Beauty, Beast Earn $6.8 Million as New Money Buys Old Masters

By Lindsay Pollock

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Hendrick Goltzius’ 1612 depiction of an erotic encounter between a voluptuous sleeping damsel and a satyr, once owned by Nazi Hermann Goering, fetched $6.8 million yesterday atSotheby’s in New York from an unidentified European collector who was bidding by phone.

The 6-foot-wide painting, “Jupiter and Antiope,” was estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million, but drew interest from only one buyer.

Sotheby’s Old Master Painting sale otherwise sparked fairly healthy bidding, tallying $61.6 million.

“There is new money coming onto the field,” said New York dealer Richard Feigen, bidding from the front row. “The word is out that this is a good place to park money.”

Feigen was outbid on two 14th-century paintings, including Francesco di Vannuccio’s delicate gold-ground “Madonna and Child” reliquary which sold for $1 million, doubling the $500,000 presale high estimate. Feigen was bidding on behalf of a major U.S. art museum he declined to name.

The rare Goltzius had belonged to Abraham Adelsberger, a German Jewish toy manufacturer. His son-in-law sold the painting to Goering’s agents in 1941, according to Sotheby’s. It was eventually recovered by Allied troops who gave it to the Dutch government in 1946, where it remained on loan to various museums until it was restituted to Adelsberger’s heirs in 2009. The artist’s previous auction record was $1.5 million for the 1616 “Fall of Man,” sold at Christie’s in 1996.

Leonardo Wannabe

There was more paddle action on a painting of a woman with a mysterious smile, “Portrait of a Woman, Called ‘La Belle Ferronniere,’” which was once thought to be the handiwork of Leonardo da Vinci.

It was the subject of a high-profile court battle in the 1920s, pitting the U.S. owners against art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen, who had declared the work a copy. The work was sold at Sotheby’s as a “follower of Leonardo da Vinci,” and nevertheless went shooting over the $500,000 high estimate, selling for $1.5 million to an anonymous phone bidder. The work is now considered a French copy, painted around 1700-1750. “Anything even connected to Leonardo goes for a lot,” said Milan dealer Marco Voena, whose expression suggested he thought the price was excessive.

The top lot was Anthony van Dyck’s “Two Studies of a Bearded Man,” painted from a gaunt, bushy-bearded model. It was estimated to sell for $5 million to $7 million and sparked enough heat between two competing bidders to drive the price up to $7.25 million.

Disappearing Rembrandt

One of the stranger moments occurred as lot 194 came up for sale. Rembrandt’s 1632 “Portrait of a Young Woman in a Black Cap,” was estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million. It had sold for $9 million in 2007 at Sotheby’s in New York.

At the current sale, Sotheby’s announced that the painting had been withdrawn at the request of the owner, leaving the European dealers clustered near the front of the crowded salesroom perplexed. One called out, “Why’s it not being sold?” No answer from the rostrum.

The Los Angeles Museum of Art was a big seller, unloading nine paintings, with funds slated for new acquisitions. The museum reaped $2.7 million, more than double the $1.3 million presale estimate for the group.

The museum’s priciest lot was Christoph Amberger’s circa- 1541 “Portrait of Hans Jakob Fugger,” depicting a handsome young man wearing a sword and posed in front of an emerald green drape. He hailed from the richest family in the Holy Roman Empire, according to Sotheby’s catalog, a famous banking and mercantile dynasty. The portrait fetched $1.2 million, well above the $300,000 presale forecast.

Museums were also big buyers this week. At Christie’s Jan. 27 sale, the top lot was Louis Leopold Boilly’s 1810 “The Entrance to the Turkish Garden Cafe,” which sold for $4.6 million to the J. Paul Getty Museum. Christie’s tallied $39.6 million including their Old Master painting, drawing and 19th- century artworks.

Estimates don’t include commissions, which are 25 percent on the first $50,000, 20 percent between $50,000 and $1 million, and 12 percent above $1 million.

To contact the reporter on the story: Lindsay Pollock in New York atlindsaypollock@yahoo.com;

SOURCE: Bloomberg.com

Koons, Hirst Prices Drop 50%; May Take Next Decade to Recover

By Scott Reyburn 

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) — Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, the stars of the art boom, were deposed as auction bestsellers in 2009 as prices for some of their works fell 50 percent. It may take much of the next decade before their works return to record prices, dealers say.

