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Irish and World Art
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June 25: Contemporary Art is Alive and Well Today I went to see an exhibition of graduate works staged by one of Ireland's top art colleges. During the course of two hours I must have seen roughly 1,000 works, which included paintings (the majority), small sculptures, with a number of "installations" and other multi-media works. It was a sobering experience to see what passes for "art" these days. Next stop for most of the artists shown will either be the Unemployment Office or a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris. Meantime, perhaps someone will explain to me why such an important showcase of young Irish artists contained not a single piece of traditional figurative art: especially since - judging by my visits to art galleries - high quality representational art sells like hot-cakes. Is this dinosaur-speak or plain common sense? (Editor) 17 June: BP Portrait Award Winner Announced An art teacher from one of the UK's best
known public schools, Charterhouse school in Surrey, scooped first prize
in the BP Portrait Award. His painting of his 12 year old daughter is
described as 'spooky'. He takes home a cheque for £25,000 and a
commission from the National Portrait Gallery. Second prize was awarded
to Mark Gaskell for his portrait of his 17 year old son, verging on manhood.
He said he was inspired by Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man and also
by the portraiture of Holbein. Public can view the work at that National
Portrait Gallery until 20th September. 100 years since Futurism is celebrated with a new exhibition at Tate Modern this summer. The radical art movement, which was founded in Italy and drew on elements of cubism - sought to express the speed and dynamism of industrial society in the early 20th century. It is the first major futurist show in Britain in three decades and includes works by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, Giacomo Balla and Luigi Russolo. Unfortunately it gets the thumbs down from the Guardian Art Review as 'dull, flat and sluggish'. In case you still want to see it, the exhibition runs until the 20th September. 8 June: Russian Art Boom Despite the recession, Russian art still sells well at auction. In just one week, four auction houses in London sold over £30m worth of paintings and sketches from Russian artists. Despite Russian billionaires falling from 105 to 31 on the Forbes magazine rich list, traditional paintings by artists such as Ilya Repin and Boris Kustodiev still proved popular. More contemporary work was slower to sell. 1 June: Picasso Sketches worth €8m Stolen Curators at the Picasso Museum in Paris were horrified to discover a sketchbook containing over 30 drawings by Picasso missing from the Museum just after lunchtime. Police believe it was an opportunistic theft, as there was no sign of a break-in. Due to renovations, fewer of the master's works were on display than normal. Usually there would be hundreds of paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, and engravings. Perhaps museum staff might consider eating at their desk in future? 26 May: Work Begins at the New Louvre in Abu Dhabi Construction began today on Abu Dhabi's version of France's Louvre Museum. The huge domed building was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and will cost over €100m by the time it is completed in 2012. The French culture Minister was kind enough to sign an agreement allowing the United Emirates city to use the 'Louvre' name for 30 years. It will also entitle them to display works of art from the Paris version of the museum. 15 May: Record £5m for David Hockney Painting Hockney's painting Beverly Hills Housewife fetched a record $7,922,500 (£5,236,328) when it was sold to an anonmyous bidder at Christies in New York. The painting is 12ft by 6ft and was owned by Betty Freeman, who died in January. The picture depicted her on her patio. The previous top price paid for a Hockney was £2.92m in 2006 for his painting The Splash. 26 April: Turner Exhibition in Beijing to be Underwritten by British Taxpayer Following the successful visiting exhibition of the Terracotta Army Warriors in London, Gordon Brown agreed a reciprocal show in Beijing of 100 works by the 19th century English landscape artist JMW Turner. Alas, recession problems have ruled out any Chinese financial responsibility for the works of art, so the British taxpayer is now footing the insurance bill, which could amount to several hundred million pounds. What's the word for "Ouch!" in Chinese? 22 April: UK Budget Taxes Unlikely to Have Direct Effect on Art Market Chancellor Alistair Darling's April 22 budgetary tax increases on high-earners will have little adverse impact on the art market, says Christie's tax expert Susan Johnson. She believes the new 50 percent tax bracket will have far less effect on the fine art market than the overall global financial position. No surprise there. 