A remarkable art collection
Retail Area -
The Art of Design
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Let’s start this area with two greats who bookend the corridor: Pablo Picasso and René Magritte; two disrupters who challenged perceptions and inspired generations of radical approaches to art making. Rather humorously you will find Picasso’s work beside the ATM and Magritte further down the hall past the retail shops.
Picasso’s ‘Dove of Peace with Sun’ is an ode to peace over conflict, symbolised by the dove hovering over the broken armament with an olive branch in its beak. This is timeless imagery. Its position signifies a chapter in the hotel’s collection which is dedicated to social justice and global harmony. It’s a quiet work of art that resonates with humanity’s unending quest for social harmony.
Magritte’s ‘Le beau monde’ flags the Surrealist movement which radicalised forms of visual expression by attending to the subconscious, something that writers addressed in free-form poetry and rule-breaking prose. Magritte’s signature blue sky with white clouds, his self-portrait with bowler hat and apple, all relate to his dream-like portfolio of artworks that are both humorous and unsettling.
In between these two works we encounter British artist Patrick Hughes with his optical illusion of emerging and receding spaces, the library, the doorway to the ocean, as well as many of the artists in this collection listed on book covers. To experience this artwork, walk back and forth, and change your height on each turn.
Across the hall, American Sean Kenny has recreated the hotel campus using Lego. This is Kenny’s chosen medium – Lego- an object that many of us recall playing with as children. Set at eye level, this architectural rendering is a playful reminder of contemporary art expressions that know no bounds. It is also a reminder that the collectors are aware of their youthful guests. Indeed, several works in this area seem child-focused.
Sean Kenny Spotlight
Speedi Graphito makes a grand sweeping homage to several artists in his ‘Cannibal Spirit’. Here is reference to Warner Brothers’ well-known Tweety Bird, Takahashi Murakami’s ‘happy face’ icon and Keith Haring’s dancing blue figure. The hotel’s art collection often cross references like this, which is quite special as this is more the behaviour of museum ownership and placement.
Talk about placement. Check out Italian artist Ugo Rondinone’s quirkily titled ‘Small Yellow Mountain, Small Pink Mountain, Small Orange Mountain, Small Violet Mountain’, a colourful, impossible stack of rocks. While many may jeer at such an object, saying ‘This is something I can do”, well you’re likely right. But if you research Rondinone’s portfolio, you discover his projects in public spaces worldwide, creating opportunities for audiences to experience the simple joy that his objects excite. It is a simple intention: to make us laugh and feel good, and is aptly placed beside the hotel’s spa.
Local artist Carlos Santana (yes, sharing the name of the musical legend) presents his homage to another icon, of reggae, Bob Marley, using pointillism (small dots) and lyrics. It’s a beautiful portrait. The works of several local artists are interwoven throughout the hotel’s collection.
Down the hall, British artist Tom Price has created the most gorgeous of benches. We often find people seated here, on this luxurious rectangle of compressed carbon with its bejewelled resin end. A burning cigar, perhaps? A litmus test from the depths of the Earth? A beautiful sculpture that is strong enough to be functional.
Elevating the corridor further is David Hockney’s ‘Hotel Acatlán, First Day, from the Moving Focus Series’ from 1984. Note that this is a signed artist proof, or AP edition, meaning it was ‘hot off the press’ so to speak. Several Hockney’s can be found in the collection, such as his ‘Prince Charles’ series in the lobby, which funnily enough was displayed just prior to the Queen’s passing. Hockney is now 85 years old and continues to press into the contemporary moment with computer and iPhone drawings.
Where it is
