MOSCOW.- Supermodel Natalia Vodianova held the annual benefit gala to raise funds for her Naked Heart Foundation on February 11th in Moscow. American artist David Datuna donated a portrait of Vodianova for a special auction held by Simon de Pury of Phillips de Pury & Company, which also featured works by AES+F, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Marc Quinn, among others. The donation was made possible with the support of the New York-based Global Art Group and Kyiv’s Mironova International Art Group.
“Vodianova – Love of Millions” was sold for $790,000 (600,000 EUR) to an undisclosed Russian collector, and was the highest grossing artwork of the evening. All of the proceeds will benefit the Naked Heart Foundation, Vodianova’s non-profit initiative dedicated to providing safe recreational facilities to children with special needs as well as building parks and playgrounds throughout the impoverished areas of the country.
“Vodianova – Love of Millions,” assembled in Datuna’s signature style of cascading lenses, features a portrait of Natalia constructed from thousands of miniature images of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture in collaboration with New York-based artist Alex Guofeng Cao.
"For me it is always strange to look at the portraits of myself. There is definitely something egocentric about it and very against everything I am,” said Natalia. “However when I saw Datuna's painting I felt proud of being the muse for that work, because I can relate so much to fragility and mystery of the image by my friend Paolo Roversi and genuinely loved how David interpreted it and added to it.”
This year’s foundation gala marks the second consecutive year of Datuna’s involvement with the Naked Heart Foundation. In 2011, he donated his installation “Chaotic Past,” sold for over $100,000 to Irina Viner, wife of Alisher Usmanov, a Russian billionaire, art collector and majority Arsenal shareholder.
Next month, Global Art Group will team up with David Datuna for SCOPE New York -- exhibiting a selection of his “Viewpoint of Millions” series.
