Have you been very, very good this year?
Well, after much trawling of the web, The Art Newspaper has compiled a few art-related titbits for your Christmas list or to stick under the tree for your nearest and dearest. Stuck for the person who wants for nothing? What better than a sponsorship deal for a Victorian loo? Something to make Uncle Nigel smile? May we suggest a Tom of Finland cushion? And, for budding-criminals, the chance to recreate the Louvre heist in Lego. For more inspiration, read on.
Say ‘I love you’ with… Irojiten colour pencils
Art supplies
If you have not stepped foot inside L. Cornelissen & Son in London’s Bloomsbury, you have not lived. Time has stood still in this treasure trove, packed to the rafters with every artist’s supply you could ever wish for. The easy option, buy a gift voucher. Or, it is hard not to fall in love with a jewel-like soft pastel set by Unison (lots of options, but this botanicals selection is particularly lovely) or a dinky watercolour travel set by Schmincke Horadam (could also double as a hip flask).
In a similar vein, a set of beautifully boxed Japanese Irojiten colour pencils are a thing of beauty, and so creamy to use they banish any childhood memory of scratchy colouring. You can buy sets of ten in various hue collections for £21.75 or 30 for £65. If you’re on the fence about someone, a single pencil is £2.50. But, if you are head over heels, splash out on 90 pencils at £179. Incidentally the Niwaki website is a shrine to beautiful yet functional Japanese design, ideal for the perfectionist minimalist—these may be the most perfect pair of desk scissors imaginable (and they better be, for £129), while their secateurs have a cult following.
We could totally see Hans Ulrich Obrist in this Football City, Art United football shirt Courtesy Factory International
Fantasy gift lists
Have you ever wondered what Hans Ulrich Obrist would like in his stocking? According to Frieze’s fun gift guide, full of suggestions from the great and the good of the art world, it turns out he is lusting after some Alexander Calder playing cards (£14) and a T-shirt produced for the Factory International exhibition Football City, Art United, which Obrist co-curated (£60).
The charity Art UK, meanwhile, has created a fantasy gift guide imagining what various singers would want from its own collection of prints and merchandise. For instance, the Welsh crooner Tom Jones might want a Kyffin Williams print and matching placemats, while the Mancunian brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher may fancy a matching set of L.S. Lowry glasses cases, cushions and placemats. Apparently.
Eat like Andy with The Museum of Modern Art Artists’ Cookbook
Cookbooks
Tis the season for giving cookbooks, so how about The Kitchen Studio: Culinary Creations by Artists (Phaidon, £29.95), which includes recipes written and illustrated by over 70 artists including Carsten Höller, Dorothy Iannone, Ragnar Kjartansson, Philippe Parreno and Nicolas Party. This is not the first to pick upon the artists and food theme, of course. If you’re in search of something a little more… recherché, then hunt down a copy of The Museum of Modern Art Artists’ Cookbook, published in 1977 (now out of print) containing 155 recipes from 30 painters and sculptors such as Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning and Andy Warhol. There are numerous copies on AbeBooks, but they aren’t cheap—copies sell for a few hundred dollars to over a thousand.
Ooo er… Tom of Finland’s Loggers cushion and sexy socks, exclusive to House of Voltaire Image courtesy of the Tom of Finland Foundation and Studio Voltaire, Photo: Graham Pearson
Naughty but nice
If you fancy something saltier, try House of Voltaire’s line of Tom of Finland merch. Those of a more sensitive disposition, look away, but if you—or perhaps granny—like something naughty in your stocking, there’s everything from socks, magnets, mugs and keyrings to a “loggers” cushion that leaves little to the imagination. If this is a step too far, the Beryl Cook tea towels are merely titivating. In a similar vein, try one of Linder’s soft-porn tablecloths to enliven Christmas lunch. Disclaimer: may present a choking hazard.
See if you can find any vulnerable access points in this Lego brick model of the Louvre
Lego legends
Want to keep a member of the family really busy and locked away in a room over Christmas? Why not buy them a build-your-own Lego Mona Lisa (£89.99). One “experienced builder” in the reviews refers to “Michelangelo’s Mona Lisa” as being the star exhibit of the Louvre in Paris, and Lego did once make a build-your-own-Louvre kit—now “retired”, you can still find kits on eBay. Perhaps prescient, Lego also used to make a “Museum Break-in” kit, with a museum façade, robbers, getaway and police vehicles. Again, you can find old sets on eBay, but you could follow the viral trend for your own Louvre heist at home by adding Lego robbers, security guards and ladders to your Louvre set. For the less criminally-minded, simply recreate Lego’s version of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night which comes complete with a (not-quite-to-scale) Vincent (£149.99). One reviewer even thinks it is “better than the original painting”. Quite a claim.
