視覺藝術全球指標－第12屆德國卡塞爾文件展6月登場

記者凌美雪／台北報導

全球最重要的視覺藝術展覽之一「卡塞爾文件展」（Documenta），將於6月16日正式對外
開放，這也是在德國童話大道上的這個小城市、每5年才有的一次文化盛會，它將有足足
100天的時間發亮發光。

卡塞爾文件展的背景跟德國的文化企圖與視野大有關係。第一屆文件展於1955年以聯邦園
林展的附屬展方式舉行，出乎意料的大成功，因此，當時的負責人期盼藉此讓多年來受納
粹獨裁單一藝術影響的德國人民，有機會接觸各種現代藝術流派，拓展大眾審美視野，而
把文件展發展成一個有計畫性而且愈具規模的國際展。

本屆為第12屆卡塞爾文件展，藝術總監羅格．馬丁．布霖格（Roger M. Buergel）企畫展
出世界各地所有現行媒體的藝術品，並藉由向群眾提問的方式，展出各種與藝術相關的議
題，如「所謂的現代就是我們的古典嗎？」、「何謂單純的生活？」、「我們該做什麼？
」等。

展出內容除包括一系列觀念藝術，還有相當特殊的行為藝術；空間方面除傳統的幾個展場
如Fridericianum之外，這次主辦單位也特別蓋了一座12000平方公尺的水晶宮做為新展廳
。卡塞爾文件展將於6月16日展出至9月23日。

大英展閉幕 吸引近50萬人次

中時電子報 更新日期:2007/05/29 04:39 記者:　林采韻／台北報導

在故宮舉行的「大英博物館250年收藏展」已於廿七日成功落幕。主辦單位故宮與中國時
報昨日公布觀展人數，三個半月展覽總計吸引近五十萬參觀人次，創本世紀初國內大展人
數之最。

故宮整建後重新開幕，同時推出大英展以及北宋大觀展兩項特展，相得益彰，總計正館重
新開幕三個月的參觀人數突破百萬，為故宮歷年之最。

台灣藝術界舉辦大型藝術特展情況，近五、六年持續低迷，大英展的成功為台灣未來繼續
舉辦大型展覽的可能打下強心針。綜觀國內引進國際大展的歷史，一九九三年莫內特展在
故宮開啟潮流，一九九七年「黃金印象」在北高兩市舉行，高達百萬參觀人數創造大展的
黃金年代。大英展此行單一展場就逼近五十萬人次，比當時「黃金印象」台北場四十五萬
欣賞人次還要高，被視為國內奇觀。

故宮院長林曼麗認為，大英博物館收藏世界文明的精華，故宮擁有華夏文化之最，兩者攜
手合作，加上以北宋汝窯、書畫為首的大觀展同時舉辦，讓世界珍寶盡在故宮，吸引許多
民眾一睹為快，連正館參觀人次也受益。「故宮每年平均參觀人次一五○ 至二○○萬，
去年十二月至今年三月底就突破一○○萬。」

面對大英展的成功，林曼麗指出，可見好的展覽對民眾仍有吸引力，也反應社會對好展覽
的需求。「近年來，台灣經濟成長的速度或許不如過往，但人們對於生活品質的要求與日
俱增，參與藝術人口也愈來愈多，反而經濟成長快速時，大家對金錢的關注，遠遠勝於對
文化的重視。」

故宮未來將再接再厲引進好展覽，今年十月，維也納藝術史博物館將來台展出奧地利哈布
斯堡王朝的珍貴收藏，包括歐洲藝術史上重量級畫家林布蘭、魯本斯、委瑞斯蓋茲、杜勒
、堤香等人的畫作，堪稱今年故宮特展另一高潮。

故宮和大英博物館首此交流，工作人員也互相學習觀摩。故宮圖書文獻處長馮明珠指出，
大英博物館作事很謹慎，此行大英對地震帶佈展需知充電不少。在過程中，令馮明珠最
訝異的是民眾對展品的共鳴，「像小小的聖甲蟲胸飾，民眾仍仔細觀看，因為他們在電影
『神鬼傳奇』中早已認識。」大英展開展期間每天皆有上千名民眾擁入，展場空間不夠寬
廣，必需排隊是美中不足之處。凡是保留大英票根的民眾，若觀賞八月份在國家戲劇院演
出的音樂劇「小王子」，可憑票根半價購買節目單。

