The NFT industry is greatly expanding as new NFT artists and creators release new collections with new use cases and utilities. This is only the beginning of web 3 going mainstream. But the bad news is that there is a skewed gender gap between the number of men and women in the sector. Male creators represented 77% of NFT art sales, while only 5% went to women creators in 21 months to November 2021. A caveat is that 16% were chalked up to creators of an “unknown” gender – well at least there is hope that a somewhat higher number for women may be active in reality. But it still represents a stark gender disparity. To increase diversity and inclusivity in the world of NFT and web 3 is key to creating opportunities for women around the world to be creators of this new era of the web. Male artists have dominated for generations and only a selected number of female artists have got the visibility they deserved. Art history has been dominated by male artists like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Picasso, and many more. With few exceptions, such as Artemisia Gentileschi or Angelica Kauffman, there are almost no known female artists before the 19th century. We know very little about how art movements like Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo, or Neo-Classicism would have looked if depicted by female artists. In the last century, with a change in our society, women slowly gained their well-deserved spot in the art world. This change made it possible for talented women artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Yayoi Kusama, and Frida Kahlo to be celebrated in major museums and their contribution to art history be acknowledged. Despite the constant progress, female access to leadership is still limited and women are still facing more challenges on their way to success than their male counterparts. In response to these concerning facts, RtistiQ is glad to announce a little step towards a mission to change this disparity and onboard the next generation of women creators and create equal opportunities. We want women to enrich the NFT movement. We will thus be putting the spotlight on 14 amazing women artists in our upcoming auction “Closing the Gender Gap”. The female artists whose works will be featured have been changing many walls of the physical world. We don’t want these artists to be overlooked by NFT art space and wish to give them the recognition they truly deserve. Every art lover or collector should know about them. The rise of the Metaverse means this very rich VR world needs whimsical creations - from art styles of abstract, figurative, feminist, pop art, new expressionism, naive art, spiritual and graffiti - which will all be a part of this collection. There will be 5 unique physical art-based NFTs on auction from each of the 14 artists. Thus, a total of 70 digital assets will be available to bid on the auction page that goes live on 12 May. These rare NFTs will open up possibilities of investment and trade inside the Metaverse. An excellent opportunity to grab iconic collectables and to celebrate a community that represents inclusivity and equal opportunities for all, especially diverse and dynamic women who have enriched several types of art styles inspiring their audiences. Let’s set the tone for a bumper 2022 for the world of NFTs where all talent is welcomed, valued and nurtured. NFT and crypto enthusiasts have diverging demands and for those demands to be met there need to be diverging artists who challenge stereotypes and redefine aesthetics. That is what these 14 artists bring to the key assets and pillars of Metaverse asset flow and ownership.

RtistiQ

20 Apr 2022

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As ARTnews had put it, ‘It’s about uniting to save lives’. Spare rooms, free doctors, addition of terminals by satellite broadband service providers to help keep the people of Ukraine online… support has been outpouring by people, companies, governments and other organisations like the IMF. The fascinating power of community and sheer generosity is breathtaking in crisis situations. And this time there is something else too. Since the conflict began, the relatively young non-fungible-token (NFT) community joined forces to harness the power of the new age through blockchain & crypto to raise aid. It was definitely off to a good start and continues in a positive vein. From the international community to the Ukrainian private and government bodies, many joined hands in several initiatives to help. In this article, we will highlight some of them: NFT ‘Museum of war’ Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, has spearheaded the country’s push to raise funds in crypto assets and distributed ledger technology. Just this week, March 30, the Ukrainian government turned to the metaverse and launched an NFT ‘Meta History: Museum of war’ to help fund the fight. The country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has minted 54 NFTs to raise awareness and support the Ukrainian military and civilians. The tokens will be taking the form of artists' illustrations linked to major events in the war. The mission statement was stated as “to preserve the memory of the real events of that time, to spread truthful information among the digital community in the world and to collect donations for the support of Ukraine.” This article by fortune provides further details: https://fortune.com/2022/03/29/ukraine-selling-nfts-war-bonds-meta-history-museum/ https://donate.thedigital.gov.ua/ On March 14, Ukraine launched the website above to allow people around the world to make crypto donations. By amassing the first donations at the beginning of the conflict, the organisation has raised more than $71 million. Vogue Ukraine & Vogue Singapore Can fashion and art, especially digital, be anything beyond frivolous? The good news is yes. Traditional infrastructures and institutions are under attack in a war situation and cryptocurrency can become even more useful as a medium. Vogue Ukraine and Vogue Singapore set up an initiative with six Ukrainian and Ukrainian-based artists and designers. The exclusive collection was put up on Opensea and included works from Anna October, Anton Belinskiy, DressX, Gunia Project, Ienki Ienki and Gudu. Each NFT was available in 50 editions at 0.5ETH. All proceeds were donated to ‘Save The Children Ukraine’. TIMEPieces TIMEPieces, the web3 community and NFT initiative from TIME put up a collection of unique artworks from the community’s artists inspired by the spirit of the Ukrainian people. Each artwork had a starting bid of 0.22ETH, with 100% of proceeds supporting humanitarian & relief efforts for Ukraine. Many generously donated their works to build a better future for the Ukrainian people. Swimmer Cindy Ong launched NFT collection Malaysian swimming champion and world masters champion Cindy Ong launched a NFT project on Opensea on March 20 to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. Charity NFT Art Auction for Ukrainian Artists by RtistiQ Last but not the least, the exclusive #NFTArtForAid NFT auction of works by Ukrainian artists will be available on our platform - RtistiQ from 7-10 April. 50+ artists and over 1000 NFTs. The NFT drop will feature works from Tatyana Binovska, Irina Loktionova, Nataliya Bagatskaya, Laifalight, Anastasiia Palashynska, among others. RtistiQ will not charge any commissions to the artists part of this auction. Additionally, by enabling the smart contract on RtistiQ, the artists are granted a 10% resale royalty. Minting will happen on Polygon and we hope that the funds raised will be a significant vehicle for a life changed for the better for the artists we have been working so closely with. The global NFT journey has only just begun. The consensus on the value of NFTs has remained controversial. Those who believed in it thought that the primary utility was an investment in the metaverse, or the proto-metaverse. However, the above use cases show there are more and the technology is likely to stick and accompany us all into the future. References:https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/ukraine-nft-artist-projects-1234621221/