Billionaire collectors shunned “noughties” favorites in the current decade’s closing year, preferring 20th-century modernist classics, Art Deco furniture, Old Masters and Chinese artworks. Contemporary-art auction sales dropped 75 percent this year as sellers were no longer guaranteed minimum prices.

“Right now, people are nursing significant losses on Hirst,” Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the London-based Fine Art Fund, said in an interview. “They’re reluctant to sell until prices start to rise again.”

Worldwide auction sales of contemporary art grew more than 10-fold between 2003 and 2008, according to the France-based research company Artprice. Its price index, based on total annual auction sales for Hirst, was up 996 percent over the 10- year period that culminated in his “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” event in September 2008. The two-day auction, which coincided with the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., is seen by dealers as the end of the boom.

“That auction was such a freak,” Robert Sandelson, a London dealer, said in an interview. “It skewed the statistics. Damien is down, like most other artists are down. The market now feels like 2000 or 2001. It’s not going to be anything like it was for many, many years.” Sandelson held a Hirst show in his Mayfair gallery during the Sotheby’s sale.

Kitsch Skull

Koons, 54, known for his super-sized kitsch sculptures, was the top-selling artist at auction with 81.3 million euros ($117.2 million) of sales in the year to June 2008, said Artprice. Hirst, 44, famed for his pickled animals and diamond skull, overtook Koons with his 111.5 million-pound ($178.5 million) Sotheby’s sale.

Auction sales of high-value works by Koons dropped 50 percent in 2009, when nine pieces fetched more than $1 million, according to the U.S.-based database ArtNet.

Koons’s chromium steel “Baroque Egg With Bow (Turquoise/ Magenta)” from his “Celebration” series, owned by hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, sold for $5.5 million, less than its estimate at Sotheby’s New York in March 2009. The $47 million total at that auction was 87 percent down on that achieved the previous year.

Balloon Flower

In June 2008, a Koons sculpture from the same series, “Balloon Flower (Magenta),” sold at Christie’s International, London, for a record 12.9 million pounds. It was one of 18 works by the artist to fetch more than $1 million that year, according to ArtNet.

“We were in an extravagant period then,” Dallas-based collector Howard Rachofsky, who was the seller of that guaranteed piece, said in an interview. “It was a unique bubble market, a fantasy market. There were mega-billionaires from the Middle East and Russia interested in about eight names they were told to be interested in.”

Thirty-two works by Hirst sold for more than 1 million pounds at auctions in 2008, said ArtNet. Twenty-four of these were achieved, it said, at the Sotheby’s sale, the biggest of works sourced directly from an artist.

Only one piece by Hirst sold at auction for more than 1 million pounds in 2009, said ArtNet. The 2006 butterfly painting, “The Importance of Elsewhere — The Kingdom of Heaven,” achieved HK$15.5 million ($2 million) at Seoul Auction’s Hong Kong autumn sale on Oct. 7.

Circular Butterfly

At Sotheby’s “Frieze Week” auction in London in October this year, a 2006 circular butterfly painting by Hirst titled “Retribution” sold to the New York collectorJose Mugrabi for 541,250 pounds. A similarly sized and colored 2008 butterfly work, “Reincarnated,” sold for 1.6 million pounds at the company’s “Beautiful” auction a year before. The works carried low estimates of 450,000 pounds and 500,000 respectively.

The ArtTactic Average Price Index for Hirst butterfly paintings has dropped 41 percent since September 2008, said the London-based research company’s founderAnders Petterson in October 2009.

“Hirst will come back,” Sandelson said of the U.K.’s richest artist. “In the short term, overproduction has been a problem. That didn’t harm the Andy Warholmarket in the end. In the future Hirst’s works, like Warhol’s, will be bought as classics.”

“Hirst made his mark on art history,” said Hoffman. “But in 30 years’ time collectors are going to focus on the earlier works rather than the pieces he made when he had a lot of assistants. At the moment the prices of Hirst’s earlier works are probably unchanged. I’m not sure I’d invest in a new work that was sold in 2008.”

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in London atsreyburn@hotmail.com.

