At the entrance of the exhibition hosted at L’Ecole Middle East, there is a large black-and-white photograph of Yves Gastou, the storied French collector. Grey-haired, urbane and sporting an open-necked shirt, he looks exactly how you’d imagine him to from his reputation as one of the most tasteful collectors in Europe. It is only on closer inspection that you notice his surprising stacks of heavy silver rings – brandished like knuckle dusters.
“My father was very interested in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, but rock ‘n’ roll was part of his personality,” explains his son Victor Gastou, who is in Dubai for the opening of the Men’s Rings, Yves Gastou Collection exhibition, which runs until April 26 in Dubai Design District.
A collector known for his impeccable and wildly eclectic taste, Yves Gastou was able to mix opposites effortlessly – think an 18th-century table with a Ron Arad chair – creating a new form of chic. Yves collected furniture and objets d’art for love, not trends. Nowhere is this more apparent than his personal collection of rings, which feature in the exhibition.
“My father used to go to communion, when you take the bread, and he went up four or five times,” explains Gastou’s son. “His mother took him by the hand and asked ‘Why are you going so many times?’ And he answered, ‘The priest has such a beautiful ring.’” He went on to gather about 1,000 rings during his lifetime.
The exhibition features about 700 of those, divided into groups that follow Yves’s interests – history, gothic, Christian mysticism, vanitas and eclecticism. “The ring is a very powerful object in meaning,” says Victor. “Engagement rings have existed in human history for a very long time.”
Dating back millennia, the oldest ring on display is a cameo of a lion, Victor explains. “It’s not a precious stone, but you can see the talent of the sculptor.” Throughout history, rings have been used for rituals – proclamations of love or power, or even as a glimpse into the afterlife. Case in point, a plum-sized Doge’s ring that would have been used to add legitimacy to official documents, here seated next to mourning rings, which featured tiny portraits to commemorate a loved one who had died or lived far away.
The collection was not just for show either, as Yves wore many of them throughout his life. “He used to have 50 rings that he kept at home, and he used to play with a combination depending on what he was going to do,” explains Victor.
A free-wheeling soul, Yves’s fascination for men’s rings is perhaps a reflection of his wider ability to unearth furniture, sculpture and artworks that others had overlooked, his son explains. “He said that beautiful things were within us. It’s also a way to show how open-minded you are, because if you can appreciate all periods in history, you’ve been doing your research.”
Having grown up around museum-worthy furniture and art, the Gastou children had no idea how remarkable their surroundings were until much later in life. “I worked in China and hated it, so I came back to Paris and I said, ‘Can I come to the gallery and maybe find something to do?’ When I stepped into the gallery, I never came back,” explains Victor. “It was like a tornado of discovery, amazing stories.” He has run the gallery since his father’s death in 2020.
Victor can easily identify his father’s favourite ring in the vast collection, pointing to a slightly sinister gargoyle with a crystal in its mouth. “He used to wear it every day.” Around it are more rings depicting skulls, bats and even coffins that verge on the macabre. “Yves liked these very much, although they are a little more shocking. It’s easier to accept the idea of death if you have it with you every day.”
But there was a less philosophical side to skull rings that drew Yves in. “American culture, the ’70s and movies like Easy Rider,” explains Victor. “He was a free spirit. One day, my father wanted to take a picture with bikers, so we went to find some Hells Angels in Paris. It ended with us running out of there, because Yves kept grabbing the bikers’ hands to look at their rings. They wanted to beat us up, it was terrible,” he laughs.
Having lived with these rings all his life, it is easy to imagine it would be hard for Victor to choose a favourite, but he turns immediately to an elaborately carved gold ecclesiastical piece. “In the 1970s, there was a decree to change the look of the church. No more bling bling,” he explains. This left the official jeweller to the church with highly intricate rings that were no longer in vogue.
“It was like old stock, nobody wanted it any more,” recalls Victor. Yves saw an opportunity and approached the maison to see if he could buy some of the unwanted rings. “They sold him a lot of pieces, but only by the weight of the gold. And I remember him coming back and laughing like a crazy man, saying: ‘How stupid they are. They sold me a treasure for nothing.’ All because nobody wanted it.” It was clearly a thrill.
In the centre of the exhibition is a tall perspex box into which 200 or so rings have been roughly heaped onto narrow shelves. “We wanted to finish with getting inside the mind of the collector,” explains Victor.
With the rings thrown in haphazardly, visitors are left to find a piece that catches their eye. “We wanted to give the thrill of finding something, so you search and if you find something – that’s your discovery.”
