The Cultural Rise of Chelsea & New York’s Place in the Art Market

History of Chelsea and the NY Scene

The first gallery district developed in lower Manhattan in the early 1880s, and consisted of a few galleries set around City Hall. These were all for wealthy clients and housed primarily European work. Work was always shipped over from Europe, with the exception of the Babcock Gallery, which was the first to solely exhibit American Artists.

The Galleries followed the movement of the rich upper classes to Greenwich Village, then upwards to Madison Square Park before moving on to the 50s, away from the increasing migrant populations. This pattern continued, with the Galleries following their clients.

At the turn of the century, wealthy families continued to move, this time to the Upper East Side, and the Galleries followed once again. The New Art Centre along 5^th Avenue became a foundational base for the neighbourhood, and one that would develop into an area that contains some of the most respected Art Institutions and Museums in the World. The relationship between Galleries and Collectors began to change as the demographic altered to accommodate for the rising wealthy middle classes.

The Great Depression completely demoralised the Art scene, and around only 30 Galleries survived. Those that did were all characterised by the fact that they sold European Masters and famous and established American Artists. Post War New York saw huge upward movements from an influx of money and European Artists. In 1945 there were roughly 90 Galleries. This figure grew to 406 Galleries in 1960, then rose steeply to 761 by 1975.

Attention spread into the East Village, before moving to Lower East Side, West Chelsea and into the Neighbourhoods of Williamsburg and DUMBO. Chelsea grew into the creative and cultural hub that it is today, and was helped along by the fact that it still had many affordable spaces for Artists to work in and Galleries to exhibit. By the 2000s, Chelsea was home to more than 300 galleries. Today it flourishes as an inventive and innovative area for creativity.

New York’s Place in the International Art World

The rise of Abstract Expresisonism was the crowning point on a huge shift of focus of cultural attention onto New York. Big hitting Artists such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko captured the international Artworld’s attention, and the type of Art that they created looked to break free from that of the past and open it up into new spaces and grand, expressive terrains. The second generation of these Artists, people such as Robert Raushenberg and Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, continued to generate significant waves of influence throughout the Art World that are still felt today.

Prior to this, Paris had held the position of artistic and cultural capital of the Western world for quite some time. The age of the Salon, Gustav Courbet, Paul Gauguin and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec had given way for Braque and Pablo Picasso. This time had also been hugely popular for writers and poets, and is exemplified in Ernest Hemingway’s book ‘A Moveable Feast’. James Joyce, F Scott Fitzgerald, T S Eliot, Gertrude Stein and many others mingled with these Artists to create an electrifying atmosphere of creativity that has been romanticised by historical nostalgia ever since.

New York represented a break from these European traditions. It was the New World, and even it’s architecture laid down a confident and unapologetic newer form of aesthetics and artistic interests. With the Atlantic Ocean separating these two cities, it became easier for the American Artists to step outside of the long and rich tradition of European Painting, which has run continuously since the work of Duccio and others in the Proto-Renaissance.

In Phaidon’s Interesting book ‘Art Cities of the Future’, it looks at the emerging Avant Garde scenes from around the world. Cities such as Beirut, Bogotá, Cluj, Delhi, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Lagos, San Juan, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore and Vancouver are all explored in depth, by a curator from each respective city. There is no doubt that in an interconnected world, the activity of Artists from all across the globe are easier to report upon, and other places that have traditionally been seen as less influential on the Western Art Market are continuing to rise. However, this has done little to draw influence away from the importance of New York’s Power and cultural clout as an Art Scene, and it remains one of the most importance and relevant places in the world when it comes to understanding and interpreting the currents and ideas that shape the contemporary Art scene.

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Inequality within the Art Market

Tiers within the Artworld

Firstly, it is important to understand that there are many alternative tiers within the Artworld. These are the various different subsets and networks that consist of Artists, buyers, collectors, gallerists, curators and consultants.

From the Artist selling paintings for $1000 each and making a successful living, right through to celebrity living Artists that have achieved an infamous, cult like status (such as Damien Hirst), these are examples of the markers that can be used to draw lines and distinguish between these different tiers. Within this article we will concentrate on the very upper end of the spectrum.

The Continuing Boom of Sales

In 2012, Edvard Munch’s iconic painting ‘The Scream’ sold for around $120 million at auction. Many prophesized that this was the pinnacle of an Art Market bubble, one that was destined to crash, yet less that a week later, the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko’s artwork ‘Orange, Red, Yellow’ sold for nearly $87 million.

The prices for Artworks at this end of the spectrum are astronomical, yet according to Sergey Skaterschikov, a man who publishes an influential art-investment report; no painting bought at $30 million or more has ever been re-sold at a profit. At this level, cultural prestige and the ability to signal wealth are just a couple of the defining factors for sales. One would hope that a deep and profound love for Art, and the historical value of a work is also a motivating desire for these buyers as well.

Art as an asset for a small subset of super wealthy individuals

Benjamin Madel is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and studies the Art Market because ‘it’s a great way to study asset price valuations.’ In his opinion, Fine Art (at this price level) is, in a sense separated from the rest of the global economy because it is in fact part of an economy for a small subset of the super rich. These people are often referred to as Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI). From Mandel’s research he concluded that for their economy, Fine Art has retained solid stability over the years.

The rise of UHNWIs in Brazil, China and India has also provided an influx of new individuals interested in the purchasing of high end Artworks for exceptionally large prices. This movement also places even greater emphasis on the Artists from these countries, and resurgences in esoteric styles that had previously been largely ignored by this market are becoming more and more popular as collectors, consultants, gallerists, dealers and institutions look further for new talent. Or more accurately, search for talent that will become even more successful later. This happened for Korean Minimalism, as well as a newfound interest in older Scandinavian Landscape Painting for example.

To demonstrate the rise in investment from these wealthy collectors, in 2003, at Christie’s in Hong Kong, sales came to around $98 million, whilst in 2011, they has risen to $836 million.

What this means for the Artists

Gerhart Richter, the prominent German Painter was recently cited as commenting on how odd and abstract he found these high prices. As an Artist himself, he wanted to remind people that it was generally after an Artwork had been sold (for which an Artist normally receives 50% of the sale and the Gallery takes the other half) and then consequently resold, that the value tended to inflate. In his eyes some kind of crash is inevitable when people are dealing with money and value in these extremes.

Art Funds and insider trading

There are also Art Investment funds that operate much like hedge fund or asset management firm. The ‘Fine Art Fund’ work on a minimum investment of $500,000, and their managers use industry connections and Art expertise to buy Art cheaply, at the right time, before selling it on at a much higher price and returning the profit to the investors. The Art Market isn’t regulated like financial securities, so this kind of insider trading isn’t illegal.

Art and value

With the rise of the UHNWIs, there are many more willing global buyers, and this continues to push up prices. Art is completely unique in the way that it is valued because its fiscal value is directly linked to a network of wealthy collectors, dealers, institutions and gallery owners. Working out the cultural value of a completely unique Picasso, Munch or Van Gogh painting in financial terms is an incredibly complex process. And at the end of the day, if there is a willing buyer ready to part with a spare $120 million, then the sale will probably go right ahead.

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Important Ideas that changed Art Forvever – Fauvism

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Impressionism was widespread and popular. The way that the movement worked to capture the effects of light on its soft and serene landscapes and city scenes had also captivated widespread public attention. The movement was named after Monet’s highly respected and famous ‘Impression: Sunrise’ painting.

Fauvism was born from this artistic context, as a reaction to what it saw around it. Bold unnatural colors and simplistic, expressive forms, figures and landscapes characterized the movement. The artworks favored painterly qualities and championed expression and aesthetic impact over representational likeness.

