M/M Museum Opens Exhibition of Two Bruce Nauman Highlights of Venice Biennale

Images: (left) Bruce Nauman on the steps of the U.S. Pavilion in Venice, Italy. Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art © Michele Lamanna 2008; (right) Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957), Sketch for Fallen Blossoms: Explosion Project, 2009. Provided to M/M by Philadelphia Museum of Art. All rights reserved.

Museum Opens Exhibition of Two Bruce Nauman Highlights of Venice Biennale

From November 21, 2009 through April 4, 2010, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will host the U.S. premiere of two sound installations, Days and Giorni (both 2009), by the celebrated American artist Bruce Nauman. Days will be presented in the main Museum building’s Gisela and Dennis Alter Gallery (176) and Giorni in the Perelman Building’s Exhibition Gallery, each filling these large spaces. This exhibition marks the first time in seven years that Nauman is showing new major installations in the United States.

The two works are currently on view in Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens, the exhibition organized by the Museum to represent the United States in the 53rd Venice Biennale. They are the artist’s most recent works in the thematic survey comprising four decades of Nauman’s provocative art. In June, the exhibition garnered the prestigious Golden Lion for the Best National Participation, the first time since 1990 that the United States has received the much-coveted award.

“We are delighted to bring these remarkable works by Bruce Nauman to Philadelphia,” said Timothy Rub, the Museum’s George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer. “They reflect the depth of Nauman’s vision in its most mesmerizing aspect and they are wonderful highlights of the Venice Biennale, where the United States and Philadelphia in particular have drawn tremendous attention. We are thrilled to share these exceptional works with audiences here in Philadelphia and across the U.S.”

In both Days and Giorni, the days of the week are recited by a range of participants from a script of subtly varying combinations written by Nauman. The voices differ in language—English in Days and Italian in Giorni—and also in rhythm and progression. The voices that comprise Days were recorded and edited over time in the United States. Nauman recorded Giorni during a single day in Venice where he worked with students and faculty of the Universitá Iuav di Venezia.

The installation of each work consists of seven pairs of square, flat panel speakers clipped to floor-to-ceiling metal cables and configured in succession along the length of the galleries. The voices that emanate from these directional speakers that comprise Days and Giorni can be experienced collectively or in isolation, creating an orchestration of sound that is moving, forceful and unrelenting. As Nauman’s text both repeats and deftly rearranges the days of the week, it likewise alters and undermines the sequence that normally measures the passage of time.

“The presentation of Days and Giorni in the context of the Museum’s ‘Notations’ series, which is exclusively devoted to contemporary art, will allow our visitors to draw parallels between these works and those of the Museum’s collection, including other works by Nauman,” said Carlos Basualdo, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art, who organized the presentation in Philadelphia with Project Curatorial Assistant Erica Battle. “Bruce Nauman is one of the most influential artists of our time, and it will be thrilling to see his new works in the context of those by Marcel Duchamp and Jasper Johns, which are also essential components of the Museum’s collection.”

During the run of Bruce Nauman: Days and Giorni, the Museum will also present an installation of three recently acquired early films and videos by the artist, in Galleries 178 and 179. This selection—including Dance or Exercise on the Perimeter of a Square (Square Dance) of 1967-68, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) of 1968, and Wall-Floor Positions of 1968—features Nauman using his own body to investigate the space of his studio through systematic and repetitious movements. Nauman filmed these works shortly after creating his iconic Window or Wall Sign of 1967 which was recently acquired by the Museum for its permanent collection and is on view in Gallery 170.

To mark the opening of Notations/Bruce Nauman: Days and Giorni, the Museum is publishing a book of photographs illustrating Nauman’s works in situ in Topological Gardens that were taken by Michele Lamanna, a former student of Università Iuav. The 60-page book, titled Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens/Installation Views represents a rare opportunity to publish installation photographs that document the exhibition of Nauman’s work in Venice and will now serve as a complement to the exhibition’s 240-page catalogue featuring four scholarly essays on Nauman’s work and the Venice project. The forthcoming publication Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens/Installation Views is supported by a professional development grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

In Topological Gardens at the Biennale, Giorni is presented at the Exhibition Spaces at Universitá Ca’Foscari while Days is on view at Università Iuav. In collaboration with the Università Iuav and the Università Ca’ Foscari, the Museum organized the U.S. participation to spread across Venice with installations at the U.S. Pavilion and the two universities. The installations at the universities continue through October 18, while the installation at the U.S. Pavilion is on view through November 22. Carlos Basualdo, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art, and Michael R. Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, served as the U.S. Commissioners.