故宮、ALESSI 催生清宮生活精品

【經濟日報／鄭秋霜】

2007.05.26 03:58 am

國立故宮博物院與義大利生活精品設計品牌ALESSI，合作推出的「The Chin Family--清宮
系列」生活精品，日前在故宮舉辦全球首賣，此系列產品將在故宮博物院禮品部及全球
5,000餘個AlESSI經銷點逐步上市，世界各地消費者將可親身體驗故宮生活美學的現代詮釋
。

故宮近年來以「Old is New」為核心精神，創造文化創意產業新價值，與國內外設計師合作
的系列活動中，尤其以與ALESSI的品牌合作廣受國際矚目，不只體現Old is New精神，也是
東方遇到西方的交會。

故宮與ALESSI自2005年共同發表「東西品牌結合，共創文化新契機」品牌合作記者會，並簽
訂合作意向書後，經過一年多的台北、米蘭兩地不間斷地溝通與對話，將深厚的中華文物典
藏，化身為當代生活美學產品。

「The Chin Family」是ALESSI公司首席設計師史帝芬諾‧吉歐凡諾尼（Stefano
Giovannoni）所設計的一系列「清宮家族」家用精品，其創作靈感來自於他參觀故宮時，所
見的一幅清代乾隆皇帝年輕時的畫像。

吉歐凡諾尼以此幅典藏作品為發想，創造出故宮吉祥物「Mr.Chin--清先生」，並衍生設計
出一系列椒鹽罐、蛋杯、香料研磨罐、計時器等趣味橫生的生活精品；未來吉歐凡諾尼將繼
續以故宮院藏文物為元素，設計另一系列產品。

吉歐凡諾尼指出，故宮博物院與ALESSI，在工藝與藝術創作的世界中，是兩個不斷追求極致
與卓越的機構，這次難得的合作，是古今人類文明交會最佳的見證。

「我很榮幸能夠創作Mr.Chin作為故宮的新吉祥物，並設計出ALESSI產品家族中，一個有助
連結於不同文化的系列。」吉歐凡諾尼表示，希望這能讓彼此更靠近。

1954年出生於佛羅倫斯的吉歐凡諾尼，兼具工業設計師、建築設計師與室內設計師等多重身
分，其作品具幽默、拙稚風格，大受正統派卡通的影響。他曾於 2000年贏得「Super &
Popular」最佳設計師頭銜，其經典設計包括「魔術兔牙籤架」、「兔子紙巾架」、及「小
木偶面具漏斗」等。

創立於1921年的ALESSI，是知名家用品設計製造商，以「義大利設計的工廠」聞名全球，他
們深信一切物品外型再渺小，都是創意和科技的偉大結晶。此次與故宮的商品合作，是
ALESSI首度與單一博物館的合作。

Estate of the art

From The Times

May 25, 2007

This cutting-edge new terrace has links with the birth of Brit Art, writes Lucy Alexander

WANTED: an elegant family house, spacious, detached, in a smart part of London, with period features, a private garden, mod cons and garage. Wishful thinking indeed, in today’s market, where such houses are a rarity and even the very rich have to compromise. Those in the latter category who are prepared to go so far as to consider a terraced new-build development should investigate The Collection, in St John’s Wood. It is a new street of 15 three to five-bedroom houses built on the site of the birthplace of Brit Art, the original Saatchi Gallery.

Prices in St John’s Wood are typical of the runaway prime Central London housing market. The dearth of properties for sale in the nicest parts of the capital has pushed prices up by 33 per cent in a year, the fastest rate of growth since 1979, according to Knight Frank. Prime Central London prices are now rising at three times the rate of the rest of the UK. The result is that one in every 20 households in London is now worth more than £1 million. Add to that the much quoted fact that 4,200 City workers took home more than £1 million in bonus money on top of their salaries last year, and the £2.5m to £4.45m price tag for houses in The Collection seems almost reasonable.

The former gallery where Hirst and Emin found fame in the 1990s was bought by a developer, Vanderbilt Properties, two years ago. The site is tucked behind the houses and shops lining the north side of Boundary Road, just on the Camden side of the boundary with Westminster. St John’s Wood Underground station, two stops from Bond Street on the Jubilee Line, is a 15-minute walk south along Abbey Road, past the American School in London on Waverley Place, where US expats send their offspring.

