Is quiet luxury an art trend?
I don't think so
An excerpt from a Miami Art Week trend report has been nagging me for the last few weeks. For December’s Artsy Advisor Notebook, Caroline Perkins wrote:
“Many of my favorite paintings from Miami Art Week could be grouped into two trending styles: “quiet luxury” and “hazy nostalgia.” The former generally speaks to the subject matter of the painting—closely cropped cocktail glasses, garments, sometimes jewelry.”
Can a subject matter be “quiet luxury”? I don’t think so. Painting expensive things is the opposite of quiet luxury; it’s opulence in line with the increase of Marie Antoinette aesthetics we saw last year. Quiet luxury is inconspicuous consumption: collecting art that quietly gestures to your wealth and cultural knowledge. Whether in art or fashion, it’s about knowing what's good quality and “in” but not needing to flaunt it. It’s having a collection of Sanya Kantarovsky and Luc Tuymans rather than KAWS and Picasso.
I do agree that “hazy nostalgia” is having a moment. Perkins tracks it to an Issy Wood effect, but I’d say it’s closer to Gerhard Richter’s influence. Paintings with a dry brush pulled across them as their last act. It reminds me of this Nick Bierk (part of the Art Forecast sale at the beginning of the pandemic) or a Leon Xu painting. The haziness makes the work feel like it’s on the border of a memory.
Speaking of Richter, you can buy this print at auction next week. The estimate is a reasonable £6000-8000. I think it’s a great piece. Talk about quiet luxury.
Links for the week:
New Collectors Gallery in NYC opened a group show that includes Michael Thompson (an Art Forecast fave). The exhibition, curated by Eric Lawton, features artists who translate ephemera and photography into various mediums. The effect is ghostly.
Michael Thompson, Suit, 36in x 30in, Oil on canvas I was quoted in this Globe & Mail article on the Instagram account @canada.gov.ca. ““To me, the curation is done through a lens of nostalgia, childhood and a clear regional focus,” says Tatum Dooley, a curator and writer who was one of the first people to interview Batt, for her Canadian Art Forecast newsletter in 2020.”
Deak Kissick hid clues in his essay for the Nota Bene exhibition “Friends of the Pod.” The clues led to an exclusive opening night dinner. An art world scavenger hunt! Very curious about this. If you found the dinner, but were on the outskirts of the art world, did you actually get to stay? Or was the tweet a joke? The clues, as per Dean:
Last week, I mentioned Drake’s new amusement park art project Luna Luna. Here’s a deep dive into the financial forensics and investments that led to the opening.
Sojourner Truth Parsons did a print with Gary Lichtenstein Editions. The edition is 750—such a large number for an edition! I imagine they’ll be priced accordingly; selling 750 prints is a hard thing to do. Either way, I’m a fan and think it’s a fun way to collect her work.
Sojourner Truth Parsons
Final thought:
Instagram: @artforecast
Want to expand (or start!) your art collection? Let’s grab a drink and chat about what you should have your eye on. Reach out.