The Art of Venus: February 2010

Giacometti sculpture fetches record $104M

Price for ‘Walking Man I’ is highest ever paid for work of art at auction

LONDON - A life-size bronze sculpture of a man by Alberto Giacometti was sold Wednesday at a London auction for 65 million pounds ($104.3 million) — a world record for the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction, Sotheby’s auction house said.
It took just eight minutes of furious bidding for about ten bidders to reach the hammer price for “L’Homme Qui Marche I” (Walking Man I), which opened at 12 million pounds, Sotheby’s said.
The sculpture by the 20th century Swiss artist, considered an iconic Giacometti work as well as one of the most recognizable images of modern art, was sold to an anonymous bidder by telephone, the auction house said.

Sotheby’s had estimated the work would sell for between 12 to 18 million pounds.
The sale price trumped the $104.17 million paid at a 2004 New York auction for Pablo Picasso’s 1905 “Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice).” That painting broke the record that Vincent van Gogh had held since 1990, and its sale was the first time that the $100 million barrier was broken.
“L’Homme Qui Marche I,” a life-size sculpture of a thin and wiry human figure standing 72 inches (183 centimeters) tall , “represents the pinnacle of Giacometti’s experimentation with the human form” and is “both a humble image of an ordinary man, and a potent symbol of humanity,” Sotheby’s said.
The work was cast in 1961, in the artist’s mature period. It is rare because it was the only cast of the walking man made during Giacometti’s lifetime that has ever come to auction, Sotheby’s said. It was bought by Dresdner Bank in the early 1980s.
The last time a Giacometti of comparable size was offered at auction was 20 years ago. That sculpture was sold for $6.82 million, a record for Giacometti works at the time.

Associated Press

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Person At The Window

Salvador Dali

Recently I heard someone who is a supposed art expert say she thought Picasso was awful. In fact I think she said she "hated" it to use her exact word. All said while making a squinty prune face. That was not before she confused him with Dali, whom I got the impression that she doesn’t even actually know.
Inside I was laughing hysterically. Or else I was weeping with sadness.
I wanted to tell her to open her needle thin mind. The idea is that even if you don’t like an artist’s style, at least you can appreciate the work. Especially if you are an artist. Not her. Which I found rather shocking coming from someone who is a supposed art expert. She is someone who thinks Thomas Kinkade is God’s gift to art. And it was very obvious and rather sad to find that she is so limited in her appreciation of a huge, beautiful world of art variety.
To hear someone bash Picasso and praise Thomas Kinkade, I had to write this.
While I can definitely appreciate Thomas Kinkade’s work and achievement, at this point I have to wonder what happened to the actual “art” in his art?
When I saw Thomas Kinkade himself on some home shopping show pushing Thomas Kinkade teddy bears for like $100 I think I threw up a little. The way they were describing it you would have thought it was made of ancient Chinese silk and 24 carat gold. There was no art on the bear. I think it was holding an alphabet block and that was it. Big whoop. And how much are they?!! It made me feel icky. It makes me feel like at this point he is swindling little old ladies, making them think they are buying something valuable when they aren’t.
His work is so overproduced that here you have these little old ladies collecting like 26 of his prints, (as one caller claimed), thinking they have something of value when in fact it is my belief that at this point his work is less valuable than what people are actually paying for it.
15 or 20 years ago perhaps his prints were worth something but now…..uh uh. He is diluting his own value by overproducing his work.

Remember beanie babies? Everyone had to have one. Everyone was collecting them. They were selling for outrageous prices. Then they became so overproduced that now you can probably find them at any given garage sale. Unless you have one of the very early ones or you happen to encounter a beanie baby hoarder who is willing to stupidly pay anything for them, they aren’t worth much.
I see this happening to Thomas Kinkade’s work. Unless you buy one of his original paintings or early reproduction, you are wasting your money. When I saw a deck of Thomas Kinkade playing cards I knew it was all over. At least for collectors. Not for him obviously. He is making millions. But for self proclaimed “collectors” of Thomas Kinkade, his work is a money vacuum.
There is no “limited edition” in overproduced work. The value is in the rarity. So don’t waste your money. You would be better off investing in a beautiful ORIGINAL landscape by someone no one has ever heard of.
Thomas Kinkade paints pretty landscapes. There is no knocking that. But he’s a one trick pony. They are all houses with flowers and light. It’s the same thing over and over again just in a different composition. Yawn. There is no genius in that. I’m no artistic genius but I could reproduce one of his paintings stroke by stroke if I wanted to. Picasso and Dali on the other hand, it would take an artistic genius to reproduce one of their works.
Every painting Picasso and Dali painted were different from the previous. That is the true genius of their work. They painted many things and in many styles. If you think Picasso only painted cubist women you are sadly mistaken and I would encourage you to explore his other work. I would encourage you by saying don’t limit yourself to just one artist or one style. There is a great big world of magnificent art out there! If you like Thomas Kinkade’s style, have a look around, there are thousands of other unknown artists who paint paintings that are just as or more beautiful that cost far less than his reproductions and will possibly be worth a lot more. And if you still insist on buying Thomas Kinkade’s work, seek out the early pieces and research them thoroughly.
As for my work, that ‘art expert’ told me my work was “unique”. And the way she said it was not a compliment. She said it in a looking-down-her-nose-at-me way. But I actually take it as a huge compliment. Unique is what I was aiming for. Mission accomplished.

Here are some magnificent lesser known works by Picasso and Dali for you to enjoy.

WORKS BY PABLO PICASSO