagination appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Fancy a once-in-a-lifetime getaway with a grand tour of the galaxy, or something niche at the mighty auroras of Jupiter? Our next world is closer than you think.

There’s nothing like a global pandemic to make humanity stop and pause to think about our medium-term future on planet Earth, especially in the face of rising global warming and accelerated depletion of resources. But certain groups of people spend their lives considering exactly this future every day. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, USA would be one of them.
While were still confined to social distancing and the many ramifications of more domesticated living this seemed the perfect moment to share NASA’s Visions of the Future project, a series of 14 space-tourism travel posters created by artists working with scientists at JPL. The results are mind-boggling and otherworldly, yet so tangible and captivating.

[gallery ids="206567,206568,206569,206570,206571,206572,206575,206574"]

Among the many highlights, see Visit the Historic Sites of Mars, a poster that imagines a future day when we’ve achieved Elon Musk’s – and our – vision of human explorations of Mars and takes a nostalgic look back at the great imagined milestones of planetary exploration that will somebody become celebrated as “historic sites”. NASA’s Mars Exploration Programme seeks to understand whether Mars was, is, or can be a habitable world. Missions such as the Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, among others, have provided information that provides answers.
If you want an otherworldly experience that makes the Northern Lights look like early silent pictures in Hollywood, the Jovian cloudscape on Jupiter boasts the most spectacular lightshow in the solar system, with northern and southern lights dazzling even the most jaded space traveller. Jupiter’s auroras are hundreds of times more powerful than Earth's and they form a flowing ring around each pole that’s bigger than our home planet. Revolving outside this surreal oval are the glowing, electric “footprints” of Jupiter’s three largest moons. NASA’s Juno mission continues to study Jupiter’s auroras from above the polar regions, studying them in a way never before possible. It began in 2016 and will finish by July 2021.
Or discover life under the ice, with 360 ocean views. Perhaps most tantalising of any solar entity, is the astonishing geology and the potential to host conditions for simple life that exist on Jupiter’s moon Europa, a must-explore destination. Beneath its icy surface, Europa is believed to conceal a global ocean of salty liquid water twice the volume of Earth’s oceans. And the tug of Jupiter’s gravity generates enough heat to keep the ocean from freezing. On Earth, whenever we find water, we find life. What will NASA's Europa mission find when it heads for this intriguing moon in the 2020s?
The race is on for discovering life with the tiny Saturnian moon Enceladus. The discovery of its icy jets and their role in creating Saturn’s E-ring is one of the top findings to the Cassini mission. Further Cassini mission discoveries revealed strong evidence of a global ocean and the first signs of potential hydrothermal activity beyond Earth -- Enceladus has more than 100 geysers.
But for bragging rights on intergalactic level, NASA’s Voyager mission took advantage of a once-every-175-year alignment of the outer planets for a grand tour of the solar system. The twin spacecraft revealed stunning details about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – using each planet’s gravity to send them on to the next destination. Voyager set the stage for such ambitious orbiter missions as Galileo to Jupiter and Cassini to Saturn. Today both Voyager spacecraft continue to return valuable science from the far reaches of our solar system.
And right now space tourism is the next-paradigm go-to. Aman Europa or Four Seasons Enceladus anyone? Wish you were here.

The post Tour the Galaxy with NASA’s Vision for the Future appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

In response to the current climate, Sotheby’s has launched “Contemporary Showcase,” its new digital initiative comprised of a new series of boutique online auctions.

Modeled after a dynamic “pop-up shop” concept, the online auction adopts a fast-paced auction format with varied thematic presentations. Recently, it has unveiled its latest exhibition under this initiative – manga. The selling exhibition offers  an exciting collection of unique illustrations and original Animation Celluloid Pictures (cel-ga). Featuring some of the most beloved characters from popular animation series such as Pokémon, Dragon Ball, Astro Boy and Anpanman, these unique drawings and cel-gas are from some of the most prestigious animation houses such as Studio Ghibli and Toei Animation. Given that manga is a worldwide cultural phenomenon spanning comic books, anime and gaming, it seems like a fitting theme for Sotheby’s online auction. With its influence seen in different fields ranging from fashion, film to contemporary art, manga seems to be a new trend in collectible art.