Color

The artists that worked in this style often squeezed paint straight from the tube onto the canvas, without mixing or altering the colors. Each painting was often made up of bright, contrasting colors that bore no resemblance to the subject.

Faces could be lime green and bright crimson, or midnight blue with orange and yellow splashes of color. For the Fauvists, they were not trying to carefully represent and depict a scene accurately according to the light and atmosphere. They wanted to release the inner creative desires. Their work fully embraced the bestial, primal side of human nature. Working in an expressive, raw fashion allowed the artists to tap into this and create artworks that were bold and moving. In the midst of the serenity of Impressionism, The Fauvists were animalistic and visually wild, and this contrast with the tastes of the time only made their work even more exhilarating.

The ‘Wild Beasts’

The name ‘Les Fauves’ translates as ‘Wild beasts’ in French, and the artists became known collectively as the Fauvists. It arose during an exhibition in 1905 at the Salon d’Automne. Loris Vauxcelles, a critic of the time, shocked at the artworks, declared the artists as ‘wild beasts’. The artists, highly pleased with the controversial and exciting new name, seemed delighted with the description and the name stuck.

Influences

Van Gogh, Gauguin, Signac, Cezanne and Seurat were a few of the major artists that influenced fauvism. The Fauvist paintings often edged towards abstraction with their flat and rough areas of bright colours. From Cezanne, they worked with the subject and broke it down into sections and slabs, rebuilding images using basic forms.

Gauguin was also a large influence. The Fauves drew from his expressive and otherworldly artworks. His character and lifestyle embodied the wilder side of the human spirit that wished to re-engage with the natural world and to live simply and freely. Gauguin left the western world and sailed off to Tahiti to live and work. Local islanders, mythical figures and the gods and demons of this distant culture seeped into his work, and he created enchanting and unforgettable artworks as a result. The Fauvists looked up to his total immersion and commitment to his artistic practice, and the way that he brought wildness and passion into his artwork.

Matisse became one of the largest figureheads that the Artworld has ever known, and he maintained a wildly expressive element to his work throughout his entire career. The Fauvists did initially receive a great deal of a negative backlash for their artworks and beliefs. Matisse himself was particularly disheartened by these bad reviews, but Gertrude Stein made purchases and offered assistance, and this encouragement was important for his artistic career.

Important Artwork: ‘Portrait of Madame Matisse’ by Henri Matisse.

This painting of his wife is a great example of all the core elements that defined Fauvism. The canvas was completed in 1906, and can be found in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, Denmark. His wife gazes slightly away from the viewer’s eyes, and her face is marked by a green stripe that runs from the top of her forehead down to her lips. The background is divided into blocks of violet, orange tinted red, and green. Matisse has used thick dark brushstrokes to mark the features and outlines.

The impressionists built up forms based on how the dawn, dusk or other lighting conditions affected the subject of their paintings. The shapes were loose, fluid, and suggestive, and you can see the difference in painting styles when you compare Matisse’s dark lines with the style and techniques of the former.

When you think about this contrast, it becomes easier to image the outrage that this caused. In hindsight, the Fauvist paintings do not come across as shocking to modern tastes, but when imagined in their correct historical context, these were controversial artworks. Their work has huge repercussions for the way that color and form were used by the painters of successive generations. The roughness, and their insistence on wildness, was also a factor that caused the artworks of the Fauvists to be highly significant within the canon of Art history.

Key Artists: Maurice de Vlaminck, Andre Derain, Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, Kees van Dongen, Jean Puy and Charles Camoin.

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The Top 5 most Expensive Paintings of all Time

5. Jackson Pollock, “No. 5, 1948″—$140 million

‘No. 5, 1948’ measures 2.44 x 1.22 m, and is an iconic example of Pollock’s work, and his importance on the history of painting itself.

Sotheby’s sold the Painting for $140 million at auction in 2006.

Jackson Pollock was one of the figureheads within the American Abstract Expressionist Movement. His distinctive style involved dripping, flipping and throwing enamel and other types of everyday paint onto his canvases. Individual expression and subjective freedom were central to the Artists of this movement, who also placed great value on the action of painting itself. The painting is so valuable because it exemplifies a turning point in the history of painting when the action of the Artist was then understood as a significant part of the finished product. This led into other areas such as performance Art, and opened up the possibilities for what painting could achieve. 

4. Pablo Picasso, “Les Femmes d’Alger”—$179.3 million

This Artwork was painted in 1955, as part of a larger series of 15 artworks, all compositions of voluptuous nude women. Eugene Delacroix’s 1834 painting ‘The women of Algiers in their Apartment’ was a huge inspiration for the series.

Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, former prime minister of Qatar, bought this masterpiece by the Spanish Artist. The canvas is housed in his private collection in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Picasso, along with Braque, established Cubism as one of the most pertinent influences on painting. He consistently challenged both himself and his audience by continually reinventing his style and pushing visual culture to new heights. This Artwork is so famous because it encapsulates the prerogatives and aesthetic sensibilities of Cubism with the sensual and wild abandon that the Spanish Artist was known for. Picasso himself really paved the way for the concept of an Artist as a celebrity figure, and his influence can be felt in everything from Cars to Jean Paul Gautier aftershave bottles today.

3. Mark Rothko, “No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)”—$186 million

Rothko painted this work in 1951, and this is a more colourful variation of his distinguished and recognisable style.

Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the Painting in a private sale for 140 million Euros ($186 million at 2014 exchange rates). At the time he acquired the artwork, it was the second most expensive artwork ever sold.

Rothko was born in Russian-ruled Latvia in 1903, before he emigrated to the USA. He was one of the figureheads for Abstract Expressionism, and he championed the importance of finding deeply emotional states in his paintings. The majority of his compositions were created with much darker colour palettes, and are renowned for the contemplative atmospheres and moods that they create.

2. Paul Cézanne, “The Card Players”—$250 million–$300 million

This Painting dates back to the early 1890s, and is characteristic of the short series of works that Cezanne completed of this theme.

The royal family of Qatar bought the Artwork for an estimated price that exceeded $250 million in 2011. It is kept in Qatar.

Cezanne often painted simple scenes, and championed the commonplace and the everyday. The painting of provincial life in southern France shows peasant’s playing cards and smoking pipes. It is highly prized because Cezanne is such an important cultural figure, and without his contributions to the canon of Art history, painting would not be what it is today. He paved the way for the development of cubism, and his ‘flattening’ of the picture plane, and the way that he broke objects and scenes down into simple forms is often cited as an early influence for modernist abstraction.

1. Paul Gauguin, “Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?)”—$300 million

French Post-Impressionist Artist Paul Gauguin created this outstanding painting in 1892, and he is renowned for the wildness and simple beauty that he managed to achieve in his work.

This is the most expensive painting ever sold, and was bought by an undisclosed buyer. Many believe that the Artwork was bought by a group of state museums in Qatar, who are working on acquiring a first-rate collection that is financially backed by the Emirate’s royal family. The painting previously hung in Beyeler Foundation Museum in Riehen, Switzerland.

Gauguin journeyed to Tahiti in order to re-align his work and to completely emerge himself in another culture, and shake off the shackles that he felt were constricting him in Industrialised Western society. It is in his paintings where this really comes alive, his images are representations of a western mind that has flung itself with vigor into far off lands and cultures and is desperately trying to make sense of these exotic new experiences. His Artworks are dark and magical in a deeply intense and equal measure. The combination of such a technically skilled Western Artist painting so fervently the tribal life and customs of Tahiti makes for works that are truly unique, vibrant and powerful.

