Art Box
When we actually decided to take this crazy journey (in the middle of a night on January 11) one thing was clear: we wanted to end our adventures in London. It’s obviously a crucial year for British art, with Damien unsurprisingly leading the elite, royal dog pack on this side of the pond. It also felt right to end the trip in London, because that’s where most of the spots were born.
We weren’t planning to be in at our final destination so soon originally. We wanted to check in the hotel, possibly see National Portrait Gallery, and then hit the remaining Gagosians on Saturday morning. But thanks to unrelenting supporter text messages and more than few e-mails (and a very helpful attendant Sebastian at EuroStar upgrade desk in Paris) we boarded an early train to St. Pancras. Two hours earlier than expected.
Out of all the cities on our crazy global tour, Paris probably feels most like home to us after New York. We’ve been there countless and countless of times, sampled every macaroon there was to sample, and visited practically every museum at least once. So the four-hour visit on Friday morning made us believe that the finish line and home was that much closer and realistic.
Gagosian on Rue de Ponthieu couldn’t be in a better location. It’s just steps away from the Grand Palais, neighbors with French Christie’s, and we still hold their recent Richard Prince show close to our hearts. A grand Parisian staircase and lots of natural light complement the vast three-floor space. The spots felt very serene here and the second floor mini-library of Damien’s dominance was fun to flip through as well.
We had to time to see other art but a stroll through the Tuileries led us to our second Kusama park installation of the trip (Beverly Hills was the first). We also had nice morning Meurice tea with fashion friends still in town for Paris Fashion Week (Givenchy and Galliano shows were scheduled for Friday night) and a champion’s breakfast at Angelina next door. Then listening to Kanye and Jay-Z’s Ni**as in Paris we took a cab to Gare du Nord…one step closer to the English finish line!
It’s a fortuitous thing that the Spot Challenge is taking place in January. Because during the warmer days, cities like Rome, Athens, and Paris are swarmed with tourists eager to eat crepes and buy magnets. Rome in January is actually a magnificent city. The air is crisp, the skies are blue, and streets are more manageable without all the overbearing group tours.
The Italian location for Gagosian (just few blocks away from Fontana di Trevi) is actually our favorite of Larry’s properties so far architecturally. It’s a gorgeous, curved room that happened to host the smallest spot on display in the world…the 1 x 1/2 inch, yellow wonder from 1996 (pictured). It’s very tiny and very refreshing after this week’s big spot overdrive.
Hong Kong is perhaps the most exotic stop on our journey, and yet this A.I like city is not as intimidating as it seems. You see, thanks to the most awesome elevated escalator pedestrian city on Earth, we managed to do everything on our priority list in less than 45 minutes this morning. That included a super bullet train from the airport that connected to Mandarin Oriental that in turn connected to Gagosian that’s also connected to every luxury mall imaginable including Lane Crawford. Then, we decided to do much more.
But first back to Gagosian…Since White Cube isn’t opening until later this year (Jay Jopling is a wise man, 2012 is a year of the Water Dragon, which basically translates to a lot of cash!), Gagosian is still primarily the only big player in town aside from the Art Fair rush every May. The quiet, 7th floor Pedder Street location (across Vuitton’s biggest store on the planet) has been in business for less than a year and things look promising in Hong Kong (it won’t officially play by China’s rules until 2047!). Our favorite piece during the Asian leg of the tour was the square “Controlled Substance Key Painting” (1993-1994) complete with lovely typography and numerology. Though after New York’s spectacular, the shows are visibly smaller.
Everything is sunnier and more surreal in Beverly Hills. Skies are clear, everyone is driving a Benz, and there’s a lot of action around North Camden Drive. And it’s not only because of Damien. Golden Globes are happening this weekend, and that translates to a lot of boozing, a lot of schmoozing, and a lot of sample trafficking.
When we arrived to the Madison Avenue Gagosian fort at 6 PM on Thursday night, a group of randomly, determined shoppers ran into the wonderful temporary shop and started scooping up merchandise as if it was Black Friday at Best Buy. In the group of five girls, one screamed out “The race it ON!” while breathlessly holding on to six spot t-shirts. Ok, it’s ON!
We stamped our card in three galleries on Thursday night and noticed few great things in the process. Here are our first stamp hometown memories:
Yes, Damien Hirst made a super surprise cameo on 21st where we discussed our itinerary with him. The funniest moment however, came when two top buyers asked him to pose for a picture in front of their favorite piece. A clueless guard immediately tried to interject, standing up to the gallery’s policy. “It’s ok, he’s good. Trust me.” smiled a Gagosian worker.
As of 7:40 PM, 304 brave souls registered for the challenge. But how many will endure?
Us with Guido Callarelli and Richard Phillips (Photo - Andrew Toth / PatrickMcMullan.com)
Richard Phillips and Josephine Meckseper came along to view the show on 24th street. Our buddy Richard was scouting the space as much as he was admiring the spots. He has a huge show coming up in the very same gallery this fall, though working without 160 assistants; he’ll focus on nothing but canvases for the next half a year. And we can’t wait to see them.
George Condo and Benjamin Provo
George Condo also made a cameo on 24th Street. So did Fab 5 Freddy. Yes, really!
At Madison it wasn’t so much about the opening craziness. It was about Russian speaking, Vertu holding art dealers who woke up half of billionaire Moscow and shopped while we all hunted for tees and $1 pins. It is a business after all.
