I am an Artoholic

MY NAME IS CHARLES SAATCHI

AND I AM AN ARTOHOLIC

One of the first things I will do when I arrive in London is to go to the Saatchi Gallery. 

The Saatchi Gallery inside the Duke of Yorks HQ, on King´s Road is one of the largest Contemporary art spaces in the world with 70,000 square foot. Until then, I will have to be satisfied by the owners book. In "My name is Charles Saatchi and I am an artoholic" Charles Saatchi has posted questions he has been asked but never wanted to answer before now. With this he hopes that he has given the media what it wants and to please just leave him alone...!

It's a raw, funny, informative and provocative picture of an Art Collector that comes clear after finishing the book. Charles Saatchi, so called the "Super-collector" also managed to snag and collect the fabulous Cooking Goddess Nigella Lawson.

A perfect gift for someone who is usually too busy to read, but love art? It is a quick read and at times quite entertaining.

I will give you some hints here:

" There are no rules about investment. Sharks can be good. Artists dung can be good. Oil on canvas can be good. There´s a squad of conservators out there to look after anything an artist decides is art."

"Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on. I love them all."

"...once you have bought something that doesn´t fit in your home, and has to be stored in an art depot, you're officially an art collector"

I nearly have to yell at him for this one:

What´s Nigella's cooking really like?

"I´m sure it´s fantastic, but a bit wasted on me. I like toast with Dairylea, followed by Weetabix for supper. It drives her to distraction, frankly, particularly as she gets the blame for my new fat look. But the children love her cooking, and our friends seem to look forward to it."

& This is where I am:

"The more you like art, the more art you like...

the rest is his journey:

....So I find it easy to buy lots of it, and seeing art as an investment would take away all the fun"

With Love 

Kristin

Peter Greenaway

Leonardo's Last Supper

A Vision by

Peter Greenaway

Park Avenue Armory

Peter Greenaway, where did you hide for so long? After having made some of my favorite movies like "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover", "The Belly of an Architect" and "The Pillow Book" you disappeared. Now when you are returning to the limelight you are telling us that the cinema is "Dead" and cannot think of a single truly great movie made in the past 40 years....

I decided not to hold this against you, when I took my whole family to the Park Avenue Armory on Sunday.

It was jaw dropping at first. The large screens were hung in a way that made the space feel like a Cathedral, the filmed paintings together with the music put you in a special sacred mood.

First there was a prologue in one "room" and then the bells started to chime and you were lead into the second room, concentrated on the Leonardo's Last Supper, on one side and Christ's face on the other. The "paintings" were lit and projected in many different ways, shadows, daylight, nightlight, drawn and filled with images that made it look like wine was dripping down the table cloth. One especially beautiful effect was a close up of Christ that was magnified so much that it turned into a landscape, then the cracks in the paint split up into small particles and broke loose from the painting itself.

The last picture here is of the dining table that also was lit in different ways and set for a night of eating and drinking.

After the "Last Supper" we were led back into the previous "room" filled with new images. With Pablo Veronese's painting "Wedding at Cana" at the center. Here we were suddenly interrupted by a more lecturing voice. I thought this could have been done more poetically and told without obvious statements such as Christ sitting in the middle of the painting. Although it was entertaining to know that Pablo Veronese painted himself in white clothing in the foreground.

At the end we were left with images of an endless amount of wine pouring out of barrels, symbolizing the miracle of when Christ made water into wine.

"There are seldom such positive stories in the bible that we can wholeheartedly celebrate. 

This is certainly one of them."

- Peter Greenaway

With Love 

Kristin

Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on "Ode to Joy"

ALLORA & CALZADILLA

MoMA

Dec. 8th - Jan. 10th

Do you remember the Petrified Petrol Pump from Art Basel Miami? It is remarkable that when you discover new Artists, they suddenly seem to pop up everywhere, like I should have known about them before. I definitely got more curious and hurried to MoMA to check what Jennifer Allora (American, 1974) and Guillermo Calzadilla (Cuban, 1971) was up to now. At first look there is a Piano... and then yes, the Piano has a carved whole in it, and wheels and it also has been modified quite a lot.

Every hour a Woman or a Man pops up from the whole to play "The Ninth Symphony of 1824" By Beethoven. And you get a "Grand" walking Piano Concert.

