Frieze Week 2015

THIS WEEKS TEST

Have you ever stopped for five minutes and really taken a look at your search history on Google?

I did this very thing last night. In part because I cannot remember what happened five minutes ago most of the time, and because I wanted to see how my browsing habits differed from my wife.

I logged into Google as me, and this is what I found:

Cats in tights – this was unexpected, it was also research.

Maggie Q – totally expected, I have been binge watching Nikita on Netflix, highly recommended.

Art – This was always going to be on the list.

Technology – yes. Definitely expected

So my list was short, in part because this week I have had no time to peruse the net, and even followers on Facebook have appeared worried that I haven’t posted for hours at a time. One follower presumed I had been kidnapped by the Amish.

My wife wondered what her search history had been so in the interests of research, she dutifully logged on.

Matt Damon – Interstellar, Saving Private Ryan, The Martian – this proves that the U.S has wasted a lot of money rescuing him

Google – Apparently she couldn’t remember the web address

Peppa Pig – My daughter is 13 and never liked it, but it seems my wife misses it so much

Edward Snowden – I kid you not, she had no idea who he is

QVC – Looks like my wallet has just been emptied again

Google - What it knows about you.

 

So that was five minutes of unintended fun, but I think my longer-term search history would surprise me. But unlike life, you can delete your search history on Google by going to the Google Account History page. All you need to do to view your entire logged on history is hit the cog in the top right corner of the page, when you are logged into Google.

You can download the history, and it also gives the data that it has gathered in the form of charts and trends, working out when you’ve searched most often and what your favourite sites are, among other things. Apparently I do a lot of searching between 6pm and 10pm every day. Who knew?

Rather thoughtfully there are options to delete your search history too. This is something that you might want to do if you’ve been searching for Peppa Pig and Matt Damon.

Regents Park London

FRIEZE WEEK LONDON

There is a cliché around London’s Frieze Art Fair and it is glitz, bling, and glamour. Art collectors with wallets that could buy a fleet of private jets, flock to the capital to attend opening parties sponsored by super luxury brands, grab goodie bags filled with luxury Gucci-ness, while the rest of us wonder what it would be like to actually own a £1m Jeff Wall photograph.

For five days, London’s Regents Park is home to a large tent, welcoming an audience of around 60,000 people, made up from the world’s wealthiest collectors to the plain curious. For artists exhibiting, and galleries displaying, the pressure will be on to make an impact.

Smaller galleries have to shout very loudly to be heard. London gallery Pilar Corrias will put on a solo show with Japanese artist Ken Okiishi who will be painting portraits of visitors for free. Although the subjects will not be able to take home the creations, the final result will be one that will assure a few gasps.

As part of this year’s Frieze, there will be a chamber beneath the main tent containing a room designed by artist Jeremy Herbert. This will be art as an experience rather than object. Visitors will be brushed by soundless gusts from the pioneer of the silent wind machine.

Frieze Masters which is now in its third-year, is usually the destination of choice for the wealthy collector. It is a place where the big money changes hands and museums send out their scouts to search for important artworks. This year the emphasis will be on collecting, and will feature some fascinating oddities including a collection of 19th-Century Pacific fish hooks made of shell and turtle shell.

Very few of what are known as the current ‘hot’ artists will be expensive, with some original and unique works by younger emerging artists starting at under £1000. But to find these great works, you will need to look outside of the main arenas. For the most part, commercial galleries will be focussing on sales to museums and foundations, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us will be completely excluded. Modest collections might start with a print from Allied Editions, an elegant architectural drawing by Pablo Bronstein for just £350, or a painting by Matt Connors for £1,000.

The early signs for Frieze 2015, are that sales will be strong. There will be some concern about the Chinese markets, but the contemporary art market is very strong at the moment. Most people are optimistic.

For the most part, Frieze is also about having fun. Being able to see so many pieces in one place, it also gives you an insight into what is happening in studios around the world, and a great opportunity to meet up with friends.

