The Wick - Interview Curator and Art Authority Fru Tholstrup

Monday Muse

Interview Curator and Art Authority Fru Tholstrup

Interview

Fru Tholstrup

28 June 2021

Interview

Fru Tholstrup

28 June 2021

London-based art consultant and curator Fru Tholstrup’s deep knowledge of the contemporary global fine art market draws on an impressive career that includes 10 years as director of London’s Haunch of Venison gallery and extensive time at Sotheby’s where she established S|2 and masterminded a series of dynamic and thought-provoking curated shows. These included rare works by Joseph Beuys, ‘Rock Style’, co-curated by Tommy Hilfiger and ‘Banksy: The Unauthorised Retrospective’, co-curated by Steve Lazarides.

Her prominent role as an advisor to collectors and international businesses looking to build museum-quality art collections has seen her work with Jonathan Yeo to curate the Soho House Art Collection for chief executive Nick Jones, which began with the West Hollywood House. More recently, she curated the art collection for the landmark Hotel de Crillon in Paris.

An ardent supporter and champion of female artists, she also co-created the acclaimed group exhibition 21st Century Women at Unit London to mark the centenary since some (but not all) women won the right to vote in Britain. Artists ranged from established and emerging, including – Anna Freeman-Bentley, Zoë Buckman, Maggi Hambling, Jenny Saville and Helen Beard.

Not one to be slowed down by a pandemic, her recent achievements include co-founding The Sequested Prize with artist W.K. Lyhne, an open call initiative for portrait artists that championed hope and creativity at a time when the art market needed it most. While Tholstrup inspires us, here’s what inspires her…

THE WICK: Talk us through your typical Monday.

FRU THOLSTRUP: It totally depends if I am in the countryside or in London, but the day involves a walk with our Portugese Podengo, Tito Bandito, either on the beach in Dorset or in Hyde Park in London. Nature gives me such inspiration and I listen to art podcasts while walking to motivate and animate my day. Then I sit at my desk and try and catch up on emails and begin extensive research for the show I am working towards or putting together acquisitional proposals for my collectors and working on new business ideas – the day seems to fly by.

TW: You launched Sotheby’s S|2 in 2013 and have significant auction experience. What do you think is the future of collecting?

FT: For the past year and a half collecting has been only online, the auction houses have cleared the decks and it’s hard for the galleries to keep up with limited resources in comparison, which is a worry. Collecting digitally is the new norm but there is a need for physical art fairs too, especially for the galleries to interact with new clients. We certainly don’t need five a month like before, but the core fairs will remain in the arena like Art Basel and Frieze and the lesser fairs will fall away, which is a good thing as it will keep the content relevant and optimal. I think that the platforms that have been created have made us all think outside the box on multiple levels. I am delighted that the art world has now had to become more transparent, which is a remarkable and stimulating way ahead.

TW: Is it changing your views on art?

FT: Yes, I think we all need to look at art in different ways going forward. For example, NFTs and other digital art platforms will keep materialising and we have to try and keep up with the times. However unreal and sensational these unique platforms take shape – the future of art is changing.

TW: What projects do you have coming up?

FT: I am working on various projects. One is a huge Irish show for 2023 – we are developing a concept for an exhibition to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Irish Free State in 2022 and we are keen to explore Ireland’s creative journey through those 100 years and it’s changing identity and what it has meant to Irish creatives to be ‘Irish’. We will encompass the visual arts, fashion, music, dance and design. It’s already been a year and a half in the making and is going to travel to many major cities around the world. I am also still working on the art prize that I set up with Nell Lyhne during lockdown called The Sequeste.

“The art world has now had to become more transparent, which is a remarkable and stimulating way ahead.”

Fru Tholstrup

The Wick - LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 03: Jane Neal (L) and Fru Tholstrup attend the 21st Century Women VIP preview at Unit London, Mayfair, London on October 3, 2018 in London, England. (Pic Credit: Dave Benett)

TW: You worked with Nick Jones to curate the first Soho House art collection. How did you get the first artists on board?

FT: It was really easy. Johnny Yeo and I went through all our artist contacts and drew up a wish list and picked up the phone and sold them the idea – not one of them said no to becoming part of the West Hollywood Soho House art collection. We used a lot of artists based in LA alongside many other international artists.

TW: You are passionate about championing female artists. What three pieces of advice would you give to someone starting out on their journey?

FT: Always be true to yourself. Push yourself to think outside of the box and always ask for help.

TW: Who is your ultimate Monday Muse?

FT: It’s an interesting question because the word muse immediately resonates with an artist’s muse for me. Many women appear in some of art history’s most-famous art works, but they also contributed substantial bodies of work of their own – in some cases becoming better known than their male partners – so having said this, although obvious, Frida Kahlo would have to be my Monday muse. She exemplified staggering heroic traits and she lived a life that was bold, untraditional, and often filled with pain, and this is reflected in her extraordinary artwork, championing women while blazing a trail which will always be celebrated. Frida coupled with our Queen, because I am hugely patriotic and the Queen is an everyday of the week muse – her strength, integrity and dedication are second to none.

TW: What’s the most recent piece of art you bought?

FT: I bought two Sarah Cunningham paintings, I am a huge supporter of emerging artists and Sarah’s work immediately caught my eye. Her paintings are painterly and abstract, and she has a strong relationship with the natural world, flora and fauna and mysteries. In her own words, ‘I draw on collective memories of landscapes to create works that deeply connect to the human psyche. The paintings exist as an attempt to inhabit the space of an in-between, the interval between “worlds” – an attempt to open up a space for these transformations.’ After all these years in the business I instantly know visually what I do and don’t like and what is a must-have, and when she came across my path, I knew I had to buy her work.

TW: What is your current favourite culturally curious spot?

FT: I absolutely love the Ben Hunter Gallery on Duke Street – it’s a gem of a gallery and Ben has an extraordinary eye. His exhibitions are so incredibly beautiful, thoughtful and intellectually curated, managing to combine treasures from BC to the modern day.

TW: Desert island quarantine: what one book, artwork and album do you take with you?

FT: Maya Angelou’s The Complete Collected Poems. You can keep on re-reading her words as she writes from the heart, whether joyful or sad her poems have such a depth and unquenchable dignity.

J M Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge. I grew up on the River Thames and I have always been mesmerised by this painting. Whistler was interested in the subtle harmony of shades of blue, punctuated by touches of gold and the hazy moonlight blurs and obscures the shapes. He made colour and form the primary focus of this painting and these nocturnes were often misunderstood and openly ridiculed when they were first exhibited, but these luminous nocturnal visions were forerunners of the experiments in abstraction that would follow in the next century.

Ella Fitzgerald The Platinum Collection. She is the queen of jazz and I never tire of her extraordinary voice.