Lucienne is very much inspired by Japan and she shows that in her work. Not only very vivid action photographs of famous Japanese Drum artists, but also everyday life in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and other places. Because I have visited all these places myself, it's a feast of recognition. And I even played one of those enormous drums ...
It would be nice to show them in combination with the large and very tranquil photographs of Japan by Krystyna Ziach. Let's see what we can do next year :-)
A lot of attention for Diana Blok's new project, "See Through Us" , portraits of gay, lesbian and transgender people in Turkey. A must see at the Melkweg Gallery (until 6 December) and I'll be showing some of it during the PAN Art Fair as well (21-29 November). There's also a beautiful book about this series. Don't forget to buy it!!!
Thanks to René Wouters I didn't have to bother about taking photos myself.
It was a very busy opening night and quite successful as well. The rest of the days were very busy with people watching, but sales were not more then reasonable. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't exited about the results. I think my choice of works was a bit too classic to the (very) young audience. Ah well, it's a matter of education and hopefully the after sales will make it better again :-)
Two days hard work to get it all done, but now we're ready for the big opening night that starts at 5.30 PM today.
Here's a first impression of our booth: no. O - 1. It's one of the more larger ones of the fair, but still relatively small. So it wasn't easy to fit it all in. Because of the price range we show a lot smaller, but nice, works. Something for everyone!
Thanks to Michael Hoppen and Fergus I got an invitation to visit the Pavilion of Art & Design on Berkeley Square. What a difference compared to Frieze ... Serene, dimmed lighting and although relatively small, the collection they showed was of a very high quality. But don't forget: most of the famous artists here also started not recognized as "great", but as makers of rubbish. It makes you think which young artists at Frieze will become as famous as the small selection I made now:
In between the many appointments there was also time to do some shopping. Thanks to the GBP-Euro exchange rate that's a real treat. So I couldn't help myself and had to buy some stuff ;-)
But it's also a treat to wonder around in the streets of London and enjoy a quiet half an hour or so in St. James's Park.
A visit to London isn't complete without a visit to Fergus Greer of course. I selected a few of his new photographs of butterflies that I will show at PAN Amsterdam. He will have them printed next week in very large dimensions. Very curious how they will look.
On Tuesday Timo turns 16 ... and that means: Vespa time!
This one's for you. Enjoy it!
Yesterday evening and this afternoon I was at Christie's. The evening sale (25 lots) is always very busy. More a social event then an auction. But sales were good! Two nice works by Andreas Gursky: Prada I went for 175.000 GBP (incl. premium; the estimate was 50 - 70.000) and Salerno went for 163.000 GBP (estimate 90 - 120.000 GBP).
Star of the evening was a large painting by Martin Kippenberger, Paris Bar, that went for 2,3 million GBP (estim. 800 - 1.200.000). And everybody was surprised that Stellwerk by Neo Rauch went for almost 900.000 GBP with an estimate of 350 - 450.000. It only needs two possible buyers to get a nice result :-)
Immediately after this sale was the Italian Sale, with the inevitable Lucio Fontana. I was amazed about the installation of Mario Merz, Tavola a Spirale, with fresh vegetables (so impossible to maintain easily). It wasn't sold, although the estimate was 'only' 400 - 600.000 GBP ...
This morning was the Day Sale, with the lesser gods and with less audience. Quite a few photographs. But I also loved the Vespa by Mark Handforth that went for 103.000 GBP.
Not many surprises with the photographs, although I really couldn't understand why the Vitali (Rosignano Solvay Sea III) went for 19.000 GBP (estimate 6 - 8.000) because that one was rather damaged at the left top corner. Don't people ask questions? The estimate was correct and the buyers were probably blinded by the possibility of a bargain.
Again three works by Florian Meyer-Aichen. But now he wasn't so successful. Two weren't sold. Neither was Gursky's Zürich Bankprojekt 4; same as yesterday, although the bidding now stopped at 17.000 and yesterday at Sotheby's at 22.000. Thomas Struth's beautiful Parking Lot Dallas went for 47.000 GBP, just above the high estimate.
The youngest buyer was a boy that was allowed to bid for his father on Shirin Neshat's untitled work from the series Women of Allah. It went for 27.500 GBP (estim. 8 - 12.000) to this Italian dealer.
More then 30 photographs were among the works of this sale. Among them two Rineke Dijkstra's: a large portrait of an Israeli Soldier (not the best one) and a small one (Marnixbad). Both sold at the low estimates (8.000 and 10.000 GBP). Candida Höfer's Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden is not her best work and the condition of the frame was bad, so it didn't sell. Also the works by Laurie Simmons, Gursky's Zürich Bankprojeckt No. 4, a large Vanessa Beecroft (VB48) and Sugimoto's The Royal family weren't sold. Neither did Billingham, Hunter and Cattelan.
The nice Philip-Lorca Dicorcia (Juliet Ms Muse) went for only 8.000. The nice large Gregory Crewdson (Nude Woman in trailer) did reasonably well at 26.000, so did Ruff's Substrat 9 III (45.000) and two of Sugimoto's Sea pictures (40.000). Gilbert and George (there they are again ...) went for 80.000 (the low estimate). A large Florian Maier-Aichen (who suddenly appears at all the auctions, what's the matter?) just met the reserve at 58.000, so did Le Diable by Pierre et Gilles (25.000).
But all in all it wasn't spectacular. Most people come for the other works. They did well, but no extreme results. The Ofili of the cover went for 480.000 (high estimate 350.000), Kiefer's Herbst im Odenwald did 170.000 (high estimate was 80.000) and Damien Hirst's Two Skulls went for 360.000 (high 280.000). Even the Basquiat did only 820.000 (low estimate was 800.000). Okay, still a lot of money, but the crisis isn't over yet!
on Cor III & Lea enjoying the works (or the champagne?) with their eyes closed ...