RtistiQ

01 Apr 2022

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Art and war can sound complete opposites - war oppresses and destroys while art creates. But they actually coexist and war is a crucible of art. Art has been used in war situations in a number of ways…before, during and after. Why? Because art is an influencer of thought that reaches all segments of societies and sends out a powerful message for or against warmongering. It provokes, so it can change the way people feel and think. War art can be made to support it, oppose it, to demoralise opponents and to recover from the catastrophe of it. Artists blend colours, textures and patterns to depict wartime ideologies. Art has been carved from the wreckage of the battle - bullets, shell casings and other debris - often producing unsettling accounts of the calamity. Tools of cruelty have been turned into swords of compassion and the dead have also lived on in the hands of the artists. Political leaders – monarchs, dictators and democrats have commissioned artists to create propaganda in order to garner support and to urge the public to make material sacrifices and take risks. These artists have depicted the opposing side as aggressive and brutal in order to stimulate critical reflections of animosity for the opposing side. To evoke a sense of nationalism and pride among the citizens, they have depicted battlefield victory and glory. On the other hand, anti-war organisations have commissioned artists to subvert sympathy for wars. Also, some artists have been official appointees in war situations, sent by their governments to create a record of what was going on or to offer visual slogans to aid morale. The lessons of art and war are entwined, and art stands as a constant reminder of the hard learnt lessons of the past & present, and the direction of the future. As we stand now in 2022 with Russia’s war on Ukraine entering the second month, RtistiQ has decided to use art and the power of technology to run an NFT art auction of the works of Ukrainian artists to raise money for them. These artists are suffering the horrific consequences of the assault in Ukraine. It is a pragmatic but a different use case, and we hope it can help garner support for these artists thanks to a world of cyber-liberate population. It is also an opportunity for the speculators of this initiative to own tradable and investible alternative assets which ought to prosper in times to come. Refer to our blog article: Sending Help to Ukrainian Artists In This Hour of Maximum Need Through A Charity NFT Art Auction to learn more about the whys of this initiative by RtistiQ We hope through RtistiQ we can continue to use our platform in innovative ways to power the future of art experience around the world while the world is signalling the move to a web3.0 era. References: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/remembering-americas-official-artists-war-180952321/ https://politicalviolenceataglance.org/2018/01/05/five-ways-art-and-war-are-related/

RtistiQ

31 Mar 2022

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Lawrence Wong, Singapore's finance minister, announced today that "prevailing income tax rules will apply" to Income derived from non-fungible token (NFT) transactions. He stated that the tax treatment and economics "will be determined based on the nature and use of the NFT." According to Wong, some individuals may also derive capital gains from such transactions. Those profits won't be deducted because the country does not have a regime of taxing capital gains. Different countries have been releasing Taxation plans for NFTs and Crypto Assets, including Australia, the United States of America, and India. The announcement has clarified the Taxation regime for NFT transactions treated as Income or Capital Gains to be considered under regular tax brackets in Singapore. On the other hand, India has taken a different approach with a proposed higher tax bracket of 30% for any Crypto and NFT transactions. Blockchain-based NFTs serve as tokenized cryptographic assets to represent ownership of unique items. The acceptance of crypto is growing globally within the mainstream. Also, NFTs gained prominence from the end of 2020 and took a significant leap in 2021 with a transaction volume estimated at $41 Billion. Singapore has one of the lowest income tax rates in Asia. The country offers several tax breaks and boasts a relatively lower corporate tax rate and top personal tax bracket, plus it does not levy taxes on capital gains. However, the country has plans to raise income taxes for the high earners.

