museum

Roberto Capucci Exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Filed under: Apparel, Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is currently featuring more than 80 sculptural fashion creations by Italian designer Roberto Capucci in an exhibit called "Art Into Fashion." Capucci is known for his wild and interesting use of silhouettes and structural design elements to create fashion that's as much art as it is clothing. The exhibit marks the first survey of Capucci's works in the United States and also includes various sketches and drawings from past years.

Roberto Capucci was born in Rome in 1929 and sold his first design at age 18 to the wife of film director Roberto Rossellini. The "Art Into Fashion" exhibit runs through June 5, 2011.

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Tags: apparel, fashion, museum, philadelphia museum of art, roberto capucci

Porsche Celebrates 25 Years of Custom Cars

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Events

Porsche Celebrates 25 Years of Custom Cars

25 years ago Porsche became the world's first car manufacturer to create a special customization department at its factory. The program, called Porsche Exclusive, allows customers to get a car from the factory with just about any personal detail and refinement they want – provided that it's technically feasible and won't compromise the vehicle's quality. To celebrate the program's silver anniversary the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany is showcasing the Exclusive's special skills and craftsmanship with a 25 years of Porsche Exclusive show running through May 1st.

Visitors will be able to see some of company's most unique and rare special models, including the Porsche 911 Turbo S 3.6, which in 1997 was the first Porsche series production sports car to break the 186 mph (300 km/h) barrier. Also on display is one of only two Porsche 911 Speedsters in the world dating from 1995, as well as a gold-colored Porsche 959 that was extensively modified for a member of an Arab royal family and which features, among other things, gold plated tailpipes. A book is being published in conjunction with the exhibit as well.

Tags: custom cars, Germany, luxury cars, museum, museum exhibit, Porsche, Porsche 911, Porsche 959, Porsche Museum, porsche+cars, porsche+custom, porschecars, porschecustom

Pompeii Lands In New York City

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Pompeii has plopped down in New York City. A new exhibit, "Pompeii The Exhibit: Life and Death in the Shadow of Vesuvius" has opened at New York's Discovery Times Square. There's something about the centuries-old story of Pompeii that never fails to captivate the general public. It ties into our end-of-days fears, that idea that at any moment, a disruption could simply wipe us all out. Life went on at Pompeii for 700 years, a rich and artistic culture before, on a fateful day in 79 A.D., Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the citizens and all their worldly goods under lava and ash.

Tags: archaeology, discovery times square, museum, museum event, museum exhibit, new york museums, pompeii, times square musuem

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EXCLUSIVE: Ralph Lauren to Exhibit Car Collection Classics for the First Time

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Events, The Classicist, Architecture & Design

Ralph Lauren to Exhibit Car Collection Classics for the First Time

Images exclusive to Luxist, courtesy of Ralph Lauren; click for high-res gallery

Some of the most precious gems in famed fashion designer Ralph Lauren's incredible car collection will be exhibited for the the first time ever in Paris this spring. Lauren's collection, in our opinion the finest one in private hands on the planet, features impeccable examples of the rarest and most valuable vehicles in the world. We can reveal exclusively that four of his exquisite automotive works of art, which have never before been seen in public, will be on view at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from April 28 – August 28: a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM; a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Scaglietti; a 1956/1958 Jaguar XKSS; and a 1931 Alfa Romeo Monza 8C 2300.

13 other Lauren cars will also be on display during the exhibit, entitled The Art of the Automobile: Masterpieces from the Ralph Lauren Collection, including an amazing 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa (above), a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, and a 1938 Bugatti 57 SC Atlantic Coupé. The last two alone are worth about $30 – $40 million each, and are among the world's most expensive cars. The Paris exhibit will focus on European models created between the 1930s and the 1990s, "illustrating the evolution of car design in the 20th Century." They were selected by curator Rodolphe Rapetti and will be arranged by scenographer Jean-Michel Wilmotte, with the "kinetics" and sound of the vehicles conveyed by means of various films and recordings. The museum will also be producing a luxe book to celebrate the occasion.