Notations/Bruce Nauman: Days and Giorni is made possible by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Henry Luce Foundation, and The Pew Charitable Trusts, with additional funding from Agnes Gund, Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann, Sperone Westwater Gallery, and many other Friends of Bruce Nauman. The related catalogue was made possible by Isabel and Agustín Coppel, and was published on the occasion of the premiere of these works in Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens, the official U.S. representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia, which was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

BRUCE NAUMAN, A BRIEF HISTORY

Bruce Nauman was born in 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. During his undergraduate years at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Nauman studied mathematics and physics before changing his focus to studio art under Italo Scanga, among others. Nauman pursued an MFA at the University of California, Davis, where faculty artists Wayne Thiebaud, William T. Wiley, and Robert Arneson supported his growing desire to investigate art making beyond his earlier abstract paintings. There he experimented with casting objects in fiberglass and polyester resin, leaving their surfaces unrefined to reflect the casting process. While at Davis, Nauman also staged his first two performances, one utilizing a fluorescent tube as an extension of his body as he performed mundane actions, which he would later record on video. After graduate school, Nauman occupied a storefront studio in San Francisco where he focused on the act and process of making art by photographing visual puns and daily actions. An old neon beer sign in this former grocery store served as inspiration for Nauman’s celebrated neon, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign). At once genuine and ironic, this statement initiated a tongue-in-cheek discourse concerning the role of the artist in society that persists through much of Nauman’s work. The Philadelphia Museum of Art recently acquired this iconic work from 1967 for its permanent collection. Nauman later moved to Wiley’s studio in Mill Valley, California, where he made various films of himself walking around the space while altering his bodily movements including Dance or Exercise on the Perimeter of a Square (Square Dance) of 1967-68 and Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) of 1968. He began to garner critical attention in 1966 with his first solo show at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery in Los Angeles, as well as his inclusion in Lucy R. Lippard’s Eccentric Abstraction group exhibition in New York. Nauman’s solo debut in New York at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1968 was soon followed by a one-man exhibition at the Konrad Fischer Gallerie in Düsseldorf. In 1972-73, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art co-organized the first major survey of his work, Bruce Nauman: Works from 1965-1972, an exhibition that traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and other U.S. venues. Since 1975, Nauman has been represented in New York by Sperone Westwater.

Influenced early on by philosophy and literature—including Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and Samuel Beckett’s Molloy—Nauman constantly tests rational systems of language, spatial and bodily boundaries, duration, and psychology, using sculpture, video installations, and constructed environments. In the late 1960s, Nauman continued to work with neon and also began to construct corridors, sometimes filming his performances within them. Larger constructed environments in the early 1970s often included video surveillance cameras and monitors that overlook and record viewers as they entered these spaces. Nauman continued to make large sculptures and installations in the 1970s and early 1980s, mapping space with masking tape or evoking physical or psychological constraints through the creation of passages and tunnels. Nauman halted his work with video for about a decade before taking it up again in the mid1980s with many multi-channel video installations that further explored language and his metaphorical use of labyrinths and the personae of rats and clowns. In the late 1980s, he also introduced the iconography of life-sized animals cast in wax that hang suspended in carousel-like formations. The 1990s brought sculptures of human heads and hands in wax and bronze, video installations, and sustained work with neon. In the early twenty-first century, Nauman’s video work, sound installations, and sculptures expand upon themes that have resurfaced throughout his career.