RtistiQ

11 Mar 2022

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The love and appreciation for Art has been an intrinsic part of the Human Cultural and Cognitive Evolution. The interest and experience of the human mind in Art has grown exponentially since the Pre-Historic Period. One can say that with the development and growth of Cranial Capacity in the humans along with many other social, cultural, political and economic developments, the importance of Art and Aesthetics have evolved, leading to a number of professional disciplines, like Fine Arts, Art Management, Curators, Critiques, Art Historians and so forth. A lot of precedence is given on analyses and interpretation of art to get a holistic picture of the contemporary societies, many of which cease to exist now and only their art works exist. These above mentioned developments led to an increase of population that was inclined towards understanding and appreciating various forms of Art, from recreational perspective to professional business perspectives. Art and Aesthetics have become such an important part of Cultural Studies and Heritage that various bodies run by the Governments of all countries and states and by the Private Entrepreneurs have started investing stakes to conserve and preserve the Artistic Assemblages of their regions. Over the past decade this practice has increased rapidly due to the commercial and monetary benefits and cases of protecting native traditions in the ever-increasing globalized world. Keeping all these things in mind, here is a small list of Must Visit Destinations Around the World for Art Lovers. Although a word of caution that this article only scratches the surface of the Art World, one lifetime wouldn’t be enough to imbibe and appreciate all the Artistic Marvels of our World. Let us begin with one of the earliest evidences of Art in the world, in the form of Pre-Historic Rock Art. These Cave Shelters can be found in the South of France known as the Chauvet Caves. Based on the archaeological and scientific evidence from the Caves, these paintings are dated to roughly around 32,000 years old. These paintings tell us about the Hunting and Ritualistic activities of the Paleolithic dwellers of these caves. Next fairly ancient site that is a must for art lovers to visit is in Maharashtra, India. There are a group of Buddhist Caves near the village of Ajanta in Aurangabad District of Maharashtra, and due to their proximity to the village they are known as Ajanta Caves. These are group of Buddhist Caves of which the earliest has been dated to around 2nd Century BCE belonging to the Satvahana Dynasty and the latest dating to around 6th Century CE belonging to Gupta-Vakataka Period. A visitor will be enchanted by the perfect blend of interaction between the Nature and its Human inhabitants. Here there are numerous sculptures belonging to the Buddhist Iconography and breathtaking paintings giving us a glimpse of the Ancient Indians. This article would be incomplete without mentioning the splendid city of Istanbul, in Turkey. This city has seen many glorious days under different Empires, like the, Hellenistic Empire, the Bronze Ages, the Byzantine Empire and lastly the Ottoman Empire. The entire city is shrouded with monuments and museums with the robust collections one’s eyes scan fathom. Right from the Sultan Ahmet to the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia to splendid museums like the Top-Kapi Palace, this city is a gold mine for Art lovers. Another must visit destination for Art lovers is Rome, in Italy. The entire city is filled to the brim with history and monuments and churches to devour. There is a lot to see and experience in the city but the must visit sites are Roman Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica (The Vatican City), the Colosseum, Cuatro Fontana Di Trevi and the Pantheon. There are a lot of majestic places to visit in the Latin Americas as well. One of them which deserves a special mention is the capital of Columbia, Bogota. This city is a true treat for the Art lovers, there is so much one can do here, most spectacular places are, Museo del Oro (Gold Museum), the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira, the Botero Museum and lastly a Street Art Tour of the City. The final two destinations that deserve mentions are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York and the Louvre, in Paris and recently opened in Abu Dhabi. Both of these museums are very unique in different ways and they are the torch bearers of Art Education in the world. These museums have magnificent art collects from different periods and regions of the world, like the most well-known, Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci at Louvre. Along with art collections and exhibitions these museums also carry out extensive research and publications on Art of the World along with educating the future generations on Art Management and Curatorship, Art Conservation and Art History. And to see more works of art from around the world that is authentic check out our website RtistiQ as we bring to you both digital and physical art backed by NFT.

