DIGEST 42: Freemium Content
At Auction November 20-26, 2024
Catalogue 2 is coming on Friday. It’s time: the van is looking crazy, you guys. Of note: there is a 20% premium but annual paid subscribers to the Arcades eat free (no premium).
Late edition of the Arcades this week. I just got home from the previews for the big sales at Christie’s and Phillips (Sotheby’s was last week, missed it, don’t care). Mama mia. It’s a very particular experience: you are essentially walking through a museum with price tags on all the pieces, low-end estimate 16K for an Ana Mendieta suite, 7 million for the El Greco. It’s populated by Europeans who are distinguishable based on the fact that their clothes actually fit. Ivanka Trump’s art adviser was wearing a new suit and forgot to cut the tacking stitch at the rear vent: I was weirdly touched that he, like, went out and got a special suit for his *big day* and was so excited he didn’t even notice. Thanks for that ID to friend-of-the-stack Jed, whose gay, gay bag by SC103 scandalized the evening sale crowd.
I had a few takeaways. First, and we know this, there is effectively no correlation between the quality of a work and its price. That Ana Mendieta suite is beautiful, and thoughtful, and expansive of the canon in a way that is not sweaty-browed curators in 2020 figuring out what they can throw up on a wall to avoid the guillotine. Cheapest work I saw. Second, the vibe felt energized in a way that makes me think the Trump bump in equities will boost sales (we’ll see tonight…). So like, yeah, froth in the deep end of the asset pool.
Anyway, in the aftermath of last week’s Norma Rae monologue, I am electing to make this week’s condensed above-the-fold a list of recommendations. Should I start a podcast? Clap if you think I should start a podcast!
The seating in the Balenciaga store in Soho. Friend-of-the-stack Andrea designed it (and the whole store) and it’s really good. The store design was really impressive (it’s like, fake industrial grit, and fake sedimented history, which is true to the Demna spirit). (OK, breaking the recommendation thing, but the Jacquemus store is a counterpoint. Like an Alex Mill store, but with big tacky branded bags next to a bronze from the personal collection of the owner. It has no precisely 0 creative gambit).
The Baer Faxt panel discussion at Freeman-Hindman. Genuinely fascinating. Freeman and Hindman are regional players who merged to form a new auction house (that does a nice job). Obviously competing with Wright, Toomey, LAMA, Rago. The panel is disconcertingly forthright about how the sausage gets made. If you are curious, watch it. And I like Josh Baer and his Baer Faxt podcast for artworld news.
My Brilliant Friend, Season 4. Phenomenal season of TV. Fashion friends: cast Alba Rohrwacher NOW. We’re gonna end up having to see her dead-eyed and clomping around in women’s LV or Dior or Bottega or some crap soon, please let’s have some fun first.
Thomas Schütte at MoMA. Great show.
For my precious new subscribers: Landed cost (the final cost you pay) = the hammer price (the highest bid) + the premium (a set percentage added to the hammer price that the auction house takes) + shipping (you’re always on the hook for this) + sales tax
Also, now worth repeating: I don’t get a commission on any of these sales/am not involved in any way with these auctions.
To the listings!
The smiley face is hard for me, but it’s compositionally important. Atkins (b.1977) seems to have disappeared. He made some fun, hyperaware paintings of painter settings in the 2000s (was at Taxter & Spengemann Gallery). There’s young guy bravura that I like. This has been deaccessioned by a museum which is sad and a mistake—it’s time to reevaluate what happened in the early 2000s.
Gaaayyyy [complimentary]
This is fun. Apparently from an edition of 5000 that was produced in 1974. Can you imagine anyone producing an edition of 5000 now? Kaws stops at 250 (I googled). Anyway, Erik Satie helped produce the original which was apparently stolen.
This is from Newel’s premier auction. There’s now Newel prop house and Newel furniture/decor store—they used to be one entity and then split. I don’t know who’s running the auction but there’s a lot of good stuff. Cool granny.
This kind of feels like one of the “embrace tradition, reject modernity” memes showing the degradation of the west from the bamboo stool at Newel to these, but I like these! Fiberglass, Artemide production, designed by Stacy Dukes (who is a man—random) (American, 1934-2019).
This is hunting lodge themed which is corny and trad but I like it anyway. The dog has good energy.
I see these chairs semi-frequently but the bistro table is new to me. The chairs were used on Star Trek Voyager. Also, apparently in 2021 a set of 10 went for 43,750 GBP while the estimate was 2-3K. So like . . . add to cart?
Gyoooorgeous
Architectural design of a temple as a floor screen (48” high so it’s pretty big).
No one will bid. And that’s fine. Because the Arcades is a celebration of looking. But I see all of your dookie ikea shelves and I know you know better . . .
May the hammer fall ever in your favor!