So who will be the top five artists to look out for? My guess is that number one on anyone’s list will be Jonathan Gardner, a Chicago based artist whose paintings draw from past masters such as Picasso and Matisse.

Jesse Wine’s ceramic sculpture will draw some interest, especially as it follows no logic. Red Gilets and shorts, suspended in mid-air above ceramic footwear, and using surfaces such as moss and rust.

Carmen Herrera who celebrated her 100th birthday this year and is a Cuban abstract painter, remains on top form, and will no doubt draw in some crowds.

Melvin Edwards will also be a crowd puller. A pioneer among artists who engaged with race and the civil-rights movement, working with welded steel, chains and barbed wire. His work is cool and reminiscent of 60’s minimalism.

And finally, Samara Scott’s installation for the Sunday Painter resembles a pond with a bedazzled surface beneath the water. The installation includes noodles, tights, wine, nail varnish, need I go on? As bizarre as the ingredient list sounds, the shimmered surface becomes a meditation on consumption and waste.

Frieze Art Fair, London NW1 runs through 14th – 17th October. I might just go along as my Birthday is on the 16th, maybe I will pick myself up a nice new piece.

THE STAPLE OF PINTEREST

Honestly, before I had a Pinterest account I must have been one of the very few that had never heard of it. Of course I had seen it, I just never knew what it was called. The glass container with a screw on metal top, apparently it is called a Mason jar. Apparently you can pretty much make anything out of a Mason jar. A decorative light, a container to sip pink lemonade or a cocktail from, and I have seen pins where it has been used to make a soap dispenser. I wondered why I knew so little about this historic contraption, then I realised my parents were British and Tupperware was the thing.

A Pinterest Staple. The Mason Jar

 

Originally the Mason jar was patented by a Scottish farmer, John Landis Mason in 1858. What made Mason’s invention stand out from the crowd was that it was transparent and you could see exactly was inside. The threaded neck and the lid that creates a seal was added in 1869.

In the short growing seasons of the northern United States, the jar was a critical must have when preserving the harvest over winter. The patent eventually expired, but the jar lived on in various iterations, namely the Ball and Kerr jars. The Mason jar however was popular during the World War II period, used to preserve the bounty of the government encouraged Victory Gardens.

The jar started to lose its appeal when refrigeration became popular, but take a look on Pinterest and you will see that the Mason jar is once again the must have. Coloured jars were introduced by the Ball Corporation when they saw an opportunity to reissue jars with tinted glass, originally designed to block light from entering the jar and spoiling foods.

And so the Mason jar lives on. Now a sign of luxury, rather than its original purpose of canning food, you can see them in stores selling quality preserves, but you can also find a million uses for them by taking a look on Pinterest. If only Mason had renewed the patent, maybe his estate would have been the era’s Apple.

SAMSUNG

Loop Pay was acquired by Samsung in February 2015, and it looked at the time to be a quick way for Samsung to create a payments system to compete with Apple Pay from scratch. Reports this week suggest that Samsung may have jumped into the arena a little too soon, and may have also purchased a little something extra.

The New York Times has reported that the networks were breached by a China-based hacker group, maybe as early as March 2015. Crucially the attack didn’t appear to have breached the actual system that processes the payments, so there is no immediate threat to user data. But one could assume that this is a worrying time for the tech-giant.

In a statement, Samsung reiterated that no user data was compromised, saying, "Samsung Pay was not impacted and at no point was any personal payment information at risk. This was an isolated incident that targeted the LoopPay corporate network, which is a physically separate network from Samsung Pay." It was also reported that LoopPay learned of the breach just 38 days before Samsung Pay was rolled out to customers.

This could be seen as one of the latest in a string on China-based economic espionage attacks aimed at companies who have bases or operate from within the U.S. Congress has responded to the increasingly common threats with the Defend Trade Secrets Act, which would increase prosecutorial powers and increase federal penalties for such crimes. Critics of the act are concerned that the bill could give rise to dangerous overreach.