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10 Album Artworks that Deserve to be Framed

1 – Joy Division ‘Unknown Pleasures’

One of the most instantly recognizable album covers ever created, this image is striking for its simplicity. Peter Saville, the designer, took the pattern from a graphic of an Astronomical Radio wave image of a pulsar. The minimal black and white colour scheme, along with the haunting, angular and melancholic sounds and atmosphere of the Joy Division album it came to represent, charge this album cover with a great deal of cultural significance and style.

2 – Pink Floyd ‘Dark Side of the Moon’

This artwork is a contender for the most iconic album cover of all time. Storm Thorgerson, the band’s designer, produced the image with the prism and light. The triangle is representative of thought and ambition, and was also a perfect symbol to visualise a prism. The light related to the light show that Pink Floyd used to accompany their music as they played.

3 – Black Sabbath ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’

Released in 1973, this iconic image fronted the infamous English Metal Band’s fifth studio album. The striking artwork is dark and menacing, and the simplistic colour scheme augments the sinister tone of the record. Black and red are always visually stimulating, and the artwork, just like the music, was designed to shake people up in the best way possible.

4 – The Beatles ‘Abbey Road’

One of their most critically acclaimed and successful albums, Abbey Road features the four members of the Beatles walking across the zebra crossing outside the studios. It was released in 1969 and the image has been recreated all around the world in many different guises, from tourist photos to even having been featured in the Simpsons.

5 – Radiohead ‘Hail to the Thief’

Created by Artist Stanley Donwood, the album Art draws its colours from the advertising of petro chemical companies. The words are taken from billboards, and the resulting artwork is unforgettable. The concept of the work links closely with the themes of the record, but even on a purely aesthetic level, one cannot doubt the captivating quality of the work.

6 – Sonic Youth ‘Goo’ 1990

Raymond Pettibon is a cult American Artist, and this simple, hand drawn cover is a fine example of his unique style. His artworks were often fragments of wider stories, and he took inspiration from comics, newspapers and other examples of everyday visual imagery. The simplistic work is stylised, confident and minimal.

7 – Kanye West ‘Graduation’

Created by Takashi Murakami, the colorful, pastel imagery captures Murakami’s fascination with anime. Murakami had some interesting words to offer about working with West. “It was difficult,” the artist said, “because every week, Kanye has new ideas — changing, changing, changing.” However, according to Murakami, their friendship remains intact. When asked if they had a close relationship, Murakami responded with a chuckle, saying, “I think so. I believe so. I don’t know — please ask him.”

8 – The Clash ‘London Calling’

Possibly the most iconic Punk record of all time, this Artwork is a striking image that deserves to be framed.

The text was created in pink and green letters in homage to Elvis Presley’s first self-titled album. The photograph itself is of bassist Paul Simonon, who destroyed his bass guitar in frustration and protest in 1979 in New York City when the bouncers at the Palladium would not allow fans to stand up out of their seats during the gig. This photograph has gone down in musical history, and the theme of a musician smashing his or her own instrument is now legendary within music. The combination of text and image, alluding to musical icons and iconoclastic moments, has in turn, made the album cover of ‘London Calling’ incredibly, and rightly, infamous.

9 – De La Soul ‘3 Feet and Rising’

A classic album cover for a historic hip-hop record. Released in 1989, the bright yellow background and optimistic, DIY cut-and-paste styling of the faces, flowers and text make this an album cover that looks great when framed. The synthetic Pop look was made well before the days of scanning and photoshop. The GO (Grey Organisation) who created the album artwork had inventive ideas about the image. They laid De La Soul down so that their heads formed a triangle then photographed them from above. This meant that the album didn’t have a strict top and bottom, and could be displayed whichever way people fancied.

10 – Dusky ‘Stick by This’

A simple digital pattern constructed from repeating the silhouette of a tree. The image deserves to be framed because it is so effective in it’s minimal characteristics. The stripped back, uncomplicated design mirrors the music of the album, and gives it a structured, lyrical mood. Dark on light, the branches interweave into a strange new pattern.

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Important Ideas that Changed Art Forever – The Proto Renaissance

Important Artists: Giotto, Duccio

When we look at a painting, one of the most fascinating aspects about the work is its connection with the grand historical tradition of painting. The act of painting has been a continuous evolution that has stretches back throughout human history, and each canvas is bound together by invisible ties to all others. Many times, painters have tried to break away from the traditions of the past, and have worked in opposition and rebellion against the prevailing norms of their day. This results in relevant and original work, but it does not break free from the ‘progress’ of painting, because what they do will always stand in relation to those painters that came before them.

For example, the wild and imaginative canvases, brushwork and subject matter of the Romanticists evolved from a position of opposition against the strict, regimented style and concepts of Neo-Classicism, the movement that came before them. Although different in many ways, when viewed over a long enough historical timeline, it becomes clear that through their opposition, they also form and constitute by each other.

The qualities and values of one are held as markers of the height of bad taste and poor skill by the successive generation of painters. Viewing the history of painting in this way, as different movements reacting against the art of the past, gives a unique perspective from which to see and understand a painting.

The ideas that were developed during the Proto-Renaissance affected the course of Painting within the Western World even today. It was a time that introduced three-dimensional space into the field of painting. The High Renaissance was a period when European culture flourished in a way that has arguably never been matched in the history of humankind. Without the developments that occurred during the Proto Renaissance, this would never have been possible.

Historical Background

The Proto-Renaissance started in the middle of the 1100s and ended at the beginning of the 1400s in northern Italy. Art always reflects the world and ideas around it, and as the Proto-Renaissance developed into the High Renaissance itself, the background to its views and motivations are important to understand.

The country of Italy did not unify until 1861. Before then, regions such as Florence, Venice and Milan had their own political and social structures. Between these bordering regions there was an unusually high amount of trade and productivity. Trades were on the rise, supporting a strengthening economy. By the end of the 1300s, Papal power was on the decline. No longer did the cities in Italy rely on the Vatican. Therefore they focused their attention towards a new independence instead.

The Black Death

Unfortunately, not everything was as optimistic as it seemed. Around the time of the Proto-Renaissance, Europe fell victim to the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death. This was catastrophic. By the time the plague subsided, an estimated 30 to 60 percent of the European’s population had died. The death toll is estimated to have possibly reached up to 100 million people.

Religious Changes

Europe also underwent many religious changes at this time. Francis of Assisi had spoken against “radical” religious views. He stated that people should express their religion by how they feel individually, rather than through conservative rituals. Of course it is easy for people today to understand these more liberal ideas, but during these times, the realities were much different, and Christians were expected to abide by exceptionally strict religious rules. These developments allowed people to start to view the world around them very differently.

The beginning of 3 Dimensional Space in Painting

Art advanced with the times. Starting in the Proto-Renaissance, artists such as Giotto worked on new ways to representing three-dimensional spaces in his artwork. In the previous Medieval and Byzantine art, bodies remained on a flat surface and perspective, as we know it today, did not exist.

The artistic themes of the Proto-Renaissance also moved away from the traditional religious icons and stories of the Middle Ages. After the plague subsided, paintings of death instead focused on themes of penance. The horrors of the Black Death reminded people of the fact that death could strike at anytime. It became a strong reason for people to try and avoid an afterlife in hell.

The Proto-Renaissance was the predecessor to one of the greatest art movements of all time, the Italian Renaissance. This movement would produce famous artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, and would, in turn respectively create the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the portrait of the Mona Lisa. It opened up the illusion of space as an element of painting and that is why it altered the course of Art forever.

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10 Tips for a Beginning Art Collector

Starting out on the adventure of collecting Art is tremendously exciting, but can often seem daunting at the beginning. These 10 tips will give you the framework to set you on your way to what is a rewarding and highly enjoyable pursuit.

Lord Duveen, a renowned Art collector, once stood in front of JMW Turner’s ‘Bridge and Tower and famously proclaimed: ‘If I owned that picture, I should want nothing else in the world.’ What a great way to look at collecting Art!

