'Make your lips more pouty,' said one young woman to another who was posing in front of Roy Lichtenstein's 'Seductive Girl,' a 1996 painting that was on view Wednesday morning at the Tumblr headquarters for a special, salon-style event. She pouted and her friend snapped the photo. She was one of about 75 people who turned up to hear specialist Sara Pritchard of Christie's discuss the Pop artist's work, which (with an estimate of $22-28 million) is one of the highlights of next week's evening sale, an auction that, with its $1 billion high estimate, is expected to exceed all others in Christie's history. In the audience were Tumblr employees - many of whom were wearing polka-dotted attire in homage to Lichtenstein's signature Ben-Day dot style - along with 30 of the most influential art and culture bloggers on Tumblr.
Over a breakfast of almond croissants, brioches, and coffee, Tumblr's own 'Fashion Evangelist' - and Gagosian/Damien Hirst #SpotChallenge winner - Valentine Uhovski talked to Prichard about this particular work and then opened it up to a Q&A.
'We selected this piece because it reflected a lot of the pop art nature of Tumblr in general,' said Uhovski after the talk acknowledging that Tumblr's 'Art Evangelist' Annie Werner was responsible from Tumblr's end for making it happen. Asked whether he thought anyone in the crowd at the event might actually be able to afford such a work, he said, 'I mean realistically not, but we have thirty of the most influential art, photography, and visual bloggers here at the headquarters. Hopefully they'll spread the news. All of them have massive massive followings. For us it's more about connecting to the community.'
Uhovski should know. Since joining Tumblr, he's recruited brands like Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, and Stella McCartney to the social media site. While Uhovski has never been to the evening sale, his first ever purchase at auction was a set of props (including a set of fake breasts, wigs, and shoes) at Christie's Marlon Brando sale in 2005.
Rebecca Rae, whose Tumblr art and diary blog ' Southern Decay' - with roughly 150,000 followers - is one of the most popular on Tumblr, said she had never been to an auction in her life. 'When I received the invitation, I was caught off guard,' she told ARTINFO. 'Really? Christie's at Tumblr?' While noting the event seemed 'a little weird' and that probably the only person at Tumblr who could afford the Lichtenstein was Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp, she was enjoying the opportunity to be in the presence of the work, if only for a little while, recognizing she would probably never be able to afford such a painting.
During the conversation Pritchard noted that it was the painting's ubiquitousness, combined with the fact that it has almost never been shown publicly because it's been in the hands of one private collector since it was painted, that brought it into that sky-high price level ('which becomes unattainable for most people,' she said).
Given the disparity between the crowd there and Christie's normal jet-setting clientele, one sometimes wondered what the purpose of the event was, since it didn't seem clearly about promoting sales to the crowd. According to Christie's social media manager Sasha Smith, the goal was to achieve a union of aesthetic sensibilities. 'We thought there was a compelling parallel between Lichtenstein's inspirations,' saidSmith, 'and the way Tumblr is shaping contemporary pop visual culture.'
Later, in a crowd gathered in front of the painting for selfie photo ops, Rachel Fershleiser, Tumblr's literary outreach guru who was in a red polka-dot skirt, explained one possible mindset of the crowd. 'They're like, I can't afford this now,' she said. 'But, maybe I will, one day.'
- Rozalia Jovanovic
(Photo by the author.)
Tags: Auctions, Christie's, News, Roy Lichtenstein, Rozalia Jovanovic, Tumblr, Valentine Uhovski
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