17 April: American Photography Wins 2009 L'Iris D’Or Award The American fine art photographer David Zimmerman has won the coveted L’Iris D’Or Award, the 2009 Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year. He received the award at a Gala ceremony in Cannes last night. His entry in the Landscape category - "Desert" - depicts the fragile ecosystem of the American southwest desert. 31 March: Sale of Yves Saint Laurent/Pierre Berge/Versace Collections Despite the ongoing recession, two celebrity collections of fine art, and objets d'art, smashed all pre-sale estimates to the surprise of buyers and auctioneers alike. Back in February, Christie's Paris successfully disposed of 700 lots of silver, paintings, sculpture, and art deco furniture from the Yves Saint Laurent/Pierre Berge collection for $483.8 million. In March, Sotheby's London hammered down 454 lots of furnishings and pictures from the Lake Como residence of murdered designer Gianni Versace for £7.4 million - almost twice the presale estimate. Is the art market beginning to recover? I'm afraid not. Both auctions were once-in-a-lifetime events. Even so, they prove that top quality art can still command top prices. Until 23 March 2009: Exhibition of "Nothing" Pompidou Centre, Paris Nine empty rooms comprises the latest exhibition of contemporary art in Paris. A weird reincarnation of John Cage's completely silent piece of "musical" conceptual art entitled "4.33", the new show at the Pompidou Centre has been acclaimed by at least one art critic as the most radical show ever seen inside a museum. According to Laurent Le Bon, curator of the Pompidou Metz, the project is "at the frontline of artistic venture and ...art history". The actual name of the show - The Specialisation of Sensibility in the Raw Material State into Stabilised Pictorial Sensibility - is perfectly in keeping with the mind-boggling lack of reality which it represents. 2 March 2009: New $25 Million Sculpture by Jeff Koons Jeff Koons is in the middle of the largest, most ambitious project of his career: a huge sculpture comprising a 70-foot-long steel-and-aluminium replica of a locomotive dangling from a crane. The sculpture has been commissioned by Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) for its entrance plaza, where it will commemorate the Industrial Age technology that powered America’s westward expansion. The projected bill makes Koons' Train the most expensive artwork ever commissioned by a museum, a title currently belonging to Richard Serra’s $20m sculpture - The matter of time (2005) - now in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. [Meantime, Lacma has initiated a staff freeze and cut back on travel, to save money during the recession.] 26 February 2009: Staff Redundancies at Arts Council The Arts Council of England has announced 24 percent cuts in its workforce to meet the UK government's requirement that it reduces its administrative cost-base by 15 percent, by 2010. Staff numbers will be reduced from 622 people to 473, saving £6.5m a year, all of which will be reinvested in arts organisations. February 22: Is Contemporary art is a fraud? Yes, says billionaire art collector David Nahmad, one of the world’s leading art dealers, who this week savaged the contemporary art market, characterizing its overrated, absurdly high-priced works as "almost fraud". His comments echo those by the British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, who recently decried the stupid and outrageous prices in the contemporary art market. David Nahmad, reputedly the possessor of a £2 billion collection of around 5,000 paintings, including 300 Picassos, as well as numerous works by Matisse and Rothko, said he doubted if any artist since Francis Bacon had pushed art forward. "There is the real art market, with real artists, and then there is the stupid art market which uses publicity to make some artists become very expensive." But Louisa Buck, a columnist for The Art Newspaper, disagreed with Nahmad, saying that while artists such as Rothko, Picasso and Matisse were undoubtedly highly influential figures, "the art world has moved on and to dismiss everything after Bacon is utter nonsense." 