December 30, 2009
Filed under: Art News — Alan @ 3:57 am
UK scientist Martin Baily is claims that Vincent Van Gogh may have cut off a portion of his left ear due to the fact that he was afraid to lose the support of his brother Theo.
According to Baily, Vincent learned that Theo planned to get married shortly before he cut off his ear, which prompted him to do so out of fear that his brother may not support him after his marriage.
The scientist claims that the evidence is present in the 1889 painting Still Life with a Plate of Onions which was created shortly after Van Gogh hacked at his ear with the razor blade. Within the painting is an envelope that Baily believes may have been the letter containing news about the impending nuptials.
The painting belongs to the Dutch Kroller Museum collection where Bailey studied it and noted that the envelop has a circle with the number 67 on it which is the official postal stamp of a post office located close to Theo’s Monmartre apartment.
The Parisian postal museum stated that the mark was only used on letters sent in December which confirms that Van Gogh received the letter around the time that he sliced off his ear on December 23rd.
Baily was led to his conclusion also due to a letter that is still preserved that Theo wrote to his finance in which he mentions that after visiting Vincent his brother knew that he was talking about marriage and that he told Theo marriage should not be viewed as the most important part of life.
December 23, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 6:58 am
A portrait by Peter Paul Rubens that features a mystery woman could realize as much as six million pounds once the auction is completed next week in London.
The unknown female is believed to be Spanish although the painting is not complete making it hard to tell.
Experts estimate that the painting dates back to the beginning of the 17th century during the regular travels to the Mediterranean by Flemish artists.
Although the history of the painting is fuzzy, it is believed that the painting remained in Venice until it was moved to Italy during the 19th century.
At this time it became part of the Hammer family collection and remained in Wales until it was put up for auction this month.
Rubens may have started the painting as an aristocratic commission but it is not clear why the painting was not finished or if it was an actual commissioned piece. The famous painter set a record in 2002 for the auction price of Massacre of the Innocents which sold for about £50m setting a record for an Old Master piece.
December 22, 2009
Filed under: Art News — Alan @ 8:49 am
A new set of documents shockingly proved that hundreds of sculptures, paintings, and other pieces of artwork have been damaged while under the supervision of the leading galleries and museums in the UK.
Among the works damaged are pieces by Tracey Emin and Andy Warhol and include dinosaur bones and a doll house. In one specific case a complete steam engine was destroyed by accident. A few items were damaged to the point where they had to be scrapped, while others required thousands of pounds worth of renovations.
The National Galleries of Scotland were responsible for eight damaged pieces of art, including the Andy Warhol painting Mark of the Beast and the Tracey Emin piece My Uncle Colin. The Tate Modern damaged Ishi’s Light, 2003 by Anish Kapoor when a film cameraman hit it.
Paintings were also damaged by poor supervision at the Tate, which saw damage twice in one year to Mark Rothko’s Black on Maroon: once when a child left fingerprints on it and another incident in which it was dented by a child.
For the most part, the documents found that incidents were most likely to occur while a painting or work was being taken down or installed by staff. For instance, at the London National Gallery Domenico Beccafumi’s painting Marcia was broken in two when being removed from the wall. An adhesive failure was blamed for the incident which led to repair costs.
The Victoria and Albert Museum also damaged a 15th century Christ figure while removing it at the cost of £1,600 in repairs.
December 21, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 10:03 am
The BBC is under scrutiny after spending an estimated £3m on art in order to redecorate its flagship office building. The popular broadcaster received criticism for spending money from licence payees on artwork in a decade in which the company has made 3,000 people redundant and at a period when the amount it pays celebrities is under fire.
Aside from these basic concerns, even art critics have a gear to grind as they claim that the BBC only choose trendy pieces, and not lasting classic artwork.
One such piece is a pieced named the World by artist Mark Pimlott which is a series of white lines that make a figure that looks like a globe. The price on the Canadian painting which will hang outside of the Central London Broadcasting House is a whopping £1.5m.
A second piece was purchased for £897,000 is a glass cone that is 33ft tall and is located on the roof of the building. The cone was created by Jaume Plensa to honour journalists who have passed away while on assignment.
Editor of art magazine Jackdaw, David Lee, stated that the BBC spent a very large amount of money on artwork that the average person will not get. Lee went on to state that he is not sure why the BBC would not have chosen artwork that was more traditional such as paintings.
Chairman of the campaign group Voice of the Viewer and Listener, Richard Lindley, was more concerned with how the money was spent stating that the BBC should keep in mind that viewers would want their licence fee be spent on programming.
December 18, 2009
Filed under: Art crime — Alan @ 8:22 am
An art student from the Edinburgh College of Art received a £200 fine for smashing in a gallery window as part of his art project.
Kevin Harman age 27 smashed the window of The Collective Gallery on Cockburn Street with a pole and recorded it. Later he showed the footage of his vandalism on the Brunswick Street New Haven Gallery.
Harman did the project on his own volition, according to the Edinburgh College of art, and he admitted to the charges of breaching the peace and disorderly conduct.
Malcolm Stewart, the fiscal deputy, stated that he wrote to the art gallery and told them that he would be bashing the window in for an art project he titled Brick. Harman did not write to the gallery again to let them know when the action would occur, which left staff unprepared for the incident.
The “art work” actually occurred on November 23rd while the museum was closed for a meeting. Stewart stated that the gallery occupants were upset, even though they were expecting the event.
After breaking the window Harman was prepared with a glazier and immediately fixed it. His defence solicitor stated that while he was not given permission to break the window, he also was not told not to either.