Gallery: Ralph Lauren's Cars Headed to Paris

Tags: Alfa Romeo, Bentley, billionaire, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Bugatti, car collection, car design, celebrity cars, classic cars, designer, exclusive, exhibit, exhibition, fashion design, fashion designer, Ferrari, Ferrari 250 GTO, ferrari+250+gt, ferrari250gt, France, Jaguar, McLaren, mens style, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, museum, museum show, Paris, Porsche, Ralph Lauren, ralph+lauren+car+collection, ralph+lauren+cars, ralph+laurens+car+collection, ralphlaurencarcollection, ralphlaurencars, ralphlaurenscarcollection, supercars, The Classicist, worlds most expensive, worlds most expensive car, worlds most expensive cars

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Rare Objects Missing From the Egyptian Museum

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Now that the dust has settled a little in Cairo, a full inventory of the Egyptian Museum has been done to assess the damage. The AP reports that according to the Ministry of Antiquities 18 items were taken by looters. On January 28, during the turmoil and chaos around Tahrir Square, thieves climbed a fire escape to the museum's roof and lowered themselves on ropes from a glass-paneled ceiling to the museum's top floor. Around 70 objects were damaged but it wasn't known until an announcement on Sunday night that anything had gone missing. Among the casualties were two gilded wooden statues of King Tut.

Tags: cairo, egypt, egyptian museum, museum

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The Dramatic Plans For Greenland's New Museum

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Architecture & Design

Greenland will soon get a new museum. Arch Daily reports that the team of BIG + TNT Nuuk + Ramboll Nuuk + Arkitekti won the competition to design the new National Gallery of Greenland in the country's capital Nuuk. The circular design will be perched on a steep slope overlooking one of Greenland's beautiful fjords. This design was chosen out of six proposals from Nordic architects.

The new museum will combine historical and contemporary art. The gallery surrounds an interior sculpture garden. The external façade of white concrete is expected to acquire a patina over time, a weathered surface meant to contrast with the sleek glass interior. The circular shape of the gallery also allows for different divisions of the exhibits. Visitors will enter through a covered opening created by a slight lift in the façade into a lobby with a view towards the sculpture garden and the fjord.

Tags: architecture, greenland, museum, nuuk

Edward Hopper's Maine Paintings to be Exhibited at Bowdoin College

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

In July the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine will stage an exhibition of paintings and watercolors produced by famed American realist Edward Hopper during his many sojourns in Maine. Hopper spent several summers there beginning in 1914 and painted many Maine scenes, including the lighthouse at Two Lights, above, in Cape Elizabeth, from 1929. For Edward Hopper such weather-beaten landmarks "symbolized the solitary individual stoically facing the onslaught of change in an industrial society." Organized with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which has a major Hopper show running through April, the Bowdoin exhibition includes over 80 works from both public and private collections.

Tags: art, Bowdoin College, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, colleges, Edward Hopper, Maine, museum, New England, painting

Mercedes-Benz Celebrates 125 Years of Automotive Excellence

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Events, Art

Mercedes-Benz Celebrates 125 Years of Automotive Excellence

January 29 marks an important milestone in the history of Mercedes-Benz, inventor of the motor car and the world's most famous marque – on that day back in 1886 Carl Benz filed an application in Berlin for a patent on his three-wheeled "horseless carriage". Early critics claimed the contraption had no future; 125 years and over 80,000 patent applications later they couldn't be more wrong. Tomorrow night the company will mark the historic occasion with a gala at Mercedes-Benz World in Stuttgart featuring German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the guest of honor. "The invention of Daimler and Benz changed the world for the better - and it will continue to do so," states Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. "As the inventor we also have the claim to shape the future of mobility: with fascinating brands, green technologies and new business opportunities."

The central anchor point for the celebrations is the Mercedes-Benz Museum, which in 2011 celebrates its 5th anniversary at its new home in the Mercedes-Strasse in Stuttgart. In addition to the museum's incredible collection of classics, an exhibition from the company's collection of modern and contemporary art will be on display from May through September. Many of the works feature the history, models or design of Mercedes-Benz motor cars, such as Andy Warhol's legendary series of paintings CARS, created by the artist 25 years ago on the occasion of the marque's 100th anniversary, along with new work commissioned for this latest milestone. Along with various other events and commemorations meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz is donating and planting 125 trees in New Orleans City Park to aid in the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.