5 February 2009: Modigliani Portrait Exceeds Low Estimate at Christie's London Christie's 47-lot collection of Impressionist and modern art was hammered down for £63.4 million against a revised low total estimate of £58.8 million. Portraits by Modigliani and Monet were the top items. The rare Amedeo Modigliani work "Les Deux Filles", which had never appeared at auction before, sold for £6.5 million, against a low estimate of £3.5 - £5 million. Adequate, but nothing to shout about for such a rare and exquisite item. Monet's "Dans la Prairie" attracted a single bid of £11.2 million pounds, with fees, against a pre-sale estimate of £15 million pounds, suggesting that early Impressionist art may be falling out of fashion. The same work sold in 1988 at Sotheby's in London for £14.3 million pounds with fees. 26 January 2009: How Will the Global Art Market Perform in 2009? After five years of unprecedented growth, the art market is undergoing a significant correction, along with - it has to be said - almost every other wealth-measuring index. Indeed, a noticable decline in confidence has been evident across the market ever since November 2007 when Sotheby's New York auction of Modern art undershot forecasts by more than 20 percent, triggering a 28 percent fall in the company's share price. So how will the market perform in 2009? First, as we all know, there's no such thing as "the" market: rather a collection of market segments, ranging from Old Masters to 21st century contemporary art movements/styles. Furthermore, each segment (even within an artist's individual body of work) has its over-exposed works, and its rare or unseen works, both of which tend to generate quite different levels of interest. In addition, bidding-wars between two or more collectors can shatter any pre-sale estimate, no matter what the financial environment. These three factors alone make forecasting fairly meaningless. Right now, most valuations are down by at least 33 percent over this time last year, with weaker contemporary segments down by up to 50 percent. And many works will no doubt be kept off the market until conditions improve. Given the general uncertainty about the global economic climate, one doesn't need a PhD in Economics to predict further falls in 2009. Rarity Still Costs If location is king in property, rarity remains king in fine art. Thus Les Deux Filles (1918) by the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, which is due for auction at Christie's next month, is likely to be a key indicator for the top-end of the market. Much will depend on the success of this lot. If it under-performs, don't expect to see much excitement in the market for the rest of the year. On the other hand, if its rarity and exquisite quality succeeds in commanding any sort of record price, the art market may continue to surprise us, even in today's negative climate. Bookmark this page for more news about Christie's key sale. 28 December: Art Sales in Ireland Drop 40 Percent in 2008 According to figures released by Adam's, Whytes and De Vere's, the three big Dublin auctioneers, Irish art sales fell by 40 percent compared to 2007. The number of lots remained static, as did sales take-up rates. However, fewer top rank paintings were offered at auction during the year. (Source: Irish Times, Dec 28). 19 December: New Leonardo da Vinci Drawings Found Louvre curators have accidentally discovered a series of unknown drawings on the back of a Leonardo da Vinci painting, believed to be by Leonardo himself. The drawings were found during routine restoration work on his masterpiece The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. December 17: Sotheby's Winnie the Pooh Sale Sets Record A collection of EH Shepard's original sketches for the Winnie the Pooh children's books sold for a total of £1.26m at Sotheby's, in London, with many works going for twice the estimated price. Only two lots failed to find buyers. The sale is good news for Sotheby's whose share price has suffered recently, following the downward "correction" in the global art market. December 12: Rare Masterpieces Found in Pensioner's Toilet Sell for £200,000 Two drawing masterpieces (The Climax and A Platonic Lament) by the Victorian draughtsman and illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, lost for 80 years, have been sold for £200,000. The pen-and-ink drawings were discovered hanging in a pensioner's lavatory by an estate agent who was valuing the elderly man's bungalow. The man inherited them 40 years ago from his grandfather, a university professor and art-lover, 40 years ago, without any idea they were rare masterpieces. December 8: Damien Hirst Works Fail to Sell Six out of eight contemporary works by Damien Hirst failed to find buyers at the Art Basel Miami Beach Fair. Even the two that found buyers went for a 10 percent discount. Last month, 11 out of 17 Hirst lots failed to find buyers at three different auction houses, while according to the Guardian newspaper, Hirst laid off 17 employees who make the pills for his "drug cabinets" and three others who make his "butterfly paintings". Art experts say the huge Hirst sale at Sotheby's in September, has effectively destroyed current price levels for the artist. Other contemporary artists, including Andy Warhol, Jean- Michel Basquiat and Takashi Murakami, are also feeling the pinch, with many of their recent works failing to find buyers after a five-year increase in value. November 30: Turner Prize Becoming a