"During this unprecedented time, Asian collectors have enthusiastically participated in our online sales programme, driving record results that demonstrate the resilience of the Contemporary Art market. Our new ‘Contemporary Showcase’ series responds to this success, and we are confident that the new initiative will bring new and exciting opportunities for our audiences, both in Asia and worldwide." - Yuki Terase, Head of Contemporary Art, Asia of Sotheby's

[caption id="attachment_206551" align="alignnone" width="2261"] Jungle Emperor Leo by Mushi Production, Leo Animation Cel[/caption]

According to Sotheby’s, “with swift turnaround between consignment and sale, the series meets the needs of both sellers and buyers in the rapidly evolving market, while allowing [us] to continue to bring exciting and ahead-of-the-curve offerings to clientele.” As a response, 60 unique drawings and Animation Celluloid Pictures will be offered for auction online while an additional 95 pieces will be presented in a selling exhibition at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery (by appointment only). For people still reluctant to leave their homes, Sotheby's is offering an interactive virtual tour so viewers can browse through the exceptional collection inside the gallery. This exciting 360-degree experience will be available on Sotheby's website for any manga fans and art lovers to browse at their leisure.

The post Sotheby’s Manga Auction Goes Online appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Contemporary artist and photographer Gina Soden tells us about finding beauty in the haunting decay of once-glorious architecture

See huge sweeping arches, rich Rococo detailing, domed canopies and cracked windows, all heavy with dust and the weight of history. Ornate frescoed villas, palaces and theatres, their colours once bright, now faded, and interiors dilapidated over years. Each is lit with gentle sunlight breaking through, shadows cast over the stories and dramas lived under grand chandeliers and heavy curtains in spaces once filled with life.

“I want to evoke a sense of narrative and the life of the building, and try to avoid a documentary look,” says the award-winning British photographer and artist Gina Soden. “I love bright colours, patterns and that ‘wow’ effect. I also love a bit of mystery, so try not to give too much away. I want to leave the viewer with more questions than answers.”

For the young British artist, it’s all hinged on emotive images of beautiful buildings and interiors in states of decay, with nature sometimes invading abandoned human construction. She’s staked her claim in the art world with this niche, recently taking commissions from The Hoxton hotels (for its new Paris property) and Soho House (to produce new works for the Barcelona, New York, London and Amsterdam houses and its London hotel The Ned).

[caption id="attachment_206447" align="alignnone" width="1450"] Portrait of Gina Soden by Mike Deere[/caption]

Her work packs a powerful punch, in 2018 winning her UK Artist of the Year and Photographer of the Year at the Rise Art Prize (the biggest open art competition in the UK) with Klinik, a photograph of an abandoned sanitorium.

These forgotten buildings are given regal presentation with Soden’s stunning knack for photographic composition, symmetry and Renaissance-esque perspective. Viewers are usually soothed when looking at the works, but some reactions have been more extreme. “Someone cried once at an art fair, as they were so moved,” Soden recalls. “That was surprising!” Perhaps it’s due to the elegant classicism, beauty in the midst of desolation and collapse, or how colours sometimes drench a piece, overwhelming the gaze with emeralds, turquoises, dusty pinks, powder blues and sunlight hues ranging from soft amber to hot terracotta. Or maybe it’s the poignant reminder of time, death and decay.

“A few of my pieces really illustrate the passing of time,” explains the artist, distinguished by her ever-changing, rainbow-ranged locks, as she shows me her spacious new studio in Reading, South East England, via Facetime, “Thermale is an abandoned spa complex and looks so ancient and grand. Ivy is from an abandoned asylum and the ivy creeping along the floor was just beautiful. And Tree in Room – this was photographed in a summer camp and on the second floor a tree was growing through the floor, and during my second visit it had already grown massively! Some buildings seem to decay more than others ... it depends on the country and location though, and how well-known or well-guarded it is.”

[caption id="attachment_206441" align="alignnone" width="1349"] Church on Mirror | Gina Soden Photography[/caption]

Most recently, Soden exhibited at The Other Art Fair and Archaeologies, a 2019 group show at the Charlie Smith Gallery, curated by Zavier Ellis. Her work has shown at New York’s Pulse Art Fair, London’s Art15, The London Art Fair, The Photo Art Fair and Photo London, held at Somerset House. A Hong Kong connection comes from being exhibited early in her career at the now-closed Cat Street Gallery in Sheung Wan, before she picked up prizes like the 2014 The Naylor Award for the Finest Photograph, and The Secret Art Prize the same year with a piece called Les Histoires.

She blends different exposures together to capture all those details in a single image, creating that very painterly look. She’s deviated from realism with a kaleidoscopic series, an abstract departure that plays with geometries, and has developed a process of hand-printing her images on to found antique “mirrors, marble and metals, treated and corroded with industrial tools and materials, culminating in the Corrodium series – a current self-professed career highlight. The Ingresso series also holds a special place in her heart, but she tells me that the most meaningful would be Retrogression.

