Indholdsfortegnelse for issue 19 i The New York Times Style Magazine: Australia

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Pablo Picasso WELCOME TO OUR “Artistry” issue, which celebrates those at the vanguard of creativity — the visionaries of art, design, film, literature and gastronomy who help us see the world anew. As I consider the incredible people spotlighted in this issue, I’m struck not only by their immense skill but also by the ingenious — and daring — perspective they bring to their work. We all know that artistry involves great talent, but sometimes the most creative thing you can do is to try something different or unexpected. From the Hollywood veteran trying his hand in a new field to the 12-year-old painter making waves in the world’s leading art spaces, the boldness and unflagging determination of…

1600s, it wasn’t until the late 19th century that the apparatus was perfected in miniature. Squeezing in the more than 100 additional components necessary to have a modern-style wristwatch strike with pinpoint accuracy and rich, clear peals — each watch sounds subtly different — is considered the height of horological craft, and most companies abandoned such complex models long ago. But a few holdouts continue to make such timepieces. Among them is Omega, whose new numbered-edition Speedmaster marries the Swiss brand’s stopwatch chronograph feature with a minute repeater, enabling wearers to press a button that triggers a series of tones to signal the minutes, tens of seconds and seconds. The unique combination, housed in an 18-karat gold case with an aventurine dial and rose guilloche subdials, is arrestingly beautiful while…

GIN & JUICEPEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS AUSTRALIA IT’S VINTAGE TIME across Australia’s vast wine regions as workers sharpen their secateurs and bend their backs to the sweaty work of harvesting grapes. These bunches of sun-plumped berries will go on to fill our wine glasses, but as Australia’s thirst for gin continues to grow and countless small producers fight for space in a crowded market, our favourite fermentable fruit is finding its way into our G&Ts, too. Gins infused with wine grapes have become a staple of the Australian craft gin boom. To illustrate the size of the trend, a quick Google reveals more than 30 labels of Australian shiraz-flavoured gins alone — many other gins employ different grapes including grenache, pinot noir and chardonnay, released by both distilleries and wineries. The…

WHAT MAKES A good Bond (James Bond)? Like a perfectly balanced martini, Ian Fleming’s iconic literary character demands a specific formula: equal parts confidence and calm; intelligence (sometimes eclipsed by pride); and a vermouth-style wash of mischievousness, wit and sex appeal. Shaken, of course, with the potential to knock you from your seat. And served with a singular roguish garnish. To expect any mortal to embody all of the above and more on screen is a hefty ask, one that just seven actors have attempted in the 62 years since the release of the first film. Sean Connery planted the cinematic flag for Bond in 1962, with his bone-dry delivery and distinctive brand of cool. Roger Moore played 007 with added humour, and arguably the silliest gadgets. Daniel Craig, the…

IN 1920, FOLLOWING the successful launch of her couture house in Biarritz, France, and her subsequent move to Paris’s Rue Cambon, where she opened her flagship boutique, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel decided to create her first fragrance. She commissioned the French Russian perfumer Ernest Beaux to develop “a woman’s perfume, with a woman’s scent” — which, unlike most single-note options of the era, had a bold floral composition. Beaux imported exotic ingredients from around the world, concocting a mix of more than 80 different notes, including jasmine and May rose harvested from Grasse, France; ylang-ylang flowers from Madagascar; Brazilian tonka beans; and sandalwood. Months later, he presented Chanel with an array of aromatic vials, and she chose the one labelled five. When Beaux asked her what she’d call the perfume, she…

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IN HIS EARLY 20s, long before he became a leading man, Josh Brolin took a writing class taught by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. One of the assignments was to create an evocative phrase by combining two words. A fellow student came up with “Tylenol Christ”; Brolin, an enthusiastic storyteller, had trouble being that succinct. The experience has been on the actor’s mind recently as he finishes his forthcoming memoir, a mix of stories, anecdotes and poems scheduled to come out this spring. In a recently completed essay, he describes chasing a flock of sheep with two of his children when they were young on Scotland’s remote Isle of Skye. (His son, Trevor, and eldest daughter, Eden, both from his first marriage to the actress Alice Adair, are now…

