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Contemporary art 2011: a new lease of life! - copyright by artprice.com

The austerity imposed by the crisis has been relegated to a distant memory. Collectors are back in the market, not just as observers but as active participants. Over the last three years, revenue from the Contemporary art sales in London has been rising: Christie's and Sotheby's evening sales generated £22.3m in February 2009, £79.5m in February 2010 and £83.2m in February 2011.

On 15 February, Sotheby’s sold 54 out of the 59 lots offered for £30.03 million. Looking only at the bottom line, the American auctioneer actually posted revenue down £14.1m versus the same sale a year earlier. However in February 2010, Sotheby's sold an exceptional private collection with 49 masterpieces from the Sammlung Lenz Schönberg collection and it sold an additional 20 works (total of 74 lots sold in 2010).

Warhol… pillar of the sales
The following day, their competitor Christie's added a further £20 million to Sotheby’s already good result, with a substantial help from a self-portrait by Andy WARHOL that fetched £9.6m vs. an estimated range of £3m - £5m. This Warhol self-portrait , Janus, with half of his face hidden in shade, tripled a record fetched by a smaller version in different colours in 2004 (roughly £3.5m on 11 May 2004 at Christie's). The version sold at Christie's is an exception work not just for its bright red but also for its excellent provenance: its was specially made for the American pavillon of the Universal exhibition of Montreal in 1967 housed in the famous geodesic sphere created by Richard Buckminster Fuller.
A central pillar of any major Contemporary art sale, Andy Warhol was represented at Sotheby's by an iconic Marylin Monroe. Her face, repeated nine times in negative in Nine Multicoloured Marilyns (Reversal Series, 137.2 x 106.7 cm) fetched £2.8m. That result was in itself a sign of the recovery, since an exactly similar work that Christie's hoped to sell for $2.8m remained unsold on 19 October 2008 at the beginning of the crisis. Between 1996 and 2000, works from the series Nine Multicolored Marilyns changed hands for between 200 and 400 thousand pounds at auctions!

The best results
The two days of sales generated some memorable results. The Sotheby's sale opened with the famous pile of 100,000 sunflowers seeds in porcelain by Weiwei AI, offered for between £80,000 and £120,000 and which fetched £290,000. During the sale, thousands of similar hand-painted grains were strewn over the floor of the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern where the Chinese artist’s work is currently on show (from 12 October 2010 to 2 May 2011).
Less known, the Swiss artist Franz GERTSCH created a whole series portraying a certain Luciano Castelli, of which LUCIANO I (acrylic, 1976) doubled its high estimate (which was already a record price). As works by this artist are rare at auction, the piece fetched £1.3m. The same day, Sotheby's got very close to a new record with Juan MUÑOZ’s Conversation Piece in bronze. This unique work had been in a private collection since 1993. It depicts a father tenderly leaning over his son and seems to have seduced the Sotheby’s audience: the bidding went all the way to £2.7m. A year earlier, not two but six man-sized bronze statues by the artist, Conversation Piece III, sold for a similar price, a record at £2.9 m ($4.3m) at Sotheby’s (12 May 2010). Worth mentioning also, Glenn BROWN’s Declining nude which fetched the artist’s second best-ever auction price at £1.1 m behind his Dali-Christ which sold for £1.25m at Christie’s on 30 June 2010.
Other successful sales: Günther UECKER’s Lichtfeld, estimated at £300,000 - £400,000 and which fetched £620,000 and Abstraktes Bild Gerhard RICHTER. Guaranteed by Sotheby’s, the latter work fetched £6.4m.

A few hours after these strong Contemporary art sales, 70% of AMCI Art Market Confidence Index) expressed a firm intention to buy works of art. The art market appears to have decided: the top-end is back on form!

A posting I wrote on the Wacom Europe Bamboo Users, about photoshops versus sketchbook...

Re: Potoshop CS5 v.s. Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 Using a Wacom

Photoshop IS the leading software for graphic digital artists (I am talking of 2D rendering). It's not me saying that, but professionals working with Disney I talked, too.

Other artists may also use PS (the CS5 has got some good improvements like the possibiliy of mixing colors, I believe; although this is not necessary really). I like this blogspothttp://idrawgirls.blogspot.com/, download Xia palette and browse through it.

