Confessions of an Art Addict

PEGGY GUGGENHEIM

Who would I have wished to invite for dinner? Peggy Guggenheim of course!

Slowly turning into an absolute Art Addict myself, without the same capacity to collect as her, but soon I will be able to present and show great artists that I believe in.

Interestingly enough she opened here first Gallery at the same age as me, or should I say inspiringly for me. Her gallery did not last long in London because of the second world war, and changes like creating a little museum instead. But, Peggy continued in New York, where she must be given the credit of bringing out some of the greatest artist of the last Century.

The list is long but she is probably best known for her support to Jackson Pollock and her interesting marriages and affairs that includes among others Laurence Vail, Samuel Beckett and Max Ernst.

Later Peggy decided that Venice was going to be where she would like to live, she bought a Palace and started showing Art right out of her home. Sometimes to the confusion of both visitors and staff.

The books is a refreshing comment on her addiction, she writes freely and honestly.

Quite entertaining at times.

As with her phallic horseman sculpture by Marino that she was showing:

"When the nuns came to be blessed by the Patriarch, who on special holy days, went by my house in a motorboat, I detached the phallus of the horseman and hid it in a drawer. I also did this on certain days when I had to receive stuffy visitors, but occasionally I forgot, and when confronted with this phallus found myself in great embarrassment. The only thing to do in such cases was to ignore it. In Venice a legend spread that I had several phalluses of different sizes, like spare parts, which I used in different occasions."

When it comes to it my biggest wish is not to have Peggy come to my dinner party, but that I could have been at one of her guests, it must have been extraordinary. But I will have to be grateful that I get to read about it.

With Love

Kristin

Catlin Award 2012

Soheila Sokhanvari

Google TPAJAX to find the title

Taxidermy, jesmonite, car paint, metal

CATLIN AWARD 2012

Last night was the final ceremony for the Catlin award. It is an award given to recent graduates from UK art schools. First they pick 40 artists that they see as the most talented of that year, later it triggers down to 10 of these that goes on to be part of the final award. 

Soheila Sokhanvari, that I am so lucky to have a chance to show work by in August at my Gallery was one of the finalists. Soheila is an incredible person as well as an artist. Coming from Iran where every prominent governmental figure is shown proudly and statuesque sitting on a horse, she is here showing a horse that has been taken over, a horse that is lying on it's back overwhelmed by its time. How Soheila has managed to create this piece continues to baffle me, I have seen another of her horses before, but when I came to the award I was pulled back by it and the only thing I could exclaim was "WOW!". Her background in biology is probably one of many links to her impressive craftsmanship.

Greta Alfaro

Invencion #1-3

Plasterboard construction covered in edible meringue

Greta Alfaro drew my interest with these photographs and the exciting work that has been done to make it. To think she made this scenario out of edible meringue is quite baffling.

Adeline De Monsegnat

Mother HEB/Loletta

Vintage fur, pillow filler, glass, motor, wood, sand

Adeline de Monsegnat won the viewers price, unfortunately this image is not giving it the credit it deserves. In real, the furry balls are both beautiful and a bit frightening.

Johnny Briggs

Comfort Object

C-type Lambda prints individually mounted

Johnny Briggs, takes photographs reflecting on relationships, especially his relationship to his parents. They are haunting and touching at the same time.

Johnny Briggs

Un-seeing

C-type Lambda print

Julia Vogl

Coloured carpet tiles, vinyl.

Julia Vogl was the winner of the award, I must admit I felt a bit cheated... It is a fun piece and has a great way of interacting with its audience, but seems a bit unfinished and rather simple compared to the other contestants work. 

Soheila and I

Still happy even if she did not win, but in my heart she did.

With Love

Kristin

SCREAM

EDVARD MUNCH

Sotheby's evening sale 2nd of May 2012

Just turned on the Sotheby's evening sale online viewing... and I find myself terribly excited. In one minute begins the sale and "The Scream" is lot number 20. The most talked about Art sale of the year. How much will it go for? Who will buy it?

"Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seat".

So there it begins, with Matisse, Picasso, Leger all selling at good, if not over estimates with a bit of a dip with Soutine.

Feeling like I am having some sort of personal relationship with this painting, like it is the Norwegian soul being sold somehow, but telling myself there are others at "home", also it is quite amazing what this sale of "Scream" is doing for Edvard Munch's placement in the history of art. Suddenly all are talking about the Scream, even the ones who clearly do not care that much about art.