Non-Event The prize that once showcased the best of British contemporary art is becoming increasingly irrelevant, according to experts studying the Turner shortlist, which this year includes a film about broken crockery, a mannequin sitting on a toilet, a photo collage and an installation featuring, among other things, Felix the Cat. According to reports, the veteran art critic Brian Sewell has requested a place on the Turner jury in order to reform the decision-making process. Other critics have called for the prize to be scrapped completely, while defenders like Mark Rappolt, editor of Art Review, and Sarah Thornton, author of Seven Days in the Art World, claim that all is well: "The prize has become a benchmark of validation that distinguishes the British art scene" said Thornton. Meanwhile, the broadcaster Matthew Collings, previously involved in covering the Turner Prize for Channel 4, said: "The line-up this year is no more idiotic than usual." November 17: Asia Set To Dominate World Art Market! According to the Artprice annual survey of the global contemporary art market, which lists the top 500 best-selling artists (based on results from 2,900 auctions between July 2007 and June 2008) Asian artists are starting to dominate. At present, of the world's top-20 contemporary artists, 13 are Asian, of whom 11 are Chinese. November 7: Sotheby's New York Sale of Impressionist/Modern Art Disappointing, lack-lustre and dispiriting, sums up a Sotheby's sale of modern art in which around 30 percent (20 of 76) of lots failed to find buyers, including The Fields by Vincent Van Gogh (estimated sale-price $28-35 million) and La Lampe by Pablo Picasso (estimated sale-price $35 million). The auction raised a total of $238.8 million (compared to $349.99 million at Christie's the night before), significantly down on Sotheby's own minimum pre-sale estimate of $355 million as well as general expectations. Salesroom highlights included $35 million hammer price for Te Poipoi by Paul Gauguin; $29.16 milllion for the Picasso bronze bust of Dora Maar, an auction record for a Picasso sculpture; and $11.35 million for a self-portrait by the Viennese painter Egon Schiele - a world record for the artist. Afterwards, some experts blamed the disappointing sales results on the calibre of the lots offered, leading to a distinct lack of competitive bidding compared to Christie's auction the previous evening. November 6: Christie's New York Sale of Impressionist/Modern Art To much relief, Christie's auction of 85 lots of Impressionist/Modern art raised a total of $349.99 million (hammer price, excluding buyer's premium) just inside the pre-sale estimate of $348-487 million. Americans accounted for 48.5 percent of the buyers, a far higher percentage than expected. Highlights included the sale of L'Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue by Henri Matisse, for $33.64 million, a world record auction price for the artist. But around 20 percent of the lots (17 of the 91) failed to find buyers and towards the last section of the sale the room was less than two-thirds. November 5: Christie's New York Sale of Modern Age Art Christie's auction of two modern art collections (the Hillman Family and the Alice Lawrence Collections) produced less than half of pre-sale expectations, fetching a total of $47,039,500, against pre-sale estimates of $102.3–149 million. Sales figures for The Hillman collection were $28,047,000, (36 percent unsold by lot and 45 percent by value), while the Lawrence Collection earned $18,992,500. Christie's auction program continues tonight (Thurs 6th) night with 85 lots of Impressionist/Modern art, "expected" to earn in excess of $250 million. November 3: Sotheby's New York Auction Sales "Patchy" Kazimir Malevich's masterpiece, Suprematist Composition (1916) sold for $60m, while records were also set for paintings by expressionist Edvard Munch and Impressionist Edgar Degas. In total, the Sotheby's auction grossed $224m (£140m) in total, but few lots reached their pre-sale estimate. Even the much vaunted Malevich painting was already "covered" by a $60m "irrevocable bid". One of the night's biggest surprises was Mark Rothko's stunning No. 43 (Mauve), which could only attract a bid of $16 million, against its pre-sale estimate of $20-30 million. October 31: Contemporary Art Fairs Suffer During a month when auction prices for "hot" market-categories like Chinese, Islamic and Aboriginal art, as well as high-end contemporary works slumped, contemporary art fairs also had a hard time. Dealers at the Frieze contemporary art show in London talked of a slowdown, while sales were also very slow at the FIAC fair in Paris. Oct 19: Artists Earnings to be Taxed According to a report in the Sunday Times by John Burns, the 1 percent income levy introduced by the Irish government will hit hundreds of Irish artists for the first time. The country's artistic