Christie’s Southampton Exhibition: The Great Indoors

Christie’s is a world-leading art and luxury business, offering a portfolio of global services to clients. These include everything from art appraisal to art financing, international real estate, and education. Christie’s has a presence throughout forty-six countries—the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, and their auctions span more than eighty art and luxury categories. Christie’s will now be back in the Hamptons for an exciting summer season with a lot to look forward to over the next months.

On July 1^st, Christie’s began a new exhibition that will be open to the public throughout the entire month of July. The Great Indoors exhibition explores artists’ studies of interior spaces, and it features powerful works by artists like Matisse and Degas, among others. The exhibition includes a mix of established masters and contemporaries, exploring the role that the interior has played throughout art history.

Kristen France, a Christie’s veteran who is leading the summer months, spoke about the concept, past and current success, and the ongoing Southampton exhibition.

What is Christie’s all about?

KF: Over the past couple of years, Christie’s has really looked into diversifying and expanding our engagement with our clients and collectors; one of the fantastic initiatives that has come out of this is our commitment to these wonderful pop-up gallery spaces with the aim to engage with the local community and build stronger and lasting relationships with collectors in the region. We currently have a number of pop-ups across the US including in Aspen and we just concluded a very successful season in our Palm Beach gallery and look forward to re-engaging next December. All of these galleries, in addition to the Hamptons, have been very positively received and have proved to be a great success for Christie’s. 

Can you talk about the new exhibition The Great Indoors? 

KF: “The Great Indoors,” Christie’s second selling exhibition of the Summer 2022 opened Friday, July 1^st in our Southampton Gallery, which we are very excited about. A whimsical play on the notion of “The Great Outdoors,” this exhibition features interior scenes painted by some of the most prominent artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, such as Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Andrew Wyeth, David Hockney, Damien Hirst, and Sharah Hughes to name only a few.  

What I love about this theme is that it allows for such a wonderful conversation between modern and contemporary masters, each artist bringing their own vision to the same subject but doing so in very unique and interesting ways. For instance, we have some more traditional interior scenes, such as Fairfield Porter’s Double Portrait or David Hockney’s Amaryllis in Vase, to the more idiosyncratic take on the notion of the interior with Damien Hirst’s version of a medicine cabinet, entitled Worked Up. I think visitors will find that each piece in the show presents something new to explore or consider; our gallery is full of beautiful images of everyday life, made special through each artist’s unique point of view. Moreover, there is a nice variety of composition and price points featured in “The Great Indoors,” so there is certainly something for every kind of collector.  

What has made past shows and exhibitions a success?

KF: With each show that we feature in our pop-up galleries, our specialists carefully curate the exhibition with the clientele in mind at that specific venue. Our aim is to provide material that will appeal to a range of collectors, from those just beginning their collecting journeys to our more seasoned collectors looking to expand the roster of artists in their collections. Whether curating a selling exhibition or building an auction, our specialists are thoughtful about the context and the audience they are trying to reach. We always try to have an idea of the client we want to reach when we are considering consignments and pricing works of art.  

What sets the Southampton exhibition apart from exhibitions held in other locations?

KF: Opening a gallery in the Hamptons in particular was an obvious choice for Christie’s, since our first very successful engagement during the summer of 2020. The proximity to New York City makes it a very desirable destination for many artists and art collectors; and in fact, Long Island and the Hamptons has a long and robust history as a place where artists, writers, and creative types would go to escape the city, and seek inspiration from the natural beauty of the area. Our inaugural exhibition in the summer of 2021, entitled “Out East” really spoke to this fact. We featured artists such as Jackson Pollock, Lee Krassner, Larry Rivers, Roy Lichtenstein, Fairfield Porter, Andy Warhol—artists who all spent a considerable amount of time on the East End or called the Hamptons home at one point in their lives. 

What are you most excited about for The Great Indoors exhibition and what can be expected?

KF: “The Great Indoors” provides a really wonderful context for us to collaborate across categories at Christie’s for this special selling exhibition. Included in the exhibition are prime examples of Impressionism, 20^th century American Art, Latin American art, and Contemporary art for example. One of my favorite pieces in the show is Andrew Wyeth’s Ship’s Door from 1992, a beautiful scene depicting Wharf House on Benner Island off the coast of Maine, the artist’s summer residence and what became his studio. Executed in tempera on panel, the artist’s preferred medium, Ship’s Door to me is such a poetic scene, providing an intimate glimpse into the space where the artist lived and worked. This is definitely a piece that deserves quiet contemplation.  

Another work that I love in the show is Ad Laudes (1999) by the Chilean artist, Claudio Bravo. An extension of the artist’s early interest in still life paintings, Bravo’s lush depictions of drapery and fabric stand out equally for their dazzling trompe l’oeil effects and their deft use of color, at times pushing the very boundaries between representation and abstraction. Bravo is, in my opinion, unparalleled in his trompe l’oeil technique; every time I am in front of his canvases I am simply in awe.  

The work that continues to captivate me every time I am in front of it is the Degas’ Femme enpeignoir jaune se coiffant of 1894. This piece is really quite impressive, both for its size as a pastel on paper, and for the tremendous use of color, which is really what makes the piece so special. Despite the flurry of action in the scene, Degas has created such a sense of balance and harmony in this picture in a way only a true master could do.   

Are there any major factors that contribute to the success of Christie’s?

KF: One of our key values at Christie’s is our passionate expertise. I have always believed that when a person is passionate about what they do, and in this case, about the art that they are presenting and promoting, that passion inspires confidence, and forges strong and lasting relationships. Our clients look to Christie’s team as trusted advisors and experts in assessing and pricing works of art. Time and again, our clients seek out Christie’s because of the relationships we build and maintain, and for our spirit of collaboration and the tremendous support we offer to ensure our clients’ valued property is treated with the utmost care and presented in the best possible light.   

Do you have a favorite part about being on the East End of Long Island?

KF: The Hamptons is full of amazing art opportunities, of course the Peter Marino Foundation is fantastic, located just up Jobs Lane, the Southampton History Museum and the Art Museum, also just up the street are two of my favorite places to visit. Of course, the Parrish Museum is a truly wonderful destination. Beyond that, the Hamptons is teeming with natural beauty; I have small children so we love to take them on day hikes, the Walking Dunes and Conscience Point are two favorites of mine, and of course the beaches out here are unparalleled.

Christie’s will be hosting a series of events and programs throughout the summer. Following The Great Indoors, their third and final selling exhibition of the summer will take place on August 5th. Their Southampton team is currently planning additional events, which will be announced as they come together.

For more information about Christie’s, The Great Indoors, and their exhibitions to follow, visit their website at https://www.christies.com.