As another reason for my excitement is the Munch exhibit that is happening at the Tate Modern this summer, but really and honestly I am most excited about the opening exhibit of ArtEco Gallery with an exhibit called "After Munch".

In direct response to the Tate exhibit I have arranged an exhibit with acclaimed Norwegian Artists that will represent the feeling of Munch in us now.

.... And there the internet is down and no online viewing is possible... will have to wait patiently (not my strongest quality) and hope that it will pick up again before lot 20. I have only 5 lots to go on...

What?  I am getting the response "This auction is over" is it possible? No... finally I get back in and I can't get a picture but I can hear the auctioneer trying to get a higher bid than $107 Million... but it is not working so $107 Million it is. With the Buyers premium it ends up being 119,922,500 USD.

As I understand this is the highest paid painting at auction. *Auction houses has been involved in higher sales as an example the Gustave Klimt painting in 2006 "Portrait of Adele Blochbauer I" sold at $135 Millions, but as a private sale via Christie's. You can now find that painting at the Neue Galerie in New York. But now the question that lingers is, will we get to see "The Scream" again...? maybe we will know tomorrow.

Now I will follow the London time and slowly fall asleep, but first I have to show you Markus Brendmoe's version of the "Scream" That I will be showing at Art Eco Gallery's grand opening the 28th of June.

Markus Brendmoe

Skrik (Scream) 2009

Markus who has been influenced by Munch, has also here in this painting used images from the devastating 7/7 terrorist bombing in London, so very appropriate that I get to show it here.

Last year Markus Brendmoe had a very successful exhibit called "Munch etc." at the Stenerersenmuseumet in Oslo. ArtEco Gallery is thrilled to have him be part of the opening exhibit together with Unni Askeland and Crispin Gurholt! You will hear more about it later:)

With all this excitement, do you think I can sleep?

Well I will try,

With Love

Kristin

Out of Body

Installation view

Photo: Andy Keate

©South London Gallery

Alice Channer

South London Gallery

To take a trip to South London Gallery has been on my to do list for a long time, I was glad when I finally got to visit the space on Friday. In the large bright room, is beautifully printed crepe de chine suspended from the cathedral ceiling, that gives you a bit of a Wow! effect at arrival.

With the "Out of the Body" Exhibit Alice Channer brings together both the humanly and the spacial elements. I feel I can see muscles in the drapery and other parts like ears and eyes are sort of deconstructed on the walls and along the floor. Altogether you have Alice Channer body sort of existing in the room with you, while you do your discoveries.

Warm Metal Body

Photo: Andy Keate

©South London Gallery

Eyes, 2012

Photo: Andy Keate

©South London Gallery

Installation view

Photo: Andy Keate

©South London Gallery

Channer says: 

“I am not trying to oppose or find alternatives to the things that separate us from ourselves – the machine, the industrial, the virtual, the commercial.  Instead, I am seduced by these things and am becoming part of them through the work. The work is me, breathing, feeling and thinking with, through and as part of the processes and materials that make up the industrial and post-industrial late-capitalist world that I live in and that constitute my work.”

- South London Gallery

With Love

Kristin

Sweetheart

Ian Davenport & Sue Arrowsmith

Midnight Moonlight, 2012

SWEETHEART

Artist Couples

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

An excited buzz was going on when I arrived at the Pippy Houldsworth gallery last week, the feeling of a show that has gone right was in the air. Good reviews in the papers, feels rightly deserved after a few years in the making. It was not easy to put up this show I was told, a lot of artists got put off by the title, not finding the humor and the irony. But with the once who did you could feel the excitement of working together, either the tension or the artistic pull. 

Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy saying it was easier to work than driving a car together, signing off with a heart on the tree. Combining Rosa Loy's use of animals with Neo Rauch's take on social realism the painting really stands out.

The Ian Davenport and Sue Arrowsmith's work ended up being a layer upon layer painting where he began with the circle and she added the tree silhouette, and with that fulfilling each other.

Neo Rauch & Rosa Loy

Die Jagdegesellschaft, 2012

Anthony Gormley and Vicken Parsons

Relational Aesthetics 2012

With Gormley and Parsons you get a combination of her abstract work and his sculptures based on DNA. A dreamy piece of how we try to relate to each other, never really touching completely? But staying in the same universe.

