Takashi Murakami has gone from Superflat to 3-D with limited edition plush toys produced from his latest collaboration with luxury retailer, Louis Vuitton.
Die hard Murakami fans who have no issues with the merging of art and luxury commerce can buy these plush toys at Cliff Edge.
I was honoured to be invited to interview with Silvia Anna Barrilà for the Art Economy 24 segment of top Italian business and finance newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Hope and Greed are seldom friends to the successful investor. Fear, on the other hand, could save your portfolio from plunging into abysmal depths.
* Warning: Philosophical Rambling Ahead *
Fencing Lesson by Tilo Baumgartel (via saatchi gallery)
How can you tell when the stockmarket is in a state of lullaby?
1. When there are one too many sightings of boiler rooms full of bored traders pounding ferociously on their keyboards… engaging in verbal battles via IM.
2. When you keep getting a Network Error message because the server is overloaded with ennui-induced overuse of social media- official or otherwise. Abject ennui has been known to quell firewalls.
This being one of those days, a fellow primate from another off-shore capitalist jungle chatted me up. Our occupational obsession with investment themes dictated the need for a casual thème du jour.
We settled on Games. (more…)
Britain’s Got Talent turned a sonsie lass into The Susan Boyle.
Amidst the aroma emanating from the melting pots, Top Chef sniffed out a winner in Vietnamese Hung Hyunh.
Laced with countless catwalks, Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model weaved together competing fashionistas, mannequins and creative beacons to produce one sensational fabric that redefined professional bitchiness.
Now, thanks to this ménage à trois : Sarah Jessica Parker’s Pretty Matches Productions, Magical Elves, Inc and the Bravo network, reality TV has wormed its way into Art World.
Christie’s has released a spanking new iPhone app that promises to deliver up-to-date information that offers veterans and débutants opportunities to immerse into the world of Art. (more…)
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) may have fired Sir Fred Goodwin.
But it is the Queen who is leading by example, in Mr. Brown’s struggle against rising unemployment figures, urging her unemployed minions to seek temporary refuge in trusty ol’ McDo.
I’d like to see Sir Fred don a Royal McDonald robe.
<JOKE>
Like the dot.com mania which provided speculative fuel that accelerated the blowing of the NASDAQ bubble by what seemed like 2000 light-years/hour, Contemporary bull fever was highly infectious amonst art investors this past couple of years.
But as financial markets around the world soften, Youth and Growth are once again, making way for The Old and Value to return. Art markets too, are not exempted from the natural law: What goes up, must come down.
This Back to the Past phenomenon is evinced by comparing last week’s auction results for the Old Masters Sales and that of last month’s Contemporary Sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
World’s Top 200 Collectors
As much a must-read for art veterans as it is for débutants, this list is not just a social directory detailing the who’s-whos.
Those talking heads that unfortunately do not make infrequent appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg TV? Well, if like me, you are unwittingly given daily audio-visual exposure to all that incessant noise in surround sound mode, then you would have developed the filtering instinct for knowing exactly WHO deserves more than just a casual glance for the wrong aesthetic reasons, and WHEN your ears should perk up and listen.
The Top 200 list offers names of some of the art industry’s equivalent of market movers - the Warren Buffet, Mark Mobius and George Soros of Art World. (more…)
Uppity faux British accented voice bellows: What is Art?
Totally unpretentious & proud peruser of Singlish replies: Art ah? Super rich boliao people, whole day go gallery swirl wine glass, sip Champagne, rub shoulders with sons-of-who’s-daughter-of-which-wife-of-some-CEO. Or British uppity women with BIG hats at art auctions holding that lollipop thingy.
You get the point.
The established public image of Art is that it’s exclusive to a meagre 8.3m ÷ 6.77b = 0.13% worth of delusional high net-worth individuals. It is therefore hardly misplaced to think that there exists, amongst the remaining 99.87% of us ≤ middle-class disillusioned folks, people who have actually come to hate what Art allegedly represents.
So if, as a member of this disgruntled pack, you relate to The British Art Resistance (BAR), pray lend them your heartfelt support in spreading propaganda against the common enemy during:
NATIONAL ART HATE WEEK (NAHW) (more…)