Harman quickly repaired the window with the glazier in 25 minutes and took caution to make sure that no one was harmed. After he left court he stated that he planned to apologize for his action.
December 17, 2009
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 9:03 am
The Royal Academy of Arts was forced to scrap plans for what was intended to be a major exhibition after a customs problem with the exportation of a painting that belonged to the Prince of Liechtenstein.
The museum was scheduled to show the a collection of paintings from Prince Hans-Adam II but after a dispute ensued with Customs and HM Revenue over a painting in the collection by Sanchez Coello the prince decided to drop the entire show.
The dispute was about the painting Infante Don Diego, which the Prince purchased from a collector in Britain back in 2006 in London. After its purchase the UK customs authorities deferred a licence allowing the work to be exported so that an alternate buyer could raise the funds to purchase it so the painting would remain in the UK.
During this process HM Revenue and Customs also launched a formal investigation into several licence applications including the Coello and other items, making it impossible for an export licence to be given until the investigation closes.
A statement by the director of the Prince’s collections Johann Kraftner said that the Prince does not believe it would be proper to go ahead with the collection exhibition until the issue surrounding the Coello painting is closed.
The Royal Academy of Arts also issued a statement that while they are disappointed that after months of planning the exhibition will not be opening, they are already hard at work planning an alternative for next autumn.
December 16, 2009
Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 7:00 am
you take a look at the Old Masters paintings that have sold over the year it may seem as if older collections have the monopoly on sales.
This is due to the fact that in last week alone all three major auction houses sold collections from the Old Masters for around £96m, which is way over the mark of £70 that Old Master sales accumulated to during the month of June in London.
Some of the price tags of Old Masters paintings are astounding by themselves as well with a Rembrandt painting bringing in about £20m, a Van Dyck portrait for £8m, and a Rapheal drawing for around £28.9m. This is even more remarkable given the fact that the economy is still considered to be recovering.
However, if you look a little bit more into the sales figures from the week you will see that for the most part it was the high selling paintings mentioned above that raised the figures with the rest of the auction collections not faring as well. In fact, they account for about 66% of all the sales for the week even though the collections on auction totalled up to around one thousand.
The reason for the lacklustre numbers for the other 1,000 pieces is partially due to the fact that the supplies of mid range paintings was thin and because the trade in general does not have as much available money to invest with as it is used to.
December 14, 2009
Filed under: Art events — Alan @ 8:04 am
A London sculptor is attempting to create an art piece that will represent the Arctic’s melting ice. By the end of the Copenhagen Conference the polar bear sculpture is specifically being designed so that it will melt into a puddle leaving only a skeleton behind.
The sculpture is known as the bear in the square and is designed by Mark Coreth who said that the piece is meant to represent much more than just polar bears.
Coreth stated that when you reach up to touch the polar bear at the same time you are touching the Arctic and the problem and thus he is hoping that as people become aware of the problem they will be motivated to help get involved with the solution as well.
The artist was inspired to create his sculptor after a visit to Northern Canada and is hoping to bring widespread attention to the plight of the Arctic and polar bears.
Pen Hadow the explorer took a trek through the Arctic at the beginning of the year and found that the ice is melting at a much faster rate than scientists initially believed.
The sculpture is a hands-on sculpture with the public encouraged to reach out and touch it so that they can personally see how the effect of their hands- or their personal contribution- causes the sculpture to melt much quicker just as personal choices can increase the depth of the climate change crisis.
December 10, 2009
Filed under: Art News — Alan @ 8:47 am
John Pistone was one of the first US soldiers who entered Adolf Hitler’s home in the Alps near the end of World War II. As he went through Berghof he noticed an album of photos that he decided to take home with him.
64 years later Pistone has finally learned that the album of photos and sketches were actually meant to show all the artwork that Hitler wanted included in a museum that he planned to build in Linz, Austria called ‘Fuhrermuseum.’
The album of photos will be given back to Germany in January said the US State Department. Currently Germany has 19 additional albums that were found at Hitler’s home that were all part of the collection of works that were possibly to be included in the Linz collection.
Pistone found out the value of his book by mistake when a friend took note of the book on Pistone’s bookshelf and decided to look it up on the internet. The friend found that the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art based in Dallas, TX had restored two other albums that detailed stolen art from Jewish families by Nazis.
The founder of the group, Robert Edsel, went to Ohio this past autumn and took a look at the album only to determine that it was part of the missing albums from the series of photos for the Linz museum.
Edsel stated that his foundation on average gets a call every day about an object that they are curious about.
December 9, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 8:58 am
Last night the most expensive item at the Christie’s auction sold for £29,171, 250. The painting was a drawing by Raphael that was expected to only sell at £12 to £16 million.
Head of a Muse was drawn as part of a study in Parmasssus and is part of a series of Frescoes that were completed in the Vatican at the Stanze della Segnatura.
It was produced back to 1508-15011 and was commissioned by Pope Julius II.
Before last night, the highest price for a drawing at an auction was a Degas that sold at a 2008 New York auction for £22,742,106.
This was the first time that the Raphael drawing was involved in a public auction in over 150 years. During the same sale, a Rembrandt first broke a record when it reached an auction price of £20.2m,
The Rembrandt, Portrait of A Man, Half-Length with His Hands Akimbo was given the largest pre sale estimate that has been seen for an Old Master painting.
The highest Old Master record for an auction was set in 2002 when a painting by Ruben far exceeded a six million pound estimate and sold for £50m.
Still, the Rembrandt is now fourth on the list of Old Master artworks that sold for millions at the auction house.
The extremely rich consider high ticket artworks to be a viable investment option in a year when the art market has continued to take a beating.
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