Focus on: art and design

Just 500 metres off the coast of Abu Dhabi City, lies Saadiyat Island, the "Island of Happiness", on which Abu Dhabi's cultural district will be created.

French artist Vincent Dubourg uses traditional furniture making techniques, such as wood-bending and metal casting, as he cuts, twists and bends materials, creating a dialogue between the conceptual and functional, hand-made and mass produced.

Gabriel Orozco is Mexico's foremost living sculptor and conceptualist artist.

Marina Abramovic, the self professed "grandmother of performing arts" is radical in her pursuit of lasting performance art.

Viola Raikhel-Bolot, Head of HSBC Private Bank Art & Design Advisory, reflects on the 2010 International Art Market.

London based architectural designer Zaha Hadid's work encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban scale through to products, interiors and furniture.

American born John Baldessari is one of the most influential and experimental artists of his generation.

Ai Weiwei is the internationally recognised agent provocateur of contemporary Chinese art.

If art fairs can be considered a barometer for measuring confidence in the art market, recent successes in London and Paris indicate that confidence has indeed returned.

The Château de Versailles will exhibit the sensational artwork of Japanese born Pop-artist Takashi Murakami from 14 September to 12 December 2010.

2009-2010 has seen a solid recovery in the art market. Major works are now once again appearing for sale signalling the emergence of the high end from a relatively short period of hibernation.

In the first major exhibition of its kind The National Gallery in London has explored the complexities of attribution in ‘Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries’ (30 June – 12 September 2010).

World renowned French-born American artist and sculptor, Louise Bourgeois, has been described by art historians as ‘the singularly most important female artist of the last century’.

Turkey stands to be one of the most exciting emerging contemporary art markets of the next decade. 

Design Miami/Basel celebrates its fifth anniversary this year with a record number of exhibiting galleries. This year the fresh perspective of four young designers were revealed through the fair's 'W Hotels Designer of the Future Award' which recognises emerging designers whose work reflects exceptional innovation and beauty in limited edition designs.

Exhibiting galleries in this years' 41^st edition of Art Basel were greeted by flocks of collectors in search of the next great work of art.

Over the past ten years the landscape of design has shifted radically since the new millennium.

Art market history was made at Christie's New York on 4 May 2010 when a Picasso, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, sold for $106,482,500 (₤70,278,450 €81,991,525), setting a new world record for any work of art sold at auction.

One of the most significant features of the decade just past was the meteoric rise of the Asian art market which subsequently saw the region developed itself as a hub for biennales and art fairs; the most recent and significant of which being the Hong Kong Art Fair (ART HK).

Lucian Freud's first exhibition in France since 1987 showcases fifty large scale works around the theme of the artist's studio and groups together all periods and genres (portraits, landscapes, still lifes) of Freud's artistic career thus far.