Private Collection: Teen Angst Journals
Life before blogging with five years of journals, dug up and explored.

What I (w)could buy, if I won
Real estate, art auctions and gadget drool, using "The Secret" method of winning.

Looking Back
Late 90s into the early 00s, lookbooks worth speaking about.

Tipping Point: Alexander Wang
Will 2010 be the year that the designer secures his standing within fashion's elite?

The Family, Richard Avedon.
The uncompromising austerity of the plain white background leaves no room to hide.

Invitations Only, Fashion Shows
Arc brings you these show invites from the early 2000s

Netflix Instants: Arc's Picks
Watching without a disc has become increasingly easier, and better. Watch these now.

Fashionable Anagram: Balmain
The creative chaos of a sole visionary is stolen and transformed into a global fashion brand.

Mark Tansey, Push/Pull 2003.

On May 11th, 2010, works from the collection of Michael Crichton will go up for auction at Christie’s in New York. Who knew? The writer of such classics like Jurassic Park and The Lost World had also been a devoted art collector since the early 70s. Among some of the 31 lots are works by Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso, Anges Martin, and Roy Lichenstein. He was also into the more contemporary artists like Jeff Koons and Richard Prince. He was known for his desire to understand the artist and felt that in some way he was connecting with the struggles of the artist through the purchasing of their work. His own talent was one of quiet seclusion and introspection, so it should come as no surprise that after great success Crichton would enrich his surroundings. But it still does. You never know about those Hollywood types.

Two years after his death, all the works are quite valuable. There are two $7.5m Picasso’s and a $15m Jasper Johns Flag. Should be an interesting auction, and just two years after…

So, in my continuing series on potential purchases in a post-lottery win state of mind, I’m adding some additional art to my unbuilt home(s). This one could be a bit early, seeing as how the lottery drawing and the auction are on the same night, however buying millions of dollars worth of art before you have the money pretty much as “the secret” as it gets.

Tomorrow night’s Impressionist/Modern evening sale at Christie’s in New York has quite the piece, an Alberto Giacometti sculpture, Le Main from 1947. It measures 28 inches long and would be a great addition to the Paris apartment, for an estimate of $10m – 15m. Jean-Paul Sartre gave some words for the introduction to Giacometti’s exhibition catalogue in which this piece was displayed back in 1948, “I can consider separately from the tree itself this wavering branch,” wrote Jean-Paul Sartre, “but I cannot think of an arm rising, a fist closing, apart from a human agent. A man raises his arm, a man clenches his fist; man is the indissoluble unity and the absolute source of his movements.”

So I didn’t win the $244 million lottery last night. But, the good news is, nobody else did either! So it’s now up to $266 million dollars for Tuesday night’s drawing. I’ve decided to take the idea of “The Secret” to a whole new level with, Things I could, maybe would, buy if I won the lottery. Firstly, after some calculations I’ve discovered that the total take home post-tax, post-lump sum option for a prize of $266 would be somewhere around $115m. Here’s some ideas about where all that cheeze could go, post-charity of course.

Herb and Dorothy Vogel with Archie Vogel and a wall of Richard Tuttle works. photo Ben Hoffmann

“MANY THINGS PLACED HERE AND THERE/TO FORM A PLACE CAPABLE OF SHELTERING/MANY THINGS PUT HERE AND THERE.”

The above text is from a Lawrence Weiner work that lives on the bathroom wall of the Vogels’ Manhattan apartment, next to a Sol Lewitt drawing on another wall. Richard Tuttle‘s “3rd Rope Piece” is installed next to their front door frame and light sensitive drawings are covered up with beach towels that hang down from the walls. These “artists’ collectors” are legends in the New York art world. For the last 30 years Herb and Dorothy Vogel have been growing a collection of art that’s reached nearly 5,000 from some of New York’s most avant-garde minimalists, abstractionists and conceptualists, all with care and concern for the artists themselves. In the documentary, Herb&Dorothy, you get an entertaining glimpse into their world, their passion and their complete devotion to art.

Pledging nearly their entire collection to The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Vogels never saw the buying of art as something to make profit from. They’ve never sold any of their collection, despite multiple offers and with an unspeakably high value, they’ve still decided to give it all away and continue living and buying from within their cramped rent-stable apartment. Their true connections with artists and their devotion to making it accessible to everyone is something to be greatly admired. Watching this documentary really shows how much the art world and New York has changed. They don’t come like the Vogels anymore.

Be sure and watch the documentary, available for free on Netflix Instant.

Homes of the collectors.

Takashi Murakami

Thomas Struth