The Collection comprises three three-bedroom, eight four-bedroom and four five-bed-room houses along a private, secure cul-de-sac. Seven have already been bought and completion will be at the end of August. Michael Eggerton, the director of Vanderbilt Properties, is certain that The Collection will appeal to those who want the individuality and quality of a period house but cannot find such a property. “It’s very hard to buy a nice house with lots of space in London, and this is a genuine alternative to a period home in terms of proportions, detail and quality. It has none of the compromises of normal new-build,” he says.

The attention to detail is immediately apparent in the show house, provisionally entitled “Emin” (each house is named after a Saatchi artist). The tall front door is made of walnut with bronze panelling, floors are tiled in a glowing golden stone, tiny lights illuminate the skirting boards and the ceilings are high. I found that similarly fine details in the living room, such as decorative grooves in the door-frame, were overshadowed by a panoply of electronic protuberances: spotlights, speakers and air-conditioning vents stud the ceiling, touchscreens to control temperature and music flank the door and the inevitable enormous flat-screen TV takes pride of place over the fireplace (although this can apparently be covered with a panel).

Eggerton is an unapologetic fan of gadgetry: “We have to install all this because the sort of modern person buying here is gadget-orientated.” Indeed, he is positively enthusiastic, having thoroughly modernised his own Victorian house in Trevor Square, across the road from Harrods. “I don’t live in Fulham, like most people,” he says, “I really live the modern life.” He has even personally road-tested the camber of the garages to ensure that they don’t scrape the undercarriage of his Porsche.

The rest of the house is equally extravagant: leather cupboard doors in the bedroom, marble bathrooms with double sinks, a huge double-height space in the kitchen with chandelier, a pop-up extractor in the island hob in the kitchen, two terraces with room for outdoor dining. Should you so choose, you can have a spa tub installed on the roof. Crucially, every room has a window – which may not sound much, but it’s all too common for half the rooms in a new urban development to be airless subterranean boxes. The layout is also radical – rooms arranged over a bewildering series of half-levels look down through glass walls on to private courtyards. This is not your average two-up, two-down.

The sorts of people likely to buy here may well be concerned about security. Residents will be identified at the gate by fingerprint recognition, and not even the postman will be allowed to pass through the hallowed portal. Simon Barry, of Knight Frank, which is handling the sale, admits that this will appeal particularly to international buyers, “because they come from countries where they’re used to living behind high walls”. Interest has also come from City workers and those who are fed up with living in draughty Edwardian houses. However, it may not be the liveliest street: “No one who buys here will have it as their only home,” says Barry. “They will have two or three.”

The Collection is certainly unusual, in terms of its size, quality and location. Not many developers build houses when selling high-volume flats is so lucrative. Consequently the price of prime Central London houses has risen 10.2 per cent so far this year, compared with only 7.5 per cent for flats. The situation is particularly extreme in Westminster (which includes most of St John’s Wood), 75 per cent of which is a conservation area and therefore protected from development. Knight Frank says that completions here fell from 1,315 residential units in 2000-01 to 503 in 2004-05. New houses are therefore like gold dust, so The Collection, like its Brit Art predecessors, could prove a valuable investment.

www.thecollection-nw8.com, 020-7173 4999

For more ideas on where to invest in luxury bricks and mortar, go to timesonline.co.uk/luxuryproperty

FACTFILE

The average price of a property in St John’s Wood has risen 22 per cent in five years, to £656,560, HBOS says.

75 per cent of sales in St John’s Wood were above the £250,000 stamp duty threshold in 2006 compared with 51 per cent in 2001 (HBOS figures).

St John’s Wood is famous for Lord’s cricket ground and the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded. Sir Paul McCartney still has a home locally.

Kate Moss was recently seen at a meeting of the St John’s Wood group of Westminster Safer Neighbourhoods to discuss local issues including street lighting and cycling on the pavement.

Saatchi causes a new online sensation in China

By Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Tuesday, 22 May 2007

Britain's Saatchi Gallery marked its latest expansion in China's booming contemporary art market yesterday with the launch of a Mandarin-language website, which will allow artists to display their work online and interact with their peers around the world.

