Salvador Dali Headshot
A well-read student of Sigmund Freud, Salvador Dali – who never used drugs and only drank alcohol (especially champagne) in moderation – turned to a most unusual way to access his subconscious. He knew that the hypnologic state between wakefulness and sleep was possibly the most creative for the brain. Like Freud and his fellow surrealists, he considered dreams and imagination as central rather than marginal to human thought.
Dali searched for a way to stay in that creative state as long as possible just as any one of us on a lazy Saturday morning might enjoy staying in bed in a semi-awake state while we use our imagination to its fullest. He devised a most interesting technique.
Sitting in the warm sun after a full lunch and feeling somewhat somnolent, Dali would place a metal mixing bowl in his lap and hold a large spoon loosely in his hands, which he folded over his chest. As he began to relax and fall asleep, the spoon would fall from his grasp into the bowl and wake him up. He would reset the arrangement continuously and thus float along – not quite asleep, not quite awake – while his imagination would churn out the images that we find so fascinating, evocative, and inexplicable in his work.
Source: Park West Gallery
Walking Man by Alberto Giacometti
An Alberto Giacometti set a new record price for a piece of art sold at auction. The bronze sculpture entitled “Walking Man I” was sold at Sutherby’s in London Wednesday, February 3, to an anonymous telephone bidder for $92.5 million, totaling $104.3 million after all applied fees, according to the New York Times.
The previous record for the highest priced artwork to sell at auction was set in 2004 when Pablo Picasso’s “Boy With a Pipe” sold for $104.1 million to an anonymous telephone bidder at Sotherby’s New York.
The six-foot-tall bronze sculpture, which was casted by Giacometti in 1961, was only estimated to be worth between $19 million and $29 million. Wednesday’s record-breaking sale is more than three times the record set for a Giacometti in 2008, “Standing Woman II” a similar bronze work also cast in the early 1960s that sold for $27.4 million.
It is finally out – Apple publically announced the new Apple iPad today and it presents several new opportunities for digital artists. One of the programs announced at the Apple event today was the “Brushes” app.
As Jason Chen of Gizmodo said: “It’s a simple paint app (the invite for this event looked like a painting app too). And, [Steve Jobs is] showing off how you can paint on the screen with brushes, swatches and other tools painters should be used to. And Brushes will be available at the iPad launch. You can pinch and zoom in up to 32x, and you can eyedropper as well. There’s even support of in-app playback on the paintings.”
If in-depth programs such as Corel Painter or Adobe Photoshop were to become available for this device, imagine what could be done with it.
Images from Gizmodo’s live coverage.
Apple iPad app - Brushes
Apple iPad app - Brushes 2
Apple iPad app - Brushes 3
Tim Burton @ the MoMA
November 22, 2009–April 26, 2010
Theater 1 Gallery, Theater 2 Gallery, Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor & Museum Lobby
Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, on August 25, 1958, and raised in a sunny, middle-class neighborhood of the city. He never felt at home there, and so self-reliant and possessed of a restless imagination – he consoled himself with the pleasures of drawing and humor and an interest in visual media that he indulged by feeding on the most accessible and colorful forms of popular entertainment. In newspaper comics, advertising, greeting cards, children’s literature, toys, animated cartoons, monster movies, science fiction, films, carnival sideshows, performance art, and holiday rituals, including the art of the Mexican Day of the Dead, Burton found the subjects and themes that he has explored in feature films, shorts, and commercials and on television and the Web since 1982. Through his work he has established a recognizable style and aesthetic that are revered today by an international audience.
Burton is known almost exclusively for his work for the screen. This exhibition provides unprecedented access to the entire range of his creative output, including his sketchbooks, concept art, drawings, paintings, photographs, and amateur films. The full array of Burton’s achievements demonstrates for the first time his kinship with a generation of contemporary Pop painters and illustrators – many with roots in Southern California, like himself – who have embraced the iconography, representational styles, and narrative forms of popular culture.
The exhibition is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, and Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, with Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film.
Picasso - The Actor
A woman who was attending an art class at the New York Metropolitan Museum of art, accidently tripped and fell into “The Actor”, a $130,000,000 painting by Picasso. The bottom right corner suffered a 6-inch cut (15cm), which according to museum workers will be repaired in time for the museum’s Picasso exhibit which will open at the end of April 2010.
Appraiser Gerard van Weyenbergh said the painting may never recover its value.
“It’s a 50 percent loss of the value ($65,000,000) — at least,” van Weyenbergh, who has handled numerous Picassos.. “When an artwork comes up in auction, that’s the first thing people want to know — were there any repaints or restorations.
The repair should be completed in time for the Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, which will feature some 250 works from the museum’s collection and is due to open at the end of April.
The painting is from Picasso’s Rose period and was painted in the winter of 1904-1905.
