New York Magazine
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More than her impossible beauty, more than her blockbuster jewels, Elizabeth Taylor’s talismanic appeal came from the way she embraced her Hollywood legend like no one else. She never knew a day she wasn’t famous, and she never disappointed her fans, looking no less than dazzling whenever she was seen in public. Last week, I got to preview the exhibit that Christie’s has put together in advance of its Elizabeth Taylor sale being held December 13 through 16. The auction includes many of the actress’s most prized possessions, including the sunshine-yellow chiffon dress she wore at her first wedding to Richard Burton in 1964, designed by Irene Sharaff. The exhibition is on until this Monday; go to christies.com/elizabethtaylor for tickets.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The first installation you see upon entering is a re-creation of her jewelry room. Taylor kept each piece in the original box it came in and displayed the items on shelves so she could identify each one easily. As a gag, Malcolm Forbes once presented Taylor with a jewel box inside of which she found a paper copy of a diamond necklace. Christie’s is also selling paper cutout versions of some of Taylor’s jewels.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Many of Taylor’s jewels have fantastic legends but none so much as the spectacular La Peregrina pearl Richard Burton purchased for her 37th birthday in 1969 (left). He paid $37,000 at auction at Parke-Bernet. Christie’s estimates that the jewel is worth between $2 million and $3 million now. At right, a portrait of Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain, wearing the pearl. It was originally harvested in the Gulf of Panama and given to Philip II of Spain in 1579.
Photo: Wendy Goodman (left); Courtesy of Christies (right)
At left, the famous Elizabeth Taylor diamond, weighing in at 33.19 eye-blinding carats. Burton gave this to his love on her 40th birthday in 1972. The spectacular diamond’s cut was compared by Taylor to “steps that lead into eternity and beyond.” A postcard to her parents in the catalogue reads, “Dear Mom and Dad, Did you read about my ring? It’s fab! Love you both wish you were here! Elizabeth and Richard”
Photo: Wendy Goodman (left); Courtesy of Christies (right)
Costumes from the film Cleopatra, where her relationship with Burton began.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The exhibition includes all three of Elizabeth Taylor’s Oscars, shown with photographs of the moment she won them. They were lent by the family and are not for sale. Here she is with Eddie Fisher winning her first for Butterfield 8 in 1960.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Taylor’s luggage tags pretty much said it all about their owner.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The auction room has been taken over by Taylor’s couture and ready-to-wear fashion and accessories including gowns from Dior, Michael Vollbracht, Donna Karan, Chanel, Versace, Lacroix, Thierry Mugler, Pucci, Arnold Scaasi, Gucci, Thea Porter, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, and Yves Saint Laurent, to name but a few. There wasn’t a fashion moment in her lifetime that she missed.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Christie’s has installed a miniature version of one of her accessory closets with all handbags color-coded, naturally.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
What would you give for one of her director’s chairs? Someone will outbid you.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Michael Jackson gave his good friend lots of gifts, including a diamond watch so loaded with stones it would have been near impossible to tell the time. He also gave her this eighteenth-century ceramic bowl that just happened to have the name Elizabeth Taylor (common in those times) painted on it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Her Chanel moment is well represented.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The black velvet Scorpio evening cape labeled “Tiziani Roma” with diamanté scorpions embroidered on the front and hood is my favorite. Karl Lagerfeld was working at Tiziani as a freelance designer in 1969, the time this was made, so there is speculation he might have dreamed this up.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
All 1,200 L-shaped pieces of this lamp are made of polyamide plastic printed on a Selective Laser Sintering machine. Dror uses a similar interlocking technique on one of the conceptual building designs on his bulletin board.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
As I left the office, I noticed Dror’s collection of toys with simple movable parts. “I am fascinated by toys that have movement and geometry,” Dror says. “These have an ingenuity and playfulness.”
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.