This week, the Victoria Beckham boutique on Dover Street in London is getting an arty makeover. Across the three-level Georgian building, the designer and collector has installed a selection of contemporary artworks, which appear right at home in the chic, well-appointed space. It is, she said, “a wonderful place to celebrate other people’s work.”
“If you can come into the store, and shop while looking at George Condo,” she told the Financial Times, “it absolutely doesn’t get any better than that.”
Installation view of Richard Prince, (2020) and George Condo, (2015) at Victoria Beckham Dover Street in London. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The transformation of the flagship store comes by way of Beckham’s partnership with Sotheby’s. With help from the auction house’s specialist, the former Spice Girl has picked 11 artworks for display—pieces by Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, Yoshitomo Nara, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joan Mitchell, Gerhard Richter, Yves Klein, and of course, Condo. The works are on view from February 6–10, before they head to the block at Sotheby’s forthcoming Contemporary auctions in London and New York.
This latest project follows Beckham’s 2018 project with Sotheby’s, when a selection of works by Old Masters—Fede Galizia and Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun among them—was similarly exhibited at her Dover Street boutique.
Installation view of Jean-Michel Basquiat, (1984) at Victoria Beckham Dover Street in London. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
“It has been such a joy to collaborate with Victoria, who has an incredible eye and a deep connection with storytelling through art and design,” said Haleigh Stoddard, Sotheby’s head of contemporary curated, in a statement. “As an established collector of contemporary art, Victoria is somebody who has never been afraid to try new things or to change and evolve or reinvent over time—an ethos which chimes so wonderfully with that of many of the artists presented in this exhibition.”
While Beckham admits to being no “great expert” in visual art, she boasts a deep love for the medium—and has the collection to prove it. She was introduced to collecting when she, along with her husband, football star David, visited Elton John at his home in Nice, France. There, she encountered a Julian Schnabel work, one that she remembered as “my first experience with art and really seeing it up close.”
Installation view of Keith Haring, (1983) at Victoria Beckham Dover Street in London. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
From there, Victoria and David commenced building an art collection. They began with a piece from Schnabel’s “Sonanbul” series (the colors of which inspired the palette of Beckham’s Fall 2024 collection), before including works by Nan Goldin, Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, Tracey Emin, and Nara.
“For David and I, collecting is about more than just investing or acquiring beautiful objects,” she said in a statement. “It’s about finding pieces that bring us real joy. The more I delve into art history and progress on my journey as a collector, the more captivated I am by it.”
Yoshitomo Nara, (2005). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Nara, in particular, has resounded with the designer. The work by the Japanese artist currently on view at her store is the six-feet tall Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky lake) (2005), featuring one of Nara’s creepy-charming characters fixing the viewer with an unflinching gaze. To Beckham, “there’s a childlike innocence mixed with a real edge and an eeriness.”
“This is one of the things I Iove so much about Nara,” she added. “His images seem straightforward, but as you start to move closer, you realize they have so much more to say. Despite the sophistication of the muted color palette, he never loses that sense of playfulness which is something I always try to weave into my collections.”
Joan Mitchell, (1991). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Elsewhere in the temporary display are vibrant pieces from Basquiat’s 1984 jazzy, dynamic Red Joy to Mitchell’s Pastel, a dynamic abstract landscape from 1991 to two untitled Harings that speak to Beckham’s love for American Pop art. Richard Prince’s Untitled (2020), a large, energetic canvas, from his “High Times” series, takes pride of place.
Yves Klein, . Photo courtesyo f Sotheby’s.
Also included is a Richter that Beckham admires for its “luminosity” and one of Klein’s iconic Bleu monochromes, which she dubs “an instantly recognizable visual signature.”
Condo is represented by his abstract double portrait Artist and Muse (2015), believed to depict Picasso and his muse Sylvette. The painting’s contrasting tones and heavy brushwork, said Beckham, offer “beautiful and layered interpretation” of the connection between Picasso and his muse—and in turn, that of Condo and one of his key influences, Picasso.
George Condo, (2015). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
“Art has always been a source of inspiration and over the years, I’ve so enjoyed learning and educating myself,” Beckham said. “It has the power to spark ideas, evoke emotion—and in the case of contemporary art in particular—it speaks to the world around us.”
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