Museum exhibitions have mapped Nauman’s development with notable solo shows, including Bruce Nauman, 1972-1981 held at the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, in the Netherlands and at the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, in West Germany in 1981; a survey organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, that traveled in 1993-95 to Madrid, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York; and, in 2006-07, an exhibition of his early work, A Rose Has No Teeth, which traveled to the University of California Berkeley Art Museum, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin, Italy, and the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. Among the prestigious group shows that have included Nauman are the Venice Biennale in 1978, 1980, 1999, and 2007, as well as several Documenta exhibitions (1972, 1977, 1982, and 1992). Garnering multiple awards throughout his career for his exceptionally wide ranging and conceptually challenging practice, Nauman has most recently been honored with the Golden Lion for Best National Participation for Topological Gardens, an exhibition of his works at the 2009 Venice Biennale. He received the Wexner Prize in 1994, the Leone d’oro (The Golden Lion) along with Louise Bourgeois at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, and the Praemium Imperiale for Visual Arts in 2004 in Japan. He holds honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from the San Francisco Art Institute and the California Institute of the Arts, as well as an honorary PhD from Università Iuav di Venezia. Since 1975, he has been represented in New York by Sperone Westwater. Nauman lives in New Mexico with his wife, the painter Susan Rothenberg.

M/M NICOLA ou NICOLAS voilà la question?

Image of Nicola Linza. All rights reserved.

Interview with Manner of Man Founder and Editor-in-Chief Nicola Linza

by Pierre de Boucau


1. What would you like to remove from the earth's surface in a blow of magic wand?

A great power cannot be used lightly or without great consideration so with such power I would remove the one thing that affects us psychologically, philosophically and physiologically. I would remove that one thing that has the greatest impact on individual people. It is bigger than man, deeper than a single issue, and more personal in opinion yet it is at the same time one that is at most times all three of those combined. It is ugliness. In all its forms, I would banish ugliness from the earth with the blow of my magic wand. Ugliness would be gone forever.


2. Good taste in America. Does it originate from Europe?

I would like to say that good taste has more to do with international sophistication, than with a particular region. In general, however America is not a particularly sophisticated country. In terms of overall good taste, having an origin solely in America? No. In most all cases from architecture, clothing, food, music, etc. considered of “good taste” in America, there are many influences globally from Africa to the Middle East to Mexico, however as a general source rule of what is acceptable good taste; this is an issue largely stemming from European or Asian cultures.


3. If you were Nicola a Grand Cru would it be French or from another part of the world?

If I happen to be Nicola a Grand Cru, it would of course have to be French. There is no other region of the world that compares in my view in terms of quality and a dedication to the tradition.


4. Is the passion a man has for a woman the same intensity as a man for another man?

Passion takes many forms as an energy fuelled by a desire, envy, revenge, hate, lust or love. It has an intensity that is inherent, and at once laser like, while at the same time smouldering in depth and individual meaning. A man’s passion for a woman may be a sexual instinct fuelled by many factors or it may be a powerful emotion either good or bad. I would also say any passion between men could be equally intense; men will go to great lengths for other men however, that intensity is altered due to the biological make up and sexual instinctual mix of a man to a man against a man to a woman. This is human nature more than a sexual issue, and it differs per individual case. These passions are unique in their characterization, and therefore are situational and individually unique. This is not an issue of sexual orientation mind you or a sexual act… we are talking about passion in the greater sense, which may include sexual issues, passion is certainly a driven reaction, but at the same time may not be essentially tied. One may murder out of passion yet not sexually desire the victim. The issue of passion is about a certain factor of intense desire. It may be biological, psychological or psychosexual yet resides in us to fulfil deep-rooted desires and human needs. Therefore, ultimately is it the same, or can it be the same between man to woman and man to man? I would have to say yes.


5. Why when Americans from the US speak of themselves, they say, “America" aren't they forgetting that Latin America also exists?

Americans in general speak of America since it is the United States of America and largely the name is essentially associated with the Nation. However, you hit upon an important aspect where anything Latin American would in the minds of most pedestrian Americans rather be avoided. This goes back to the issue of the general level of sophistication in America. This is the only country in the world that I know of that misuses the term Hispanic. The term Hispanic in used ignorantly toward Latinos and therefore there is often little to no distinction made between peoples speaking Spanish as a native language. In America, all Spanish people are sadly lumped together with no reference or respect to their native countries. Caucasian European Spaniards are rightfully called Hispanic; yet that same term to the average American wrongly denotes all those who speak Spanish, regardless of race or origin. It is a sad level of disrespect to all involved. Frankly, I do not think that most Americans understand the difference in society and cultural meaning. I have a number of Mexican friends that find this very upsetting. Therefore, when a given people cannot clearly delineate between terminologies used to distinguish people, you cannot expect the masses in America to think anyway other than in the manner you suggest.