SOURCE: Bloomberg.com

Braz Dias - “Equilibrio” a Solo Show on May 26

With over 50 years of experience in the art scene, Braz Dias, a Brazilian artist from São Paulo, has done almost everything one can expect from an artist of his caliber. His resume is enhanced by a great number of national and international exhibitions, as well as awards received by acclaimed shows and institutions, such as: SALÃO DE ARTE MODERNA DE SÃO PAULO, BIENAL DE SÃO PAULO, MAM/SP (MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA DE SÃO PAULO) and SALÃO NACIONAL DE ARTE MODERNA - RIO DE JANEIRO. The experience he had in Italy, as an apprentice at the ISTITUTO STATALE D’ARTE PER L’ILLUSTRAZIONE E LA DECORAZIONE DEL LIBRO DI URBINO, in the the beginning of his career, has indeed played an important role throughout the years.

Since the early 70’s, Braz Dias has more and more immersed into the Surrealism facet of his work. With a technique of his own, he expresses himself by surpassing themes that allow the viewers to daydream between fantasy and reality, always carrying a solid dialogue with a sheer poetic balance. From May 26 until July 11 - 2009, the Gallery Uffici presents a series of 14 masterpieces under the theme “EQUILIBRIO”, which means ‘Balance’, a tribute to his five decades of solid career.

At GALERIA UFFICI
Rua Est. Jeremias Bastos, 442, Pina, 51011-040 Recife, PE, Brazil
Phone: 55-81-3325-2634
http://www.uffici.com.br
Monday - Friday: 10AM - 6PM, Saturday: 10AM - 3PM

Galeria Uffici - Group Show

The Uffici Gallery, in Recife - Brazil,  is officially  opening its 2009 exhibition program with a group show on Tuesday, March 10Th. There will be five artists displaying a total of 12 works. Yet All five artists, Fernando Ferreira de Araujo, Plinio Palhano, Julieta Pontes, Carlos Pragana and Ana Veloso, have a unique hallmark and the show has no specific theme, all art-pieces dialogue almost seamless. Texture, depth, bold and fast strokes seem to be a common ground among these contemporary artists.
         
Guardiao

         
They tend to avoid any means of association with any art movement, however it’s impossible not to recognize the influence the American Abstract Expressionism has had in most of them. Embodied by the passionate way of the Brazilian soul, the influence we see almost dissipates in a style of its own.  
    
   
   
Group Show opening: Tuesday - March 10, 2009 - 7-11PM
Exhibition: March 10 - 31, 2009
Monday - Friday: 10AM - 6PM
Saturday: 10AM - 3PM
Rua Estudante Jeremias Bastos, 442
Pina - Recife, PE - 51011-040 - Brazil

Donation of original paintings and sculptures to the “Requiem” project

Friends of Cindy Jackson have donated originals paintings and sculptures so that we can see her project started. Please go to The REQUIEM Project to see the project and the art work that is for sale. Not only will you get a wonderful work of art, but every penny you pay  will go directly back into the “Requiem” project.  Check some of the available works:

 

CINDY JACKSON

 www.cjacksonsculpture.com

 WORK FOR SALE: YO-YO-MAN
 Bronze Edition 1/9
 25″ tall on a 10.5″ round black granite base

This is a Museum Edition Bronze, cast at the Premier Foundry in LA- Decker Studio. Cindy Jackson is    featured in high profile American Collections and is shown throughout the United States.

A.A.S., B.S., B.F.A. Southern Illinois University, Webster University, Art Center College of Design.
Freelance, Public Art and Gallery Sculptor.
Past and Present Galleries:Sherry French Gallery, Tromp d’Oliel Gallery, Artworks Gallery, Vanier & Roberts Gallery, Peltz Gallery, Thomas Segal Gallery, Deson-Saunders Gallery, Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Loveland “Sculpture in the Park”. Clients include: Disney Theme Parks (California and Tokyo), Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Mattel, Hasbro, Applause, Burger King, Dreamworks, Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto, 7-UP and Xerox. Awards: Joyce and Elliot Liskin Foundation for “Young Sculptor of the Year”. Public Monument: Bronze monument to oil workers in Signal Hill, CA 2006. First Place in National Small Sculpture Invitational 2004. Currently teaching Figure Sculpture at Art Center College of Design and privately in her studio.

