Price Points

New York is a city of extremes in many areas, and the art field is no exception. I recently visited two venues that prove this point. I attended the preview of the Affordable Art Fair, which showcases contemporary art.  Of course 'affordability' is relative but all artwork in this show ranged in price from $100 to $10,000. At the other extreme, I visited the exhibition at Sotheby's for their upcoming Contemporary Art auctions on May 10th and 11th, where the highest estimate for several pieces is $20/30 million. Regardless of price, amazing art was to be found in both locations.  

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The Affordable Art Fair

Gabriel Daujotas

Tom Lewis

Deborah Donelson

Jeff Fontaine

Fernando Alday

Many more artists and images, as well as links to the artists' websites and galleries, can be found in my review post on NearSay.

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Sotheby's

Anselm Kiefer

Jean Dubuffet

Mark Bradford

Joseph Cornell

Jackson Pollock

Gerhard Richter

Jean-Michel Basquait

See more images from Sotheby's in my post on NearSay.

All Aboard: Book Tour

Interweave Press has set up a Blog Tour to kick off the official release of Pam Carriker's new book Art at the Speed of Life. My blog is one of the first stops on the tour. I have already written up several posts highlighting my own artwork in this wonderful book and artist resource (see here, here, and  here). So I thought for this post, some words from the author herself were in order. Thanks Pam for sharing the following thoughts:

Living Art at the Speed of Life

As the date approaches for my, ahem, 30, cough, year high school reunion, I’m reminded of the last reunion I attended; that ‘never really should happen’ 5 year one. Five years is just enough time to get started on your path in life, but not really enough time to have anything to show for it. The funny thing is, ‘showing’ is what everyone seems bent on doing and the class of 1982 was no different. We were asked to fill out a questionnaire on what we were doing and what our goals were. Even back then I was heavily involved in creating, Tole Painting was my vehicle at that moment, and I bought instructional books by the dozen. As I churned out painted things to sell, using patterns and instructions produced by other artists, a little voice inside of me kept whispering, ‘You should make up your own designs-you could write your own book’. It was a faint whisper that I quickly shushed because who was I to think I could write a book? But it was the only thing that I could think of to put down for my goal/dream on the questionnaire, so I did.

It took many years working my way through everything from Tole Painting, rubber stamping, scrapbooking, and back to painting again before I found my way to the world of mixed media art. I knew the minute I first looked at Somerset Studios and Cloth Paper Scissors that this was where I was meant to be. How amazing that art could be created using techniques and skills learned from all of my previous artistic pursuits! As I continued to find my niche and participate on some design teams I found the courage to submit some work for publication. It wasn’t until the third try that it was accepted and shortly after I was asked to write articles for both of these wonderful publications. Thus ‘Art at the Speed of Life’ was born in my very first article. I wrote from the heart about the way I strive to live my life and the importance of living your creativity daily. This is still what I try to share from my heart. I feel it’s the most important tool to have at your disposal. Learning every ‘new’ technique and buying every supply available won’t lead you to living a creative life. There’s only one thing that will-action! You have to ‘do’ something, not just wish you had the time to do something. This is where many get discouraged and fall short of their goals.

Living Art at the Speed of Life is about more than just learning techniques, it’s about giving yourself permission to create and making it happen! You can be creative every day. I know because I’m a busy mom of 3 boys and I’ve been creating my whole life. I did it when the boys were small, when I was working full time, when I went through painful experiences, and when times were good. It is doable if you set your priorities to include creativity and give yourself credit for being creative even if the only creative thing you did that day was a napkin doodle while you were talking on the phone. It all counts and when you start seeing your creative life through clear eyes, acknowledging each accomplishment, big or small, it propels you forward and you start gathering speed! Write your goals down and check them off when you achieve them, it may take time-it took me almost 30 years, but it won’t ever happen if you don’t let it. It’s very satisfying to finally be able to check that long ago goal off my list-now on to the next!

