A customer at the Victoria Beckham Flagship Store in Mayfair in London looks at a Richard Prince painting in a light. The work of the American artist without title shows four numbers in bold acrylic and oil and is estimated at up to 600,000 US dollars (£ 480,000). “Richard Prince has reinvented his career every decade; He always challenged himself to do something completely different, ”says Haleigh Stoddard, Sotheby’s boss of contemporary curs.
It is a description that Completely corresponds to Beckham himself. From Spice Girl and Wag to a fashion designer who is worshiped about calm luxury because of their contemporary command, Beckham is known as Queen of Redestation. Now she is trying something else again: art curation.
The 50-year-old Beckham has come together with Sotheby’s to organize an exhibition of work through some of the biggest names of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Yoshitomo Nara, George Condo, Keith Haring, Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joan Mitchell, Gerhard Richter and Yves Klein. The works of art will appear publicly by February 10, before they go under the hammer in New York and London or are sold privately.
Art, said Beckham, has always been a source of inspiration. “Overall, it is about more than investing or acquiring, beautiful objects. It’s about finding pieces that bring us real joy. “
On a rainy Friday morning, there is a pleasure in how the child’s playfulness of the pictures in contrast to Beckham’s tailor -made silhouettes and subdued colors.
The shop is not overrun by customers, but it certainly has the air and the appearance of a gallery. It is located in a three-story Georgian town house in the Dover Street and has a cut floor and a cast grille ceiling. The walls are a tailor -made green, which the luxurious interior designer Rose Unippee only generated for Beckham.
In addition to a collection of handbags and jewelry, there is a bunch of leaves on a table, and you study half a dozen visitors while taking around in the shop and taking photos of a soundtrack from Uptempo jazz. A shop assistant says that they had no inquiries about art purchases, but have found an increase in customers.
“It is incredible for us to show these works in a completely new context,” says Stoddard. “People are used to seeing works of art on white walls in galleries or museums. A room like this almost feels like a home.
“We always try to hire new, younger collectors. People who come to this shop, who may be interested in Victoria Beckham’s design aesthetics, could also love a George owner apartment or a Yoshimoto -Nara painting. “
Although she has made the headlines this week, Beckham has been collecting for several years and has worked with Sotheby’s several times to exhibit work in her business. Other projects included a takeover of Chila Burman 2021.
The designer said she was introduced to collect for the first time when she saw a “huge Julian Schnabel” in the dining room of her friend Elton John’s house in southern France and “fascinated by her”.
Since then, she and her husband David have made a trip to “educate” art out of art from Schnabel’s Sonanbul series before expanding their collection by Yayoi Kusama, Nan Goldin, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin And nara. They are also regular guests at Art Basel Miami.
Stoddard praises the designer’s “incredible curiosity” when choosing the exhibited work. The Nara painting entitled Cosmic Eyes (in the milk lane) shows a cartoons, wide young girl who stares at the viewer with sparkling eyes-a memory that “things are never as easy as they look,” says Beckham.
Nearby is an abstract pastel from Mitchell and a painting of Klein’s most revolutionary work: International Klein Blue Monochrome, which Beckham described as “one of the best -known colors of the 20th century”. The work elsewhere includes Basquiats Red Joy and Condo’s artists and muse, which are believed to be Picasso and his Muse Sylvette.
Together, the value of the works lies in ten million, with the most expensive, most cosmic eyes that are estimated in the region of $ 6 million. Security was undoubtedly an important problem, and Stoddard says that they have “a very tailor -made security plan” – although they cannot expand it.
The exhibition comes at a time when the cooperation between art, fashion and music is on the rise. Louis Vuitton worked with Richard Prince and the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and regularly worked with artists to shoot the Lady Dior bag of the house. Last year FKA Twigs presented a huge art project at Sotheby’s. Skepta also curated an auction there.
These collaborations convey consumers and the audience “with a perceived sense for connoisseurs”, says Dr. Federica Carlotto from Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
“There is more appetite for the art world to take on fashion and possible cooperation,” says Stoddard.
“It is an interesting opportunity for people to learn more, to immerse yourself in a world that is sometimes not so accessible. Contemporary art in a room like this can be much more inviting than a museum or a intimidating auction house. “