 This way you diminish the distance between the musician and the instrument and merge them into one!


the hole in the piano renders two octaves inoperative—that fundamentally transforms both the player/instrument dynamic and the signature melody, underlining the contradictions and ambiguities of a song that has long been invoked as a symbol of humanist values and national pride
(MoMA)

I do wish that the gifted musicians could have been styled better, but then again I am crazy about the esthetics. 

(The performances was done by Terezija Cukrov and Amir Khosrowpour while I was there)

WITH LOVE

Kristin

Nick Cave

THE ARTIST

"Meet Me at the Center of the Earth"

Norton Museum

West Palm Beach, Florida

I always get intrigued by successful people that share the same or similar names. Like Paul McCartney the Musician and Paul McCharty the Artist. Now it is all about Nick Cave the artist and what I hear in the back of my head is my favorite deadly romantic song "Where the wild roses grow" a duet Nick Cave the Musician did with Kylie Minogue. It is to cry for....

Anyway, Nick Cave the Artist´s work is a far cry from the wild roses. The former dancer and director of Chicago´s Art institute fashion program creates a whole world of his own.

He makes soundsuits

 

Look at the details in his work, perfectly stitched garments made out of scavenged materials like sweaters, ceramics, human hair, beads, buttons...

In the end the Soundsuits takes it's inspiration by everything from High fashion, African Culture, the Mardi Gras festival to Ceremonial Costumes and from this he creates his whole new integrated Universe.


Nick Cave offers a vision of a world turned upside down and inside out. (Norton Museum)


How new, how exciting and what incredible talent, don't you think? I just wished I could have stayed longer at the Norton Museum and studied his work more, now I look forward to seeing his work again one day.

Love Kristin

#By the way I just discovered that I have had over 5,300 page viewers this month. Makes me astoundingly excited and inspired!


#Usually on this blog I take my own pictures, but these are not mine, and they are very hard to find the source for.
Let me know if you know:)

Art Basel Miami Beach 2010

Paul McCarthy

Untitled (from Propo-Series)

(Dirty Dotty), 2002

Miami Highlights

Friday was one crazy and busy day.

We flew out of JFK early in the morning and arrived at Miami Airport, where my man rented a silver Corvette with a big happy grin on his face. Being a little worried about the speed... but good to get to the Norton Museum in Palm Beach quickly. After seeing the Museum and peaking at the fabulous Nick Cave (don´t confuse him with the musician) installation, we had a meeting with the director Hope Alswang before we cruised back to Miami Beach to experience the Art Basel Fair.

Bharti Kher

Solarium Series I

2007/2010

Fiberglass, metal

Bharti Kher

Indra´s net mirror 5

2010

Bindis on mirror, wooden Frame

Among the many Galleries that I am a great fan of is the Hauser & Wirth, at the Fair they were showing Paul McCarthy (whose work I can be a bit ambivalent with), Bharti Kher, a new favorite of mine, Anj Smith, Roni Horn and Joan Mitchell.

Joan Mitchell

Untitled 1968-1969

Oil on canvas

Vik Muniz

The Bearer (Irma) from Pictures of Garbage

2008

Arndt & Partner (Zurich, Berlin)

This conceptual picture here is fenomenal. I will call Vik Muniz an ArtEco Artist. Born in Sao Paulo Brazil (where my husband is right now...). now he lives and works in New York.
This sold on the first day of Art Basel (should I say, of course?)


In a labor-intensive and meticulous process, Vik Muniz reproduces images the Western viewer is familiar with from the print media, such as art masterpieces or legendary photographs from news magazines. After he has created his replicas, using a wide range of materials such as powdered pigment, dust, garbage or foods like sugar, chocolate and caviar, he photographs them and then destroys them so that they only exist as photographs. Viewed from a distance, the illusionistic effect and the resemblance of his works to the original pictures are striking. However, when seen up close the images dissolve into a chaotic array of materials, thus turning the attention of the viewer to the symbolic meaning and the formal characteristics of the substances as well as to the elaborate production process. 
(From Arndt & Partner Website)

Maria Nepomuceno

Untitled, 2010

Ropes, Beads, Fiberglass, Resine and Ceramic

Gallery: A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil)

Check out this Gallery´s imaginative website... a sort of sperm factory? 

Yaoi Kusama

Pumpkin, 2010

(Behind "The Earth in late summer)

A conceptual Artist born in Japan now lives in New York, who calls herself an "obsessive artist".

Holds one of the highest sold records at Auctions for a living female.