community earns more than €100 million a year which is exempt from income tax, due to a 1969 scheme initiated by Charles Haughey. However, according to Noel Kelly head of Visual Artists Ireland, as many as 80 percent of tax-exempt artists earn less than €10,000 a year. Moreover, Kelly points out, the Arts Council's current budget is already 12 percent down. Altogether, not good news for most creative practitioners. Oct 4: Irish Art Sales Maintain Values, Despite Economic Downturn Sales of Irish fine art at Whytes, Adam's, Dolan's and O'Driscoll's auctions during the week (Sept 29 - Oct 4) were seen as reassuringly positive by most auctioneers and salesroom experts. Receipts at the two Dublin auctions (Whytes and Adam's) grossed €2 million, with roughly 60-75 percent of lots being sold, mostly at the low end of pre-sale estimates. Against a global background of significant falls in the value of investment shares, these sales figures were something of a surprise and no mean achievement. On the other hand, recent anecdotal evidence from some gallery owners indicates a serious drop in demand from casual buyers at the lower end of the Irish art market. And sales at the recent Water Colour Society of Ireland Exhibition were noticeably down on last year. Reading between the lines, one can say that demand for quality Irish paintings is still there, but it seems to be emanating from serious collectors rather than amateur investors. Watch this space. Oct 1: See the History of Western Art Fed up with falling share prices? Take a break and read about the development of painting and sculpture. Visit: History of Art Timeline. Or see History of Architecture. Sept 19 - Oct 19: RUA Exhibition, Belfast The 127th Annual Royal Ulster Academy Exhibition runs for one month in the historic Titanic Drawing Offices of Harland and Wolff Shipyard, Belfast. Come and see works by some of the best Irish artists, from classical realism to expressionist and avant-garde abstract works. Plus great examples of Irish sculpture. Includes talks by artists such as Paul Seawright and Susan MacWilliam, workshops for children, as well as screenings from the Northern Ireland Film Archive. Sept15-16: Damien Hirst Auction Smashes Record Sotheby's 2-day sale of 223 works by contemporary British artist Damien Hirst raised a total of €140 million, far exceeding the previous record a for one-man auction, amid allegations of price-manipulation by the artist's business associates. According to the Sunday Times (London), bids or purchases accounting for more than half the €70.3 million spent on the crucial opening day of the art sale, were made by gallery owners and other close business associates of the artist. Sept 14: Solo Arte Launch New Managed Art Fund Waterford-based art dealers Solo Arte have launched an Irish art investment plan, catering for both individual and corporate collectors. Introduced at the Dublin art Fair, the fund aims for an impressive 7 percent annual growth. New Francis Bacon Exhibition at the London Tate Until Jan 4 2009 Francis Bacon is the most famous Irish-born painter of the latter half of the 20th century. His art trawls the full gamut of human suffering, isolation, anxiety, horror and tragedy. See lots of it at this outstanding new show at the Tate Britain. Runs September 11 2008 until January 4
2009 Death Row Convict Donates His Body to Art - Sept 2008 If his final appeal fails, Gene Hathorn, a convict on death row in Texas, has agreed to give his body to the Danish-based artist Marco Evaristti, who plans to turn Hathorn’s body into a work of art. "My aim is to first deep freeze Gene’s body and then make fish food out of it. Visitors to my exhibition will be able to feed goldfish with it." Evaristti is assisting Hathorn with the costs of his appeal by selling drawings made by the convict in prison. If the appeal fails, which Evaristti believes is likely, the Danish painter will ship the body to Germany, deep freeze it, then turn it into fish food as part of his upcoming exhibition to highlight the injustice of capital punishment. Top Art Critic Slams Damien Hirst In a new TV program for Channel 4 (The Mona Lisa Curse), Robert Hughes, one of the world's best-known advocates of modern painting and sculpture, publicly lays much of the blame for the decline of contemporary art at the door of Damien Hirst. Coinciding with the controversial UK 'clearance' sale of over 200 of Hirst's works, Hughes mounts a lengthy attack on the artist for 'functioning like a commercial brand' and demonstrating that art has lost all meaning other than its price tag. Hirst's 1991 pickled tiger shark artwork, entitled "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living", is, according to Hughes, a 'tacky commodity', despite the fact that collector Charles Saatchi resold it in 2004 for £8 million. 'It is a clever piece of marketing, but as a piece of art it is absurd,' Hughes says.