The launch of a Chinese version of the Your Gallery website - the world's largest interactive art gallery with 20 million hits a day - shows how hot the Chinese art market is. Your Gallery was launched last year to provide a free global platform for artists.

There are more than 20,000 artists in China and a further 1,000 students graduate each year from art school, but English is not widely spoken, making international communication difficult, plus there are still no more than 200 contemporary art galleries to show their work.

Annabel Fallon, the spokesperson for Saatchi, said the global interest in Chinese contemporary art meant artists in China needed a platform from which to show their work and learn about contemporary art practice in other countries. Meg Maggio, the director of Pekin Fine Arts, said the chatroom function of the site was particularly important.

"This is a wonderful way to introduce Chinese artists to as many other artists and curators and students as possible around the world," said Ms Maggio.

Chinese artists will be able to post their profiles and have them translated into English."It's very exciting for us to be one of the first fully interactive sites on the Chinese internet," Charles Saatchi said at an official launch in the trendy Danshanzi art district of Beijing.Mr Saatchi was an early champion of young British artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, who have have a strong influence on China's rising stars.

An exhibition of avant-garde Chinese art at the Tate Liverpool features work by 18 artists, including Ai Weiwei and Zhuang Hui. And contemporary Chinese artists have set records at auctions in Hong Kong and New York.

Zhang Xiaogang's 1993 work, Tiananmen Square, sold for £1.2m at Christie's in Hong Kong in November, a record for the artist. Other names include Wang Guangyi, Yue Minjun, and Zeng Fanzhi. All are being wooed by galleries and collectors all over the world.

Record-breaking Rothko and Bacon sale confirms contemporary art market fever

By David Usborne in New York
Thursday, 17 May 2007

Any doubt that a new era has arrived in the contemporary art market was finally erased in New York on Tuesday night when a sale at Sotheby's saw bidders smash one record after another, most spectacularly when works by Mark Rothko and Francis Bacon came under the gavel.

Eliciting a gasp that echoed around the entire art world yesterday, an unidentified bearded bidder raised his paddle to pay $73m (£37m) for a Rothko canvas that had carried a pre-sale estimated price of $40m. It was the most ever paid for a Rothko and indeed for any single post-war artwork at auction.

The previous record for a contemporary piece was $27.1m set only last November. But the Rothko was not the only painting to cross that line. The Bacon canvas, Study from Pope Innocent X, sold for $52.7m, after being estimated to sell for $30m.

"We didn't expect them to sell as well as they did," Tobias Meyer, the auctioneer and head of the contemporary art department for Sotheby's, confessed when it was all over. "We're obviously thrilled with the results," he added, saying they "showed how aggressive and strong the contemporary art market is".

Records were set on Tuesday for a total of 15 artists, dead and living, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Prince, Tom Wesselmann, Hans Hofmann, Morris Louis and Dan Flavin.

For the first time, meanwhile, Sotheby's included roubles in its electronically displayed panel of currency conversions, indicating the growing presence of Russian buyers.

The prices paid "means that there clearly exists a huge interest in this field, and in the icons of contemporary art", commented Anthony Grant, a senior international specialist at Sotheby's. "When we can identify those icons, the sky can be the limit."

Among the few paintings that failed to make their low estimates and were withdrawn from sale were two by Jackson Pollock.

Experts noted that the extraordinary interest in the 1950 Rothko - an abstract oil dominated by a large block of luminous pink and entitled White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) - may partly have been tied to the identity of the seller, David Rockefeller, philanthropist and chairman emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mr Rockefeller bought the painting for $8,500 in 1960 and hung it in a waiting room outside his office when he was chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank. He had clearly decided to take advantage of the zooming art market to raise new funds which, he has said, will go entirely into his charitable endeavours. His personal worth has been put at $2.4bn.

Sotheby's had invested heavily in the Rothko, reportedly signing a guarantee in advance with Mr Rockefeller to pay him $46m regardless of the outcome of Tuesday's bidding.

It was a good night also for the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the seller of the untitled 1981 Basquiat. The piece was originally given to the museum by two New York collectors who bought it for $3,150 in the year that it was painted. It was sold on Tuesday to a telephone bidder for an astonishing $14.6m. The museum said it will use the proceeds to broaden its contemporary collection.