Angela de la Cruz

Squashed (2010)

Nothing IX (White), 2005

oil on Canvas

Galerie Krinzinger Vienna

Is a finalist for the Turner Prize this year. I think they will announce the winner later tonight. Will keep you updated. (The Turner Prize is the most prestigious award an Artist can get that lives and work in Britain).

Great boots for watching Video Art.

Allora & Calzadilla

Petrified Petrol Pump, 2010

Fossilised Limestone

Lisson Gallery

Through sculpture, photography, performance, sound and video, Allora and Calzadilla's works have been informed by questions of mark making, traces, and survival in a way that is simultaneously conceptual, metaphorical and spatial. Their understanding of material and metaphor as a couple is crucial; for them a material is never simply self-evident in its meaning, it is always marked with histories, cultures, and politics that are at once irreducible to and indivisible from the material in question. Another recurrent trope in their work is that of animality, and its unstable relationship to the realm of the human. Most recently, they have created a series of works that explore the interplay between militarism and sound in the context of today's global state of war.

 - Lisson Gallery

This Limestone petrol pump is incredible seen up close. New Artists to me, they live and work in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Anish Kapoor

Untitled, 2010

Fiberglass and Paint

Good Anish Kapoor, brightening my view:)

Nathan Carter

Norway, Bergen Arial, 1942, 2009

Steel and enamel paint

Gallery: Galerist (Turkey)

The title here of course was inviting to me (since I am Norwegian and have lived in Bergen at one point). Sort of a newer version of Calder?

Elif Uras

Line Belly, 2010

Iznikware, polychrome underglaze on fritware

68x30

Gallerist: Galerist (Turkey)

 Elif Uras

Byzantine Belly, 2010

Iznikware, polychrome underglaze on fritware

68x30

 Loving these belly vases (A collection of 8 I think). All sold already.

Georg Condo

Not titled yet (2010)

As Esquire writes: Forget about buying a condo — buy a Condo...

David Altmejd

Untitled, 2010

Foam, epoxy clay, synthetic hair, acrylic pain, 

mixed minerals, including quartz, calcite, florite

Andrea Rosen Gallery

Elliott Hundley

With Her own hands, 2010

Let the whole house crash, season III, 2010

Gallery Andrea Rosen

Success is in the details... here the amazing Andrea Rosen Gallery with pieces by Elliott Hundley and David Altmejd.

Juan Genoves (b. 1930)

Espacio Publico, 2010

acrylic on canvas on board

Marlborough Gallery

(Insert) Espacio Publico

Juan Genoves

Contemporaneos, 2010

Distancias, 2010

My favorites were actually these paintings by the Spanish artist Juan Genoves. Look what a great technique he has by doing this brilliant splash of paint that makes people.

Louise Bourgeois

Spider Home, 2002

The institute, 2002

The mini versions of the large spider. You just have to love her!!

Tim Prentice

Maquette for Jackson, 2010

Aluminium and stainless steel

Maxwell Davidson Gallery

Pedro S. De Movellan

Phoenix, 2008

Laminated Carbon fiber laminate, powder coated aluminum and 

brass, brushed aluminum, stainless steel

Maxwell Davidson Gallery

I just realized that I sat next to the owner of this gallery at a dinner party a while back in June, Maxwell Davidson and his wonderful wife. I have not had a chance to visit his Gallery yet. At the Art Basel Fair, their booth were filled with these wonderful airy sculptures all just slightly moving, like as if you were blowing on them. Gorgeous!

After the immense amount of impressions we managed to squeeze in a light dinner at the new Soho Beach House club. Managed to relax for a short time in the new rustic and intimate atmosphere before we took the late night flight back to New York.

A long post that could have been longer... hope you enjoy it!

With Love

Kristin

GULP

Big Gulp Lying, 2010

ERWIN WURM

Lehmann Maupin Gallery

Lately I have been a lot more stressed about the move to London than I thought I would be. I am actually forgetting to breathe sometimes. I forget things, loose things... There are just so much I want to do, so much to experience and so much to plan. Tomorrow I am even flying to Miami for the day to witness the buzz of the Art Basel Miami Beach, and of course I am very excited.

But I am feeling somehow a bit like my head and upper torso is missing as in "Big Gulp Lying". At first when I saw this piece I hated it, it made me feel sick. How dare he make such an incriminating piece? A sculpture of the lower body with a whole for the.... How wrong was I? I have learned plenty times that the pieces that repulse me the most can in fact be doing it for a very good reason, it might have something to say, It might just be very new, It might just be incredibly good?

