Ruinart recently launched its ‘second skin’ case, a stylish and more sustainable alternative to the traditional champagne gift box, as pictured above with the Brut Rosé NV and Blanc de Blanc .

Sometimes it’s the supplementary parts of art fairs that we miss the most. For yesterday’s virtual preview of Frieze art fair, we recreated the most excellent private Ruinart champagne event, which usually takes place this week, with a little tasting of their range at home

What will you miss most about the seminal Frieze London Art Fair moving this year from tents in Regent’s Park to an online-only existence, prompted by the pandemic?

Perhaps it will be the frisson of excitement of bumping in to collectors, curators and dealers from around the world expressing their way between the different booths at the pre-preview. Or maybe it will be the talks; or the onsite cafés, where can find yourself standing next to a museum director from LA and a young billionaire from Shanghai while sipping a cup of coffee and finding there is nowhere to sit and catch up on emails. Or, if you are fortunate, the buzz of the Deutsche Bank Wealth Management lounges, where collectors and private bank clients gather to sip on endless champagne and nibble perfect canapés.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

Then there is the physical art, of course. The two fairs, Frieze London and Frieze Masters, at opposite ends of the park, which at best offer an unparalleled art museum experience – a walk around Frieze Masters in particular affords a view of some of the most significant artworks in the world, perhaps on display for the last time in decades or centuries.

A print from David Shrigley x Ruinart’s ‘Unconventional Bubbles’ Series that was scheduled to feature in The Ruinart Art bar at Frieze 2020

We are missing all of that, but on a more social note, we also missed the brilliant annual Ruinart event in their VIP zone. This low-key gathering always brings together a selection of art collectors, artists, champagne connoisseurs and selected media, and feels very old school and decadent in offering an unlimited flow of Ruinart Blanc de Blancs in the late afternoon of the preview day.

Read more: British artist Marc Quinn on history in the making

For anyone who is a connoisseur of both art and champagne, it is also unique, as the champagne on offer at art events around the world is usually only marginally better than at fashion events, which is to say standard issue and not very interesting at all. The Blanc de Blancs is in a different league.

There was no Ruinart event this year, so LUX decided to create our own, by tasting a range of the Maison’s champagnes, with a couple of our favourite people, while clicking through some excellent artworks on a laptop. Needs must.

Our tasting notes are as follows:

Ruinart Brut NV

Ruinart Brut Non Vintage
In years past, this was a slight and rather forgettable champagne. But, unlike the stick thin Frieze Art Fair VIP guests, it has gained a little weight in all the right places, without requiring any liposuction. Lean but muscular, it is eminently drinkable, and disappears quickly – like a Frieze VIP in search of a Julian Schnabel on the morning of preview day. Maybe not the most memorable companion but easy-going and easy to introduce to anybody.

Ruinart Brut Rosé
A little bit more spicy and fruity, as befits it medium pink palate. Good company, effortlessly enjoyable and also noticeable, not anodyne; and we never felt we had too much of it. Not flirty like some rosés, and not ponderous and serious like others. Just right, like a good art advisor.

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2007

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs
There is, in our view, no better daytime art fair companion than this. Rounded, well formed, well educated, with years of expertise behind it like stumbling on a fabulous sixties pop artist at an unexpected booth. Aesthetically pleasing and rich, like many preview day guests. Buy, buy!

Dom Ruinart Vintage 2007
In a different league altogether. Like walking into a VIP lounge at frieze masters and chatting to Gerhard Richter (note, this has never happened). Delicate, aesthetic yet serious and multilayered, a companion you could be with it all night and not feel weighed down, and you would seek its company again and again. Like a Richter, there is always something else to notice about it.

Dom Ruinart Rosé Vintage 2007
Have you ever bumped in to has Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Olafur Eliasson having a banter at the bar at the Christie’s Vanity Fair Frieze party at midnight? Nor have we, but we reckon this is what it would be like. Engaging, by turns delightful and intellectual, and with deal depth and rigour underneath the fun facade. An ideal guest to the perfect dinner party. Or art fair.

Darius Sanai

Find out more: ruinart.com

M+ will transform the West Kowloon skyline

LUX Contributing Editor and Hong Kong art and design doyen Alan Lo in conversation with Suhanya Raffel, the director of M+ – a museum set to change the conversation about Asia’s place in the art world

It may just be the most important contemporary cultural development in the world. Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture is, finally, scheduled to open in early 2021 after years of anticipation (and a few delays). The Herzog & De Meuron-designed building will not just be a stunning addition to the skyline, it will be the cornerstone of the new West Kowloon Cultural District – an area which, along with Adrian Cheng’s K11 development in Victoria Dockside, will transform Hong Kong. The city has always been known for its commerce and cuisine, but with M+ – the most sophisticated and extensive showcase of its type in the world – it is set to make the leap towards becoming a major player culturally, too.

The figures are staggering: M+ has nearly twice the floor area of London’s gargantuan Tate Modern. It has already purchased all the existing and future work of funky digital collective Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries. Expect plenty more fireworks to come.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

Alan Lo: You joined M+ from the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2016. Why Hong Kong at this juncture in your career? What do you hope to achieve as executive director?
Suhanya Raffel: The M+ project has always been on my radar. I’ve been visiting Hong Kong since the early 1990s and was keenly aware of the major cultural infrastructure programme on West Kowloon when it was being formulated. To deliver M+ as the museum director is an opportunity I couldn’t resist. Bringing a major cultural institution into Asia and seeing how it will transform Hong Kong is a key achievement. M+ will be the place to come and see Asian visual culture, as we naturally take a preeminent place among international museums.