“It came from a huge week-long road trip in 2012 with three friends. I was shooting not knowing I’d be creating a series from it and so was fully relaxed about the outcome. After that, everything changed! This was my first step into the art world. The series was really successful, I got a huge amount of press and lots of things happened afterwards, for which I am very grateful.”

[caption id="attachment_206442" align="alignnone" width="1358"] Control Room | Gina Soden Photography[/caption]

Soden’s process is so much more than just taking the picture. It involves months of research, often through dense forests and meadows, abandoned complexes and locked-up buildings deemed unsafe for the public. She could be hiding or being chased by security guards around closed-down schools, asylums, villas or power plants.

The victory of finding something breathtaking and incredible is punctuated by occasions when “hours of research is down the toilet as the building was demolished a few months ago” – the whole affair can be a hugely emotional rollercoaster, she says. No doubt these rollercoaster pursuits have paid off handsomely, landing her in CNN Style and on the pages of the Financial Times, the Telegraph, Dazed & Confused magazine, the British Journal of Photography and Casa Vogue.

Her work has been focussed on Europe (Italy specifically) so far – not surprisingly, for the sheer wealth and density of grand old buildings: “Italy just had me hooked for the last few years and I simply can’t get enough of it. I’ve not even travelled further south than Naples, so there’s still so much more to do there.” From there come the Italian Renaissance references: seen in that sense of depth and her obsession “with single-point perspectives while creating a painterly aesthetic in post-production ... unconsciously, it perhaps all ties together to that look.”

[caption id="attachment_206446" align="alignnone" width="1353"] Thermale | Gina Soden Photography[/caption]

That being said, Soden is keen to explore Georgia, Japan, Cuba, Taiwan, Lebanon and Russia next. The USA is also high on her list, despite being put off by gun-toting security guards and police.

Unusually for modern photographers, Soden prefers to use natural light, occasionally – but rarely – adding a torch. Ideally, she visits locations first thing in the morning “with diffused light creating soft shadows and picking out the highlight details”, or else, she explains, “it’s golden hour for obvious reasons” if logistics allow.

Admittedly, I love her work – there’s already one piece hanging in my new London apartment, and I’ve just ordered three more. Her knack for enlivening these ruinous structures pushes the boundaries of beauty, decay, nostalgia and neglect. It’s perhaps all the more appreciated when thinking of Soden’s journeys to each location.

“The act of gaining unlicensed access is a full-body workout, soaked in anticipation, nerves, excitement and the paranoia of getting caught or disappointment when you can’t find a way into the building,” she says, laughing. “Then all the hours of hard work and long-distance travel ends in one of two ways: either the sheer dismay of all the work up until that point amounting to nothing, or utter elation of stepping into an amazing location and being completely undisturbed.”

[caption id="attachment_206443" align="alignnone" width="1533"] Krankenhaus | Gina Soden Photography[/caption]

Art in The Time of COVID-19

Cancelled shows, fairs and gallery events, people told to stay at home, public life gone — the creative economy (among others) is under threat because of Covid-19. So how are Gina Soden and her fellow young artists adapting to this?

“Oh it’s such a crazy difficult time for so many people,” she says. “I was meant to start work on a new series at my five-week art residency at Villa Lena in Tuscany, which will now be postponed until next April,” she says. “I was so gutted about it, but I think it’s reminded me what’s important — to have a roof over my head for my husband, family and friends all to be safe and well. What more can you ask for in these unprecedented times?”

Working alone in isolation is nothing new for most artists but selling in isolation is proving to be harder. Digital platforms, and apps such as Instagram have helped hugely. Soden has taken up a “genius” initiative by Matthew Burrows: artists selling artworks priced at a maximum of £200, and once each artist reaches £1,000-worth of sales, they pay it forward by purchasing another artist’s work. She’s received a flood of orders by eager fans over her Instagram account already. It’s proved a great way to support young creative talent and acquire accessible pieces that bring beauty into our homes, especially since we’re now spending so much time in them.

The post British Artist Gina Soden on The Romance Among The Ruins appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Born in Malaga, Spain, Pablo Ruiz Picasso on 25 October 1881 was a Spanish painter and sculptor. Picasso is a household name around the world, [...]

The post Most Expensive Picasso Paintings appeared first on Most Expensive Thing.

Since the dawn of time, humans have found a way to express themselves in art. Whether we paint for fun, to tell stories, or to [...]

The post Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings In The World appeared first on Most Expensive Thing.

Dubbed the "gallery of the future", Hauser & Wirth’s newly launched research and innovation arm, ArtLab, has just announced that it will host its first ever virtual reality exhibition on 30 April. The group exhibition, titled Beside Itself, takes place in Hauser & Wirth’s future gallery space in Menorca, allowing visitors a first look at the art centre ahead of its opening in 2021.