Gallery: 125 Years of Mercedes-Benz

Tags: Andy Warhol, Berlin, cars, classic cars, events, Germany, luxury cars, Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz Museum, museum, Stuttgart

Ukranian Billionaire Flys in Ducasse, Cirque du Soleil for $6 Million Birthday Bash

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Wealth

Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk (above) is spending more than $6 million on an opulent 50th birthday bash for himself in the posh French ski resort of Courchevel tonight, flying in the Cirque de Soleil and superchef Alain Ducasse for the occasion. The steel magnate and contemporary art collector, whose has an estimated fortune of over $3 billion, is sparing no expense for the 300 guests invited to the event, the London Telegraph reports. It has taken 50 workmen two weeks "under difficult climactic conditions" to set up an enormous marquee to showcase the Cirque du Soleil, the world-renowned Canadian circus troupe, the paper notes.

Ducasse's haute cuisine will be accompanied by oceans of the finest champagne, vodka and top grand cru vintage wines. The evening will end with a spectacular fireworks display before guests retire to the resort's 11 five-star hotels, all booked out for the occasion. Pinchuk, who owns one of London's most expensive houses, has his own private museum in Kiev housing major works by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Louis Vuitton collaborator Takashi Murakami. He has a number of philanthropic projects and arts sponsorships in the works with the likes of Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Steven Spielberg, George Soros and Bill Clinton, all of whom could turn up at the birthday blowout.

Tags: Alain Ducasse, billionaire, Cirque de Soleil, contemporary art, Courchevel, Damien Hirst, events, france, Jeff Koons, museum, oligarch, parties, Paul McCartney, Russian billionaires, Takashi Murakami, Ukraine, wealth

Abramovich Buys $400 Million Private Island in Russia

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art, Wealth

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is splashing out around $400 million to buy a private island in the heart of historic Saint Petersburg with plans to build an art museum there housing his incredible collection, the London Daily Telegraph reports. Abramovich, one of the richest men in the world, has quietly established himself as the world's leading collector of modern and contemporary art thanks to the influence of his beautiful young girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, the paper notes. New Holland island, which he has just acquired, is a crumbling 300-year-old former military base which belonged to the Russian admiralty. Abramovich plans to transform the 18th century warehouses into a cultural and commercial center in Russia's old imperial capital, including space for his amazing art collection, starring the record-breaking $86.3 million Francis Bacon triptych he bought in 2008, monumental works by Lucien Freud, Pablo Picasso and more.

Tags: art, contemporary art, Dasha Zhukova, Francis Bacon, island, Lucien Freud, museum, private museum, Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire, St. Petersburg

Plans For Red Skelton Museum Get $1 Million Boost

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity

Museums dedicated to single figures don't always have a long life span (consider the closing of the Liberace museum in Las Vegas and the Roy Rogers museum). That hasn't stopped the plans for a Red Skelton museum in Indiana. Skelton, who died in 1997, was a popular actor and comedian and later an artist of clown paintings. The plans for a Red Skelton museum have been underway for some time but they got a big donation to further the cause recently.

The Vincennes Sun-Commercial reported this week that Frank Ladner, an Illinois businessman, has donated $1 million toward building a museum honoring comedian Red Skelton in his hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. This puts the Red Skelton Museum Foundation $1.3 million away from its $4 million fundraising goal for building the museum at the Vincennes University performing arts center already named for the actor. The museum would feature costumes, awards and paintings alongside displays about his influence on early television and comedy and a theater also will show a series of Skelton's movies. The museum is being created with private funds.

Tags: indiana, memorabilia, museum, old hollywood, red skelton, vincennes

Denver Museum Plans To Sell Namesake's Art

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

The issue of when and just how much of its artwork a museum can sell is one we keep seeing in the news. A planned Denver museum's plan to sell four paintings done by its namesake is causing a bit of controversy. The Clyfford Still Museum has announced a plan to sell four of the 825 paintings mean to be housed in the new Clyfford Still Museum.

The sale could raise $25 million for the museum because Still's work rarely comes up for sale. The museum will be a Clyfford Still treasure trove housing 94% of the artist's work. The Denver Post reports that the sale doesn't technically violate the American Association of Museums and Association of Art Museum Directors terms for "deaccessioning" artworks. The privately funded museum hasn't opened yet and therefore hasn't taken possession of the pieces which were bequeathed to the city of Denver when Still's widow, Patricia, died in 2005.

According to the Denver Post article the museum petitioned a Maryland county court to permit the estate to release the four works early before the formal transfer of ownership so it isn't so much deaccessioning as pre-deaccessioning. The works would be sold as a group to other museums. Once the museum owns the paintings the rules are clear that it can't sell art to boost its coffers. Although Still wanted his work to remain intact in a single collection, his wife had donated or sold several works after her husband's death, a precedent that the museum is using to justify the potential sale.