6. In what country would you like to fall in love?

France, of course, there is no other place where falling in love could be more romantic to me. I have the ideal trip in mind for my honeymoon too. A honeymoon or wedding trip in my view should be the ultimate voyage, to set the tone for a love that should remain eternal. My dream of falling in love and travelling goes something like this. We would receive The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in Paris. We then travel to the south, go around Italy and from Venice head east toward Greece and the Middle East, on to India and Sri Lanka through Southeast Asia and up to Hong Kong, then to St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. We end the yearlong journey in London, where after a day of shopping we have a very English, very Edwardian style, dinner in our private room at The Savoy Hotel.


7. Where do you dream to dine?

I dream to dine with the love of my life in a far-reaching untouched land on a secluded seaside cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the southern reaches of South America. I want just the two of us to create a feeling that no one else on earth exists at that destination. There is something intense and at the same time sexual about dining in such a spot together, that is private and personal. It is important that the atmosphere be such that time stands still for us in that place, at that moment, suspended by the luxury of our love, encapsulated by our passion for the food, the beauty of the surroundings, and each other.


8. What is edgy?

Well, an edge is an end, but an end is also a beginning. To me it is a personal aspect, yet it is also something that in terms of character or taste is universally understood as unique. To have an edge, or be “edgy” must be grounded in quality and authenticity. It can be identifiable as a trait, a way of living, a personality characteristic portraying a personal sophistication or quirk in one’s taste. It also relates to how one views himself, and the world. How one projects himself. To be edgy is being able to boldly speak your mind, be confident in your style, knowing your own qualities, and being unafraid of people or situations; being edgy has to do with pushing your personal boundaries, while the defining line at the same time is one that pushes the boundaries of society. It is being who you are without concern of ridicule. It is having confidence, and to be edgy is never achieved by being a follower or being stuck permanent in something – it is all about evolution and never being guilty of being boring. It is all about the creation of a powerful impact on others. It is doing your own thing in the face of adversity but doing it in a way no one else would (or ever could.) I like to think that with Manner of Man is creating something that respects the past while moves toward the future for men’s style and men’s issues. It is all about putting both on edge for examination and reflection, as the dictum for M/M quotes Thomas Mann, in the end “No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.”


 

M/M Bentley Motors is staging an exclusive art auction at Bonhams, London, to raise money for The Christie

Image coutresy of Bentley Motor Cars, Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bentley Motors is staging an exclusive art auction at Bonhams, London, to raise money for The Christie, a specialist cancer centre in Manchester, which treats 40,000 patients a year and is an international leader in cancer research.

Bentley Styling and Design team have created individual pieces for auction, drawing on the skills and techniques utilised in their roles and their enthusiasm for art. The collection ranges from the traditional to the contemporary; sculptures set in bronze, wood, metal, and leather through to stunning palette knife and brush paintings on canvas, digital art and photography.

To view the collection and artist profiles please click here.

Bentley designer Richard Gilmartin has been raising funds to support the charity since 2001 and is the inspiration behind the exceptional project. Working with his colleagues, Richard aims to surpass his previous fundraising achievements by auctioning this unique collection.

The auction of the collection will conclude with an exclusive event to be held at Bonhams, London, on Tuesday 1st December. Places are strictly limited and by invitation only. If you would like to be considered click here to email Design.Passion@Bentley.co.uk with your full details.

To place an advanced bid, click here.

M/M Metropolitan Museum of Art Returns a Granite Fragment to Egypt

Fragment had been on loan and was recently identified as belonging to a larger work in Karnak

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will return to Egypt tomorrow, October 29, an ancient Egyptian granite relief fragment inscribed with the name of Amenemhat I, ruler of Egypt from 1991 BC to 1962 BC. Curators in the Museum's Department of Egyptian Art recently recognized that the fragment was part of the larger work and confirmed this by matching the inscription on the fragment with the inscription on the larger work. The work had been on loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art from a private owner, though the Museum had never displayed it publicly.

The work is the corner of the base of a red granite "naos," which is a shrine used to house a statue of a deity. The shrine was dedicated to the god Amun, the chief deity of Karnak, so it most likely had an Amun statue inside at one point. The naos was moved to its present location in the Ptah Temple of the Karnak complex during the New Kingdom.