1 – Think about your taste

It is important to figure out what you actually like. Take the time to explore genres that you love, and types of Art that you may have overlooked in the past. This will serve the benefit of reminding you why you enjoy, say, Photorealistic Painting for example, and why you are perhaps not as enthusiastic about another genre. Collecting Art is a lifelong passion, and you will live with these Artworks, so it is always worth taking the time to be sure about your tastes.

2 – Determine your Motivation for Collecting

Are you buying Art as an investment, or because you love it – or perhaps because of a bit of both? Understanding your motivation will help you to define exactly which Artworks are for you. Even if your motivations are purely fiscal, it helps to choose Artworks that you enjoy for yourself if possible.

3 – Research the Artist

When you find Artworks that captivate your attention and speak to you, if you aren’t already familiar with the Artist, then take the time to research their background, history and commentary on their own work. This will help to enrich your experience of viewing their Artworks, and gain a deeper understanding into what they are trying to do. This can also help you to make intelligent buying decisions about investments that could be very beneficial in the future.

4 – Curate your Collection

Many famous collections are united by the fact that a single collector had a certain goal in mind or great taste (Think Peggy Guggenheim). Over many years of collecting, a style of your own will emerge. You will find aesthetic and thematic threads developing that will tie your collection together. This is also worth thinking about as you set out on the first few steps of collecting Art. Think about colours, genres and styles that you like, and you may want to find various examples from different Artists with this aim in mind, as this will add unity and continuity to your collection.

5 – Where will they hang?

Even if you are buying Art as an investment, and may only live with it for a while before it moves on to another home, you must think about the effect it will have on the room/space in which it will be placed. Every Artwork has a huge effect on its surroundings, and this should be taken into account when you choose works for your collection. A huge Abstract Painting will have a much larger impact that tiny limited edition Lithographs, but whatever you choose, you must think about this point, as it is often overlooked.

6 – Keep all the Documentation

Make sure to look after all the documentation that authenticates the Artwork. This cannot be stressed enough, but it is often something that many people forget to do, and it can cause huge problems in the future. If you can clearly prove that the Artwork is the exact Artwork that it claims to be, then you will save yourself a lot of hassle.

7 – Buying Originals

With originals it is important to remember that the Artist profits only once from the sale of the work. Value grows over time, but it is you as the collector who profits from the increasing reputation and status of the Artist, as you already own the work. If you decide to sell the work in the future for a much higher price, it is you who will keep all of the profit, and the Artist will see none of it. This is one important reason why original Artworks command high prices.

8 – Buying Prints

Types of prints include engravings, lithographs, screen prints, aquatints, linocuts and woodblock prints. These are an ideal way to start or add to a collection. It is important to differentiate between the different terms, to help you make the right choice:

Ltd Edition Prints

With this format, the Artist limits the run of prints to a number that will be specified on the print itself, I.E 1/25, normally alongside the signature itself.  This shows the exclusivity of the piece, yet provides an affordable and accessible way to own certain Artworks that you love. This is a very common and sensible form of Art for early collectors to invest in.

Reproductions

These are part of an unlimited run of Artworks, allowing the Artist to create and sell as many as they like. They cost less than one off originals and ltd editions, because they are more numerous, but are also a great way to buy great Art at the most reasonable prices.

9 – Invest in the future

One exciting aspect of collecting Art is that the more knowledgeable you become, the more you can start making your own predictions about which Artists will grow in stature and popularity, and as a result, whose work will become more valuable. If you can make informed decisions about what to buy and when, not only are you supporting an Artist whose work you love, but you also stand to make a hefty profit if you choose to.

10 – Trust your Gut and take the Plunge

Art speaks to us all differently, so if you feel an indescribable connection with a certain work, then that is the next one for you. Trust your gut instinct. If you love the Artwork, if it is by an Artist that you respect after you have researched them, and you feel that it is a great investment, then go for it!

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Important Ideas that Changed Art forever – Surrealism

Major Artists: Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Max Ernst, Andre Breton

 ‘Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.’ Salvador Dali

Surrealism was a reaction against logic, and a wild artistic trip into the unconscious mind. Andre Breton had concluded that if logic and order had led the world into war and chaos in the first half of the 20 Century, then the world needed to be seen in a new way, and things had to change. James Joyce described WW1 as ‘The ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppled masonry, and time one livid flame’. It was this kind of evocative and powerful imagery that the surrealists loved and were inspired by. They also yearned to blur the distinction between ‘reality’ and the dream state.

As a movement, Surrealism evolved from Dada. One of the core ideas at the heart of the movement was a willingness to experiment with the unknown, to put together familiar objects, symbols and scenarios in unfamiliar, twisted new settings and ways. Analysing and recording dreams were vital in the Surrealists attempts to unlock and demonstrate the might of the subconscious mind. Sleep became an actively creative pastime, and one that provided many ideas and scenes that would become the icons and famous artworks that Surrealism created.

Icons and Subjects

Salvador Dali’s lobster telephone is an unforgettable and iconic example of this technique of visual assemblage. Dali simply replaced the entire earpiece, handle and speaker of an old fashioned telephone with a bright red lobster. One of the ideas behind the work is that it forces you, as a viewer, out of your comfort zone. There is no reason that a crimson crustacean would ever become part of a telephone, except in the worlds of dream and fantasy.

Perhaps the most famous icons painted by Dali are his dripping clocks. These are so ubiquitous that they can be found all around the world, on everything from phone covers to tourist tat key rings. What is so magical about these melting timepieces is that they distort reality and materiality in such a symbolic and exuberant way. The idea of time bending and slushing into nothingness is so satisfying to think about, and such perfect food for the imagination. It challenges us to rethink the way we think about the world around us.

Raining Businessmen

Another icon of Surrealism that has passed into the collective world culture is Rene Magritte’s businessman with an apple over his face. The artwork inspired ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ film, and can be found on book covers, posters, and all kinds of other cultural paraphernalia. The work blurs reality and the dream state, and Magritte explored this concept in great depth throughout his career. He was preoccupied with perception, and continually came up with new creative ways to challenge his audience to rethink what that think they know for sure. Many of his works would show night and day in a single image, or depict painted skies and cutout people intertwined in unsettling yet fascinating canvases. Often faces and masks are unpeeled, and smartly dressed men would rain placidly from the skies above his town.

Like all great art, Surrealism wanted to challenge the way that we perceive the world around us. Concepts of reality and fantasy, unreality and dreams were all twisted together and converged in an incredibly unique and subsequently influential cultural movement. Surrealism also did a great deal to popularise themes of the unconscious mind and how we understand it. They explored many of the ideas that famous psychologists such as Freud and Jung dedicated their entire professional lives to developing, but in their own unique and artistic way. When we read Baudrillard, or watch the Matrix for example, there is a debt there, however subtle, to the artistic efforts of the Surrealist artists.

Asleep or Awake?

As mentioned, the Surrealists often made no distinctions between being awake and being asleep, or our human and flawed concepts of understanding what is real and what is not.

J.G Ballard, the wonderfully original English Author, remarked that when Freud was working, what was understood as real was the exterior world, separate from the human body and mind. The things that humans thought and dreamed were symbols, schemas and abstractions. In the contemporary world however, the opposite is the case. Everything is an abstraction, an unreality that links to a hundred thousand other sources. What is real is the way that we perceive it all, the way that we dream and make sense of it.

Fascinating cultural analyses like this have been made possible though Surrealism’s ability to, and insistence upon, embrace everything. It sees no barriers between dreams / reality, or the conscious / unconscious mind, and it pours all these sources into the hugely imaginative and iconoclastic artworks that it created.

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Why Framing is so Important?