Sources: BBC, dailymail, Picasso Project, NY Post
This is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. The most famous paintings are usually owned by museums, which almost never sell them, and because of this they are ‘priceless’. Guinness World Records lists the Mona Lisa as having the highest insurance value for a painting in history. It was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962, before the painting toured the United States for several months. However, the Louvre chose to spend the money that would have been spent on the insurance premium on security instead. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be approximately US$670 million in 2006.
| Sale Price (in millions) | Painting | Artist | Year Painted | Year of sale | Seller | Buyer | Auction house |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $140 | No. 5, 1948 | Jackson Pollock | 1948 | 2006 | David Geffen | David Martinezÿ | private sale |
| $137.50 | Woman III | Willem de Kooning | 1953 | 2006 | David Geffen | Steven A. Cohen | private sale via Larry Gagosian |
| $135 | Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I | Gustav Klimt | 1907 | 2006 | Maria Altmann | Ronald Lauder, Neue Galerie | private sale |
| $104.20 | Garçon à la pipe | Pablo Picasso | 1905 | 2004 | Greentree foundation | Sotheby's, New York | |
| $100.00 | Eight Elvises | Andy Warhol | 1963 | 2008 | Annibale Berlingieri | private sale via Philippe Sgalot | |
| $95.20 | Dora Maar au Chat | Pablo Picasso | 1941 | 2006 | Gidwitz family | Sotheby's, New York | |
| $87.90 | Portrait ofÿAdele Bloch-Bauer II | Gustav Klimt | 1912 | 2006 | Maria Altmann | Christie's, New York | |
| $86.30 | Triptych, 1976 | Francis Bacon | 1976 | 2008 | Roman Abramovich | Sotheby's, New York | |
| $82.50 | Portrait of Dr. Gachet | Vincent van Gogh | 1890 | 1990 | Siegfried Kramarsky family | Ryoei Saito | Christie's, New York |
| $80.4 (40.9) | Le Bassin aux Nymphas | Claude Monet | 1919 | 2008 | J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller | Christie's, London | |
| $80.00 | False Start | Jasper Johns | 1959 | 2006 | David Geffen | Kenneth C. Griffin | private sale via Richard Gray |
| $78.10 | Bal du moulin de la Galette | Pierre-Auguste Renoir | 1876 | 1990 | Betsey Whitney | Ryoei Saito | Sotheby's, New York |
| $76.7 (49.5) | Massacre of the Innocents | Peter Paul Rubens | 1611 | 2002 | an Austrian family | Kenneth Thomson | Sotheby's, London |
| $72.80 | White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) | Mark Rothko | 1950 | 2007 | David Rockefeller, Sr. | Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani[11] | Sotheby's, New York |
| $71.70 | Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) | Andy Warhol | 1963 | 2007 | Private Collection, Switzerland | Philip Niarchos | Christie's, New York |
| $71.50 | Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe | Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | 1998 | heirs ofÿJacques Koerfer | Christie's, New York | |
| $70.6 (50) | Diana and Actaeon | Titian | 1556-1559 | 2009 | Duke of Sutherland | National Galleries of Scotlandÿ&ÿNational Gallery, London | private sale |
| $63.50 | Police Gazette | Willem de Kooning | 1955 | 2006 | David Geffen | Steven A. Cohen | private sale, Richard Gray Gallery |
| $60.50 | Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier | Paul Czanne | 1894 | 1999 | Whitney Family | Sotheby's, New York | |
| $60.00 | Suprematist Composition | Kazimir Malevich | 1916 | 2008 | Artist's heirs | Sotheby's, New York | |
| $58 plus exchange of works | "Portrait of Joseph Roulin" | Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | 1989 | Swiss private Collection | Museum of Modern Art New York | Private sale |
| $57 | A Wheatfield with Cypresses | Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | 1993 | son ofÿEmil Georg Bhrle | Walter H. Annenberg | private sale via Steven Mazoh |
| $55.00 | Femme aux Bras Croiss | Pablo Picasso | 1902 | 2000 | McCormick family, Chicago | Christie's, New York | |
| $53.90 | Irises | Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | 1987 | son ofÿJoan Whitney Payson | Alan Bond | Sotheby's, New York |
| $49.60 | Femme assise dans un jardin | Pablo Picasso | 1938 | 1999 | Robert Saidenberg | Sotheby's, New York | |
| $49.3 (F300) | Les Noces de Pierrette | Pablo Picasso | 1905 | 1989 | Fredrik Roos | Tomonori Tsurumaki | Binoche et GodeauÿParis |
| $48.40 | Le Reve | Pablo Picasso | 1932 | 1997 | Ganz family | Wolfgang Flttl | Christie's, New York. |
| $47.85 | Yo, Picasso | Pablo Picasso | 1901 | 1989 | Wendell Cherry | Stavros Niarchos | Sotheby's, New York |
| $47.50 | Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat | Vincent van Gogh | 1890 | 1997 | Stephen Wynn | private sale via Acquavella Galleries Inc., New York |