ArtLab was birthed by Hauser & Wirth after intensive research in the summer of 2019 to create bespoke technology solutions for the most pressing issues in the art world, including greater accessibility and sustainability. The ArtLab team began exploring innovations that would allow audiences to fully experience exhibitions in different local contexts without traveling —a project that takes on greater meaning and urgency amid the coronavirus pandemic— while permitting artists, curators, and exhibition coordinators to better prepare shows using new technology. In addition, ArtLab will also host a digital residency program at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles for artists and their teams by invitation to enabling them to explore the full potential of this new technology. Using a bespoke technology-stack not found in any other industry and drawing from techniques applied in architecture, construction and video-game design, Artlab creates true-to-life scale and accuracy as well as the authentic look, feel and interactivity of Hauser & Wirth galleries. Building the virtual 3D space from the ground up at a pixel level rather than relying on combined photos, HWVR provides an unprecedented level of accuracy and flexibility.

[caption id="attachment_206409" align="alignnone" width="1454"] ArtLab, in software installation view of Ellen Gallagher’s ‘DeLuxe’, 2004-2005 and Mark Bradford’s ‘Chicago’, 2019 created in HWVR (Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth and the artists)[/caption]

Visitors will be able to experience the virtual reality exhibition through the gallery’s website. Taking its title from a wall piece by Lawrence Weiner, the exhibition brings together text-based works from the following artists: Louise Bourgeois, Mark Bradford, Charles Gaines, Ellen Gallagher, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Luchita Hurtado, Mike Kelley, Glenn Ligon, Damon McCarthy, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Lorna Simpson and Lawrence Weiner. Spanning a period from the 1970’s to the present day, these works explore the intersection of text and the visual image from Bourgeois’s etching ‘Le Coeur Est La’ to Mark Bradford’s bold printed words in ‘New York City’.

Iwan Wirth, one of the founders, made the following statement regarding this new venture:

[inline-quote author="Iwan Wirth"]"Our primary goal was to create technology that would help our artists visualise the spaces where their exhibitions would be presented. We were equally motivated by a desire to plan exhibitions for our locations around the globe in a way that would reduce the amount of travel and transportation. Given the current situation, we feel this new approach to virtual reality exhibitions is especially relevant, will engage as many people as possible and bring them together while we’re all apart."[/inline-quote]

‘Beside Itself’ will open on 30 April 2020 and can be accessed by a computer, smart phone or using a VR headset such as google cardboard.

Preview the Virtual Reality exhibition space here:

The post Hauser & Wirth Presents its Latest Exhibition in Virtual Reality appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The world-renowned arts and music event Burning Man cancels for the first time in its nearly 40-year history and will instead, take the 2020 festival online. Fittingly, the theme for the festival this year is ‘The Multiverse,’ which has worked out for them perfectly – despite being unable to host the event at Black Rock Desert, Nevada as planned, the organisers of Burning Man have instead creatively made a digital universe for burners to revel in. When asked about their decision to build Black Rock City, the organisers optimistically said “who’d have believed it would come true?”, keeping up with the positive spirit of the event. Festival goers were initially invited to experience alternate realities in the dust, but now they can do so in the comfort of their own home.

The Burning Man Project said in a statement, “given the painful reality of COVID-19, one of the greatest global challenges of our lifetimes, we believe this is the right thing to do. Yes, we are heartbroken. We know you are too. In 2020 we need human connection and immediacy more than ever. But public health and the well-being of our participants, staff, and neighbours in Nevada are our highest priorities.”

[caption id="attachment_206416" align="alignnone" width="1555"] Burners gather in front of the temple, featuring the Man, who will be burned after the festival is over. (BRC News)[/caption]

However, although the physical event has been cancelled this year, one major perk to their decision to bring it online is that anybody can join without having to travel, which means more people can participate in this spiritual experience. According to the organisers, it will be a co-created experience with over 100,000 participants from all over the globe. Virtual burners will be able to take part in cooking classes, dance events, art workshops and yoga practices from anywhere in the world. In addition, anyone can contribute to this virtual Burning Man by offering their own talents in a series of questions asked online in order to join, in line with the age-old tradition of exchange in which the festival has been built on.

“Burning Man is a culture, it’s a movement,” said Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell. “We look forward to inviting you to the virtual Black Rock City.” Those who are interested in participating can sign up online here, with the virtual festival scheduled to run from August 30 to September 7. The festival will be ticketed, although the price has yet to be announced.

The post Burning Man Creates A New Virtual Universe Amid Coronavirus appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.