Accentuating the Artwork

The style, colour and material of a frame will always have a huge impact on the artwork itself. It can affect the mood of the work, or augment certain colours and elements of the painting, print, drawing or photograph. The frame that you select will finish the work, both visually and symbolically, and this final act is the last part of the creative process before the work is hung and exhibited.

There are many subtleties at play here as well, because of the powerful effect that a frame has upon an artwork. Take a jet-black polished metal frame; stern and unflinching, the clean minimal lines will add seriousness and style to the artwork. This may be perfect for a home or a gallery that wishes to highlight these internal features of the artwork itself. This choice is fitting for an atmospheric black and white photograph or an iconic minimalist canvas perhaps, but what about a lighter, more organic and freely flowing work?

Here, a lightly sanded ash frame with brilliant striations and a more handmade, roughly hewn aesthetic might be more appropriate. Whatever your preferences, it is pertinent to remember that the frame you choose has the power to heighten, harmonise or dampen the various elements that compose each individual artwork. The formal characteristics of any artwork, the colours, forms, textures and materials that go into making it, can always be accentuated by sensitive, well-chosen framing.

Tying together a series

Artworks are often created as series, as this allows an Artist to take on a similar aesthetic problem from many different angles. Picasso would often paint the same woman hundreds of times, and Cezanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire throughout his entire life. In the work of any committed artist you will find repeated subject matter. Over time, these icons, figures and landscapes become larger and more important themes, and over the course of an Artist’s entire career, they can turn into the major defining imagery that turn the Artist from a person into an icon. Think Warhol’s Soup Can or Dali’s melting clocks.

When framing, it always helps to understand the artwork on many different levels. Framing a series of works that explore a similar theme, using the same kinds of frames, is a great way to add visual and conceptual continuity to the artworks you buy. It highlights the ideas of the Artist themselves, and allows you to style the works to suit your own tastes, and tie the series together as a whole.

Separating the image from its surroundings

A great Artwork can show you the world in a way that you have never seen before. Like a portal into another time and place, two-dimensional artworks are referred to time and time again as windows, and the perfect frame can really complete this metaphor. A great frame will accentuate the qualities of an artwork, it will harmonise it with its surroundings, but it will also separate it in a way that allows any viewer to look deeper into the work and take more from their experience.

A frame visually separates the work from the rest of the onlookers’ field of vision. This allows the ‘illusion’ of an artwork (the scene it shows, the image it represents etc) to become more realistic and effective. Our knowledge that this is an arrangement of forms, brushstrokes and colours, or pixels digitally printed on paper begins to fade, and we can be transported into a whole different world of sight, sound, smell, noise and feeling.

Cropping an image

Framing is the final act in the creative process, but it is also important in relation to the overall composition. When you take a sketch, a water colour image, or any other two-dimensional artwork and ‘crop’ it using the frame, you have to decide exactly where the frame and work will be positioned in relation to one other. The initial composition of any artwork is carefully and intuitively planned, but the framing can have a important effect on this starting framework. When you frame an artwork, you must think about how much of the work do you want the frame to cover, or whether you would prefer a floating frame, that display it in its entirety.

The latter image encases the work within a narrow, box like frame, and focuses attention onto the artwork as more than simply a flat image. This highlights the materiality and texture of the artwork. It is a popular method for contemporary galleries and artworks that wish to escape the idea that a two-dimensional artwork always offers an illusion of another place.

Final thoughts

Framing is an incredibly important step in the life of an artwork.

It finishes an image and creates a striking and meaningful work to hang on your walls or exhibit in a gallery. There are many aspects to take into consideration when you choose a frame that works for you, but keep in mind these points, and remember that a frame should empowers, accentuates and works with the artwork itself.

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Important Ideas that Changed Art Forever – Pop Art

Key Artists: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake.

Pop Art emerged in post war America in a climate of optimism, consumerism and hope. The advertising industry was flourishing, guiding people towards what they should now purchase and where they could go to get it. Abundance meant more food and more choice, and this meant more images, more packaging and more adverts. Huge billboards were plastered across the buildings and highways and flat, graphic images were repeated again and again and again all across the country.

The growth of the Movie industry had also paved the way for celebrity culture to sweep across the nation. Stars were seen and idolised everywhere, from the red carpets of film premieres, to the TV shows and adverts that they starred in. This was the cultural backdrop that Pop Art reflected. The Artists that made up the movement adopted consumer items and recognisable objects as such as flags, tyres, targets and soup cans as the motifs that would go on to characterise their work.

Jasper Johns had a sell out show when he exhibited his series of Flag paintings. These were slight variations on the American flag, and they were bold, unforgettable and edgy. Borrowing such a loaded image, Johns was able to reuse it for his own means, and he recycled it freely and with a kind of nonchalant bravado.

 

Robert Raushenberg had made great use of repetitive screen-printing, and combined a free and expressive way of working with everyday objects such as car tyres into paintings, sculptures and assemblages. His work looks crude but it is highly sophisticated and subtle in the way that it captures a throwaway, consumer society that was beginning to boom.

Warhol and Lichtenstein

It wasn’t until Andy Warhol, arguably one of the World’s most famous artists of all time, rose to fame and success that Pop Art found its true ‘King’ and established its own roots. Henry Geldzaher said ‘Andy’s going to feed a lot of artist’s for a long time.’ His screen-printed portraits of celebrities were striking and raw, yet they had a mechanical quality that made them highly reflective of the society that Warhol was a part of. His famous Campbell soup can has now become a symbol for an entire group of artists and condenses, culturally and visually, a period of world history into, well, a can.

Warhol repeated images until they became meaningless. Yet in that process, they gained cultural power and prestige. Mass production itself gave the work quality, and he used the methods that the industries around him employed in his own art to create cultural artefacts, instead of tin openers, fridges or cars.

Roy Lichtenstein did the same with Comics. In a similar method, he stole images from comics, a source that was traditionally seen as ‘low’ culture, and turned them into gigantic, graphic artworks. His artworks are flat and bold, and he celebrates the aesthetic that the printer produced. Lichtenstein embraced the technological element as an important part of determining the final image.

A reaction against the Art of the time

It is worth noting that Pop Art also emerged as a reaction to the dense, serious and highbrow artworks of the Abstract Expressionists. Rothko, De Kooning, Pollock and the other painters created highly individualised and deeply personal and emotional works. The Pop Artists turned that on its head. They rejected these principles in favour of championing the everyday and the mundane.

Pop Art and everyday culture

Pop Art had an interesting and productive relationship with lowly and ordinary items from normal American life. Many of its figurehead artists explored the idea that anything could be art. Andy Warhol himself declared that ‘ Everything is Art’ and there was an optimistic feel to Pop Art artworks that made them all-inclusive and easy for people to relate to. Many critics were baffled by the use of cans and flags as symbols, and rejected the concepts and aesthetic as base and trashy. Claes Oldenburg also talked of Pop Arts relation to American culture, and the way that it chooses the objects and characters that find their way onto its canvases. He said ‘I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all’.

Oldenburg is another important figure that created sculptures by resizing different, and often amusing, objects into new settings. He turned toilets into couches and tiny pairs of cherries into huge, monumental sculptures. His work is iconic and playful, yet it is serious and sensitive to the world around it that it both mirrors and represents. He said:

‘I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all’

In the UK, Richard Hamilton made collages from newspaper cutouts, and Peter Blake and David Hockeny also experimented with the flatness and graphic style that characterised Pop Art. There was an acceptance of the American aesthetic and ideas, but a quirky reworking that also poked fun at their American counterparts across the pond.

Pop Art was highly influential for the prestigious photorealist artists that emerged in the USA, and paved the way for the use of everyday paraphernalia as subject matter for paintings. Without Pop Art, art today would not be the same.

