Christopher Banks Debuts 'Court of Tenacity': A New Asset Class in Post-Luxury Functional Art

The Objects of Affection Collection (OAC) today announced the public debut of The Court of Tenacity, a one-of-a-kind hand-illustrated silk artifact representing the fullest expression to date of founder Christopher Banks' "Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art" (PLCFA) framework. Commissioned by Madison Hromadka, Chair of the Board of Governors at Newfields Indianapolis, the work required 288 hours of manual illustration and is governed by a Custodian's Contract that mandates a five-year anti-sale covenant — legally designating it an Anti-Speculative Entity for the duration of its holding period.

The Court of Tenacity embodies what Banks terms "Material Singularity": an object whose value is generated not through market liquidity but through the patron's Burden of Preservation — the contractual and ethical commitment to steward the work across time. Where conventional luxury trades on brand heritage and industrial scale, PLCFA establishes value through what the collector preserves, not merely what they acquire.

The piece was photographed in the Newfields media room by Eric Lubrick, Senior Staff Photographer at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and contributor to National Geographic and Sotheby's — lending the work the same archival authority applied to museum permanent collection records.

The launch follows Banks' appearance as a featured presenter at the American Phygital Association (APA) Congress in Paris (February 26–27, 2026), where his work served as a primary case study in the fusion of physical craft and digital provenance ecosystems. The OAC's "Zero-Sum Pivot" business model is currently a finalist for case study publication through Harvard Business Publishing and Ivey Business School.

"The greatest luxury is not the freedom to sell — it is the commitment to keep," said Christopher Banks. "The Court of Tenacity is proof that functional art, developed with intellectual rigor and contractual permanence, constitutes a legitimate and quantifiable asset class. Value is not what you consume. It is what you preserve."

Full portfolio documentation, high-fidelity visuals, and all 50+ published OAC studies are available for editorial review and acquisition inquiries at https://objectsofaffectioncollection.com.

 

Media Contact
Christopher Banks
Anthropologist of Luxury | Critical Theorist
chris@objectsofaffectioncollection.com
https://objectsofaffectioncollection.com