Robert Pattinson, best known as the lead actor in cult classics such as Twilight and The Batman, has dipped his toes into the art of curation, overseeing an upcoming collaboration with Sotheby’s in New York City. The exhibition, which is on display from September 23rd to September 29th, will be followed by an auction on the 30th. Pattinson is the most recent celebrity curator involved in Sotheby’s “Contemporary Curated” series, being preceded by the likes of Swizz Beatz, Steve Aoki, Oprah Winfrey, and Ellie Goulding among other A-list names.
Pattinson’s exhibition will display six hand-picked artworks ranging from the post-war to contemporary periods, with Willem de Kooning’s Untitled from 1964 being the headliner (estimated to sell for a price between $1.8 million and $2.5 million). Other works include sculptures, paintings, and collages by Richard Serra, Lynette Yiadom–Boakye, and Julie Mehretu.
Willem de Kooning’s Untitled (1964)
The named artists come from a variety of different backgrounds and time periods, yet Pattinson has a very specific reason for bringing their works together at Sotheby’s. As he elaborated in a press release, “What I look for is when a piece has its own language. It doesn't necessarily feel like it just exists for its own sake and has a presence that hums with a bit of life. It has the ability to communicate with you on a kind of primordial level. I sort of sway between things that feel very profound and cosmic and alien. Then even on the other side, I like subversive, naughty, slightly dangerous stuff as well…”
‘The Batman’ truly has an impeccable eye, and more uniquely, knows how to bring art of different mediums, periods, and areas of the world together and vitalize a blank room.
Can drunkenness ever be holy? Brady examines the employment of drunkenness as a motif for both spiritual admonition and encouragement in the writings of the Church Fathers and the visual propagation of these teachings through early modern depictions of Noah and His Sons.
Ellie meditates on the end of Normall Rockwell's career, through the America that looked radically different from the one that made him famous.
An investigation into the importance and relevance of Michelangelo’s and da Vinci’s anatomical studies to shift cultural attitudes toward the human body’s portrayal in art.