At a closer look the "Big gulp lying" is actually a sweater with feet sticking out. Absurd yes!

Mental Pink, 2007

Jakob/Big Psycho VII, 2010

After learning a bit more about Erwin Wurm I find out that he is known for being humorous.
Slowly, I am leaving my repulsed self behind and looking at the art from a different perspective. Finding out that this man is playing with me, with us and yes it is new and different.

Me under LSD, 2010

New York Police Cap, 2010

The Police cap is huge, is it to show us how the rules are controlling us?

Untitled, 2010

GULP

transitive verb

1

: to swallow hurriedly or greedily or in one swallow

2

: to keep back as if by swallowing <gulp down a sob>

3

: to take in readily as if by swallowing <gulp down knowledge>

intransitive verb

: to catch the breath as if in taking a long drink

With this I am trying to catch my breath and hope that I will not continue this day as headless and mindless as I have been "heading", find my lost iphone, and could I please just gulp down some more knowledge? I would like that.

With Love 

Kristin

Cesnola, the Cultural Criminal

Limestone head of a bearded man

Cypriotic, Archaic, early 6th Century B.C.

Said to be from Golgoi

THE CESNOLA COLLECTION

From early bronze age to the end of antiquity

Cyprotic Art

Should I have started my "Live-in" Sessions at the Met chronologically, the Cesnola collection would be the right place to begin. With that I mean, one of the first official collections that the Metropolitan began with.

Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904

Cesnola was a self-proclaimed General when he was sent as an American consul to the Cyprotic Islands. An opportunist that had been arrested during the war among the States for trying to create mutiny by attempting to lure the regiments troops away to fight under him. 

At first he hated being in Cypros, but then he met the English consul and found out that there was an abundance of ancient relics of Greek, Egyptian, Persian and Arabian heritage buried there. Cesnola quickly turned himself into an archeologist and dealer, and later he was looking for a home for his loot.

A home it found, the New York Historical society had made their intentions clear to establish a museum and art Gallery for the public in Central Park in the 1860's.

By 1872 the Museum opened and in 1873 the collection of Cesnola and also the Blodgett paintings (174 European paintings, only 64 is still in the Metropolitans collection, the rest seen as fakes and copies) opened to the general public. But the building as we know it in Central Park did not "finish" before 1902, since then there has been many extensions and changes. Maybe the reason why the building can be a puzzle to go through sometimes.
With this collection, Cesnola also managed to wiggle himself in to become the first Director of the Metropolitan Museum from 1879 until his death in 1904.

The Cesnola Collection is now considered the most important and comprehensive of Cypriotic Art.

Terracotta flask

Cypriot, Cypro-Geometric III

Black on Red I

Ca. 850-750 B.C.

 Terracotta Jug

Cypriot, Cypro-Archaic II

ca. 600- 480 B.C.

Terracotta trick vase

Cypriot, Cypro-Archaic I

ca. 750-600 B.C.

Said to be from Episkopi

I just had to show you these two vases with female "attributes" Incredible? It feels wonderful to have a quick little giggle while you watch such a serious collection.

Marble anthropoid sarcophagus

Graeco-Phoenician, Classical,

last quarter of the 5th Century B.C.

Simple and few human features, but you still can see it is supposed to be a female sarcophagus with the long locks.

Limestone Herakles

Cypriot, Archaic, ca 530-520 B.C.

Herakles was important to the Cypriotic people, he was the only Greek hero that was accepted by the Gods.

Roman Jewelry

Gold and amethyst earrings and ring

1st century A.D.

This last picture comes out a bit dark so it is hard to see the gorgeous purple amethyst. But, hopefully you can imagine it?

I am reading the book "Rogue Gallery" by Michael Gross right now, a book describing the History of the Metropolitan. Not always to the Metropolitan´s liking. The book is not sold in their shop...

"Cesnola is remembered, if all, as a cultural criminal who looted and pillaged and stole not just objects but an irreplaceable opportunity to learn about the past. On Cyprus, his is considered a rapist who thought his victims lesser beings who didn't appreciate their own culture..." (page 64)

Pretty rough telling about the first Director of our beloved Metropolitan. 

"Behind almost every painting is a fortune

and behind that a sin or a crime"

With this I will leave you to continue reading in "Rouges Gallery" More updates to follow:)

With Love

Kristin