RtistiQ

03 Dec 2021

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Over the past few months, non-fungible tokens, or the NFTs, have burst into the mainstream, expanding and challenging our collective understanding of ownership. But what are they? In this article, we provide a brief introduction to NFTs, a roundup of 2021 and why we believe they are paving the way for strong growth in years to come. WHAT IS AN NFT? WHAT DOES IT STAND FOR? HOW DO THEY WORK? Non-fungible, meaning they cannot be exchanged and hold a unique representation. The term ‘Token’ refers to unit of value that is stored on a secure distributed ledger called a blockchain. Essentially, an NFT is a digital asset that is a publicly verifiable intellectual property authenticated on a blockchain, mainly on Ethereum, which further can record all the transactions (namely the provenance) on the ledger in a tamper-proof manner. The asset can be physical & tangible or digital & intangible and can record the ownership of art, image, video, video game skin, trademark, cryptokitty and much more. HOW TO DETERMINE THE VALUE OF AN NFT? The value of an NFT is what the market says it is—which means what someone is willing to pay to own the NFT vs. its copy. Several factors gauge the NFTs' worth such as rarity, utility and tangibility. The value of an NFT also differs for short- or long-term holding, depending on the asset the NFT represents. Before investing on NFT’s it is often a good practice to research more about the creator, rarity and the long term view, similar to any asset investment. NFTs ARE JUST GETTING STARTED Though the NFTs have been around since 2014, they have roared in popularity only in 2021. They are still in the very first stages just like the iPhone was in its first year. The simple iPhone applications of that time have now moved to the Ubers of the world, the scanner, a portal to the new world experience of augmented reality, earthquake early warning system, a healthcare partner in our pocket and more. The NFT minefield is likely to take a similar curve and be a formative business model catalyst not only in the crypto space but extending to all sorts of industries and niches. Their popularity took off in March this year when a British auction house - Christie’s sold an NFT of “Everydays—The First 5,000 Days”, a work of art by Mike Winkelmann for a whopping $69m. NFT art sales have hit $3.5B this year so far and the total sales volume surged to $10.7B as this asset frenzy hit a new high. SO NFT IS NOT ONLY FOR DIGITAL ART? That’s right. Many associate NFT with digital art, but this ecosystem is not only limited to that. They can actually be used to authenticate and auction any kind of collectible. There have been a growing number of marketplaces dedicated to assets that have emerged this year. A large number of celebrities, brands and sporting organizations are now fuelling awareness. Indian celebrities from the world of Bollywood and cricket are launching digital memorabilia through NFT, hoping to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars by cashing in on growing interest in such assets. Bollywood superstars Amitabh Bachhan, Kamal Haasan, Salman Khan are testing waters. The CEO of Coinbase “Brian Armstrong'' stated that he believes that the new NFT marketplace could be bigger than its cryptocurrency business. An example of NFTs bringing more programmability to tangible assets is the luxury jewelry brand Asprey that recently announced that it would be utilizing NFTs tied to each of its jewelry pieces to solve the problem of liquidity and difficulty in confirming authenticity. Each of its jewelry will now come with an NFT. WHAT’S AHEAD We believe that 2022 will be a breakout year for NFTs. Millennials, and Gen Zs, have digital lives and it’s natural to want to take digital representations into their worlds. They are here to stay, dominate and slay. There is much more to come with their use in the metaverse and in the Ethereum Naming Service (ENS). So much of the world is yet to discover them. Disney, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, has just begun it’s journey with NFTs this month. Athletes have barely discovered it. So many companies outside of crypto are only now beginning to realize that they have thousands of assets that can be traded as NFTs. It is almost a blank canvas that is ready to break out. How big can it get and what next? The speculation is that at the current pace it could be a 100 Billion market in 2022, that is next year! We are bullish on the possibilities it offers and its place in the future. Are you?

