The Guardian’s on yacht art collections gets lots of attention; Derek Fordjour was a later starter; Brook Hazelton advises LiveAuctioneers; Coachella’s Desert X brings art to the valley.

This commentary by Marion Maneker is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

The Perils of Mixing Art and Yachting

We should always apply a healthy dose of skepticism to these newspaper stories pulled from conference presentations when service providers are humble-bragging their practices. But this story that appears in the Guardian and on Bloomberg claiming that many yachts have art worth many times the value of the vessel is just too full of wonderful nonsense not to quote:

• “Tilman Kriesel, founder of an art advisory firm, told the conference one client asked how to display a Rothko that was too tall for a yacht’s grand saloon. “We turned the piece by 90 degrees,” he said. “The artist would probably be turning in his grave, but we took a deep breath and said ‘it’s your painting, do what you like’.”Another of Kriesel’s clients had a piece by the Japanese modern artist Takashi Murakami that he wanted to display in the “beach club” – the rear of superyachts where owners access jet skis and other water toys – but again it was the wrong size. “In the end we cut it up to make it fit,” he said.”

None of these stories of works damaged by children or staff are specific to boats. Art in homes around the world are equally vulnerable to every accident described here. Note too the comment of Helen Robertson, a conservator at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, who claims to have worked on a boat “with $450m of works of cultural value on board.”

• “Something people always say to me is ‘why on earth would you carry art on yachts?’,” she said. “But yachts can be very controllable. Systems for temperature and humidity can surpass those you would find in galleries.”

Ghananian Artist Derek Fordjour Was a Later Starter

Kelly Crow profiles in the Wall Street Journal Derek Fordjour who has the support of Henry Taylor and Mickalene Thomas as well as the Dallas Museum Art. The 44 year old artist found his voice in his own vulnerability:

• “[H]e didn’t start showing his own work publicly until he was 35. “It just took years of tinkering before everything I wanted to say came together,” he said.Mr. Fordjour’s breakthrough began six years ago following a divorce that left him sleeping on an air mattress in his Harlem studio. “I wanted to be confident and gregarious, but I was just broken and overwhelmed,” he said. “I realized I was not comfortable with my own vulnerability as a black man and as an artist.”He stopped painting portraits of athletes and started painting everyday figures who seemed swept up by social conventions or competitions they might not be winning. The facial expressions of his “players,” as he calls them, grew increasingly blurred and surreal. His jockeys and marching-band drum majors started sporting ornate uniforms, symbols of respectability that double as a kind of armor, he said.”

Brook Hazelton Joins Live Auctioneers Board of Advisors

Brook Hazelton has been appointed Advisory Board Chairman at LiveAuctioneers and will head the company’s soon-to-be-launched Auctioneer and Dealer Panel:

• “Hazelton said he hopes to bring greater awareness to auction houses at all levels that intelligent technology partnerships invariably lead to growth. In 2018, LiveAuctioneers generated 77.1 million bids and $196.9 billion in total bid value processed.”

Coachella Valley Brings Art Into the Equation

The Wall Street Journal looks at the new Coachella Valley art installation “Desert X” launching this month and running until the Coachella Festival in April. The event is the brainchild of Susan Davis who has lived there for almost a decade:

• “Jenny Holzer will project her words onto mountains. Pia Camil is erecting a rainbow of painted rebar that rises about 16 feet. Armando Lerma, a local artist, is painting animals, plants and other images onto a water tank, while California native Kathleen Ryan is sculpting a soaring, translucent palm tree of steel and plastic.The installations, performances and other projects, which open Feb. 9, have to withstand the elements as well as droves of visitors—and ideally leave no trace after “Desert X” ends April 21.Some artists are treating the arid landscape as part of the visual experience. On the exhibit’s southern edge near the Salton Sea, an area he likened to the setting of the TV series “Breaking Bad,” Iván Argote is creating an interactive sculpture of five flights of stairs. Mr. Argote, who was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and is based in Paris, said visitors can climb the stairs to viewing platforms and take in a scene that he described as “beautiful and kind of deathly.””