‘Pop Art’s legacy has transcended the Artworld’ Wayne Turncliffe

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Susan Copich: Beneath the Veneer of Suburbia

Susan Copich is a renowned American Photographer, famous for her provocative and insightful series ‘Domestic Bliss.’ These artworks are tragicomic instances that reveal her hidden thoughts and inner darkness. The photographs are at once stark, funny and brutally honest metaphors and portrayals of suburban American life, and touch on something much deeper within the human condition.

Take the artwork ‘Anger Management’ for instance. Copich can be seen with an odd, deadpan expression and wildly tussled hair. In a moment of quiet hysteria, she has been caught and snapped seconds before twisting the head off and decapitating a toy puppy. In the background stand her two children, identically dressed with matching pigtails and looks of bewilderment adorning their faces. The atmosphere is tense and dramatic.

Shot from on high, the viewpoint creates a distorted view of the bodies, with Copich’s head looking bulbous and menacing. With her eyes fixed on the camera, she catches our eye as we look into the artwork. The sparse room has no decoration other that a plain rug, and the square pattern frames the figures within the space.

Referencing contemporary culture

Copich continually references popular American culture, and the artificial film set style quality that she often employs throughout the series always manages to create an odd and fascinating quality. Her two girls are reminiscent of the haunting twins from ‘The Shining’ by Stanley Kubrick, as they stand all orderly to attention behind their mother.

The false, superficial feel of the objects and lighting are like the kind that might be found in ‘The Truman Show’, the tale of an unsuspecting Man played by Jim Carey who lives his whole life in a Big Brother style film set island town, unaware that the entire world around him is full of actors and everything is scripted. Copich toys with these themes of a carefully controlled surface with the wilder undercurrent that flows beneath.

In ‘Snap’ she appears in a serial killer style room that has been completely sealed in plastic sheets. Wielding an axe, with a shovel in the corner and a wheelbarrow full of soil and clothes, she seems crazed and wild, yet elegant in a black dress, heels and a pearl necklace. This artwork is brought together perfectly by the high viewpoint and sensitively matched composition of form and colour. Look closely and you will see that the deep red of the shovel handle matches that of the wheelbarrow’s frame. Splashes of red are splattered throughout the photographs on the wall like bloodstains from a crime scene. The images themselves are prints from the Domestic Bliss series. Here she references her own work, providing a macabre yet serene environment in which to view the photographs. It is almost as if they are themselves victims, and this strange context is a metaphoric studio that enables us to look deep into the darker, yet insightful, depths of her psyche.

A Choreography of the Body

Copich comes from a professional background of contemporary dance and Pilates, disciplines that both require an extremely high level of control over ones own body and movement. Throughout her ‘Domestic Bliss’ series, she continually draws on this expertise to create dynamic and exciting interactions between the people in her artworks. She has a deep and considered understanding of this element of her work, and it can be found especially in photographs such as ‘Toy’, ‘Mommy Time’ and ‘Spare the Rod’.

Deadpan, Black Humour

One persistent theme that seeps through all of Copich’s artworks is her dark sense of humour. She places such odd scenarios in incredibly familiar domestic settings. The effect is that we are uncomfortably forced to think about and confront the problems and tensions that exist beneath the carefully controlled facades that we present to the world.

In ‘Witching Hour’, she sits drunk at the table, completely oblivious that her children are drinking the wine and sticking their tongues out at her. One outstretched hand reaches across the table towards one of her daughters in a feeble attempt of affection. But it is rejected, and only furthers to pull her shawl off her shoulders and expose her cleavage. This helps to add to the inappropriateness of her behaviour, and augment the unsettling atmosphere.

Creating a Strong Emotional Response

There is no doubting the power of Copich’s artwork. It is confrontational, bold and addresses volatile subjects. This gives each work a charge, and it exactly for this reason that her work is so infamous.

Oscar Wilde said that ‘the world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.’ Copich knows this, and visualises the quiet, desperate rifts that emerge in everyday life. She uses intelligence, humour and artistic sensitivity to call attention to these stranger, and perhaps darker, moments that exist in the lives of everyone. They are familiar and universal, whether we like to admit it or not, but that is exactly what makes her work so captivating and unforgettable.

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Important Ideas that Changed Art Forever – Abstract Expressionism

What is Abstract Expressionism?

Abstract Expressionism is a form of painting that championed individual self-expression as the central driving force for creating a work of art. It developed in the 1940’s and 1950’s in the US, and is easily recognisable for its large-scale canvases and gestural brushwork.

In most examples, the artworks were created by wildly emotive actions, with the representation of a certain mood or emotional state as the chief aim of the artist. Most Abstract Expressionist Artworks contained no recognisable subject matter, so the emotional mood was, in itself, the content of the work. Religious or mythic ideas were also explored in some cases. It was also seen as an exploration of sorts, each artwork became a method and a language to examine, describe or uncover a certain emotion.

The Movement can be divided into two subdivisions: the action painters, such as Pollock and De Kooning, and the painters that worked with expansive areas of colour and form like Rothko and Newman.

The action painters furiously worked and re-worked their canvases, building up many layers of passionately applied colour and marks. Pollock described this process in the following way: ‘The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.’

The second grouping of artists chose to use simple palettes and huge areas of colour, filling their canvases with powerful, minimal compositions. These paintings are much calmer, but no less evocative than the action painters. From this branch of Abstract Expressionism, colour field painting developed, which turned away from including any mythical or religious ideas and feelings within the work. This subsequent movement also became known as post painterly abstraction.

Abstract Expressionism and scale

One characteristic trait of many Abstract Expressionist artists was that they worked on a grand scale. Critics were outspoken in their beliefs that this came from delusions of grandeur and self-importance, which in some cases may have had some truth to it, but this was done generally to increase the power of the impact of the artwork. In the case of Rothko, he wanted to evoke powerful and meditative ideas and experiences through his paintings. He stated:

‘I paint very large pictures. I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them however is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereotypical view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it.’

Painting in new ways

Jackson Pollock often laid his canvases on the floor, and dripped and flung the paint across his compositions. This was an important moment in the long and rich history of painting. When the paintings dried, and were hung on gallery walls, the movement of the artist and the physical process of painting could be clearly seen and understood. The ‘act’ of painting because an incredibly important part of each artwork, and lines and marks that stretched across entire canvases, very simply represented basic and profound instances of subjective human expression. In his own words, he claimed:

‘On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.’

This concept opened painting up into new realms. The importance of the action of the artist during the creation of an artwork (the artist being ‘in’ the painting) was also heavily influential for performance art, as it focused attention onto what they did, and how that resulted in an artwork.

Political Dimensions

Although many of the Abstract Expressionist artists were outspoken critics of the US government, the movement later became funded and popularized in part by the C.I.A. With the tense political atmosphere between the US and Russia, and the subsequent Cold War, the artworks became a symbolic way to demonstrate the free and culturally advanced society that free market capitalism supposedly represented. In Russia, Social Realism was the artistic style of the age, depicted figures and icons of Communism in heroic, allegorical stories. The opposing governments adopted these differing artistic styles as subtle and sophisticated forms of propaganda, and on this stage, they clashed.

Abstract Expressionism, when removed from this context, had no real political agenda, so it is ironic that is was used in this way. As a general idea in Art, this movement had a huge and undeniable impact on painting, and on many other artistic disciplines. As a visual language, it has been widely appropriated by general mainstream culture, and its influence can be seen on everything from advertising to theatre.

Key Artists: Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still

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An Interview with Doug Bloodworth

Doug Bloodworth is a well-respected and highly renowned photorealist Artist. He delights in depicting such beloved and familiar touchstones of Americana as Keebler fudge stripe cookies, M&Ms candies, Coke bottles, Monopoly games, Batman comics, and The New York Times crossword—in mid-attempt—all blown up to large 4-foot-by-5-foot canvases.