RtistiQ

19 Nov 2021

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Banksy’s artwork “Love is in the Bin” went under the hammer at Sotheby's in London on Thursday, selling for a whooping £16m (before buyer premium) - high above its £4-6m estimated price. The event, taking place during Frieze London, grabbed not only the art world’s attention but also the wider public was heavily captivated by this event. It was one of those rare art occasions making headlines around the globe. The artwork was put on auction only three years after being sold for £1m by the same auction house in 2018 and being reinvented into a new art piece. As Alex Branczik, chairman of modern and contemporary art at Sotheby’s Asia said: “It is almost three years to the day since one of the most ingenious moments of performance art this century made auction history. Banksy is no stranger to making headlines and this latest chapter in his story has captured imaginations across the world – we can only begin to guess what might come next.” As the auctioneer admitted, the big release came minutes after the hammer went down. Everyone was expecting for this artwork to put on a new show, perhaps the shredder to finish its job or, in an act à la David Copperfield, the canvas to vanish completely. None of those things happened. The sale was the show, a havely marketed event judging by the media coverage and public interest. The auction house even displayed their own flag half shredded outside their headquarter building in London. The Contemporary Art Evening Sale made all art lovers keep their breath for the 10 minutes long battle between the 9 eagger bidders. The price of £18.5m (including buyer's premium) paid by the Asian collector (according to The Art Newspaper) establishes a new record for the British artist. A sale that can only be described as a memorable evening not only for the 2018 buyer but also for the rest of us watching it. Cheers to the happy collector who proved to have a good eye for art investments or at least a lucky star. Banksy’s “Love is in the Bin'' doesn't make it to top 10 most expensive artworks ever sold on auction, topped by $450.3 m paided by a Middle Eastern collector for presumably Leonardo Davinci’s masterpiece Salvator Mundi (there are many disagreements among scholar) in 2017. It pales even in comparison with the highest transaction of the year, the NFT artwork by Beeple sold for $69.3 m at Christie’s. What makes the sale a “historical” event is the fact that its value has appreciated 18 times over the course of three years. According to the Art Basel and UBS annual report, the art market shrank by 22% in 2020, down from $64.4 billion in sales in 2019 to $50.1 billion last year. Nevertheless, with the in-person events resuming in most Western countries, a fresh breath of air is infused by new capital. In a global economy defined by high volatility and facing inflation, the Banksy sale indicates an increasing interest in art as an investment-class asset, competing with stocks, real estate, digital currencies and precious metals. Photo credits: Wikipedia The Story of a Girl with a Balloon Formerly known as “Girl with a Balloon” (allegedly created in 2016) now renamed “Love is in the Bin” (2018) became one of the most iconic artworks arguably of the begging of the 21st century after an unexpected but carefully planned intervention took place as the final hammer fell in the Contemporary Art Evening Auction at Sotheby’s in 2018. Just minutes after the proud collector, a mysterious German national, began sipping her victorious champagne, the alarm went off and the artwork went through the shredder concealed within the heavy frame. Under the horrified eyes of the audience, the stenciled canvas remained hanging half-way through. As with any other part of our contemporary, sometimes twisted, society, “any publicity is good publicity”. The event gained a lot of attention and debates on how it should be interpreted - Is this a painting? Is it an installation? Is it a performance? or is it 1m worth of trash. The anonymous buyer commented: “When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realise that I would end up with my own piece of art history”. Sotheby's representatives added "it’s the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction." What was initially planned as a Banksy trademark anti-establishment statement, that would have Marcel Duchamp laugh out loud, ended as one of the most desired artworks among the rich and powerful collectors. Banksy, apparently surprised by the partial failure of his stunt, was the first to play the game and grant a certificate of authenticity through his authentication body, Pest Control, and gave it a new title “Love is in the Bin”. The artpiece has been on permanent loan to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Museum in Germany since March 2019 until the recent resale. The artwork depicting a young girl reaching out for a heart-shaped balloon was initially stenciled on a wall in London’s West Bank in 2002. Due to its popularity it has been reproduced many times since. What makes this graffiti so eye-catching is the universality of its message and the simplicity of its visual language - the black and white silhouette of a child and the red heart-shaped balloon. It could be interpreted as a loss of innocence or the opposite, as a proof of hope. Both interpretations are valid, the duality evokes the viewer’s multiple views on hope. Who is Banksy? We simply don’t know. Despite his popularity, he managed to conceal his identity. From an outlaw kid spraying the walls of Bristol in the 90s, he has become one of the most followed contemporary artists. He is now part of the street-art hall of fame together with Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat. Banksy’s superstar status was first acknowledged by Time magazine in 2010. The graffiti artist, painter, sculpture, activist, filmmaker and provocateur made it to the world’s 100 most influential people list of that year, in the select company of Barack Obama, Steve Jobs and Lady Gaga. After experimenting with different graffiti styles which almost got him arrested, he realised that he had to reduce in half the time to complete his art. Interested in the political and social nature of street art, he soon understood that the simplicity of a stencil would be the perfect medium to spread his message. At around the same time he came up with the signature tag Banksy. His interventions popped up on walls in different cities around the world, from London to Los Angeles and Israel, where he painted a series of images on the West Bank’s concrete wall, part of the barrier built to keep away the suicide bombers. Through his characters, rats, apes, childrens, kissing police officers and hooligans throwing flowers, he is propagating a message of peace, freedom and hope but also a protest against excessive authority. Next, he took on the art institutions with his prankster performance art. There, he installed his own artworks side by side masterpieces. An image of the Mona Lisa plastered with a smiley-face sticker was placed in the Louvre and in New York he attached to a wall in the Metropolitan Museum of Art a small portrait of a woman wearing a gas mask. In 2010 he produced a movie giving some insights into the creation of street art and called it Exit Through The Gift Shop. It brought him an Oscar nomination in the Best Documentary category. Photo credits: Wikipedia His guerrilla art events constantly gather huge crowds and controversy. His LA show “Barely Legal”, from September 2006, had as the main exhibit a live elephant, the message: “There’s an elephant in the room...20 billion people live below the poverty line.” Banksy’s other major project, Dismaland, a “fun” park located in the British seaside resort Somerset and open to the public for five weeks in the summer of 2015 was a pop-up art exhibition in the form of an apocalyptic theme park. The Disney-like dystopian park was a group exhibition featuring 58 artists and intended as an anti-consumerism statement. Hiding behind his mysterious identity, and through humor and straight-forward social and political statements, Banksy managed to build a very powerful character. An artist who, despite his popularity, remains in control of his narratives. With the recent art market record, which will surely fire new debates, his place in the history of art of this century has been cemented. Check more graffiti and street inspired art in our curated collection. Art 1: Jumping Jill Flash, 2021, mixed media on canvas, DB de Waterman Art 2: Bump in the Road, 2021, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, Tim Fawcett References 1. Adam, G. Banksy world record as shredded work sells to Asian collector for £18.6m at Sotheby's, The Art Newspaper; 2. Badshah, N. Banksy sets auction record with £18.5m sale of shredded painting, The Guardian; 3. Ellsworth-Jones, W. The Story Behind Banksy, Smithsonian Magazine; 4. Harris, G. Banksy’s £1m self-destructing painting goes back to auction—and could sell for six times the price, The Art Newspaper; 5. Jobson, C. Welcome to Dismaland: A First Look at Banksy’s New Art Exhibition Housed Inside a Dystopian Theme Park, COLOSSAL; 6. Dr. McAndrew, C. Global Art MArket Report, Art Basel x UBS; 7. Solimano A. The Art Market at Times of Economic Turbulence and High Inequality, International Center for Globalization and Development; 8. Banksy's Love is in the Bin sells for record £16m, BBC. Author: Floarea Baenziger