The museum ethics rules are in place to make sure that museum leaders do not sell artworks to balance budgets during crises but we've seen several university-related museums test the boundaries of these rules. The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University threatened to close and sell off its $350 million art trove but ended up with a plan to rent them instead. More recently Fisk University in Nashville received approval to sell off a share in its Stieglitz art collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas.

Tags: art, clyfford still, deaccessioned art, DeaccessionedArt, denver, museum

Sleep on a Giant Mushroom for $1,400 a Night

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Art

The Museum for Contemporary Art in Berlin has a very unique exhibit that must be experienced in a unique way. The exhibit is intended to give visitors a taste of what it would be like to experience soma, the mythical healing and enlightenment drink that was used by ancient Vedic nomads in India to access the divine. No one knows for sure what soma was made of but experts believe 'magic mushrooms,' or fly agaric mushrooms, were a likely ingredient and so the installation features a floating hotel room where guests can spend the night suspended over a large 'shroom-shaped platform.

Besides re-enacting a soma experience artist and creator Carsten Hoeller also aims to explore how to achieve enlightenment and the roles science and myth play in our society. The exhibit will be open November 5th through February 6th for $1400/night.

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Tags: art, carsten hoeller, experience art, hotel, hotels, museum, performance art, soma, travel

$50 Million Warhol Stars in Christie's Contemporary Art Sale

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

A rare early Andy Warhol painting expected to fetch up to $50 million, the first picture by Warhol ever to be shown in a museum, headlines Christie's incredible Contemporary Art sale in New York on Nov. 10. The artist's Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable), dated 1962 (above), is one of several multimillion-dollar Warhols on offer in the eye-popping sale. The next most expensive artwork is Roy Lichtenstein's Ohhh...Alright..., dated 1964, expected to fetch in the region of $40 million and one of a number of Lichtensteins on offer, again with several carrying multimillion-dollar estimates. Both seminal paintings "literally changed the course of art history," Christie's notes. In third place price-wise is Gerhard Richter's 1982 oil on canvas Zwei Kerzen, estimated at $12 million – $16 million, followed by Jeff Koons' steel sculpture Balloon Flower (Blue), 1995 - 2000, also estimated at $12 million – $16 million. Following that in the $9 million – $15 million range are two works by Mark Rothko, Untitled (Black on Gray) and No 18 (Brown and Black on Plum). Oligarchs and oil sheikhs, prepare your paddles.

Gallery: Christie's Contemporary Art 11/10

Tags: Andy Warhol, art, auction, Contemporary Art, Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Mark Rothko, museum, New York, painting, Roy Lichtenstein

Inside Luxury King Francois Pinault's Private Palazzo Museums

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art, Wealth, Architecture & Design

Francois Pinault is a man justifiably envied by many. With a fortune of $8.7 billion the high-school dropout-turned luxury goods titan is the majority shareholder of PPR, whose brands include Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta. He also owns famed auction house Christie's and the renowned Chateau Latour winery. His amazing contemporary art collection, worth an estimated $1.4 billion, encompasses 2,000-plus works by over 80 artists including Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Takashi Murakami and Damien Hirst. Much of it is now housed as his two incredible private museums in Venice, the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana. Both historic buildings were transformed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando and are the subject of a smashing new book from Skira Rizzoli.

Tadao Ando: Venice - The Pinault Collection at the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana shows how Ando's designs seamlessly blend history and innovation while adhering to the strict laws governing the preservation of historic buildings in Venice. At the Palazzo Grassi, prominently located on the Grand Canal, Ando's quiet but expert renovation of the eighteenth-century rooms makes a perfect backdrop for Jeff Koons' eye-popping balloon sculptures. At the Punta della Dogana (shown on the cover above), the Venetian Republic's original customs warehouse, the large-scale space was subtly subdivided into refined rooms for installation art. The "dialogue – that is collision and friction – between the new and the old," Ando states, "is the driving force in creating a city's future."

Tags: architect, architecture, art, art collection, Balenciaga, billionaire, Bottega Veneta, Chateau Latour, contemporary art, Damien Hirst, France, Francois Pinault, Gucci, Italy, Jeff Koons, luxury goods, museum, PPR, Richard Prince, Tadao Ando, Takashi Murakami, Venice, Yves Saint Laurent

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