The Mona Lisa Curse is due to be screened on Channel 4 on 21 September at 6.30pm. September 11-14: Dublin Art Fair 08 The 4-day inaugural visual arts show Dublin Art Fair 2008 opens 1800 hours Thursday Sept 11 at the RDS Main Hall for invitation-only preview, with public viewing Friday, Saturday, Sunday. General admission for the 3 days costs a bargain €15. For more information about the latest artfest to hit the capital, see Dublin Art Fair 2008. August 11: Damien Flood Shortlisted Coinciding with Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture 2008, NCAD graduate Damien Flood has been shortlisted for the £25,000 John Moores Contemporary Painting Award. The prestigious John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize, named after Sir John Moores (1896-1993), is held every two years at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Prizewinners will be announced on 20 September 2008, and works by the 25 shortlisted artists will be on display at the Walker Art Gallery, until 4 January 2009. August 8: New Pamphlet Study on "Value of the Arts' The Irish Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the OPW and the Arts, Dr Martin Mansergh, has launched a new study in the ‘Value of the Arts’ series begun in 2006 by the Arts Council of Ireland. The publication outlines the important role played by the arts in our social development. To download the study, check out the ‘News’ section at www.artscouncil.ie August 8 - 17: Kilkenny Arts Festival For details of the 35th festival in Kilkenny, featuring 10 days crammed with exciting arts events, exhibitions and other spectaculars, including a visual arts program curated by Hugh Mulholland, see www.kilkennyarts.ie August 1 - 31 2008: James Coleman at IMMA An exhibition to celebrate the acquisition of Background, 1991-94, the third and final slide-tape installation in James Coleman’s 1990s trilogy, will be held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 1 Aug 08 - 31 Aug 08. The County Roscommon born artist James Coleman uses photographs, video stills, transparencies, slide shows, sound tracks and film footage to explore issues of communication. July 25, 2008: Horan Sculpture Unveiled in Cork The sculpture ‘Reflection’, a four foot high figurative piece made from limestone by James Horan, will be officially unveiled in Fitzgerald’s Park in Cork City by the Lord Mayor Brian Bermingham at 5.30pm. All are welcome. The work was donated to the city by the artist, and since June has been on permanent display in the park. July 16, 2008: Prices of Edvard Munch Fuelled by Theft According to a statement by Blomqvist auctioneers in Oslo, Norway, works by the famous Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) have risen significantly in price because of the theft in 2004 of his masterpieces 'The Scream' and 'Madonna'. For example, the artist's 'Girls on a Bridge' (1902), sold at Sothebys London in May 2008 for $30.8m - tripling the previous auction record for his work. Twelve years ago, the same painting was bought for $7.7m. July 21, 2008: Hugh Lane Centenary Show An exhibition celebrating 100 years of Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane, opened Monday, 21 July 2008. Highlights include works by the Impressionists Edouard Manet (1832-83), Pierre-August Renoir (1841-1919) and Berthe Morisot (1841-95), the Romantic landscape artist Jean-Baptist Corot (1796-1875), the Realist Gustave Courbet (1819-77), and Irish greats like Sir John Lavery (1856-1941), and Walter Osborne (1859–1903). Also exhibited are the 39 paintings withdrawn by Hugh Lane in 1908 and never yet seen. The show continues until September 28. July 5, 2008: Venice Art Arrives at
