With or without Brexit, London is a major focal point for the international art market. The decision of the British people in June to leave the European community has not had the impact on the art community we might have predicted. In fact, in same the week as the two...
The reigning king of Antwerp since the 17th century was an absolute genius when it came to painting, but also ambitious, dishonest and filthy rich. We’re talking, of course, about Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). In his hometown, the studio where he worked is...
There is one school of contemporary art, going back to Marcel Duchamp, that involves playing pranks and ridiculing everything encountered in this absurd world of ours. You could be led to believe, on first appearances, that Scandinavian artists Elmgreen and Dragset,...
In this cynical and individualistic world we live in, acts of generosity always cause surprise. The gift in question is worth 6 million euros according to insurers. It came into existence last year when the Potanin Foundation, belonging to Russian oligarch Vladimir...
It begins with small talk and ends up with art and intimate confessions. I first met Parker Ito last year at a chic Parisian dinner hosted by the Friends of the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. I was seated at a table with the president of the society,...
What does it mean to be a political artist in this day and age? I can already see readers deliberating whether to close their screens… But don’t go anywhere, this won’t be boring. The most high profile political artist working today is Ai Weiwei. He posts, tweets, and...
When you travel around the world attending contemporary art fairs as I often do, you come to the realisation that these commercial events multiplying across the world are not unlike hotels. If luxury travellers are drawn to those grand, imposing palaces fitted out to...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4INLxy-ztgI Once upon a time, a country the size of a continent was slowly throwing off the shackles of authoritarianism. Citizens were beginning to travel abroad, accumulate possessions, launch new enterprises, and come...
What exactly do we mean when we talk about an art dealer’s collection? Is it the artworks they haven’t sold or is it their prized possessions? Christie’s has announced that this October in London it will be auctioning Leslie Waddington’ s collection. The revered...
The streets are completely empty. A few forsaken pedestrians pass at irregular intervals along the pavement. Here we are in Arlington Heights, the low-rent neighbourhood in Central Los Angeles. There’s nothing much to report aside from the slight reigning melancholy...
The first time the Guggenheim New York honoured a Chinese artist with an exhibition the year was 2008 and the artist in question was Cai Guo Qiang. Even if his name is almost impossible to pronounce for western people, his artworks (born in 1957 in Quanzhou City,...
This is the story of a man who in 1969 opened a store selling jeans and ended up with a ready-to-wear empire spanning 3,100 outlets across the globe. It’s also the story of the simple son of a cabinet-maker from San Francisco who accumulated a collection of...