The current issue of Good magazine has an article on art collecting for the–ahem–value-seeking set. Not a Wolfian Master of the Universe or a fifth-generation Vanderbilt? You can still collect great art, writes downtown Manhattan gallery owner Jen Bekman (view article). “If you rely on the art rags, or, say, The New York Times for news about the art world, it’s easy to get the impression that art is for the very few.” But you can start your collection with limited-edition prints that sell on the Web for as little as $20, and originals that cost no more than a few hundred bucks.
Bekman has a point when she writes that when you buy the work of an unknown artist, “it’s nice to know that you’re supporting someone who is probably struggling and dreaming of quitting his or her day job.” She also explores how sites like Tiny Showcase are helping penurious art lovers satiate their need. (more…)
By the East River in Queens, a rainstorm shrouded the view of New York City in a pale mist. The prolific artist Matthew Barney recently staged a non-public performance event here, in his new warehouse studio along the river. On the gate to his studio, a sign warned visitors of a secretive performance art event, which would include dangerous live animals and controversial content. The sign, the electric static of rain against pavement and the drum-beat on my umbrella set a mood of mystery before the show.
Famous for his enigmatic film series “The Cremaster Cycle”‑-which includes mythological goat creatures, plastic sculptures and a copious amount of Vaseline—Barney has also partnered with the elfin and otherworldly Icelandic pop star Bjork. Drawing Restraint 9, Bjork and Barney’s recent film, features the couple on a Japanese whaling ship as they undergo a metamorphosis into whales. (more…)
17th-century Dutch portraits. The practiced spontaneity of Franz Kline. Geisha headdresses. Louise Nevelson’s wall constructions. This is the artistic and cultural mix that inspired the most recent collection of fashion designer Ralph Rucci.
Among the ensembles in his Spring 2007 haute couture collection are a white strapless gown (pictured above, right) and a suit in black wool crepe (above, middle) based on the collages of Nevelson (above, left). The influence didn’t stop there. In another nod to the Abstract Expressionist assemblage artist, Rucci capped the heads of his models with Saran Wrap and fitted them with double sets of false eyelashes (Louise loved a good headwrap almost as much as she loved a smoky eye). According to Rucci, the goal was to make them “look like Nevelson conceptually and Nevelson realistically.” (more…)
Everyone wants a piece of Bacon these days—the late Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon, that is. In February, the artist’s Study for Portrait II (1956) sold at Christie’s for £14 million ($27.5 million), an all-time high for the artist and the second highest price for a postwar work of art at auction.
That’s great news for one of Bacon’s old drinking buddies. Thirty years ago, electrician Mac Robertson took home three trash bags worth of stuff from the artist’s studio and put them in his attic for safekeeping. Bacon was about to dump the items—which included portraits, photographs, notebooks and letters—after becoming enraged that workmen had disturbed his studio (pictured above is Bacon’s studio in its naturally chaotic state, circa 1975). “It’s yours—take what you want,” Bacon reportedly told Robertson, now 75. (more…)
Master painters once called still life painting natura morte—dead nature. Yet even old still life paintings are livelier than you might think. Peer closely at this 16th century Dutch painting, a vase of flowers, and you might spy a bug perched on a wilting petal or leaf. Such paintings seem to whisper to us: Just as these soft petals wither into claws and die, so we all go.
Sunny Italy yielded a livelier batch of botanical artists. The famed Renaissance man Leone Battista Alberti once advised artists and garden planners alike: “In your hands lays hidden the idea of a new nature.” (more…)
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