Style section

Because we want you to look good either carrying your laptop or giving the gift. Warhol case here for $US59.99

iShop therefore iAm

A Christmas gift for someone who has everything? (well they have to have an iPhone at least). S[edition] offers art apps for when your phone alone and needing a culture hit. Some of them just stare right back at you but others, like the Tim Noble and Sue Webster effort manage to muster up a bit of a twinkle in your eye.

Alex shrugged

While we’re all hanging out for Conceptual Artist Barbie, to keep us going, the Barbie I Can Be series has slotted in a Architect Barbie. OK, she does come across a little the-hills-are-alive in that Tyroleanish outfit with a city skyline trim, and the Philip Johnson glasses are not quite right, but the plan roll and hard hat certainly push things along architect-wise. And as if they don't nail the architect thing, AB also comes with her own (presumably architect designed although it doesn’t look like it) Dream House.

But wait, there’s more

It is the tradition of the great newspapers of the world to champion the rights of the oppressed, maintain a close vigil on the political and expound directions for the future. Blogs are somewhat different choosing instead to offer instant opinions, prod institutional power, advocate the importance of cuteness in cats and shamelessly promote those near and dear to them.

In this spirit we must tell you our son Pippin's book How to play a video game has just been published and is in bookshops now (or near as dammit). This means that the perfect Christmas gift has appeared right before your eyes. 

For everyone who was left behind when the PlayStation controller hit the scene as well as those who despair of their partners, parents or work mates ever understanding the joy of gaming, this is the book for them and this is the book for you. 

… don’t just take our word for it:

‘A fabulous insight into how video games work’

Simon Morton

‘Passionate, insightful and full of easy charm, this smart, informative, funny guide to the gaming world is a great read for ardent fans, the uninitiated and sceptics alike’

Derek Lockwood, Worldwide Director of Design, Saatchi & Saatchi

‘Pippin Barr is an emissary from the flourishing civilisation of video games. His book is the perfect introduction to a global movement becoming ever more influential and all-consuming’

Toby Laing, trumpeter, Fat Freddy’s Drop

It’s a wrap

It’s not really art (although it could be, in the right hands) and it doesn’t have a lot to do with Christmas (Gold, Frankincense and Spud) but we are in LA and this is an individually wrapped potato as sold in the local supermarket. 

Finally, for all of you who logged on to OTN today, a very happy Christmas.

Image: wrapped potato left, front. Right, verso

Going for Brake

That vibrations you can feel in the air are the sounds of the Brian Brake industry revving up its engines. Nothing wrong with that: Brake was after all a commercial photographer and he would be more than happy to see his work being made widely accessible to the public. The interesting part is around how the product is described and what is actually being put on offer. 

On the more conventional side there is an auction by Art+Object of Brake prints with a remarkably upmarket catalogue that is both hard bound and cased (when did you last see that for a photo auction – or any auction for that matter?). The auction house describes the prints as 'vintage.' Normally that means they were part of the first printing of the image. In the Brake auction many of the prints were made up to 30 years after they were shot when they were printed up for the 1976 exhibition toured by the Dowse. 

And then there are Te Papa’s “gallery quality Brian Brake prints” authorised by the Brian Brake Estate and produced to accompany its current exhibition. These images are printed from digital scans of the Brake original transparencies. No signature (naturally, Brake died in 1988), different technique (Brake produced Cibachrome and Chromogenic colour prints and for black and white gelatin silver prints) and different sizes (Te Papa offers a range of sizes to select from). 

Many photographers produce digital prints and many institutions produce reproductions. The point of difference with the Te Papa prints is in the pricing. If you went to a high quality commercial lab a print from a digital file producing a 236mm x 355mm image would cost you around $150. Te Papa is charging $1,955 for an unframed print of the same size. For a 410 x 622mm print you're looking at $2,806. These prices speak much more to ‘art’ than reproduction. Even taking into account retail mark-up, you would have to say that most of the difference between the production cost and the sale price is an 'art' value backed by Te Papa and the association (albeit via digital scanning) with the original negatives or transparencies.  To add to the confusion an A4 printed reproduction of Brake's Monsoon Girl is available in Te Papa's shop for $29.99.

However, if people who buy these prints are doing so on the understanding that they are art works that are likely to significantly gain in value, they are risking bitter disappointment. Far smarter to get down to the Art+Object auction where the low estimates indicate you there is a chance to get a photographic print, made when Brake was alive and supervising production, at a better, or similar, price. For example the low estimate for Ming Temple, Western Hill-Beijing, China 1957 (500 x 400mm) is just $2,500.