Once the Museum's staff identified the larger work from which the fragment came, the Museum reached out to the owner of the work and took steps to notify the Egyptian authorities of the discovery. The Museum also arranged to purchase the work from its owner in order to take official possession of the work and return it promptly and unencumbered to Egypt.

Dorothea Arnold, the Lila Acheson Wallace Chairman of the Museum's Egyptian Art Department, commented: "For a long time, I puzzled about the object to which this fragment belonged. I finally pieced it together when I came across a photograph showing a naos in Karnak which is missing a corner in an article by Luc Gabolde in the journal Égypte Afrique et Orient. The fragment on loan to us looked like it might fit this larger work. With my colleague Adela Oppenheim, we found a publication which set out the inscription on the naos in Karnak and we compared that inscription with the inscription on the fragment - the pieces fit together perfectly. We decided that, in these circumstances, the appropriate thing to do was to alert the Egyptian authorities and to make arrangements with the owner so that we could return the fragment to Egypt. We are so pleased to be giving the missing piece of the puzzle back."

The work is to be delivered by Museum staff to representatives of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, which is headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General.

Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, commented: "The Metropolitan Museum is delighted to be able to assist in returning this granite fragment to its original home. Though the fragment is small, its return is a larger symbol of the Museum's deep respect for the importance of protecting Egypt's cultural heritage and the long history of warm relations the Museum enjoys with Egypt and the Supreme Council of Antiquities."

Dr. Arnold added: "The Department of Egyptian Art and the Arab Republic of Egypt have a long and important history of collaboration and collegiality. In returning the fragment, we are pleased to be able to show our appreciation for the generosity they have shown us over the years."

The return of the granite relief fragment comes eight years after the Museum returned a 19th Dynasty relief showing the head of a goddess to Egypt. In that case, the work had been on loan to the Museum from a private owner since 1996. A visiting Dutch Egyptologist saw the work on display and remembered that he had seen it previously when he studied the relief-decorated chapel of Sety I at Memphis. He shared his findings and research with the Museum, which purchased the work from the owner and returned it to Ambassador Mahmoud Allam, former Consul General of the Arab Republic of Egypt in New York.

M/M Le samourai: Michael Bastian

Image provided to Manner of Man by Michael Bastian. Photo credit: Ruvan Wijesooriya. All rights reserved.

Last week I was cutting up ideas for a piece with my friend, New York designer Michael Bastian. I am not one for the ordinary, and both Michael and I like to mess with things, so I thought to myself I have approach this in a new way. Then it hit me...I posed questions to him from thoughts I kept getting from a fantastic Alain Delon film, Le samourai. It opens with Alain Delon lying in bed, awake, smoking, thinking….the following text appears:

“There is no solitude greater than the samurai's, unless perhaps it be that of a tiger in the jungle.”

With that in mind, the following interview of seven questions is the result of our conversation last week that was inspired by that great movie.


1. Despite meticulous attention to detail, what would you say drives you near total insanity?

The thing that drives me most insane these days is dealing with airports-- I understand the need for greater security, but it seems the experience has become completely abusive to the customer these days.


2. After being released from a police line up where is the first place you go?

To my lawyers office-- how the f' did I end up in a police line-up?


3. You are in a position you cannot win, what do you wear?

I pretty much dress the same all of the time, so it wouldn't change for this or any other situation. It's usually jeans, button-down, navy crewneck, down vest, work boots. Works every time.


4. Where do you find your own personal style?

My personal style is a result of where I grew up (upstate New York) and my parents and their friends (sweet, humble, but really cooly dressed school teachers). It's also being influenced a lot these days by living in Italy 1/3 of the time. The Italians take it all so seriously and it's difficult not to be influenced-- particularly in matters of fit and quality.


5. Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?

Hell no-- I'm usually bored and/or annoyed by perfection. I love a good honest mistake or a failed effort. The people with the best style are fully aware and capable of perfection, but take it that one step further and mess with it a little. Perfection is easy, real personal style is much rarer.


6. How would you prefer to die?

I choose not to think about this too much-- but whenever happens, I want it to be a very quick and painless surprise.


7. What is your solitude?

My solitude is being in my own bed on a cold night in my flannel sheets reading the latest New Yorker.

M/M The Magic Mountain

Image of the author. All rights reserved.