One of several paintings by the Scottish-born painter Peter Doig that were purchased by Sotheby's last year from Charles Saatchi was also put under the hammer. The work, The Architect's Home in the Ravine (1991), was estimated at between $1.2m and $1.8m and went to a bidder on the telephone for $3.6m.

中國當代藝術 5年來拍賣創天價

中國時報 2007/05/16

朱建陵/北京報導

去年香港佳士德的秋拍中，徐悲鴻的《奴隸與獅》拍出五千七百萬港幣高價，
今年香港蘇富比春拍會上，徐悲鴻《放下你的鞭子》再創七千二百萬港幣高價，
成為世界最貴的中國油畫。除此，在三月底於紐約蘇富比舉行的「亞洲當代藝術」
專場中，包含張曉剛、岳敏君、冷軍等大陸當代藝術家也都有豐碩成果，國際拍
賣公司成為中國當代藝術屢創天價的主要幕後推手。

佳士德業務拓展部（中國區）董事翁曉惠在接受《中國新聞周刊》訪問時表
示，中國當代藝術在幾年間走完西方上百年的路（指價格），所有人都措手不及，
「我們都非常驚訝，到了這個程度我們都不知道怎樣去解讀」。

拍賣中心 由台北移往香港

翁曉惠說，中國藝術品在過去幾十年來都跟外國藝術品在價錢上有極大差距，
過於偏低，沒有反映出其本身價值，瓷器還稍好，畫的價格則始終偏低。

早年中國油畫價格低廉，買家也少。翁曉惠說，當時收藏中國油畫的買家主
要是在台灣，這也是佳士德把「二十世紀中國藝術」專拍設在台灣的主要原因。
但台灣一地的市場無法推動中國油畫進入國際藝術市場的價格體系中去，相較於
西方油畫，中國油畫仍然是如「蘿蔔的價格」。

市場的加速始於二○○二年。翁曉惠說，「從○二秋天，我們把『二十世紀
中國藝術』從台灣移到香港。同時，我們把在新加坡的『東南亞藝術專拍』也移
到香港。」從那時，以佳士德為代表的國際拍賣公司開始推動中國當代藝術品市
場，也是從那時，中國當代藝術的價格開始慢慢攀升。

二○○五年，香港佳士德因市場需要創立了一個新部門─「亞洲當代藝術」，
其中，中國藝術家的作品始終占絕大多數。張曉剛、嶽敏君、方力鈞、王廣義為
「四大天王」的提法，開始在國際藝拍市場上傳揚。翁曉惠覺得這個部門，對中
國當代藝術今天的天價，起到里程碑作用。

重量級拍品 開拓海外市場

但另一方面，大陸當代藝術品拍賣市場與海外市場的聯動性，則受大陸藝術
市場業者的關注。

大陸業者牟建平指出，海外拍賣之所以成交不菲，擁有重量級拍品是一大原
因。

以香港蘇富比春拍為例，「中國當代藝術」兩個專場一八六件拍品，分別成
交一億一千餘萬港幣和九千九百餘萬港幣，總成交約二億一千萬港幣，但僅徐悲
鴻《放下你的鞭子》、張曉剛《天安門一號》、朱德群《意志堅強》、趙無極
《22-2-1967》等幾幅畫作的成交價就高達一億元以上，可見徵集「頂級品」是保
證其成交不斷增長的關鍵。

反觀大陸市場，雖然近兩年油畫行情有所升溫，但一直缺乏重量級拍品，單
幅拍價過千萬元人民幣的屈指可數。

此外，大陸買家口味和海外也有很大差異，如紐約蘇富比以張曉剛、方力鈞、
岳敏君、劉小東為代表的當代中國藝術品拍賣為主；香港蘇富比則老一代與新生
代並舉，既偏愛早期油畫名家徐悲鴻、常玉、潘玉良、吳冠中等的畫作，又不乏
大陸鋒頭正勁的「市場明星」。

大陸差異大 買氣冷流拍多

反觀大陸內地油畫拍賣，構成則較為紛雜，老一代、新中國美術、當代新銳
各居其一，在側重點上同海外存在著明顯的不同，例如常玉、潘玉良、趙無極、
朱德群的油畫在香港屢超千萬，但大陸內地買家並不買賬。

