bLavish

Macallan Whisky’s Masters of Photography

December 5, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy, Spirits & Palliatives at 9:34 pm | Comments off

Macallan is one of the finest names in Scotch Whisky. Their premium single malt bottles range from fine to finer all the way up to finest available. Albert Watson is a Scottish photographer famous for taking iconic pictures of celebrities, including Alfred Hitchcock and Mick Jagger. Macallan commissioned him for their 2010 Master’s of Photography series, which is meant to explore the complexities of both whisky-making and image-making.

Watson followed the whisky, by way of their oak casks, from Spain to Andalucia to Speyside, Scotland. He told Nowness, “I wanted to do something graphically solid and a bit more monumental—monumental in the sense of something heavy looking; they’re shot with a level of contrast and richness.” The result is a beautifully nuance portrait of the whisky-making process.

Each of the 36 photographs will be sold alongside a bottle of Macallan’s 1946 Fine And Rare. Prices are undisclosed, but a bottle of the 50 year old (minus art) sells for $17,000.

Windows At Bergdorf Goodman

November 24, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy at 11:02 pm | Comments off

The holiday windows at Bergdorf Goodman are a tourist attraction in their own right. They’re like Mecca for design-savvy fashionistas, drawing crowds from around the globe. Personally, I haven’t missed one of their Christmas displays for almost a decade, and I live a full 1,500 miles from NYC. So, you might ask, what’s Bergdorf Goodman got in their windows that every other department store in the country is lacking?

The answer is artistry. There’s nary a hint of Santa Claus or his eight tiny reindeer. You won’t find any snowmen or even any nutcracker-inspired wooden soldier. The windows at Bergdorf’s are more like installation pieces, with each year celebrating a different theme. This fabulous new book by Assouline showcases the wonders of the windows in a beautifully slipcased collector’s edition. The connoisseur will know, despite having seen every single one of these windows, that they are notoriously difficult to capture on film. Luckily, all the stunning details are captured here.

Vogue Archive Collection Gift Set

November 10, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy, Holiday Gift Ideas at 12:36 am | Comments off

The art world and the fashion world exist in overlapping spheres, particularly when it comes to fashion photography. Some of the most important photographers of our time have been fashion photographers, and magazines like Vogue showcase their work on a monthly basis. This collection of exhibition quality prints would make an excellent gift for an art lover or a fashionista.

The set includes five prints: Jacqueline Bouvier by Richard Rutledge, Grace Kelly by Jean Howard, Ali MacGraw by Bert Stern, C.Z. Guest by Cecil Beaton, and Babe Paley by Horst P. Horst. These women are icons, and the photographs are amazing testimonies to their beauty and grace.

The collection comes packaged in a custom designed box, and includes a signed letter from Anna Wintour, Vogue’s Editor-In-Chief. The price is $3,200.

The $68.9 Million Modigliani

November 3, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy, Auctions at 9:43 pm | Comments off

Modigliani is one of those artists that has inspired a cultish fan base. But his paintings have, at most, fetched only modest profits when compared to some of his contemporaries, such as Picasso. His 1917 portrait, “Nude Sitting on a Divan”, or “The Beautiful Romanian” earned the artist a new record high at 68.9 million dollars.

The asking price was only $40 million, about $24 million more than the previous owner paid for it in 1999. I’m not sure what the rate of inflation is, but I’m betting that he made a pretty good deal, here. Don’t for a second, though, assume that all that cash ends up in the hands of the seller. According to the New York Times, “final prices include the buyer’s commission to Sotheby’s: 25 percent of the first $50,000; 20 percent of the next $50,000 to $1 million; and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.”

Sixty other paintings sold, including works by Monet and Matisse. Modigliani’s most expensive piece, previous to this sale, was for a bronze statue sold in June that went for $52.6 million. Sotheby’s “Impressionist and Modernist” sale garnered a total of $227.5 million, smack in the middle of its estimated $195-$266 million in sales.

The Nogg: A Designer Chicken Coop

October 31, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy at 10:41 pm | Comments off

I don’t know how many people out there know this, but raising chickens is an urban trend. It’s happening in all the ultra-hip urban enclaves: Brooklyn, New Orleans, you name it. Cool people everywhere want fresh eggs from their own backyards or rooftops. But The Nogg takes it to a whole new level of cool.

As the designers describe it, The Nogg is, “a modern chicken coop that looks more like sculpture. The nogg transcends ideas of what a chicken house usually looks like. It is designed to encourage domestic farming while adding a touch of playful elegance.”  This is farming for urban design freaks. And the truth is, it’s pretty seductive.

The Nogg plays into all your fantasies about retro-urban culture. You can have your fresh eggs and your minimal, avant garde aethetic all encapsulated in a stylish cedar house. For your chickens. Plus, it’s portable, ecological, and easy to clean. Who could ask for anything more?