The hyper-real depictions of the pop culture flotsam and jetsam of our lives is a major part of the artist’s appeal, according to David Miller, who is the president and curator of Photorealism, a Boca Raton–based dealer that work solely with photorealistic art. On the success and quality of Bloodworth’s work, Miller States that:

‘It’s a combination of two things. Number one, the actual technical skill involved in the works. I’ve been in his studio and sat there for three hours watching him complete three square inches of a candy wrapper. Watching it appear from a white canvas is totally amazing. Then you have the addition of nostalgia. When one sees the actual works, it takes you back to another time.’

Internationally exhibited and acclaimed, we talked to the Artist himself to gain more insight into remarkable artworks, and how it feels to sell an artwork to Lil Wayne.

Why do you paint and why do you work in a photorealistic style?

For me, it is a challenge.  Can I do this?  Can I paint in oil paint to look like a Crayola mark on a coloring book?  Can I paint a newspaper to look like a newspaper?  Or plastic to look like plastic?

One question I hear from people that see a photorealism painting is ‘what is the point, why not just blow up a photo’ and I think to myself, if I could just explain my process then they would clearly understand the difference. I want each painting to play with the idea that it can be confused with a photograph, but to me it is so much more than simply trying to replicate a photographic image in oil paint.

Which Artists have influenced you?

I draw inspiration from a great deal of artists but here is a short list of some of my favourites. These are people that have helped to shape my work, and I enjoy making references to them in my own work.

Harold Zabady: Harold is a master of streetscapes.  Every time I see one of Harold’s paintings, I feel like I am right back in New York City.

Jim Jackson: Jim’s matchbook series is a masterpiece of photorealism.  But just as importantly, it brings the viewer back to their honeymoon, to a special anniversary or graduation meal or to a family vacation.

Johannes Wessmark: I love the relationship Johannes has with wine and all things wine.  His Corkhenge series, in which he blends the wonder of Stonehenge with wine corks, is truly his piece de resistance.

Mark Schiff: Mark is the mentor we photorealists all look up to.  He has been the guide for all of us who are trying to portray flotsam and jetsam in oil paint.  Mark’s most famous works include the theater candy counters and the series of scenes from the Brooklyn-based seltzer man.

Ralph Stearns: The word I use to describe Ralph is exactitude.  Ralph does not go for the soft edges; he brings hard lines into his work in an exact way.  I am most impressed with his Las Vegas series of paintings of blackjack.  I especially love the casino chips.

Rich Conley: Many curators ask me why I am obsessed with caricature.  I love caricature because I believe that it is the polar opposite of photorealism, and yet the talents required are so similar.  Rich Conley, I believe, is one of the great caricaturists in the USA today.

Is there a single Artwork that stands out as having a profound effect on your personal and artistic life?

My idol was Duane Hanson. He was a Florida sculptor who produced sculptures of people so life-like that they fooled the eye.  When his security guard sculpture was on display at Van de Weghe Gallery in New York, thousands, myself included, went up to him and asked him where the rest rooms were. It was truly uncanny. I will never forget that experience.

How did you become an Artist?

My main objective in life was always to be a fine artist.  I approach my work very seriously.  Even though the ideas are whimsical, when it comes down to the technical part of producing these things, I am very serious and I take my art extremely seriously.

I graduated with a degree in Commercial Art, and then apprenticed with Marv Gunderson, the renowned billboard painter. I worked under Marv for several years, painting outdoor billboards half the size of an Olympic pool. Most of the billboards were for Marlboro brand of cigarettes.  Each billboard took a whole team of us about two weeks to complete. However, after three months or so of being in view, the billboards were whitewashed to make space for a new ad for a new client.

After this time I moved on to painting murals, before developing the style that I am known for today. These experiences were tremendously useful and formative for me. I think that in a way, all artists are influenced by all the small details of their lives and that these kinds of jobs will always have some kind of impact.

Why and how do you choose the subjects in your paintings?

Television influenced me so much, especially early on.  The very first sketch that I did was Popeye and Olive Oil that my mother found under the sofa.  I still paint cartoons and comics that I remember from back then.  Once those things are ingrained into you, I don’t think that you ever forget them.  The Monopoly car came out at that time.  I also did Wonder Woman and some chocolates.  And the Spidey and the Oreos: I intentionally put it where the web is shooting out and he is trying to grab the Oreo cookie.

I love what I paint, and in fact, I have to have a personal attachment to whatever it is I am painting, or I don’t feel like I could do it. I think that is true of any artist.  I think you have to understand whatever it is you’re painting, and have a personal attachment to it.  You can’t just paint something because you think it might sell. Integrity is a vital aspect of painting, you have to be driven by passion, or else the work will lack a certain unexplainable quality.

Can you go into more depth about the technical side of your paintings?

I add linseed oil to my paint and apply it in thin and smooth layers at first. I use a blender to remove all brushstrokes, as this really helps give the colour great depth. As the painting progresses, the paint becomes thicker. The final stage is to apply the white highlights and sometimes I leave them very thick…like icing on the cake.

Glazes are important as well, especially in the shadows. Each painting is different in the way that I use the glazes, some require more layer than others, but I enjoy adding this extra dimension.

How do you organize your compositions and develop your paintings?

My wife Karen and I have fun setting up the still life compositions and lighting them as dramatically as possible. We usually take 50 to 100 photos, moving things around, adjusting, readjusting and tinkering with the lighting. It seems like in every case one particular photo stands out from all the rest and says ‘hey! It’s me…paint me!’

Using that photo to make my initial drawing, the painting process begins. At this point I look back at some of the other photos and use parts and pieces from them in areas where the lighting might enhance a particular object.

The main point that I would try to make without rambling too much would be this:

I take all the information that I get from the photograph and process it through my brain. I enhance things that I believe improve the composition, or completely leave out things that I feel take something away from the final painting.

I want my painting to be a representation of, and not an exact duplicate, of the photo. Even though I realize that the final painting looks to most viewers exactly like a photo, I like this alteration in understanding. I am totally fine with that, and when it comes down to it, I really LOVE the whole process from beginning to end.

Can you tell us more about your exhibitions?

I feel really lucky to have had the opportunities to exhibit in some great galleries. I was shown by Ron Hoy in his Hoypoloi Gallery (and its sister, Pop Gallery), which is located smack in the middle of Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida, over half a million people walk by the door every week. They are introducing my artwork to a myriad of collectors, and I am so grateful for it. Over Labor Day weekend, I painted live at the Pop Gallery and there was a line up around the corner to get postcards signed. What a great scene it was.

It was also an incredible and humbling experience to be on the walls of the Russeck Gallery on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue and in Soho, New York City—where the other works hanging there are by Picasso, Miro, Calder, Kandinsky, and the like.

My first five fine-art paintings were shown at Art Basel in Miami in 2011 and I was lucky enough to sell them all. I also exhibit at Effusion Gallery, next door to the Versace Mansion. Recently, Lil Wayne came in and bought my New York Times painting. I was so honored, and it is always such a special feeling when anyone connects with my artworks and chooses to buy a painting, it is always humbling.

How do people react to your paintings? 

I always enjoy overhearing what visitors to my shows have to say. Whether it’s in galleries in Zurich, Key West, South Beach or even Disney World, it is always amazing to hear people saying that they ‘love the photos’. When corrected, and told that they are looking at oil paintings, their look of incredulity is such a pleasure to watch. Many people stare at the paintings for a very long time. I always wonder what they are thinking about.