相對於中國當代藝術作品在國際拍賣市場上的風光，今年以來，大陸拍賣市
場則出現諸如作品近半流拍、價格連續下跌、買家遲疑觀望等現象，並沒有續寫
二○○四、二○○五年創下的諸種「神話」性成績。大陸媒體認為，這究竟是正
常的市場起伏，還是前兩年「虛火」太旺，仍有待時間檢證。

Welcome to the feeding frenzy

From The Times

May 9, 2007

The press will be rude, but being nominated for the Turner Prize is a rollercoaster ride – so enjoy it

Grayson Perry

It is that time of the year again. The cherry blossom has fallen, shop windows are full of sundresses and the shortlist for this year’s Turner Prize has just been announced: Zarina Bhimji, Nathan Coley, Mike Nelson and Mark Wallinger – the latter probably the best known of the bunch for his widely publicised piece State Britain, which replicated the one-man antiwar demonstration of Brian Haw outside the Houses of Parliament.

These four artists, who may be well known and respected within the art village, are now suddenly exposed to the scrutiny and ridicule of the mainstream media. The tabloids will trot out the usual “Do you call that art? My eight-year-old could do better” headlines.

The prize was set up as a PR exercise for contemporary art, but despite this, being one of the chosen four is a guilty fantasy for most artists, however cool or intellectually rigorous. For an artist in Britain, perhaps even the world, I doubt that there is an opportunity to exhibit that garners more attention than the Turner Prize. Nominees should be warned that all their exhibitions from now on – even solo shows in the glistening cathedrals of insider kudos such as MoMA New York and the Guggenheim – will seem a bit low-key after the hooha that surrounds the big T. Perhaps only showing in a national pavilion at the Venice biennale can approach it for razzmatazz.

The Turner is now in its third age. It started by hon-ouring the old avant garde, Gilbert and George, Richard Long and Howard Hodgkin. Then it moved into its golden adolescence when Charles Saatchi was synonymous with what was hot in contemporary art and the press went into outraged overdrive over lights going on and off or an unmade bed. The YBAs are now middle-aged, their studios are factories and they give to charity auctions for their children’s schools.

Now the prize highlights the work of emerging young talents. In previous years it was safe to say I’d never have heard of at least one name on the shortlist – and I’m meant to be familiar with the blizzard of names from cards that land on my doormat and ads I glance at as I flick dutifully through Frieze magazine.

Four years on, I can vividly recall my own experience of getting the call. I was changing into my cycling kit in preparation for my first mountain-bike race of the season at Eastway cycle circuit in Hackney (now ironically closed for Olympic development). The phone rang and my wife answered it. “It’s Nicolas Serota on the phone,” she said. My blood froze. The timing was right, I qualified, I worked in Britain, I was under 50, I had staged a large show at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Barbican the previous year. I picked up the receiver. Sir Nick then asked me if I would like to be nominated for the Turner in a tone that seemed to expect that I might decline. I was never cool enough to do that. I said, “sure”. He asked me to perform the difficult if not impossible feat of keeping it confidential until after the announcement eight days later.

My wife and I had a teary hug. “You’re not going to race now, are you?” she said. But I was all hyped up, fuelled and ready to go. I was so happy yet I was filled with a dread that I still occasionally get, the feeling that when things are going really well some disaster will come along to balance out my good fortune.

I was terrified of crashing during the race. It started pouring with rain and I slipped and slid around the course and finished upright, coated in mud, which hid the fact that I had leaked the odd tear whenever I had remembered that little old me had been nominated for the Turner. I was so excited that I did not sleep that night and by the next afternoon I was so tired that I thought I had hallucinated the whole thing.

I rang up the Tate and checked with Serota’s office that he had rung me the previous evening.

The Tate press office asked me if I could supply a portrait photo for the press pack. I suspected that the trans-vestite thing would dominate and maybe overshadow my work, so we took a bland mug-shot over the weekend. This did not appear in any of the papers. Instead every arts correspondent had done a little research and dug up the portrait of me wearing my female folk costume The Mother of All Battles, holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Sample headline from the Standard: “Shortlisted for the Turner Prize: a gun-toting, cross-dressing picture of womanhood (no it’s not the art, it’s the artist).” I expect the Tate fed them the more newsworthy image.