Wexford Art Gallery June 25, 2008: Monet Painting Sells For Almost £42 million at Christie's "Le bassin aux nympheas", the most outstanding work in Claude Monet's Waterlilies series, was sold last night at Christie's in London for £40,921,250 (including purchaser's premium), a world record price for a Monet painting at auction, and smashing pre-sale estimates of between £18-24 million. "Le bassin aux nympheas" - the highest-priced work of art sold so far by Christie's in Europe - was bought by an anonymous collector who emerged the winner in a nail-biting bidding battle in the sale room and over the telephones. There are two other surviving large-scale paintings in Monet's water-lily series: one hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), and one is in a private art collection. June 20, 2008: Sotheby's Announce 2-Day Damien Hirst Auction in September A 2-metre high animal sculpture entitled "The Golden Calf" is the lead item in a sale of 180 works by YBA Damien Hirst, planned for September 2008 at Sotheby's London. Set in formaldehyde, encased in a gold-plated box, with hooves and horns cast in 18-carat gold, the sculpture is anticipated to sell for up to £12m. Other works to be offered will include new paintings and sculptures of butterflies, cancer cells and pills. June 17, 2008: Freeze 20 Exhibition of YBA Works Opening in July at London's Hospital Club, 'Freeze 20' celebrates the art works and subsequent influence of the sixteen Young British Artists who first came to attention in the original 'Freeze' exhibition held in London's Docklands, in 1988. The new show features 16 works - from painting to mixed media - by these not-so-young pioneers of contemporary art, such as Damien Hirst, Anya Gallaccio, Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas, Mat Collishaw, Fiona Rae and Angus Fairhurst. June 12, 2008: Sotheby’s Art Sales Profits Down by 12 Percent in Q1 Increased rivalry from competitors like Christie’s was a contributory factor in a recently announced 12 percent fall in profits at Sotheby's for the first three months of 2008, compared with the same period last year. Art categories under the greatest pressure included impressionist, modern and contemporary art. June 8, 2008: 39th Art Basel Reveals Strong But Slower Sales The week-long Basel art fair finally closed with many dealers confessing to a sense of relief that sufficient buyers had come through despite greater caution and selectivity. Many American art-collectors stayed at home due to the fall in the dollar, while those who came took longer to make decisions. In general, however, prices remained high - even aggressive - reinforcing the current market view idea that prestigious art auctions were proving consistently more expensive to art-buyers than gallery shopping. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich - fresh from his record-breaking New York purchases of paintings by Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud - was a welcome visitor to Art Basel where he priced several works, including a sculpture by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, a drawing by Pablo Picasso as well as other works by Lucien Freud. June 6, 2008: William Scott Still-Life Sells for £1 million "Bowl, Eggs and Lemons", a still-life painting by the Belfast artist William Scott (1913-89) sold at Christie's for £1,071,650. Scott therefore joins the elite group of Irish artists whose works have breached the £1 million barrier. Other members of the group include such outstanding painters as the Surrealist Francis Bacon (1909-1992), the Expressionist Jack B Yeats (1871–1957), the academic portraitist Sir William Orpen (1878-1931), the Impressionist Sir John Lavery (1856-1941), and the modernist Louis le Brocquy (b.1916). For details of Ireland's most successful and highly priced fine art painters, see Most Expensive Irish Paintings. June 2, 2008: Uffizi Gallery Plans New Display for Self-Portraits Florence's Uffizi art gallery is designing a $250,000 face-lift for its outstanding collection of self-portrait paintings. Begun in 1664 by Leopoldo de Medici in 1664, the collection now numbers more than 1,600 works (although only some 400 are hung) and is housed in the 'Vasari Corridor' - a one-kilometre walkway connecting the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti across the river Arno. Further structural redevelopments are planned. Examples of self-portraits in the collection include paintings by Fra Lippi, Tintoretto, Bernini, Rubens, Rembrandt, Ingres, Velázquez, Reynolds, Corot and Chagall. Later works (which mostly remain in storage) include self-portraits by Carrà, de Chirico, Annigoni and Robert Rauschenberg.
