“I give out John Berger’s Ways of Seeing like the Bible”
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This Week
💦 Frieze Week: Let's Fucking Gooooooooooo?
💦 eating 280 macaroons (some cumin flavoured) per week
💦 “When you’re too fashion, the people don’t understand it.”
Events
Yesterday, Dover Street Market opened their first archive sale in six years, with reportedly 80,000 garments going on sale for 70-80% off (!) in London’s Printworks nightclub. Amongst the thousands of day 1 attendees were, of course, members of the Comme des Garcons-obsessed art world. We spied museum curators, gallery-represented artists, front desk chicas and Frieze-contributing journos. Not much work seemed to be happening in the art and fashion worlds on this particular WFH Monday as attendees publicly stripped, simultaneously squeezing into Junya Watanabe and shoving Margiela tabis into their capacious shopping bags. Anyway, for those who missed it, it’s on all week and is a little consolation for not being in NY for all the fairs x
🧊 16 – 21 May 11am–8pm | Dover Street Market Market, Printworks [Canada Water] | Free, tickets here
🧊 17 May | 5–9pm | Finissage of Dani Marcel and Fish the Painting’s duo show, with performance by Fish the Painting (performance at 7pm), Kupfer [Hackney Central]
🧊 18 May | 6-8pm | Patrick Caulfield: Pass the Peas, Josh Lilley [Goodge Street]
🧊 18 May | 6-9pm | Saucisson, group show, curated by Alexei Izmaylov and Antoine Schafroth, including works by Cary Kwok, Bruce LaBruce, Louis Blue Newby, among many others, Shtager&Shch [Oxford Circus]
🧊 18 May | 6–9pm | Slade BA/BFA Degree Show [Euston/Warren St]
🧊 20 May | 6–8pm | Lawrence Lek: Black Cloud Highway 黑云高速公路, Sadie Coles Davies Street [Bond Street]
Exhibition of the Week
The Ugly Duchess at the National Gallery. Free, until June 11. Info here.
OK ok we know what you’re thinking… “isn’t spittle supposed to be contemporary art focussed??” The answer is yes, yes we are. But honestly sometimes it all gets a bit much and we like looking at OLD things as a little break for our little eyes and our little brains. Plus, with mediaeval- and renaissance-core being the trends du jour, where better to make a pilgrimage than to the National Gallery? This weekend’s research trip has us totally taken with The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance. Honing in on Quinten Massys’ 1513 painting of an extremely gnarled and strangely lewd older woman (you know the painting), this exhibition then looks outwards, contextualising the work both culturally and art historically, to examine the role of older women (sexy, ugly, witchy) in the Renaissance. Learning that the work was inspired by the ever-proto-viral Leo (da Vinci), whose 15th century book of invented caricatures of incredibly ugly people was understandably a bestseller, we were shocked to discover that Massy’s famous hag wasn’t actually his own idea. Way back in 1510 Leo’s pupil, Francesco Melzi, studied his caricatures, ran with the theme, and rendered our lady’s wrinkled and straining cleavage in red chalk. Incredibly, this sketch is also included in the show! It was soo nice to be in such a crisply focused exhibition – one room, one major work, one theme – it felt manageable, not overwhelming, calming – life-affirming even. Wonderful. The other remarkable thing was the insane level of detail in the works. Like all these etchings and the most detailed painting ever (hair twisting out of the warts, and all), and a sculpture that was probs smaller than 10cm that was so detailed you could see the veins on her feet and the knubs of her spine! Nuts!
We’ve had our renaissance fill now and are satisfied for the foreseeable. You can expect regular programming from here on in :))))
Hot Links
👚 “I think sometimes people confuse the idea of criticism with having an opinion” – Following her receipt of the Pratt Institute’s 2023 Fashion Visionary Award, Robin Ghivan sat down with Taylore Scarabelli to discuss the difficulties of fashion criticism today - from not being able to speak your mind due to advertising pressure, to the dilution of informed opinions via the tik-tok-ification of criticism, their conversation moves from fashion to the state of journalism and politics today.
🦪 “Which hetero guy in the world wouldn’t want to look like this?” – Nancy Holt profiles the ‘underdog’ of fashion, our fav Philipp Plein. Featuring a car sized sneaker made of cake, a surprising love for Bauhaus design, and too many cringe quotes to count, this article is dripping with conspicuous consumption and ostentatious wealth. Are we any closer to running out to purchase a cashmere jumper emblazoned with a big diamante “Fuck You”? No. But as Plein himself says, “When you’re too fashion, the people don’t understand it.”
🕹️ Haunted by Beyoncé jabbing at that Nintendo DS – Who knew that video game launches were A-lister events in the noughties? In this article, Dazed interviews Paul Weedo, of the instagram account Famous People at Gaming Events, which documents the absurd yet thoroughly joyful images of celebrities celebrating the launch of your favourite games. Elijah Wood at a Sims launch? It’s a double dose of nostalgia we can’t refuse.
⚔️ “André Balazs keeps you safe, even if you’re broke or going through shit” – In this weekend’s FT HTSI, guest edited by Kate Moss, Courtney Love shares her bonkers life hacks in the weekly aesthete column. Read on to find out about a Sylvia Plath letter gifted to her by Kim Jones; eating 280 macaroons (some cumin flavoured) a week; and why she considers Tracey Emin her ‘war buddy’.
🌊 Frieze Week: Let's Fucking Gooooooooooo? – we are very happy to have just found out that spittle fave writer Domenick Ammirati also has a substack newsletter, named something quite close to home: spigot… ‘Spigot is here to help you plan your days and nights,’ he says… Domenick, are we out of a job?! xo
🥞 “There is mounting pressure on art world businesses to not only review their pay structures in line with socio-economic developments, but also to be more up-front and open about the basic pay they are offering” – The opaque nature of salaries in the art world seems to be becoming more transparent (given in NYC it is now a legal requirement for all employers to publish salaries with job listings). This made Sophie Macpherson’s new art market salary report a very interesting read…
Parting shot 1! (special treat)
We were stunned when we read this insane recounting of James Turrell’s speech at the MoMA PS1 annual gala, on Artnet. The artist spoke about using a nail gun against unwanted visitors at the museum, described curator Alana Heiss as ‘really hot back then’ and detailed a wild lawsuit levied against The Whitney after a visitor sued them because one of Turrell’s works caused her to become so ‘disoriented and confused’ she broke her arm. Turrell’s response: ‘With a broken hand you can still give a pretty good hand job!’ ………Wow.
Parting shot 2 x
No comment from us but it seems writer Philomena Epps was not sold on the advice doled out in a certain feminist art-related column in The Guardian….