DAVID TANNER

WORKS FOR SALE:
STANDING NUDE (Anatomy Study) & SEATED NUDE
Both are 16″ x 20″ Arcylic on Canvas Paper, Framed

David Tanner is a lighting artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Throughout his career in visual effects and animation he has contributed to such films as Contact, Stuart Little, The Matrix Reloaded, X2, and Disney’s upcoming Bolt. As an artist he is intrigued by abstraction. He is working toward applying the fragmentation and layering techniques used in film compositing to his painting. Both of these paintings are done from life and both have a wonderful immediacy and presence about them.

 

 

Guardian Caterpillars by Brazilian artist Fernando Ferreira de Araujo at Ornare - Art Basel Miami 4-7 Dec, 2008

 

For this exhibition, we are pleased to present the series “Caterpillars” from the Brazilian-New York based artist Fernando Ferreira de Araujo. Immersed into his strong expressionist language, we’re taken to the spiritual and mystical facet of the artist. Through his work, Ferreira de Araujo has always invited us to his most inner journeys, at the same time, surfacing our most deep feelings and insights.

 

Fabio Villas Pereira

Artist Showdown

Director/Chief Curator

 

 

 

 

 

“The series ‘Caterpillars’ represents the power of mutation, the wonder of changing from one being to another. I also honor the ‘Guardian Angels’ and forces that have always remained by our side, at all times. Specially at those moments we mistakenly believed there was nothing to hold on to. Then, we found the strength we had never thought we had before. As a matter of fact, we didn’t have it. It was given to us by the Guardians, that always accompanied us, and we so much take for granted.”  Fernando Ferreira de Araujo

www.fernandoaraujo.net

Fernando Ferreira de Araujo at Uffici Gallery - Opening Nov 4

Solo show from the Brazilian New York-based artist Fernando Ferreira de Araujo. Opening Nov 4, 2008 at 7PM. Uffici Gallery. Rua Estudante Jeremias Bastos, 442 Pina - Recife/PE - Brazil www.uffici.com.br

Through a dramatic hue, specially the intense blue shades and deep siennas, Fernando Ferreira de Araújo shows he hasn’t forgotten his native Brazil. Without detaching himself from his cultural background, living in New York City, for five years, has added a new perspective to his long artistic journey - almost 18 years. With a contemporary language, his work is richly crafted. His expressionist brushstroke captures his essence and expose his bare soul. For this solo show, “Paisagens do Inconsciente”, we present landscapes retrieved from his unconscious memories. As a result, a spiritual connection is established, and all the joy and grief Ferreira de Araujo has employed to his paintings become part of the journey through his natural and organic world.

Julieta Pontes - Galeria Uffici

:: Q&A :: Max Miller


Q: I’ve noticed your creation process has a lot to do with reality, at the same time a touch of fantasy and the imaginary. Can you tell us more about it ?
A: I’ve always been interested in the fantastic, and the mysteries that exist just below the surface. I think that that is what I have always tried to represent with my work. For so long I felt like a satellite around somekind of ‘truth’ that I kept missing. Recently as I’ve begun to add metaphysical and more supernatural elements into my work I’ve felt like I’ve begun to get closer to what it is I’m looking for. This stems naturally from my interest in creating a subjective reality.

Q: Based on your background, it’s clear art has always been part of life.When did you realize art was the center piece of your life and not only part of it?
A: I don’t think there was a moment of realization. As far as I can remember I always knew that I would be an artist when I grew up. I didn’t know what form that would take or what kind of art I would make, but I was lucky to have a supportive family that only helped me get where I wanted to go.Being that most of my family members were involved in the arts in one way or another it has always been a central part of my life.

Q: What has been the most important thing in your career as an artist?
A: It’s hard to say, I think that my interest in a general, and broad scope of things in literature and science has always led me to seek out different avenues to express myself. There was a moment a few years ago where it seemed that all of my various interests gelled into one focused thrust, almost like a bunch of strings being braided together. That was probably the most crucial part of my career as I had been disparaging the artist’s life for a quite awhile before that, and as of that moment I became more comfortable.