May 30, 2008: Gustav Klimt Art Exhibition (Liverpool) Billed as the most important display of works by Gustav Klimt ever held in Britain, the show (subtitled "Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900") runs at the Tate Gallery Liverpool until August 31. It provides a glimpse into the fin de siecle moment of Viennese creativity staged by a whole group of art-nouveau pioneers, including Klimt. However, whether any of Klimt's paintings are worth the $135 million reputedly paid by Ronald S Lauder in 2006 for the former's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer is a moot point. May 18, 2008: Patrick Ireland Buried Symbolism reached new heights when a pseudonym (Patrick Ireland), belonging to the very-much-alive artist Brian O'Doherty, was interred in the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The pseudonym was assumed by O'Doherty in 1972 to reflect his outrage at 'Bloody Sunday' in Derry. He vowed to retain it until the removal of the British military presence from Northern Ireland - a goal he decided was duly achieved with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. This unique fusion of politics, fine art and drama was accompanied by several poetry readings and an emotive 'keening' by the contemporary Irish artist Alanna O'Kelly, noted among other things for her photo installation work confronting the realities of the famine and it's impact on Irish society. May 17, 2008: Pablo Picasso's Heirs in Lawsuit A book entitled, La Vérité sur Jacqueline Picasso about the second wife of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) has become the subject of a bitter lawsuit. Written by journalist Pepita Dupont, the book aims to rehabilitate the reputation of the woman whom Picasso painted more often than any of his other lovers, and restore the memory of the pair's "magnificent love story". However, Dupont's account has aroused the ire of both Marina Picasso (a granddaughter of Picasso) and her step-sister Catherine Hutin-Blay. Marina Picasso is suing Dupont for alleged defamation of her brother Pablito Picasso (who took his own life in 1973), while Catherine Hutin-Blay, a daughter of Jacqueline's first marriage, is alleging three counts of defamation and invasion of privacy. The case continues. May 14, 2008: Record Auction Price For Francis Bacon Sotheby's New York: A mystery art buyer spent $86.3 million on "Triptych", a three-panel painting by Francis Bacon, making it the most expensive painting in the history of Irish art. See also Irish Art Market. May 12, 2008: US Pop-Artist Robert Rauschenberg Dies The modern American artist Robert Rauschenberg has died at the age of 82 after a long illness. Born October 22, 1925, and a pioneer of numerous diverse art styles, Rauschenberg was one of the most influential artists in the US during the 1950s and 1960s, (especially in the Neo-Dada and Pop-Art movements). Aworking in a similar style to Andy Warhol (1928-87). Heavily influenced by the avant-garde composer John Milton Cage Jr, (1912–1992) - whose controversial composition entitled "4-33" consisted of 4 min 33 seconds of complete silence - Rauschenberg's conceptual and mixed-media works were also affected by the Cubist collage art of Picasso and Georges Braque (1882-1963) and the work of Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948). Unhappy with the abstract expressionism of American painters like Jackson Pollock (1912-56) and Willem de Kooning (1904-97), Rauschenberg adopted a profuse range of styles and techniques involving fine art painting, installation, assemblage and silk-screen painting, as well as joint projects including conceptual and performance art, choreography, set design and art and technology combinations. His most famous works included the 'painting' Bed (1955), created one morning when he had no money for a canvas. He used his bed quilt instead, decorating it with paint, toothpaste and fingernail polish. Another controversial work was his Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953) which was a drawing by the Abstract Expressionist Willem De Kooning (1904-97) which Rauschenberg erased. The work now hangs in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Despite early rejection by numerous art critics, Rauschenberg's artistic energy later brought him significant success (including the grand prize at the 1964 Venice Biennale), but he never quite forgot the insecurity of his earlier days and was instrumental in establishing Change - a body that provides financial support to artists in need. |
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Articles About the History of Irish Art For the evolution of visual art in Ireland, see History of Irish Art. This includes articles on Stone Age Art in Ireland, including the UN Heritage site of the Megalithic Tomb at Newgrange, plus artifacts from the Irish Bronze Age and Irish Iron Age. Read about early Christian art in Ireland, featuring priceless illuminated manuscripts like the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow. Read how this golden age of church-sponsored monastic irish art contributed to the later Northern Renaissance in Holland and Germany and the achievements of the High Renaissance in Italy. For a summary of modern art in Ireland, please see the History of Irish Painting (including Irish painting styles of the twentieth century). For an introduction to the plastic arts in Ireland, see Irish Sculpture. |
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