A mouth-watering tree ornament from the Courtauld shop, celebrating the current exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life (until 18 January) Courtesy of the Courtauld
Baubles, Barbies and bogs
If you can’t be bothered with all that building, you could just stick Vincent on the tree, courtesy of this slightly sheepish looking decoration from New York’s Museum of Modern Art (Moma) shop ($16.95), which also sells Frida Kahlo ($16.95) and Claude Monet ($17.95) versions.
We cannot mention the Moma shop without also mentioning The Starry Night Barbie (yes, really), made in collaboration with Mattel and retailing at $160. According to Moma: “Her gown incorporates symbolic elements from the artwork—from the whirls of wind on her bodice to the tranquil village resting along the hemline.”
Meanwhile, the gift shop for the Courtauld’s current exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life (until 18 January) is mouth-watering, with a feast of Christmas tree ornaments such as hamburgers, cheese stacks and cream cakes, plus candles in the form of an ice cream sundae and a lump of cured meat, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Or, if you missed out on Maurizio Cattelan’s $12.1m solid gold loo, you could buy your own tiny version in the form of this very-much-plastic bauble from Etsy for £9.35. Talking of loos, you could, if your heart desires it, adopt a Victorian one from London’s Science Museum’s collection. The 150-year old “Optimus” water closet is one of a number of exhibits from the museum’s collection in its Adopt an Object scheme, alongside a Steiff teddy bear from 1913 and a penicillium mould from 1935 (£3 a month).
Smell like South Africa with & William Kentridge fragrance © www.packshotfactory.uk
Smellies
The art world does love a posh pong, and there’s a bevy of choices for deeper pockets. London’s Royal Academy of Arts has developed a unisex fragrance, called “&”, with the artist William Kentridge in collaboration with Floris London (£300 for 100ml), inspired by Kentridge’s South Africa studio.
Or Manuela Wirth of Hauser & Wirth gallery’s eponymous perfume, made by Fueguia 1833, is still available for a grassy £375 per 100ml. The collector Cherry Cheng has launched her own perfume brand, Jouissance. One of them, En Plein Air, is described on Jouissance’s website as perfect for those who want to “smell like an unassuming art critic on her way to an orgy”. Clearly a lot of people do, as it is now sold out, but other scents are still available at £180 a pop, or £55 for a roll on.
Art folk also go wild for a scented candle, and Perfumer H has a whole range initially inspired by Old Master paintings at Sotheby’s in 2022. The company has now teamed up with the artist Will Calver who has created three paintings to go alongside these scents—Rose and Insect, Smoke in Woods and Bird and Lemon. Candles are £60 or £185, accompanying eau de parfum between £140 and £590.
If those prices make you wince, try good old-fashioned soap, such as these intaglio soaps by Bridie Hall from Pentreath & Hall. Too pretty to use, they’re £18.50 or £30 for a Grand Tour set. There is much to drool over on the Pentreath & Hall site, including the loveliest decorated matchboxes for £8.50. Simple, pyromaniac pleasures.
My Little Museum: Ancient Egypt rom the British Museum shop is perfect for budding curators Courtesy of the British Museum
Puzzles and kids
Christmas would not be Christmas without a giant jigsaw, so allow us to present The Duck Watch, Donald Duck’s unlikely takeover of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, a 1,000-piece puzzle from the Rijksmuseum’s shop (€21.95). For smaller kids, there’s the equally improbable collaboration of Miffy x Rembrandt, a book that explores art by Rembrandt with the cartoon bunny (in Dutch or English, €12.95).
Museum shops generally are great for presents for children. Tired of plastic tat toys? Try Foundation Beyeler’s wooden animals by the Japanese company T-Lab, like this dachshund (CHF19.00/£18) or polar bear (CHF26.00/£24)
The British Museum also has a host of ideas for kids, including a mini-crossbow kit based on Leonardo da Vinci’s design, which can launch a mini ball up to three metres (be careful who you give that one to), and lots of book ideas—new releases include My Little Museum: Ancient Egypt, which includes reusable stickers of objects for budding curators to create their own display (£9.99).
On the fifth day of Christmas… These gold Roman rings from Charles Ede’s Christmas catalogue are under £1,000 each Courtesy Charles Ede
And finally
If this all feels rather mass-produced, how about delving into Charles Ede’s annual Christmas catalogue, which offers small antiquities and ancient jewellery priced from around £100 to a few thousand. If you’re willing to spend over £300 on a bottle of perfume then £240 for a Roman terracotta bottle, £450 for a Roman gold ring, or £380 for a 2nd-century, free-blown glass vase seems pretty reasonable in comparison.