Q: What has been the most difficult part of being an artist?
A: Saying that I’m an artist. When I tell most people what I do they look at me as if I’m a bum or a bit of dirt on their shoe. I’m not certain where the initial derision comes from, but when they see my work they usually change their tone. For awhile I told people that I was a painter, this inevitably led to the question, “Oh, do you paint houses?”

Q: What’s the most important fact at the present stage of your career?
A: I think a consistent, dedicated work schedule will always be the most important factor in the creation of my work. I try to work between six and ten hours a day in the studio, every day, unless I have to go out of town. It’s important for me that my studio is separate from where I live so that when I’m there I can focus solely on creating work. This only works if you’re happy and comfortable with what you do though, or if have crushing commission deadlines.

Q: What do you think matters the most for an artist living in the XXI century?
A: I think that promoting yourself on the internet in as many ways possible is an amazing avenue that has not been previously available to artists. So many people experience my work first online, and then perhaps make it to a show after that to see the work in person. I don’t even know how many commissions I’ve gotten just from people seeing my website. An artist’s website is an invaluable tool.

Q: How do you see abstract paintings? Have you ever considered developing an abstract body of work?
A: This is an idea I’ve wrestled with since I started seriously creating work. I think abstract work can be beautiful and it can be disgusting, just like realist work. The difference is that I see abstract work like modernist instrumental music/jazz, or poetry, it isn’t held to as many hard rules or standards as realist work sometimes can. In that way it can sometimes be more emotion driven and it can also appeal to a larger audience in that it does not demand as much from the viewer, and it can be viewed as ’safe.’ I don’t think I’ll ever go fully abstract as I might be disappointed with myself if I did, but recently I have started to incorporate abstract elements into the outlying edges of my paintings and I’ve been pleased with the action and expression in that marginal area.

Q: Could you name your top 5 artists?
A: Jusepe Ribera, Egon Shiele, Phil Hale, Diego Velazquez, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Q: What’s more difficult, dealing with the business part of being an artist or managing insights, turning projects and ideas into art?
A: Turning projects into art is as simple as breathing for me. At this point I have such a simple structure for how I work that it almost becomes meditative, though of course I hit snags every once in awhile. Managing the business of my art making is another story though. I think many artists, including myself, are put off of handling the business side because we’re told when we’re young “Oh, you’re so right-brained, you make your art, you just don’t have a head for business.” And this sinks in and then people find that the IRS is looking for them for all the tax they haven’t paid for twenty years. Once I started seriously making work and selling it I found that had to handle the business side to, and as soon as I really looked at, it became easier, it’s just a matter of focusing down on it and not being afraid.

Q: What’s your long term goal as an artist?
A: I have three goals, to be truly happy with the work I make (I don’t think this is possible, but it keeps me going), for people to respond to the things I include in my work the same way that I do, and to be comfortable enough financially as an artist that I don’t have to skimp on food so I can buy materials (luckily this is already changing).

 

Q: What advice would you give to those artists that sometimes don’t know how to tread the unstable beginning of their careers?
A: I think the most important thing is to get your work out there as much as possible, don’t worry about selling things for huge amounts of money. You may feel like you deserve it for all the work you put into your art, but no one else may know that yet. You have to build confidence in your work and yourself and the only way to do that is to show your work whenever and wherever possible.

www.maxmillerart.com

 

 

Max Miller - August 2008 Featured Artist

“I’ve always been interested in the fantastic, and the mysteries that exist just below the surface. I think that that is what I have always tried to represent with my work. For so long I felt like a satellite around somekind of ‘truth’ that I kept missing. Recently as I’ve begun to add metaphysical and more supernatural elements into my work I’ve felt like I’v begun to get closer to what it is I’m looking for. This stems naturally from my interest in creating a subjective reality.”

August 2008 - Featured Artist

                     ::Portfolio::             :: Q&A ::                :: Max Miller ::

Kevin A. Rausch - July 2008 Featured Artist

“I am my own person and reject culturally implemented or constructed scenes or trends, whether they be found in the realm of music, art or politics. If the cultural milieu were the sea, these constructed trends would be born underwater, only to float to the top and be swallowed whole by the great white business shark.” Kevin A. Rausch

July 2008 - Featured Artist

                     ::Portfolio::              :: Q & A ::                :: Kevin A. Rausch ::