I have never signed up to the idea that to retain status artists had to make work that was inaccessible and therefore unpopular. Good art can be easy to like and bad art often hides behind obscure theories. I knew my work had what I call taxi-driver appeal, so I was not afraid of embracing the media attention that comes with nomination.

“Strap me on and fire the engines,” I said to the press officer. I have always had a better relationship with the mainstream media than the art press. I won the Turner without ever being featured in an art magazine, perhaps the art equivalent of climbing Everest without oxygen.

Some artists, such as Rachel Whiteread or Chris Ofili, are more reticent when dealing with the media. Whiteread had been nominated for her greatest work, House, only to see it demolished by shortsighted local government. The stunt pulled that year by the K Foundation of giving her £40,000 for being the nominee whom the public thought was the worst artist only added to her woes. Ofili, for his use of elephant faeces, had inspired headlines such as “Dung ho artist tops Turner” ( Express) and “Artist Dung Great” ( Sun).

Such media storms can be traumatising for someone who has laboured away for years in a studio, making art not news. My advice to this year’s nominees is: decide how you want to approach the press. Leaving it to chance is still making a decision. Think what you will enjoy and what will be appropriate. Tomma Abts last year was very cagey and gave very few interviews, it suited her profile and her quiet paintings. Phil Collins, on the other hand, gave a press conference that was part of his exhibition.

Artists need to be more media-savvy now. The contemporary-art world has an uneasy relationship with the popular press, which perhaps reflects the widespread scepticism about art that is still prevalent among their readers. The Turner attracts the attention of news journalists, who can be a more rabid breed than nicely brought-up arts feature writers. Nominees would do well to take full advantage of the exper-tise and experience that the Tate press office has to offer.

Despite the media circus that dominates my memory of the Turner experience, it is good to remember that it centres on an art exhibition in one of the world’s most prestigious galleries where 100,000 people will come to see it. Hold that thought and the press can seem like just tomorrow’s collage material.

An Auction Season of High Estimates, and Even Higher Risks

Left, Sotheby’s; Christie's

Lyonel Feininger’s “Jesuiten III” (1915), left, and Paul Signac’s “Arrière du Tub” (1888) are among the works up for auction.

By CAROL VOGEL

Published: May 3, 2007

This spring auction houses are touting stunning images by masters like Rothko and Warhol, Bacon and de Kooning. Price estimates are equally stunning, reflecting the fight for market share between the archrivals Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Their competition has never been deadlier, riskier or more expensive.

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Sotheby’s

“Study From Innocent X” (1962) by Francis Bacon.

Christie's

Warhol’s 1963 artwork “Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I).”

For several years Sotheby’s has been lagging as Christie’s has consistently won the most coveted property. So in putting together this season’s big evening sales, which begin on Tuesday, Sotheby’s has been even more aggressive than usual, offering sellers supergenerous guarantees — undisclosed minimum prices paid to the sellers regardless of a sale’s outcome — that are in many cases higher than records for the artists. Christie’s too has estimated many prized artworks at new price levels.

According to recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sotheby’s has promised sellers nearly $300 million in guarantees for property being sold this spring and summer. Since Christie’s is privately held, it is not required to disclose such financial information, but executives there say it has about the same amount of money tied up in funds it has committed for sellers.

Were some unforeseen event to happen during the next two weeks to depress world markets and scare off buyers, the auction houses could be stuck with warehouses filled with expensive art. But if buyers’ hefty appetite for great paintings, sculptures and drawings continues, both companies could turn some tidy profits, though not nearly as much as they would have were there not so many other financial strings attached. Still, they could lose tens of millions of dollars as a result of overambitious financing.

Both companies are reacting to pressure from sellers who, having seen how prices have escalated, are demanding sweet deals. In addition to guarantees Sotheby’s and Christie’s are routinely giving consignors a percentage of the fees it charges buyers, significantly cutting into potential profits.

“The market has moved significantly over the last six months, and our expectations have risen with it,” said Brett Gorvy, a co-head of postwar and contemporary art for Christie’s worldwide. “We have had to take a leap of faith in our belief that we have reached a new price threshold.”

