Auction (RED)
Written : Poe H. (English) | K. J. Tzeng (Chinese)
Produced by: Dan Hwang
Links: (Red), Sotheby’s (AUCTION) RED
| “Art intimates and needs reaction, Art needs to be the transformative presence, a quality it shares with grace, which itself is on the lookout for the lost. All of the pictures and the sculptures here are grace unbound and a reaction from the greatest artists to AIDS - our generation’s holocaust…” so wrote by the front man of iconic rock band U2, Bono, in the foreword for Auction (RED).
This massive undertaking all started when art dealer Enrico Navarro suggested to Bono an art sale to benefit the (PROJECT) Red initiative, which Bono has tirelessly devoted himself since its inception. Not long after that, British artist Damien Hirst, best known for his works on the subject of death, got involved also. Hirst soon begun a letter writing campaign to his friends and to artists whose works he admired, in request for their contributions to Auction (RED). In total, 69 artists replied and donated some 83 lots of artworks - a compilation that can best some of the collection found in top contemporary art museums. |
Works from legendary artist Robert Rauschenberg, famous for his mixed medium collages, and Jasper John, another icon of American art movement in the 50s-60s. Sir Peter Blake, best known for his artwork on Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Band,added his montage of Love. Jeff Koons, who revived his aluminum balloon rabbit, this time in 2 dimensional silk screen print on steel plate. Currently enjoying a revival of sort - a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum and a collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Richard Prince created a piece for the auction also. The irrepressible Julian Schnabel, who recently won the Golden Globe and an Academy nomination for his film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, found time to paint a 11-foot high painting, Oddly enough, it was to raise awareness on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, on December 28th of last year. |