06-05-2025
Fancy buying some top-notch contemporary art? Head to the country
Head west out of London this month for some inspired exhibitions in unexpected settings to rival anything in the capital.
Opening in Bath next Monday is an exhibition of new work by Switzerland's most successful young artist, Nicolas Party, at the stately Holburne Museum, home to a collection of 18th-century portraits formed by Sir William Holburne (1793–1874). The juxtaposition will not be incongruous as Party draws heavily on art historical references in his work, rendered in sharply contrasting bright pastel colours and simplified linear contours. All the works have been supplied by Party's dealer in Glasgow, The Modern Institute, but are not being advertised as for sale.
Party's market is difficult to gauge at the moment. In 2022, he achieved a record $6.2 million (£4.7 million) at an auction in Asia and in 2023 became the world's top-selling millennial artist (he is 44). But with the recent decline in speculative interest in the latest contemporary art, his work has been selling below estimate at auction and sometimes not at all. So, a museum show is just the ticket to maintain his reputation during an unfavourable market.
Five days later (May 17) and a mere 20-minute drive south to Bruton is where international art dealers Hauser & Wirth converted the semi-derelict Durslade Farm into an arts venue which opens for Myths & Machines, an exhibition that celebrates the centenary of the birth of Jean Tinguely, the leading kinetic artist of bizarre, mechanical assemblages.
The exhibition places Tinguely's work together with Niki de Saint Phalle, a self-taught outsider artist whom he married for only two years but worked with for more than 30, and who provides the mythic element to the exhibition. While Europe will be awash with memorial events in museums and institutions, this will be the only one in the UK, and the farmyard setting should set it apart.