RtistiQ

15 Oct 2021

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Believe it or not, Millennial pink is a color. Still hard to pinpoint the exact shade of pink, it is sometimes described as "dusty pink", "quartz pink" or "peach pink". Clear thing is that it has become the statement color of a generation. Since being announced as PANTONE color of the year in 2016, this pastel color has grown to become one of the most loved shades in fashion, design, or art. If for Gen Z (Millennials) pink is hip, strong, and androgynous, if you think about but the recent appropriation by feminists around the world as a powerful, socio-political mark, through the “pussyhats”, this pastel color has a long history of shifts in cultural significance and symbolistic. Pompadour Rose In the West, pink first became fashionable in the mid 18th century, when European aristocrats, men and women equally, wore powdery color garments as a symbol of luxury and social class. Madame de Pompadour, the official mistress of Louis XV, loved the color so much that, in 1757, French porcelain manufacturer Sèvres had to create a line of porcelain decorated with an exquisite new shade of pink and named it after her, Rose Pompadour. A Sèvres 'Rose Pompadour'-ground vase and stand circa 1758 Madame de Pompadour (1759) by François Boucher Mass-produced Pink For the following century, Pink continued to be worn by both men and women, as well by children regardless of gender. The meaning of pink took a turn inl the mid 19th century when the feminization of pink begun. Pink became an expression of delicacy at the same time with men in the Western world transitioning towards wearing mostly dark, sober colors. At around the same time, Pink developed the first erotic connotation, suggesting the color of flushed skin. Lingerie in shades of pink became increasingly common. The industrial revolution making the mass-produced goods widely available meant a shift from sophistication to vulgar. Pink went from luxury to working-class. As seen in the interior depicted by post-impressionist artists at the beginning of teh 20th century, the color pink was well adopted by the mainstream. A pink corset from the 1880s credit: FIT Museum La Chambre Rose (The Pink Bedroom) 1910, Edouard Vuillard The Pink Studio During the 20th century pink’s cultural significance underwent further shifts, especially in art. Its exotic appearance made it a perfect choice for Matisse and other fauvists who were refusing to accept that color must reflect the real world, as seen in his painting The Pink Studio which in reality had no pink walls. The Pink Studio (1911), Henri Matisse Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in Pink In the male-dominated world of Dadaists, Surrealism and American Abstract Expressionism, pink was of no interest for artists. The same attitude towards this color was reflected by the wider society. By the 1950s, pink had become more gender-coded than ever, thanks to postwar advertising, especially in America. Pink was used as a symbol of hyper-femininity and gender-based roles in society, creating the stereotype: "pink for girls, blue for boys". Merlyn Monroe, the embodiment of the the 1950s idea of femininity, soft-spoken, erotic but short-lived, as a flower, is often remembered for her pink gown from the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Pink goes Pop By the 1960s, pink was flourishing within pop culture. The dresses were pink, the bathrooms were bubblegum pink. Even the most tragic event of the decade, the assassination of JFK, had a touch of pink. On that day the first lady Jackie Kennedy, a fashion icon, was wearing a raspberry pink suit designed by Chanel. As a translation of mainstream culture into high art, pink found its way back into art through Pop Art. Through the art of Andy Warhol, David Hockney and even minimalist artists, such as Dan Flavin pink resurged in art during the 60s’. Pinkout of a Corner (1963), Dan Flavin MarilynMonroe (1967), Andy Warhol Pink with a Punk Attitude Over the past decades, the degree of association between femininity and pink has both grown and shrunk. In the ’80s the gender identification through color was made from birth, in the ‘90s and early 2000s, toy-store aisles that featured toys for girls became exclusively pink. But a the same time, pink was reclaimed by gay rights activists since the ‘70s. Furthermore, since the rise to the cultural dominance of girl bands (Spice Girls) and female punk-rock leading figures (Gwen Stefani’s fuchsia pink hair) in the ’90s and 2000s, pink has been reclaimed as a symbol of feminine power and strength. Restaurant designed in 2014 by India Mahdavi Pink and the Millennials Once a color statement for all things feminine, pink is now widely accepted as an almost gender-neutral color, due to the popularity of Millennial Pink, a dusty, subtle shade, which became ubiquitous in the 2010s. Used in fashion, design, architecture, and art, it became the go-to color for a generation willing to accept differences and embrace weaknesses. The Millenials that grew up with social media and instantaneous exchange of information are whilling to openly speak about formally considered taboo subjects, such as mental health or gender identity. Their approch to life is softer, as a toned-down shade of pink. Their addoption of pink (Millennial Pink) came as a reaction against the stereotypes associated with pink. View from Wes Anderson’s cult movie The Grand Hotel Budapest (2014) Having said all this, let’s not forget that the meaning of any color is a cultural construct, it’s the society that is giving meaning to colors. As the years will pass by, the meaning of Pink might shift again and again. If I got your attention and we sparked your interest in Pink, check our curated collection of contemporary art: Millennial Pink and Other Pastels. Author: Floarea Baenziger