Image: The Art+Object catalogue showing Ming Temple, Western Hill-Beijing, China 1957 on the left hand page

Something for the stocking

If you only buy one gift this Christmas, here’s the one to go for. The Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscope. It’s used by the FBI to test fabrics and determine fake artworks without having to chip off samples. Our style editor tells us this handy little machine also does a better than good espresso.

For eyes

Our Style editor has come up with another great Christmas gift idea. These natty Philip Johnson glasses are perfect for anyone with a vision for a large building or a simple glass hut out the back. Beautifully tooled in some weird sort of plastic, each lens is designed to focus the sort of piercing look that is perfect for long meetings with demanding clients. You can snap up a pair of Philip Johnsons at the $2 shop. Please note: text changes to the packaging are extra.

OTN Christmas gift suggestions

Our OTN team is out and about looking for the sort of gifts you want to give this Christmas. This handy lens lets you take photos of that favourite painting in a public art museum while guards run up to tell you not to photograph your partner in the gallery. Just set the person you are pretending to photograph at right angles to the art work and bingo, copyright violation to go. Regular readers of OTN can pick up one of these handy periscope lenses to give to a loved one here for only $US50.

Art's a beach

The OTN Style editor tells us it’s artist towel time at Target stores in the US. This year there are neat beach towels by Edward Ruscha and Raymond Pettibon, Julian Schnabel and Karen Kilimnik. Artists and beachwear go way back. The snappy swimsuit from 1925 was designed by Sonia Delaunay who had a partnership with fashion designer Jacques Heim. It was Heim who introduced an early precursor to the modern bikini that he called the Atome. You can order the pick of the towel crop, Edward Ruscha’s The Study of Friction and Wear on Mating Surfaces, here.

Images: Left, towels by Raymond Pettibon (top) and Edward Ruscha. Right, modelling swimwear by Sonia Delaunay

Never mind the quality, feel the width

When is an artist’s print not a print? Um… when it’s a printed reproduction. Museums exhibiting the current Bill Hammond exhibition are selling two printed reproductions of paintings in the show, including the signature work Jingle Jangle Morning. Should the buyer beware? Well, here are five different definitions delivered in a single sentence on their web site by the publishers of the reproduction, the Christchurch Art Gallery.

“Well, not the actual artwork, perhaps, but the next best thing – an excellent quality reproduction of a favourite painting. The Gallery Shop has an extensive collection of quality reproduction prints. It includes prints of some of the finest works in the Gallery Collection.”

By the time these two printed reproductions arrive on the internet-prints-for-sale-site www.prints.co.nz they have become “art prints”, “fine art prints” and ”reproduction art prints.”

www.prints.co.nz announces, “We are very excited to have two Bill Hammond reproduction art prints available at last. They are printed in Christchurch by award winning printers Spectrum Print and the colour fidelity of the prints has been personally checked by the artist.”

Superlatives come at a price. The “quality reproduction prints” from the Christchurch Art Gallery are $55.00 each. For one of the “reproduction art prints” via www.prints.co.nz you’ll have to stump up $79.95.

Image: Digital reproduction of a printed reproduction of a painting by Salvador Cherubini of an early Egyptian stone carving of the god Horus who looks like one of Hammond's bird guys.

Choc-prix

Continuing with the Christmas spirit on overthenet, a short video to whet your appetite. Paul McCarthy’s chocolate factory in full swing. Christmas gifts galore.

The new green

More Christmas shopping advice from overthenet. This time it’s the 'dramatic' black Christmas tree from Farmers. And no, you don’t have to be seen in-store, the tree can be ordered online. Then, when Christmas is done, give the fully washable tree a good clean in the bath with OTN’s other highly recommended product for people who like black, Reflect.

Stocking (sic) filler

Sensible people will be starting their Christmas shopping and Overthenet intends to point you to the top art gifts for this year. There’s no better place to start than these chocolate Santas from Paul McCarthy. Modelled on the sculpture Father Christmas with Butt Plug exhibited at the Basel Art Fair this year, these Christmas treats will be available from Peter Paul Chocolates in New York from 15 November. Let’s have a small pause here to remember that it was overthenet that connected this Santa/Chocolate mash-up back in July. These Christmas edibles will be part of an installation by Paul McCarthy at the Michele Maccarone Art Gallery and for sale at $100. For the show McCarthy will be turning the gallery space into a fully functioning chocolate factory. Curiously the chocolate version is to be known as Santa with Tree and Bell politely referring back, we guess, to its pre-McCarthy origins.

Images; Left, prototype of the chocolate Santa with Tree and bell. Right, the original china figurine used by McCarthy as a model.