A Fine and Rare Ruby and Diamond Ring, sold for HK$9,888,000 at The Hong Kong Jewels Auction.
We begin with a few brief notes from the Editors, if you'll indulge us an article about you being first about us. It's the final campaign of the year, after all, and we're feeling reflective.
Three things and then back to business:
1. We published hundreds of articles this year, and indeed as we are purists of the typed word, none of them were AI-generated. While this is a victory for humanities graduates everywhere, we have the likely distinction of being a net contributor to whatever LLM is getting ready to help others coast through the prerequisite courses and gallery parties of tomorrow. If it's inevitable and inescapable, we have at least given the machine a bit of culture.
2. Speaking of distinctions, we upgraded our look this year and welcomed our newly commissioned in-house font. It's got the kind of kerning that has been described as "optically pleasing." This is genuine praise.
3. Finally, eagle-eyed readers will be called lion-eyed moving forward: Phillips Editorial now uses the UK spelling of colour. It brings us all closer together. Plus, those from our group who are art writers in New York became conscious of how often we unintentionally made baseball references to our London and Hong Kong colleagues in 2024. Consider things all square, then, before coming for our serial comma in 2025. (We'll consider favourite.)
With warm wishes for a collaborative, engaging, and creative 2025, here are the standout stories and voices from an exciting year across the world.
Favorite City Break: Copenhagen
Finn Juhl's House, Ordrupgaard, Lounge. Photo: Henrik Sørensen. Courtesy Ordrupgaard.
On a nice day, Copenhagen is a beautiful city to see by bike. This seems to be the case on inclement days as well, since the city's residents appear to take some pride in riding around in the rain and cold without much fuss. No bad weather, only bad clothes, as they say. For the warm-and-dry crowd, there's the Art Lover's Guide to Copenhagen, featuring more museums, restaurants, bars, galleries, and cafés in the capital region than Kierkegaard pseudonyms.
Favorite Stroll: David Hockney
Next stop: Yorkshire. Ramble through the goldenrod with Dr. Caroline Knighton as we take in the warm light of David Hockney’s Path Through Wheat Field, July. At once a tribute to dramatic landscape of the artist’s childhood and the long tradition of landscape painting itself, Hockney follows us like a summer breeze through the countryside.
Favorite Interiors: Lucie Rie
Lucie Rie, Two footed bowls, circa 1978 and circa 1980. Moved by Beauty.
That she was worldly in her inspirations is seldom discussed. Reading much of what is written on Rie, you might imagine that her art sprang fully formed from a void. This, of course, is far from true. In Moved By Beauty, one can catch whispers of other times, other places, and other potters in her work.
On Lucie Rie's cosmopolitan influences, Isabella Smith shows us how a practice that so deftly balanced subtle expression with lifelong ingenuity often made references in the form of whispers.
Favorite Glow-Up: Damien Hirst's Skulls
Damien Hirst, For the Love of God, Laugh, 2007. Damien Hirst: Online Auction.
No judgement, but we think this one's had some work done. No one's forehead crystal looks that nice naturally. Leave it to Damien Hirst to see the lengths we go to for beauty in this life and see the face of death staring back, laughing. And like any good joke, the accompanying smile is genuine – even if it is missing tooth #5.
Favorite Afternoon Activity: Gallery Tours
There's no such thing as a proper gallery walk. Posture, cadence, hand clasp form, and fixed neck angles are all unique to the individual, and they can be developed through practice to become a bee dance to alert the others to where the interesting stuff is. Art wants to be seen, and how we ambulate toward it matters less than putting eyes on the work.
Keep this in mind and take a walk with Kimberley Wong as she tours the Hong Kong gallery, highlighting works by Antony Gormley, Yoshitomo Nara, Ayako Rokkaku, and many more.
Favorite Opera Accessories: Spinel and Diamonds
Spinel and diamond necklace, circa 1825. Sold for CHF40,640 at The Geneva Jewels Auction: THREE.
From an English Noble Family, this necklace came with a storied history. Gifted by King George IV (1762–1830) to his mistress, Elizabeth Conyngham (née Denison), Marchioness Conyngham (1770–1861), we can only imagine the operas to which it was worn. Indeed, it would have been right at home at the English premiere of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, but it's in the circular-cut diamonds that we hear a gentle arpeggio of woodwinds against a bed of upper strings. And what's that? The cushion-shaped spinels strike the delicate poise of an Italian bass line, interjecting at even measures for the perfect balance. This necklace’s intricate structure of hoop links forms a harmony akin a Bel canto aria from none other than the maestro himeslf, Rossini.
Favorite Cool Candids: Ellen von Unwerth
Ellen von Unwerth, Lady in Red, Karen Mulder, Cannes, 1991. ULTIMATE: Ellen von Unwerth.
An ongoing, incomplete list of things in which we've observed our likeliness this year: a microwave, dinner spoons, work party photo booth prints, a double-pane Midtown window on a brisk morning, several glossy elevator buttons placed closely together, the reverse side of a mylar balloon at a low key, don't-bring-gifts upstate wedding.
Number of times we've thought, "Hey, looking good!": None.
Number of times Ellen von Unwerth was directing these images: None.
Coincidence? Obviously not.
Favorite Colour: All of them
Why settle for one hue in a rainbow?
In 1994, the idea of pairing such a high-end, colourful gemstone configuration with what was primarily seen as a tool watch was audacious – nothing like the market had seen before. It remained a solitary figure, a unique commission destined for an extremely discerning collector. That is, until 2024. Decades before the world would fall in love with the Rainbow Daytona in yellow, white, and everose gold, there was this single white gold reference.
Favorite Working Holiday: Maine
Lynne Drexler, Untitled, 1962. Lynne Drexler’s Garden: Works from the 1950s–1990s.
We're starting to notice a theme in that everyone dreamed of a nice getaway this year in one form or another. Maybe a drive up the coast; way up, in fact, to Maine, where Stephen King roams the earth and Lynne Drexler's paintings quietly developed a visual language that would usher in an entirely new perspective on second-generation Abstract Expressionism over her years in the Pine Tree State.
Favorite Playlist: Blue Hour
It's not a phase, mom, we like chill music and don't care what anyone thinks about it! We're wearing comfortable clothes! And being aware of our breathing! All of our friends jumped off a bridge called "going to bed at a reasonable hour" and yeah, so did we! And you know what? We learned this from listening to YOU!
Favorite E-Commerce UX Feature: Add to cart
Maurizio Cattelan, Less than ten items, 1997. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art, London.
There's always a sort of trepidation around conceptual and performance art and missing the point. Thankfully we're here to take that concern head-on and give critical but constructive reviews, even and especailly if no one else will. Assuming the average supermarket items present in an average cart across all average grocery hauls with variable inputs and outputs accounted for in this hermetically sealed thought experiment, and further assuming that Maurizio Cattelan's image of commonly accepted reality is plotted on an acceptable matrix of relative understanding and so on, we can come to one leap of faith: we think for sure that one can fit more than ten items into that cart.
Recommended Reading
Phillips 2024: The Year in DROPSHOP >