I also enjoy evoking feelings of nostalgia amongst the viewers. At Zimmermann + Heitmann Gallery in Dusseldorf, I overheard a family looking at my Monopoly painting.  One said, ‘I was always the dog’; another said, ‘I was the iron’.  At Atlas Galleries in Chicago, I heard a patron exclaim, ‘Wow!  Look at the Kid Cowboy.  I had exactly that book when I was a little boy.  And the edges of the book were frayed just like it is in the painting’.

I’m so happy because I’m doing what I love, and people also love it, so I mean, how can life get any better than that?

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Important Ideas that Changed Art Forever – Minimalism

Key Artists: Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt

What is Minimalism?

In New York City in the Mid 1960’s, artists such as Donald Judd and Dan Flavin were beginning to become disillusioned with the principles of abstract expressionism. Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, artists at the forefront of this movement, had relied on singular subjective expression as the main impetus for creating artworks. They created (often) huge canvases covered with wild gestural brushwork and huge painterly areas of form and color.

‘I am not interested in the kind of expression that you have when you paint a painting with brush strokes. It’s all right, but it’s already done and I want to do something new.’ Donald Judd

Minimalism emerged partly in rejection of these ideas, and in favor of creating a democratic, stripped down approach to art making that also reflected the giant leaps that had been made in the industrial industries. Minimalist artists avoided emotional content and symbolism, instead creating paintings and sculptures that concentrated on the real, physical properties of the materials they used, rather than trying to create illusion or use metaphor and allegory.

Take Richard Serra for example. At college, he had worked at a ship building steelworks, and this material became a signature for his work. He bent and manipulated gigantic single sheets of steel into new shapes and forms that were free standing, and carved the spaces of the galleries and public areas in which they were placed in new and exciting ways. They interacted with their environments, and the audience had to walk around and through these works in order for them to be experienced. Serra stated that ‘the subject of the work is your experience, your walking…I consider space to be a material’

Minimalist sculptors concentrated on the intrinsic qualities of materials, and these were in turn used to concentrate attention on the spaces on the world around us, and how we interact with them. Donald Judd fabricated a series of ‘Stack’ sculptures that were rectangular slabs of steel and light attached to the walls of galleries like rungs on a ladder. Each gap between the slabs was exactly the same dimensions as one of the slabs itself. These negative spaces became important parts of each sculpture. Judd was shaping not only the physical properties of the artwork, but also the space around it.

Minimalism was less about the expressive mind or action of the artist, and more about a collective experience, and a show of possibility for the potential of materials. This mirrored industrial principles and simplicity was favored in the name of stripping away any sense of personal biography, or unnecessary and superfluous influences. Milled steel, fabricated copper, brass, aluminium, wood and bricks were all used, and industrial fabrication was preferred because it removed any traces of the individual human hand.

Minimalism also sought to destroy a great deal of the distinctions between painting and sculpture. Clemens Greenberg, a renowned art critic, had many formalist concepts, especially regarding painting, that the minimalists rejected. This in turn helped to forge the identity of their principles and aesthetic choices. Donald Judd was also a great writer, and many of the ideas behind the movement were well articulated in his texts. These became reference points for many critics and collectors, and also helped to solidify the intentions and direction of Minimalism within the context of art history.

History

By the late 1970’s, Minimalism was a worldwide phenomenon.

With Minimalism, painting had changed from being a window to another world. Works in the minimalist style instead emphasized the flatness of the canvas and the literal qualities of the paint, how it could be used as a material in it’s own right, rather than concentrating on its ability to create an illusion of space, light and emotional expression. Piet Mondrian, The Bauhaus, Russian Constructivism and the work of Constantin Branscusi, with his simple yet elegant sculptural forms, were all inspirations on the aesthetics and concepts that helped to form Minimalism.

Cultural Influence

Minimalism, its style and principles have had a huge impact on the worlds of design, architecture and fashion. You can walk into high end flagship fashion stores today, and the way that many of them have been decorated in a simplistic, ascetic fashion steals a great deal from the advances that minimalism made.

The Bauhaus movement was built around utility and the employment of simplistic color palettes and geometric forms, and with artists such as Judd and Stella adding their own take through their own artworks, these influences can be felt in almost all contemporary design in some form or another.

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Why is Art such a Valuable Investment?

According to the 2015 TEFAF art market report, the international art market is now worth more than 51 Billion Euros.

In 2015, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Women of Algiers’ (Version O) was sold for $179,365,000 at Christie’s auction house. The painting had been expected to exceed $140 million, but the final price was far higher than anticipated due to fierce and competitive bidding between competitors.

Previously, the most that any painting had been sold for at Christie’s had been $142.4m in 2013 for a triptych by Francis Bacon of the painter Lucian Freud (and in case you were wondering, yes, he is a relative of Sigmund).

In the same auction, Alberto Giacometti’s life-size sculpture ‘Pointing Man’ sold for $141.3m, earning it the title of the world’s most expensive sculpture ever sold at an auction.

Most of us don’t have a spare $180 million lying around to invest in a single painting, but these incredible figures do show us just how valuable an investment in art can be. These numbers are from one of the most prestigious auction houses in the world, and the collectors are themselves, incredibly wealthy individuals who understand both the financial worth, and the intrinsic value of great art.

But you don’t have to buy at this level in order to make an intelligent and rewarding investment. Art is valuable at every one of its different tiers, throughout its varied and distinctive genres. It is a unique market because value is subjective in a way that is almost impossible with any other type of artifact, service or commodity. The objective value placed on a work of art by the Market can rapidly escalate according to the individual tastes and sensibilities of collectors and dealers. We all see, feel and think about different things when we experience a work of art, and this subjective angle is an important part of ascribing value to each artwork.

The exact purpose of art within society is ambiguous. It can be used as a record and reflection of a time, a culture or an event in history. Art can be created to display wealth and prestige, act as an acerbic form of cultural and institutional critique, or exist as a means for pure and free emotional expression. Art is many things to many different people. Because its function within society is not dictated and fixed (as is the role of education, infrastructure, the welfare system etc), it is free to occupy these weird and wonderful realms. This is part of the reason that it maintains such a subjective and special quality, and also this is an aspect of why it can become so valuable.

Investing in the Art that is valuable to you

Sounds obvious, but when choosing an artwork, pick something that speaks to you personally. Living with a work of art, you will find new layers, meanings and elements to each work all the time. Experiencing an artwork for 20 minutes in a gallery is very different to living with a painting for 20 years, and seeing it every day on your wall. Over time, you will go deeper into the brushstrokes, marks and pencil lines. You will both consciously and unconsciously learn more about its color palette, composition, technical touches and subtleties in meaning and style.

If you are a huge fan of photorealism, geometric abstraction or photography, then invest in artworks from these genres. Choose a piece that you can hang on your wall and enjoy for its aesthetic, technical, though provoking, and unique intrinsic qualities. There is no right or wrong reason for you to choose the artworks that you wish to invest in. But you can be sure that you are making a sound financial investment that you can take pleasure in for many ways for years to come.

Intrinsic Value

Another reason why art is so valuable is because it can be totally unique. Picasso’s ‘Women of Algiers’ (Version O) is taken from a series of 15 paintings on the subject, lettered from A – O. It is a totally original work of art, created at a time in history that can never be repeated, by a man who can never paint another canvas again, because he is no longer alive. Timing and context are exceptionally important in works of art, and all great artists are aware of this fact. An artwork is tied to the point in history in which it was created, whether it acts as a commentary on the events and circumstances, is ahead of it’s time, or is making its best efforts to appear ahistorical.

If you also add the artistic achievements and cultural prestige of Picasso, one of the worlds most respected, favored and influential artists, then you can begin to grasp how the bidders arrived at this astronomical price. Art is, and will continue to be, a highly valuable and rewarding investment.

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