Alan Lo: All eyes are on what will be the most important art institution in Asia. What can we expect at the opening?
Suhanya Raffel: We have spent the past six years assembling an outstanding collection of visual culture from the mid-20th century onwards. It is unique in scope and brings a necessary perspective to the understanding of design, architecture, visual art and moving image as it has developed in this part of the world. Our opening will be dedicated to profiling our collections and I know that it will bring entirely new points of view on the various histories of our region.

LUX Contributing Editor Alan Lo and M+ director Suhanya Raffel

Alan Lo: Critics have pointed to the M+ curatorial team’s lack of local/Hong Kong knowledge. What do you have to stay to that?
Suhanya Raffel: At M+ we embrace diversity, which is an important characteristic of Hong Kong, a global city with a proud history of being cosmopolitan and outward-looking. We have specialist curators of Hong Kong visual culture who have a deep knowledge of the work of artists, architects, designers and filmmakers from here. Our curators work together across disciplines and that brings a strength of vision and voice, both to the Hong Kong cultural community and beyond. We must add to the Hong Kong cultural ecology, embracing the strengths and contributions of Hong Kong makers and showing them together with their international peers. What has been missing here in Hong Kong is a major global institution developed from its local positioning, and this has now been redressed with the development of M+.

Alan Lo: How do you see the Hong Kong/Greater Bay Area art ecosystem evolving?
Suhanya Raffel: Hong Kong will grow even further as a major international centre for the arts. We have seen this growth already, and it will only amplify as collecting institutions, both public and private, establish themselves, with global best practice as a governing principle.

Read more: Designer Philipp Plein on mixing business with pleasure

Alan Lo: M+ will rely on support from art patrons locally and globally. Are you seeing healthy growth in art patronage in the region?
Suhanya Raffel: Yes, absolutely I can see a healthy growth of art patronage. The relationship between patrons, collectors, philanthropists, members and foundations in relation to M+ is already developing from strength to strength. It is only together with our various audiences and communities that a museum of M+’s scale can begin to be successful. When we open, it will be just the beginning of our museum’s journey, and ensuring our various stakeholders understand this is clearly one of the challenges.

Alan Lo: M+ began to co-commission the Hong Kong exhibition at Venice Biennale in 2013, which resulted in Hong Kong-based artists seeing a surge in prominence. Why do you think it’s important for M+ to play a role?
Suhanya Raffel: As a global museum, we see profiling Hong Kong artists, designers, architects and makers as an intrinsic part of our work. In this regard, M+ co-commissioning the Hong Kong in Venice Pavilion at the Venice Biennale has brought greater prominence to these artists, and by association, the Hong Kong art world.

The vast interior of M+ will have twice the floor area of London’s Tate Modern

Alan Lo: Many private museums have popped up in Asia. Would you like to see more private museum projects in Hong Kong?
Suhanya Raffel: A healthy mixture of private and public institutions is something to encourage. Hong Kong’s aspiration to become a cultural capital means we need to see more institutions of various scales across the private and public sphere take hold and grow. We are already seeing this take root, ensuring Hong Kong’s place as a great global cultural city.

Alan Lo: M+ is a major project focusing on contemporary visual culture. What about the audience in our region? Are the people of HK and southern China ready for M+?
Suhanya Raffel: Without question, the audiences are here. It is a young audience with a strong appetite for contemporary culture.

Read more: How wealthy philanthropists are supporting conservation

Alan Lo: Do you think the shift in the global art market toward the top end is helping or hurting the ecosystem? How are museums changing to reflect the increasing concentration of art in private hands?
Suhanya Raffel: Public institutions cannot compete with the private market. That is why philanthropy is an important part of museum work. As we develop M+, to communicate our mission with passion and clarity is essential, and this helps us to develop our audiences. In Asia, the art world ecology is still in its early days, and this brings with it both challenges and opportunities. The establishment of a great public institution that is M+ will bring a much clearer understanding of how a museum adds enormous value to conversations around cultural and regional histories, and how they intersect with and add to essential global dialogues.

Alan Lo: In 20 years’ time, will the world’s major art institutions be split more evenly between west and east? How do you intend to position M+ in the context of this potential shift?
Suhanya Raffel: The M+ vision of bringing an Asian museum voice of substance with a deep multidisciplinary collection to support this position will inevitably change international discourse. The known Euro/American canon will shift, and I hope, with the establishment of M+, many other institutions across Asia will follow. This is healthy, important and vital.

Alan Lo: The influence of collectors has changed so much with social media – how would you like to see them play a role in the future of M+?
Suhanya Raffel: The role of social media and digital is the one revolution that defines our century. It is the new media and medium of exchange, operating at speed. Museums are traditionally slow-release platforms, but we must build agility and responsiveness. Working together with those who are already alert to these streams is essential and at M+ we are already embracing this parallel world!

Find out more: mplus.org.hk

This article was originally published in the Autumn 19 Issue.