Rem Koolhaas & Madelon Vriesendorp

Captive Globe Revisited, 1994

Madelon Vriesendorp, 

Flagrant Delit, 1975-2008

The skyscrapers sharing the same bed somehow really hit home for me. Since I fell in love with a man who builds skyscrapers himself, I could just see us lying there in the middle of Manhattan, and with the beach image in the background (where we also moved to). 

These drawings were also part of the inspiration for the Sweetheart show.

It is always interesting to find out how couple works, will it create intrigues or inspiration? closer or looser bounds?

As I am just starting the renovation of my Gallery today, I am sure grateful that I have that close bond to my architect husband, I am not sure how I would do it without him:)

With Love

Kristin

JUST KIDS

Patti Smith

Just Kids

While reading this book I was thinking about how much Patti Smith's music has meant to me. Not only the music but her attitude, hey, after seeing the cover of the Album "Easter" I did not shave my underarms for a long time... not that it was much needed, young as I was, but it was a symbol of the strong Female and I being a teenage feminist (who thought that meant "I can carry my own suitcase") took this seriously.

Many years later I was lucky enough to see Patti Smith play for a smaller audience at the American Patrons of Tate Artist's dinner in New York. Enthusiastic as I was, I was the only standing ovationer, and since it would have been too embarrassing to sit down again, I stood there for quite a long time, thinking should one not stand when it's a dinner? But deep inside I felt that they all wished they could stand too... Right? Well it was that good to me.

Patti Smith is bearing it all here, I admire her honesty! The book is personal, touching and inspiring.

Reading about her and Robert Mapplethorpe's meeting, love affair and their life-long friendship makes you think of how a chance meeting can be life transforming.  

They struggled together, surviving on small jobs, even hustling (Robert) and at the same time brought out the best artistic traits in each other through an endless amount of support.

They knew they wanted to be artists, there was no way they would not be, but how and with what followed a long set of trials from drawing to writing, acting, and spoken word. To become one Rock Star and one revolutionary Photographer.

"We were Hansel and Gretel and we ventured out into the black forest of the World."

Patti Smith

The road travelled is described here from Patti's childhood to their first meeting and ends with Robert dying of AIDS in 1989.

"There were days, rainy days, when the streets of Brooklyn were worthy of a photograph, every window the lens of a Leica, the view grainy and immobile. We gathered our colored pencils and sheets of paper and drew like wild, feral children into the night, until exhausted, we fell into bed. We lay in each other's arms, still awkward but happy, exchanging breathless kisses into sleep."

Patti Smith

...  last letter:

Dear Robert,

Often as I lie awake I wonder if you are also lying awake. Are you in pain or feeling alone?

You drew me from the darkest period of my young life, sharing with me the sacred mystery of what it is to be an artist. I learned to see through you and never compose a line or draw a curve that does not come from the knowledge I derived in our precious time together. Your work, coming from a fluid source, can be traced to the naked song of your youth. You spoke then of holding hands with God. Remember, through everything, you have always held that hand, grip it hard Robert, and don't let go.

The other afternoon, when you fell asleep on my shoulder, I drifted off, too. But before I did, it occurred to me looking around at all of your things and your work and going through years of work in my mind, that of all your work, you are still your most beautiful. The most beautiful work of all.

Patti

I presume that I don't need to invite you to read this beautiful love story, you will just have to!

With Love

Kristin

Tangerine

PI Tangerine, 2009

(Tinted Polyurethane)

LYNDA BENGLIS

Thomas Dane Gallery

The Thomas Dane Gallery is not the easiest gallery to find, if you are not on the lookout I don't think you would have bumped into it. Located on Duke street, very close to White Cube, Mason´s yard, but on the second floor with only a small plaque outside.

At the moment the Thomas Dane Gallery presents a solo exhibition of the American Artist Lynda Benglis. Lynda Benglis is probably most know for a one page advertisement in ArtForum, that she did in 1974 for an opening at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Lynda Benglis posed nude with a large dildo, in protest to the male controlled art world, in return she has and will never be forgotten.

At this show though you think more about what materials has been used and what art forms she is borrowing from and also inspiring.

Baby Contraband, 1969

(Poured pigmented latex)

Figure 4, 2009

(Bronze, black Patina)

Sparkle knot IV, 1972

(aluminium screen, bunting, plaster, paint and sparkles)

Hoofers, 1971-72

(aluminium screen, red cotton bunting, plaster, gesso)

Lynda Benglis cult status still proceeds, and she keeps on inspiring younger artists, but I think this exhibition was rather tame...

With Love

Kristin