Christmas Shopping List – the Beautiful and the Artsy

Andreea Saioc,

Editor (Art)

 

It’s a little past Christmas but that doesn’t imply by any means that the restless race for presents must end! We still have late Christmas presents and New Year’s Eve presents and all kinds of other imaginary occasions I am very fond of inventing, just for the sake of the shopping involved. So, by courtesy of art market analyst Nicholas Forrest, here are a couple of Christmas gifts art aficionados can delight their family and friends with. Of Forrest’s 16 wonderful items, I only chose the five closest to my heart. Here they are, in a completely random fashion, as they are all equal in loveliness.

This Fine Bone China Mug set, a Whitney Museum exclusive creation adapted from Yayoi Kusama’s acrylic painting ‘Late Night Chat’, is first on this list. Because there can be nothing more appropriate for that steamy, 12 o’clock hot chocolate you’ve been dying to have with your loved one. P.S. Just the thing for a first date. It will make you come across as tres chic.

Selima Optique designed the Sigmund Freud Sunshades, a pair of iconic, hand-made, polished tortoise-frames exclusively for Neue Galerie. Its UV400 protective green lenses will shelter you not only from harming sunlight, but also from all kinds of Freudian slips. Psychoanalytical is the new black, they say.

Nutsy’s lighter by Tom Sachs, ‘probably best known for his elaborate recreations of various modern icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design’, comes third in this arty top 5. As written in its description, the white lighter goes back a long while, due to Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, all emblematic left-handed artists who died 27 of age, while having a white bic lighter in their pockets. Fingers crossed that Tom Sachs managed to break the spell.

Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry designed this silk square scarf, embroidered with an ingenious map that guides one all through the history of modern art. This beautiful, 100% silk accessory was created in exclusivity for Tate Museum and makes the perfect gift for anyone who appreciates a little bit of culture to go with their daily outfits.

Apart from being a lovely fashion item, this exquisite scarf sends an inspiring message to the young artists of the world. “In the second world war pilots were given maps printed on silk to help them escape if they were shot down over enemy territory. This scarf is a social and cultural map to help aspiring artists navigate the hostile territory on their way to being accepted by the establishment. Many famous artists who can help them live along the route.”

What better to end the list with, than a little something we’re all likely to religiously use on a daily basis? This woven cotton and polyester iPad case illustrates Picasso’s famed Femmes Aux Chapeaux and was designed exclusively for Guggenheim Museum by Parisian atelier Jules Pansu.

 

Those being said, it seems to me that art doesn’t always belong in galleries or on high mantelpieces. Art shouldn’t be unapproachable; we should invite art in, for a cup of five o’clock tea and make a joy out of it, to ourselves and our loved ones. So as far as Christmas presents are concerned, we might say we’ve cleared the hurdle, as I trust everyone is fairly happy in that misty zone where art meets shopping.