Roger Vivier’s Rendez Vous Collection

October 25, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Apparel, Artsy Fartsy at 8:00 pm | Comments off

The elite fashion accesory house, Roger Vivier, will debut a limited edition series this January. This not an ordinary, seasonal collection. Each of the nine bag and shoe lines have been inspired by artists such as Gotthard Graubner, Jen DeBuffet, and Charley Harper. Only ten pieces of each object have been produced, and will travel amongst seven Vivier boutiques this Winter. The boutiques are located in New York, Miami, Paris, London, Milan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, the capital cities of the fashion world.

The designer for the line, Bruno Frisoni wants each visit of the collection to a gallery opening. He told W magazine, “The collection arrives at a certain date, stays for a week, and when the edition is out, it’s finished.” Don’t worry about having to fight with other patrons in these glamorous boutiques, though, the line will be available for pre-order starting in November. The shows range from $995 to $10,300 and the bags from $1,275 to $8,600.

The collection uses all natural materials, such as leather, wood, cord, feathers, and canvas from the exquisite ateliers of Lesage, Montex and Lemarié. The dramatic designs are sculptural organic creations with restrained bursts of color that will appeal to the line’s elite and stylish clientele.

Edible Conceptual Art : Gold Pills By Tobias Wong And J.A.R.K.

October 24, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy at 7:00 pm | Comments off

In an era of conspicuous consumption, it’s hard to get a taste of true luxury. Designer Tobias Wong and an artist Ken Courtney (who goes by the moniker Just Another Rich Kid), have produced a work of conceptual art that trumps even the most extravagant shopping spree.

These two capsules are made of 24 karat gold and filled with more of the same. The artists say that these pills will “turn your innermost parts into chambers of wealth”. They are, apparently, actually edible, and although I can’t find any accounts of people actually eating them, rumor is that they will make you poop glitter.

The gold pills are part of the two artists’ INDULGENCES series. According to the artists, “INDULGENCES addressed the creation of and demand for the unnecessary, directly commenting on the ever-expanding market of luxury items in our culture, seven INDULGENCES were created.” The seven pieces in the series include these gold pills, gold-plated swizzle sticks, and gilded drug paraphernalia.

Christie’s Post War And Contemporary Art Auction This Week

October 13, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy, Auctions at 10:50 pm | Comments off

The preeminent art auction house, Christie’s has brokered the sales of some of the most famous, and most expensive paintings in the world. This week in London, they are auctioning off 207 pieces of extraordinary art from the Post War period, and also contemporary works. The Post War period (meaning art produced after 1945, the end of WWII) is one of the most important periods in all of art history. Work from this period has been particularly popular amongst British and American collectors. This offering, which is up for bid until October 14th, features paintings by some of the most interesting artists working from 1945 up to the present, including Andy Warhol, Gerhard Ricther, and Robert Longo.

The painting above, entitled “Concertto Spaziale, Attese, by Lucio Fontana is expected be one of the highest selling items up for bid. It is expected to sell for between $474,000 and $633,000. Lucio Fontana was an Italian artist who worked in Argentina for most of his career. He is widely praised for his avant garde approach to painting. Fontana discard the notion that painting was about illusion, and made pieces that were punctured in a gestural way. His work focuses on dimensionality and the play of color and light.

Also at the top of the list in the catalog, in terms of price, are one of Warhol’s famous flower paintings and a portrait he did of Carlo Monzino.

The Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold: Jackson Pollock’s No. 5

September 5, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy at 10:00 pm | Comments off

It is a widely held belief that the most expensive painting ever sold is a nude by Pablo Picasso, but it’s actually the abstract expressionist masterpiece, “No. 5″ by Jackson Pollock. Adjusted for inflation, the price would be $151.2 million. The 8″ x 4″ painting is a classic Pollock piece, done on fibreboard and drizzled with paint. The dense composition is done in mostly browns and yellows.

While it was reportedly bought by collector David Martinez, the identity of the buyer remains officially anonymous. The painting was originally owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse and hung at the Museum of Modern Art until David Geffen bought it and sold it via Sotheby’s to the mysteriously unnamed buyer.

Although Picasso’s nude isn’t the most expensive painting ever sold, 10 of the 36 most expensive paintings ever sold were painted by Picasso. The majority of the other paintings on the list were painted by other famous abstract expressionists and impressionists.

Picasso Painting Nude, Green Leaves and Bust Sells For Record Amount

May 5, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Artsy Fartsy, Auctions at 8:47 am | Comments off

The 1932 Pablo Picasso painting Nude, Green Leaves and Bust has sold for a record amount at auction.

The painting of Picasso’s mistress sold for an astounding $106.5 million, a world record for any work of art sold at auction.  With a pre-sale estimate of around $80 million, no one was as surprised as Christie’s auction house when the painting sold for such a high amount to an unidentified telephone bidder on Tuesday.

Congratulations to the high luxury bidder, may you wear your mistress proudly.

RSS Feed