FLOAREA BAENZIGER

17 Sep 2021

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After months-long waiting and the 2020 cancellation, the Met Gala is about to take place on Monday, September 13. The high-profile event is a fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Under her decades-long patronage of the fashion editor-in-chief of Vogue USA, Anna Wintour has transformed this social and charitable event into the “Fashion’s biggest night out”. Each year it attracts larger crowds and an impressive list of A-class celebrities among the guests and co-hosts. The Costume Institute will host its first two-part exhibition, on the theme of American fashion, during 2021 and 2022. Part one, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” will open in the Anna Wintour Costume Center on September 18, 2021, and will remain on display when “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” opens on May 5, 2022, in the period rooms of the American Wing. Both shows will run through September 5, 2022. Rihanna wearing a spectacular gown created by the Chinese designer Guo Pei at Met Gala 2015 The biggest names in Hollywood are set to descend upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a breathtaking red-carpet parade of avant-garde ensembles celebrating fashion as a form of art. On this occasion, we are looking back at the permanent exchange of ideas, concepts, and inspiration between designers and artists. Elsa Schiaparelli The Lobster Dress designed by Elsa Schiaparelli in 1937 in collaboration with Salvador Dali A 2017 reedition of Schiappirelli’s design One of the most avant-gardist fashion designers, who remains a rich source of inspiration even today, is Elsa Schiaparelli. She had a keen interest in Dadaism and Surrealism and was part of the social circle of Francis Picabia and Man Ray. Besides being credited with creating the first sweater with a surrealist trompe l’oeil image of a bow, the first newspaper print (repurposed by Jean Paul Gaultier for his couture debut and now considered a staple look of the 90s after being worn by the fictional character Carrie Bradshaw in the HBO TV series Sex and the City) and the first wrap dress (later revisited and adopted by the American designer Diane von Fürstenberg in the 1970s), she is well known for her many collaborations with some of the most innovative artists from the 1930s and ’40s. The Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti cast in bronze one-of-a-kind buttons for Schiappirelli’s coats. Man Ray often asked her to model for his photographs. Meret Oppenheim designed a fur bracelet in 1936 for Schiaparelli’s winter collection, the piece was the precursor to the artist’s iconic surrealist fur-covered teacup. An evening coat embroidered in a pattern that reads simultaneously as a vase and two confronting was a product of her collaboration with Jean Cocteau. Perhaps her most famous collaboration was with the surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dali. In 1935 the duo designed a perfume bottle shaped like a telephone dial, in 1937 the Shoe hat was inspired by a photograph of Dalì with his wife’s slipper on his head. Often considered scandalous, as the artists themselves and the female figures that wore dresses (Wallis Simpson were the Lobster Dress on her honeymoon), Schiaparelli’s couture creations stood the test of time. The House of Schiaparelli decided to reedit the infamous Lobster dress for the Spring 2017 season. Schiaparelli's collaborations with Dada and Surrealist artists resulted in some of the most renowned works of twentieth-century haute couture Dior Fall/winter 2020/2021 collection, Le Mythe Dior inspired by surrealist female artists Maria Grazia Chiuri Another couturier whose creativity has been shaped by feminist art is the head designer of Dior, the Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri. In 2020 Chiuri commission Judi Chicago, the subversive feminist artist, to create a set-cum-art installation for the iconic couture house’s spring runway show at the Musée Rodin in Paris. More recently, for the fall/winter 2020/2021 collection (Le Mythe Dior), during the difficult times of the Covid-19 pandemic, the designer created a fairytale world populated by nymphs and naiads, Venus, Narcissus, a faun and inspired by the less-known Surrealist artists and muses: Lee Miller, Dora Maar, Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington, and Jacqueline Lamba. “Surrealist images manage to make visible what is in itself invisible,” Chiuri said of the collection in a statement. “I’m interested in mystery and magic, which are also a way of exorcising uncertainty about the future.” Yves Saint Laurent The Mondrian Dress design by Yves Saint Laurent in 1965 Piet Mondrian Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue No other moment in the history of fashion captured the public’s imagination better than the Mondrian dress designed by the French designer Yves Saint Laurent in the 1960s. This period coincided with the women’s liberation movement when women started wearing mini-skirts and loose-fitting dresses that placed fewer constraints on the body. Saint Laurent realized that the planarity of the A dress, very fashionable at that time, was an ideal field for color blocks. He demonstrated a great skill of dressmaking, setting each block of jersey to create the resemblance with the Mondrian paintings and at the same time to accommodate the curves of the female body in the grid of seams. Yves Saint Laurent went on to create haute couture outfits inspired by other artists such as Van Gogh and Picasso, but his Mondrian dress remains until today one of the most recognizable designs and at the same time a cultural symbol of the 60s. Few designers can claim such a profound influence on the way women dress as Yves Saint Laurent. The pieces he pioneered – the man’s tuxedo, cut for a woman’s body, the safari jacket, the trench coat – are now so congruous with women’s wardrobes that they seem like they have been there forever. The marriage between art and fashion is more stable than ever. As recent as 2020, Moschino’s Creative Director Jeremy Scott took inspiration from famous painters in his Spring/Summer 2020 collection with models appearing to have stepped straight out of a Picasso’s cubist masterpieces. Pierpaolo Piccioli, the creative director of the Italian house Valentino envisioned for his most recent collection a dialogue with more than 15 emerging artists and established artists—including names like Luca Coser, Jamie Nares, Wu Rui, and Malte Zenses. Discover more artworks by emerging and established artists in our curated collections.