You can visit Pam at her website Living Art at the Speed of Life
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You can make all the stops on the tour from now until March 15th at these blogs:

3/4 Suzan Buckner

3/5 Sue Pelletier Laugh*Paint

3/6 All Norah's Art

3/7 Faerie Enchantment

3/8 My Collage Art

3/9 Always Chrysti

3/10 Lisa Bebi's Art Blog

3/11 Sweet Repeats

3/12 Living Out Loud

3/13 The Feathered Nest

3/14 Paulette Insall
3/15 The Art of Julie Bergmann

The Sketchbook Project

Are you familiar with the The Sketchbook Project hosted by the Art House Co-op? Participants in this project were provided with a blank Moleskine sketchbook with its own unique bar code. They then selected one theme from a list provided and completed the sketchbook with that theme in mind. Completed sketchbooks were then returned and became part of a collection that will tour the United States. Over 28,000 artists from more than 90 countries received blank sketchbooks and approximately 10,000 books were completed and returned.

The opening of the travelling exhibit was this past weekend at the Brooklyn Art Library in Brooklyn, NY.

All visitors to the exhibit checked in and were given their own personal library cards, which granted them access to the sketchbooks, two at a time.

You could request books based on artist name, artist location, or sketchbook theme. The whole process was amazingly smooth and fast despite the large crowd and the large number of books...

...books...

...and more books!

I did not participate myself but was able to look up the sketchbooks from some artists who might be familiar to you.

A page out of the sketchbook of Chris Miser.

Joan Rowlands sketchbook from Australia.

From Kathryn Dyche Dechairo's sketchbook.

A spread from the sketchbook of Juana Almaguer.

From Pat McNally's sketchbook.

I know most of you will not get a chance to see this exhibit so I hope you enjoyed the view from your computer screen.

New York Couples

One of my "secret" haunts in NYC is Sotheby's, the auction house. They hold open exhibitions in advance of every auction and, unlike many galleries and museums, they almost always allow photography. Much of the artwork on display is coming from private collections and will end up in private hands. As such, the exhibitions are a rare opportunity to view art created by master artists that may never again be on public view.

Sotheby's was exhibiting the highlights of the upcoming London auction of Impressionist and Modern Art as well as a series of pieces from Looking Closely: A Private Collection. The viewing was like being in my own private museum. So join me and a few very special "New York Couples" in a visit to Sotheby's...

First, I would like to introduce you to a couple of Picassos. Who at first glance could imagine that the following two paintings were made by the same artist?

Portrait D'Olga - 1923 - Estimate $2,020,000-$2,790,000

La Lecture - 1932 - Estimate $18,570,000-$27,860,000

Meet Annette and Diego,a pair of paintings from Alberto Giacometti.

Annette - 1961 - Estimate $3,170,00-$4,750,00

Diego - 1958 - Estimate $4,650,000-$7,740,000

We have a very New York couple in Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud.

Francis Bacon - Three Studies for Portrait of Lucien Freud - 1964 - Estimate $11,090,000-$14,250,000

Lucien Freud - Self Portrait - 1952 - 5" x 3 1/4" - Estimate $950,000-$1,270,000

This Dubuffett was flying solo but, with a face like this, will no doubt be part of a couple soon.

Jean Dubuffett - Le Barbouille - 1954 - Estimate $950,000-$1,270,000

 

My favorite couple by far was a pair of rombos or diamonds.

Antoni Tapies - Negro con Dos Rombos - 1963 - Estimate $475,000-$635,000

One of my favorite artists, Antoni Tapies creates abstract work that speaks to me in terms of his choice of color palette, his use of symbols and found objects, and the textural quality of his surfaces. The spectacular textures he achieves are usually lost in photos but there are some detail shots below that will give you a better idea. Texture junkies like me can click each image to enlarge.

Otnes Hotness

There have been a large number of impressive art exhibits in NYC so far this season. Anselm Kiefer was a favorite and you can read brief reviews of many more on my page at NearSay. A recent retrospective of work by collage artist Fred Otnes at Kouros Gallery also was a highlight.

Otnes names his inspirations as Pablo Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, Robert Motherwell, and Joseph Cornell. In turn, he has himself become an inspiration for countless mixed media artists.

The beauty of his work is in the compositions and, as the close-up shots below reveal, the small details.