Another thrift store find; this time a signed Picasso. Purchased for $14, the man sold the Picasso print designed to advertise a 1958 Easter exhibition of his ceramic work in Vallauris, France, for $7,000. Aside from being a reminder that real art can indeed be found in thrift shops, there’s this tip on the value [...]
Illustration
The Devil Is In The…
Scissors. At least that was my first thought upon seeing this work by Louise Bourgeois.
Collecting
2009 Art Sales May Not Have Been Bad For Auction Houses, But Was It Good For Art?
Antique Week, Vol. 41, Issue No. 2112 (January 11, 2010) has a report in the national section on art sales in 2009. In the article, two things stood out for me. First: Auction houses started slashing pre-sale estimates by as much as 50 percent to stimulate sales. When Sloans & Kenyon of Chevy Chase, Md., [...]
Painting
Fauning Over Maclise
Several people must have been fauning fawning over R.A. Daniel Maclise’s Pan And The Dancing Fairies (The Faun And The Fairies) because the pretty painted piece sold for 301,250 GBP (roughly $498,509 in US dollars) at Sotheby’s Victorian & Edwardian Art auction held December 17th, 2009. I show it to you merely because it would [...]
Illustration
A Breath Of Spring Air
A lovely fashion sketch by Sir Cecil Beaton, which wafts off my monitor and makes my heart lighter… In non-art related news, I’ve been spending all weekend cleaning my home, laying down poison and traps, all to rid myself of an unwanted, non-pet, mouse. I can understand him wanting to move in here; it’s already [...]
Buying Art
Hugh Grant: Lessons In Buying Art
In the January 2010 issue of Elle magazine, there’s an interview of Hugh Grant by Holly Millea. Whatever you think of Grant, there’s an interesting bit on the actor as an art collector. Elle: Tell me, is it true that you bought an Andy Warhol painting of Elizabeth Taylor for $4 million in 2002 and [...]
Commercial Success?
Michael Jackson: King Of Commissioned Kitsch
We keep hearing how poor MJ was, but the dude spent a fortune commissioning art — of himself. And while he was one helluva a musical artist & entertainer, he didn’t have a clue about art. Just unveiled, Kehinde Wiley’s monumental commissioned portrait of Michael Jackson: And here’s a 1990 painting of Jackson by David [...]