RtistiQ

13 Sep 2021

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There is a long connection between artwork depicting the beauty and bounty of the natural world and movements to protect the environment. Where there is one, there is the other. Artists are able to highlight the special bond we have to planet Earth. With the majority of humans now living in urban environments, and many of us spending much of our time inside or engaged in digital spaces, our link to the Earth can feel diminished. But great art can wake us up and bring us back to an awareness of the importance of our environment and the dire situation many ecosystems are facing today. In Southeast Asia, the situation appears to be in the eleventh hour. Massive habitat loss over the past three decades has led to many species facing extinction, and the last century has seen horrific atrocities committed to the very landscape through the use of defoliants — a form of chemical warfare that kills trees and plants by removing the leaves. But artists are now coming to the rescue, using their talent to raise awareness and improve discourse on this critical issue. And so for Earth Day, let’s look at one organization that is leading the way to help artists create the work that will inspire a new generation of people to save the planet. The PARDICOLOR Creative Arts Fund Wildlife Asia launched the PARDICOLOR Creative Arts Fund in April 2020. The fund provides Southeast Asian artists with vital financial support to promote artwork that highlightswildlife, biodiversity, the environment, and society. PARDICOLOR works with artists in a variety of mediums, from painting and drawing to sculpture, film, and beyond. The key for the fund is to find artists that bring viewers closer to the environmental issues that define out times. So far, they’ve assisted nine artists and art collectives from the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand. The fund encourages many approaches to their mission, including: works that promote the scientific understanding of ecosystems, highlight conservation work or lesser known and endangered species, art collaborations with researchers, work that speaks to a particular issue like poaching or climate change, and more. For instance, the series More Than Meets the Eye by Singapore-based photographer Jasvic Lye magnifies the intricate textures of creatures that live in Singapore. The images are luminescent and deeply felt. A close up photograph of a eurasian wild pig’s eye expresses the depth of inner experience in the animal. Another piece shows the exquisite finery of the oriental dollarbird’s feathers. The entire series gives us an intimacy with these creatures that are so often disregarded. Appropriately enough, entries for the fund’s 2021 round of grants open on April 22nd and will close on July 31st. This year, PARDICOLOR is generating a series of small grants that focus on three special themes. Art of Darkness Art of Darkness celebrates the nocturnal wildlife and environment in Southeast Asia. While seldom seen by humans, this fascinating realm of the night is just as important to protect. A Million Textures In this broad theme, artists are encouraged to engage with the patterns and colors found in the diverse natural world of Southeast Asia. PARDICOLOR encourages a breadth of interpretation, even including bioacoustics and “feeling” as different kinds of natural textures. Imagining Super Landscapes In Imagining Super Landscapes, artists are tasked with conjuring up a vision of a future Southeast Asia where cities, forests, and all the living beings in both might live in balance. It is a fun, speculative theme that gives artists a chance to advocate for solutions. Art and the Environment Nonprofits like PARDICOLOR remind us of how important artists can be in communicating issues to the public. And as the environmental crisis is the defining issue of our age, it’s essential that we have artwork that engages this issue. Art can inspire us, inform us, and call us to action. It can be the spark that creates the next fight to protect an endangered species, that stops the destruction of a local ecosystem, or even turns the tide against climate change. Author: Jonathan M Clark

RtistiQ

24 Apr 2021

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