Both Mr. Gorvy and Tobias Meyer, director of contemporary art for Sotheby’s worldwide, said they took into account recent private sales, in particular the much-publicized deals that the entertainment magnate and art collector David Geffen made six months ago. A gifted collector with a sure eye and deep pockets, Mr. Geffen sold several modern masterpieces, including paintings by de Kooning, Pollock and Jasper Johns, so rare that many of today’s richest hedge fund managers paid top prices, realizing that works of such stature would not be for sale again.

This same now-or-never psychology is driving the back-to-back auctions over the next two weeks. What distinguishes this spring from past seasons is how definitively tastes have changed. The spotlight is not on pricey Impressionist and modern paintings, as it has traditionally been, but on postwar and blue-chip contemporary art.

Sellers this season, betting on the market’s upward spiral, include seasoned collectors like David Rockefeller, the philanthropist and chairman emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art; Mr. Geffen; the advertising mogul Charles Saatchi; and the filmmaker Oliver Stone.

Sotheby’s has two staggering paintings. By far the most talked about is a seminal abstract canvas by Mark Rothko: “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose),” a dreamy pink painting from 1950 that is considered a prime example of his abstract works. Its provenance is every bit as rare as the painting itself. The seller is Mr. Rockefeller, a prolific donor who, when he realized how much his Rothko was worth, decided to cash in on a rising market to use the money for other philanthropic projects.

Which name — Rothko or Rockefeller — carries more magic is anyone’s guess, but Sotheby’s is relentlessly marketing the painting. Top clients have received special white hardback catalogs. And super-rich collectors who were given private viewings of the painting were presented with special gift bags, compliments of Sotheby’s, that included catalogs of a 1998-99 traveling Rothko retrospective, during which the painting was on view at institutions like the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Its $40 million estimate is nearly twice the previous auction record for a Rothko painting, $22.4 million paid at Christie’s in 2005. Its guarantee is more than that; experts familiar with the negotiations say Sotheby’s has promised Mr. Rockefeller $46 million, not to mention giving him a lion’s share of the buyer’s premium.

Mr. Rockefeller bought the painting in 1960 for less than $10,000.

“Nothing like this has come on the market,” Mr. Meyer said. Asked about the aggressive deals he has made with sellers this spring, he added: “This is the market with the biggest growth factor, so you have to be aggressive about it. Why not?”

The other star work in Sotheby’s sale on May 15 is “Study From Innocent X,” a 1962 painting by Francis Bacon. The first in his series based on Velázquez’s “Portrait of Pope Innocent X” (1650), a rich red canvas with a full-length version of one of Bacon’s signature contorted characters. It is estimated at $30 million, more than the record $27.5 million for a Bacon paid at Christie’s in London in February. Christie’s has its share of standouts, and it too has produced separate catalogs for some of its big-ticket items. Among the best is Warhol’s “Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I),” from 1963. A rare example of the famous “Death and Disaster” series, it depicts a photo from a 1963 issue of Newsweek that showed a man whose car had crashed, impaling him on a telephone pole. Christie’s estimates it will bring in $25 million to $35 million, another record estimate.

Younger artists are conspicuously absent from the Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales; that market is now dominated by Phillips, de Pury & Company, the smaller Chelsea firm. But even its sale on May 17 is somewhat tamer than in years past, offering a smattering of mostly well-known names whose work has been seen on the walls of Chelsea galleries. (Michael McGinnis, head of Phillips’s contemporary-art department, said about 30 percent of the material in the auction is being sold by dealers.)

Dealer property can also be found in the Impressionist and modern sales; Christie’s auction on Wednesday has several works that have been on the market recently. But it also has a few paintings and watercolors with star potential, among them Signac’s “Arrière du Tub” (1888), named for a boat whose stern is in the foreground of the painting. It is expected to bring $6 million to $8 million.

Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern sale on Tuesday is bigger and more expensive, and it has fresher material. Highlights include a colorful 1915 painting by Lyonel Feininger; a group of Cézanne watercolors; and an important Giacometti sculpture being sold by Mr. Geffen.

Putting together the Impressionist and modern art sales hasn’t been easy this season, since no big estates came on the market, nor were any big restitution cases settled. For the most part collectors are holding on to their art.

“People still expect the market to keep rising,” said David Norman, Sotheby’s director for Impressionist and modern art worldwide. “Had they been fearful of a market decline, we would have seen a rush to sell. And this spring that didn’t happen.”