I would rather add Corel Painter 11 as well especially for the digital watercolor capabilities. The only and best digital watercolor blog that I know is Joan's: http://www.joanahamilton.com.
As for comic illustration, probably Manga Studio Ex is better than Photoshop for the workflow and smooth rendering of the line work, in my opinion.
I don't think Sketchbook is considered very high in the professional arena. It's more for the occasional user.

The question is rather digital or traditional techniques? "Digital art" is used for the web, the film industry (special effects, digital matting), video games, some technical illustration to be printed on real books; comics coloring and perhaps comics drawing - many comic artists still use paper and pencil and later scan the manual drawing, while coloring is all done with Photoshop - ; I wouldn't consider photo retouching or manipulation necessarily as "art"; instead, what is perceived as "art" is done with traditional medium: oil in the first place is what "serious" art is thought of today, still, then acrylics and watercolor which has, since Turner time, a good following of enthusiasts. You hang up work of digital painters and traditional painters next to each other in an exhibition, and you will see that the public will only look at the latter only (Again, not my opinion, but the one of professionals artists and gallery owners). Oil is top of the list for collectors, followed by acyrylics probably (I assume), watercolors is a problem for it needs glass to store it, usually so it's more complicated and sculptures and installations require space which most collectors don't have (but all collectors have got walls).

If you want to become an artist, you don't need to be skilled in your drawing techniques only, today. You need to "sell" yourself. And a good way to see how is following Brainard Carey or another art tutor: http://www.yourartmentor.com/

Cheers

Alessandro

In front of my eyes and in my ears an Art Teacher of the highest level, in the most humble and down to heart way!

Video Download: Bold Underpaintings for Lively Pastel Landscapes with Richard McKinley | NorthLightShop.com

"Does anyone actually takes this kind of art seriously?"
"Never under estimate the power of a big gold frame"
Bansky

Some real news to change from the standard, all similar news travelling the globe.

I can watch (ahem, when I don't sleep in front of ) more than 200 channels on TV here in Switzerland, in 15 languages or more.Most of the news I can understand or sort of (in Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese...) are the same....

...and so the movies and films, nearly all coming from the US...sorry, Hollywood..

The secrets of Leonardo virtual tour. In cooperation with the Italian Financial newspaper "24 ore" and the "Ambrosiana Library" in Milan, you can visit Leonardo's Codice Atlantico and other documents. Mind, the service is not free: 9 Euro for the "ticket" gives you access for up to 6 months,

I read the following on livejournal.com.... LOS ANGELES! What a change from where I live!

After 10 years of work the Opificio delle pietre dure finished the restauration of the famous Giotto cross. The colours are spectacular.

This is Cattelan's recent and much discussed momument at the Piazza Affari in Milan (the stock market square). Cattelan is reportedly the major living Italian artist.

So now Milan will have another point of attraction next to Leonardo Da Vinci Last Supper, La Scala, the Dome, the Sforza Castle, and its famous fashion boutiques...

Old news but new to me...Steampunk Steampunk is the art of combining today's technology with a Victorian look. Not really something for me but interesting to know. I have the same feeling when I think of the 1850s-1900s. I think that was perhaps the highest moment for Technology in History.For the Arts as well....(the moment from Impressionism, Cezanne, and up to Cubism).

I found the Sunbula brochure in Church. These are Holy Land craftsmen and artists producing lovely items.

In combination with the peace Talks taking place at the White House right now...

In a wish for reconciliation and peace for the Holy Land. But I don't have much hope. Peace and harmony are so fragile! Like sheep in a wolfs' den. You can have 100 people with good will on both sides and it's enough 1 person to destroy it all...

It's the only forest I know in Europe which has remained untouched by man since it's natural creation. In the rest of Europe, all woods and forests are man-made or man-managed.At the Roman time, forests and woods were covering the majority of the surface, and population was only a fraction of that of today (e.g. in the 4th century Europe was inhabited by about 60 millions people, roughly the population of Italy today. source).

I am following this blog about the real situation of the United States of America today. A dim look on the US where society is more and more divided by the highly rich and the poor (the top 10% of the richest people holds in their hands the equivalent of 100 milions low-income salaries, etc...)