Honesty is a rare commodity today. We are living in a fascinating time, but also an ugly, fast-paced digital age where adults are like children, and stupidity and ugliness are pushed in our faces on a regular basis. This is an often crazy, insane world, filled with digital nutcases, where pure artistic style and talent is increasingly on the decline.

Creativity that is good and fashionable is out there but as in life, the Internet is filled with questionable characters, fake people, and just plain desperate and stupid individuals. One finds people so damn lost and so stupid that they think libeling people is a form of entertainment, (until the legal hammer hits them on their head.) These lonely people, these types who sit all day under crazy made up screen names wasting their time either editing public forums for free, pretending they are artists, or researchers or scholars, or just plain pretending to feel “big” by giving you their unsolicited “opinions” and comments under their creative pseudonym.

I am a serious and intense person. I take what I do very seriously, but that is not always appreciated. I had an annonymous person contact me when I first started the blog who wrote me "Is this a joke? Who really would want to read this shit?" Yes, that is the type of people one finds online today, far from pretty. There is a serious lack of sophistication, and a false sense of seriousness today, and it is expressed in the cheap forms of comments and under the guise of creativity we see all around us. Everyone is a blogger, critic, writer, model, designer, photographer, and reviewer. You just name it, you will find it, the key is where to go, and what to avoid.

We are bombarded today with the unfashionable dirty laundry and outright vulgar ugliness of these crackpots. It is at these times that it is so reassuring to know a circle of beautiful people, that I can turn to when the world gets a bit too freaky, even for me.

Life is too short, and the Internet can be a real toilet. My personal circle is kept purposely small. A blog requires updates, I like to interview people for the blog that inspire me, and by doing so I hope that, their story and personality will also inspire you. When I need a “check” or a “watch,” my circle are the people I turn to for both answers and feedback.

Nicola Linza

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

Manner of Man

M/M ULTIMATE IN FASIONABLE COOL: PRADA TRANSFORMER

Image courtesy of Prada/Prada Transformer. Prada 2009. All rights reserved.

Prada Transformer is a collaborative effort between the pure genius of Prada, the futuristic theoretical visions of Rem Koolhaas/OMA, students and guests.

This project is fascinating in scope and intention. It is about a contemporary examination of design evolution and transformation; this is not about a static manner in which to examine the future.

Prada Transformer is a place in time where form and function are at once questioned, and advance potential and appropriate possibilities in structures are transformed in our aesthetic world.

This is beyond clothing design. This is more than design, this is thinking taken to higher power; via a physical and intellectual morphing structure art, architecture, film and fashion are thought out, ideas are presented, and potential expanded forward.

This is about evolving intellectual cycles, personal style, and how intellectual pursuits and personal flair advance both individual and community thinking about design in all forms. It is fashionable, but not just about the clothes (sound familiar?)

Prada Transformer as a concept and project is not boring and permanent, this is the ultimate is transformational cool.

Prada Transformer is found online at http://www.prada-transformer.com/

Prada http://www.prada.com/

M/M A TROVE OF RARE TREASURES ON OFFER AT CHRISTIE’S IN NOVEMBER

Image provided to Manner of Man by Christies, London.
© Christie’s Images Limited 2009

Centuries of Style: Silver, European Ceramics, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes 17 November 2009 Christie’s King Street

Sale highlight
Probably the most important single group of silver by Georg Jensen to be sold in London in recent years is also on offer in the sale, from a Private European Collection. Almost forty lots will be presented, including a Danish wine-cooler, cover and liner designed by Georg Jensen (estimate: £25,000-35,000) illustrated above. In pristine condition, measuring fourteen inches high, and weighing 130 ounces, the wine-cooler is among the largest and most spectacular pieces of Jensen in the collection and indeed one of the tour de forces of Jensen’s oeuvre.

About Christie’s
Christie’s, the world's leading art business had global auction and private sales in 2008 that totaled £2.8 billion/$5.1 billion. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's conducted the greatest auctions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and today remains a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers over 600 sales annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $80 million. Christie’s has 57 offices in 32 countries and 10 salerooms around the world including in London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai and Hong Kong. More recently, Christie’s has led the market with expanded initiatives in emerging and new markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai.

Visit Christie’s on the web: http://www.christies.com