CHRISTIE’S

Important Jewels, October 20th, New York. – Exhibition 16th October 2015 through 19th October 2015 at Christie’s Rockefeller Center.

Christie’s, yes my all-time favourite auction house has announced the the highlights of its upcoming Important Jewels auction on October 20 in New York. This auction is among the first to launch the much-anticipated fall season of Christie’s worldwide jewellery auctions and features over 300 individual jewels, including a wide selection of coloured diamonds and colourless diamonds, coloured gemstones and signed jewellery. Estimates for items range from $3,000 up to $3 million, with the total sale expected to achieve in the region of $20 million. The full sale e-catalogue is posted online at http://www.christies.com with easy links for online bidder registration and browsing.

The sale is led by a superb 75.56 carat brilliant-cut fancy vivid yellow diamond ring (pictured above right) estimated at $3,000,000 - 4,000,000. The term “fancy vivid” represents coloured diamonds of the highest quality in colour saturation. A diamond of this size and colour is truly exceptional. Also featured is a cushion-cut fancy yellow diamond ring of 34.12 carats, mounted in platinum and 18k gold; and a pear-shaped Fancy Intense yellowish-green diamond ring of 7.11 carats, set within a circular-cut pink diamond surround. Colourless diamond jewels on offer include an important D colour marquise-cut diamond ring of 18.80 carats and two perfectly matched, impressive circular-cut diamonds of 20.02 and 20.01 carats, set as single-stone rings.

Also on offer is a selection of impressive pieces by the American jeweller David Webb from The Collection of a Distinguished Lady. Highlights include a whimsical spider brooch, its body set with a large cushion-cut kunzite (estimate: $30,000 - $50,000) and several other bold pieces by Webb, who custom-made these exceptional designs for this collector.

Following the recent revival of the brooch as an important accent piece and fashion statement, this auction presents several rare and important brooches that are signed by iconic jewellery design houses: Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co., and David Webb.

A diamond brooch is designed with a spectacular cluster of thirteen pear and marquise brilliant-cut diamonds with a total weight of 42.35 carats. A delightful diamond and emerald “Ballet Precieu” brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels bears a rose-cut diamond face trimmed with diamonds and a pear-shaped emerald, and a tutu accented by marquise-cut emeralds. And a “Fish Brooch” by the legendary designer Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co. features two pavé-set diamond fish with gold and enamel fins and a cabochon sapphire eye.

Particularly rare to auction are two brooches of pre-Columbian figures designed by Donald Claflin, an American designer known for his flamboyant and whimsical designs, from his time at Tiffany around 1967. Each of the Peruvian figures is made with finely carved coral, turquoise, pink tourmaline and citrine, a miniature recreation of the posture and costume found on traditional Pre-Columbian, Peruvian ceremonial knives. Another rare design is an art deco brooch by Cartier depicting the torso of a bejewelled man wearing an elaborate turban, which is estimated at $15,000-20,000.

Rare gemstones are a key feature of the sale, taking the form of iconic signed pieces. Among the key highlights is a sapphire and diamond necklace by Van Cleef & Arpels, that may also be worn as a bracelet (estimate: $130,000-180,000) and a pair of sapphire and diamond ear pendants by David Webb, each with a graduated sapphire bead tassel topped by oval-cut cabochon sapphires of 30.43 and 28.42 carats, respectively (estimate: $125,000-170,000).

Additional signed jewels include a; spectacular Cartier Panthère ring estimated at $40,000-50,000; and a Bulgari Serpenti bracelet watch, the head with pear-shaped diamond eyes, which opens to reveal the watch face, estimated at $100,000- $150,000.

Related Sale 3776

Important Jewels

October 20, 2015

New York, Rockefeller Plaza

So that’s all for today, I will be back tomorrow with another update from the world of art and technology. If you plan on heading over to London’s Frieze week, let us know what you are looking forward to the most!

 

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