BACK WHEN THE first Michael Hill Jeweller store opened in Whāngarei, north of Auckland, New Zealand, in 1979, the eponymous founder’s aim was to make buying jewellery less intimidating for customers. The store was designed with a large, welcoming entrance and customers were warmly invited to try on the wares. Four decades on, retail conditions have changed dramatically, along with the cost of metals and the weight given to sustainability. Hill, now 85, is still involved in the business, but in 2021 Jo Feeney was brought in as chief marketing officer, joining a company that was primed for change. A marketing guru with a passion for helping brands, Feeney came to the jeweller from McDonald’s, where, among other firsts, she was part of the team that introduced touch-screen kiosks. Feeney…

THERE OFTEN IS a subtle difference between the way men and women collect things. Many men tend to take a systematic approach, choosing pieces that mesh with the rest of their possessions, be they stamps, cars or watches. A woman, however, may have a hundred pairs of shoes, but whether or not they amount to a collection may be debatable. Serious collectors, male and female, are motivated by connoisseurship and an instinct for resale value, which may be the only established metric for judging a collection. There are other factors, of course, including taste, impulse, budget and opportunity (waiting lists are a reality) — just enough variables to make building a coherent collection a fairly daunting task. So here is a brief guide to building a feminine watch collection, organised…

DESIGNPEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS “THE BAG, IT carries your things and carries your secrets,” Priscila Alexandre Spring says. The creative director of leather goods at Hermès is sitting in her office in Pantin, just outside of Paris, explaining what she likes about designing bags — in particular, the relationship between “your private life and your exterior life”. Alexandre Spring joined the Hermès leather goods métier in 2015, and in 2020 she was appointed to her current role. Hermès, which began in 1837 as a saddle maker, is a name that comes with intimations of money (bags often sell for more than $15,000), scarcity (if you can get your hands on one) and craftsmanship (each is handmade by a single craftsperson). Most people have heard of the Kelly bag (named for Grace…

IN 1889, PABLO Picasso painted “Le petit picador jaune”, a small work in oil inspired by visits he made with his father to the bullfights in Spain. In the centre of the painting is a bullfighter on horseback, his pants and jacket, or “chaquetilla”, a blazing yellow. It is an extraordinary effort for an artist who was only eight years old at the time — a sign of budding genius. Earlier this year, Andres Valencia painted “Romero”, a medium-sized work inspired by nothing but his own imagination and perhaps a picture he saw somewhere. It shows a bullfighter surrounded by blazing yellow, his chaquetilla embroidered with flowers and jewels, his face a swirl of Cubist abstraction. It is a dazzling effort for an artist who is only 12 years old…

YANA PEEL IS a fan of the artists Gilbert & George, the octogenarian suit-wearing duo who live and work in London’s East End and are renowned for their commitment to making art accessible. Since their first “living sculpture” in 1969, their art has been designed to promote engagement and inclusivity. Peel, who is the global head of arts and culture at French fashion house Chanel, told the Art Newspaper in 2023: “I celebrate anything that is there to bring the arts to audiences, particularly in the spirit of Gilbert & George’s ‘art for all’.” Making art accessible to the masses is Peel’s wheelhouse. Peel joined Chanel in 2020 after several years as the CEO of London’s Serpentine Galleries. Soon after her appointment, the luxury maison launched the Chanel Culture Fund,…

In the making of ceramics, colour normally gets added towards the end. A vitreous glaze, composed largely of silica, can be brushed on neutral-hued clay, with which it fuses in the kiln, becoming an impervious, sometimes unexpected, often beautiful coating. But for the Bushwick, Brooklyn-based designer Cody Hoyt, 43, who creates vessels, furniture and wall pieces, his artistic process begins with vibrant pigments, typically dozens of them. Using a variation of a Japanese method called nerikomi, Hoyt tints white clay with powdered stains, then extrudes them into bars of varying thickness that he cuts and manipulates to create marbled tableaus, and geometries that recall those of M C Escher. His one-off pieces include this chair, constructed from handmade, sandblasted matt tiles applied to a simple wooden frame. In some places,…

ART CRIMEPEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS AUSTRALIA IN THE HALLWAYS of the world’s most esteemed galleries, the threat of lawbreakers is ever present. The world of art crime — involving theft, forgery and fraud — is a shadowy place where beauty and betrayal collide, and decades-old mysteries remain unsolved. One man working tirelessly in this space is Anthony Amore, the director of security and the chief investigator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He’s also the author of bestsellers such as “Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists” and “The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World”. Art crime is Amore’s world: he lives and breathes it and has even found friendship with former underworld figures. But make no mistake,…