The Vinson View

Picky Nicky on the ultimate art tours

In July, we were given a private tour of the ‘Lee Krasner: Living Colour’ show at the Barbican by its curator Eleanor Nairne. The nine of us – guests of the fashion designer Roksanda Ilinčić – had the whole show to ourselves. I learnt so much about Krasner and her work; it was the ideal way to visit an exhibition. Last January, it was Molteni & C’s turn: the Italian brand invited a small group of us on a guided tour of ‘Tutto Ponti’ at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris (W*235), with its director, Olivier Gabet, and the show’s curator, Sophie Bouilhet-dumas. This was especially insightful as Bouilhet-dumas’ grandfather knew Gio Ponti and commissioned him to build a villa outside Paris in 1926. In September, I turned up 50 minutes early for the opening of the Fondazione Prada’s ‘Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and Other Treasures’, conceived by Wes Anderson and Juman Malouf. I had all 538 items on display and a guide to myself, and left feeling so jammy after I saw the long queue outside.

And although I spent a full year working on our exclusive story on the Charlotte Perriand exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (W*247), meeting the curators, Perriand’s biographer Jacques Barsac, and daughter and former collaborator Pernette Perriand, as well as visiting Cassina to see the replicas being made, I hungered for more. So, treat of all treats, I arranged a tour of the show with curator Sébastien Cherruet one morning before the foundation opened its doors and brought along a few friends.

I treasure these precious experiences above acquiring more stuff, which I certainly don’t need. Other highlights have included being taken around ‘Breathing Colour’ at the Design Museum by Hella Jongerius; a private visit to the Museo Chillida Leku near San Sebastián in Spain with Mikel Chillida; and a private tour of the Vasari Corridor, the long passageway that connects the Uffizi Gallery to the Pitti Palace in Florence, as a guest of Gucci before its Cruise 2018 show.

I have obviously been spoilt rotten, my preference for guided tours revealing an inability to properly take in an exhibition on my own, and a dislike of reading notes and captions. It is also a reaction to being overwhelmed with information and imagery all day long – on one of these tours, you are mindfully and blissfully focused.

Tours like these are not just a swanky perk of the job and can actually be booked and paid for (see box above). Many institutions will offer tours with their curators or artists, and not just to patrons or journalists like me. It’s just a matter of being organised, booking in advance and planning your travels around upcoming shows (my group made a special overnight trip to Paris to see the Perriand). *