Art Auction

At Christies auction house in New York a painting by Francis Bacon was recently sold for $142.4 million, Three Studies of Lucian Freud now holds the record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction. It beat the record that was set last year by Edvard Munchs The Scream at Sothebys auction house for $119.9 million. The recent sale at Christies auction house had 69 works of art to sell and only six of those did not sell. They also had a total sale of $691.5 million which beat the record of $495 million that Christies set in May. The $691.5 million sale made this auction the most expensive auction ever. And 10 world record prices were reached for different artists. Another artist that broke a record was Jeff Koons whose sculpture Ballon Dog (Orange) sold for $58.4 million which is a record for the highest priced artwork sold at auction for a living artist. Another piece of art that sold for a lot of money was Andy Warhols Coca Cola (3) which sold for $57.2 million, Mark Rothkos No 11(Untitled) sold for $46 million, and Christopher Wools Apocalypse Now sold for $26.4 million, all of these painting sold for more or nearly more than they were estimated to sell for. The rise in the amount of money people are willing to pay for artwork can possibly be attributed to the fact that people want historical art by important artists because they want something they think is valuable. Records for the most expensive paintings will most likely keep getting broken as more artworks are sold and more people want to buy important and valuable art.

Francis Bacon, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, 1969     

     

Mark Rothko, No. 11 (Untitled), 1957

Jeff Koon, Balloon Dog (Orange), 1994      

                      

Andy Warhol, Coca Cola (3), 1962

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1895               

           

Christopher Wool,   Apocalypse Now, 1988

Greek Art

In Ancient Greece, sculpting, painting, and architecture were not called art they were called “teche” a word that means “things requiring a special body of knowledge and skill to make”. Greek paintings were supposedly beautiful but there are none left except for the paintings that were done on terra cotta vessels. Like many Greek artworks the paintings on these vessels sometimes focused on the Greek gods such as Athena. The Greek sculptures were also usually about Greek gods and stories of Greek gods. They were carved out of marble and some of the sculptures look like they are moving because of how they are carved. And the way they are carved makes the movement of the sculptures look very realistic. Such as the sculpture of Three Goddesses which almost looks like the subjects of the sculpture could be moving. The movements of these sculptures could be due to the Hellenistic phase of Greek art, which was what the last phase of Greek art is known as. Instead of being a classical style the Hellenistic style has “dynamic poses and extreme emotion” which is different from the more reserved sculptures in that didn’t express any movement.  Many sculptures were inside the buildings in Greece. The architecture in Greece in often dedicated to the Greek gods and they become the subject of the architecture. The Parthenon for example is dedicated to Athena and there was once a 30 feet tall statue of Athena in the Parthenon. The Parthenon like a lot of Greek artwork is very worn down from time and some parts of it have even been lost. But even though parts of it are damaged its still as artistic as it was hundreds of years ago. 

Python(potter) Douris(painter), Heracles  and Athena, 480BC

Three Goddesses, 438BC   

Iktinos and Kallikrates, The Parthenon, 447BC

Matisse and Picasso

Henri Matisse was born in 1869 in France, he first started painting when he was sick and his mother brought him paints to help him feel better, he found that he loved painting and decided to become an artist. At first he painted still-life paintings and landscapes. Around 1900 the Fauvism movement began which Matisse was a leader of. Fauvism was a type of painting that emphasized strong and vivid colors, Matisse’s paintings became very colorful, sometimes not considering the actual color of the subject. Even after the Fauvism movement ended Matisse continued to paint very colorful artwork. 

Pablo Picasso was born in 1881 in Spain, his father was an artist and introduced him to art when he was very young, and from the beginning it was obvious that Picasso had considerable artistic skills. When he was younger he painted very traditionally. But later his paintings started to change, becoming less realistic looking. Picasso had many different periods, such as his blue period where he painted mostly in shades of blue, of very dark and depressing subject matter. His rose period which had lighter and more pink and orange colors while being more upbeat. The most famous one though was probably the Cubism movement which Picasso helped found. Cubism took the subjects apart and analyzed the shapes until, as with some of Picasso’s paintings, it can sometimes be hard to perceive what the subject is.

Matisse and Picasso knew each other and are sometimes compared, both artists painted and drew, although Matisse painted from nature while Picasso worked from memory. Both artists were very influential in their movements and have influenced many artists over the years.

Matisse, Women Reading, 1894

Matisse, Woman with Hat, 1905

Matisse, Les toits de Collioure 

Matisse, Dishes and Fruit, 1901

Picasso, Boy with a Pipe, 1905 

Picasso, The Old Guitarist, 1903

Picasso, Violin, 1911  

Picasso, The Poet, 1911

Georgia O'Keefe and Kathe Kollwitz

Georgia O’Keefe was born in Wisconsin in 1887. She studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students Leagues in New York City. Her work was first shown in New York in 1916 when a friend showed her artwork to Alfred Stieglitz who owned a gallery. Although she lived in New York for a while she liked painting desert landscapes more and moved back to New Mexico in 1929.    She painted mostly with watercolors and later started painting mostly in oil. Her paintings were of natural forms like flowers but close up and on very large canvas. 

Kathe Kollwitz was born in a province of Prussia but her nationality is German. She studied at an art school for women in Berlin. When she discovered that her artistic strength wasn’t in painting but in drawing. She did mainly drawings, prints, sculptures, and wood cuts. The images she drew were often very dark with people suffering. 

Georgia O’Keefe mostly painted colorful landscapes and flowers. While Kathe Kollwitz mostly drew darker images. O’Keefe was influenced by her surroundings, such as the New Mexico landscapes or the New York landscapes, which led to her painting more vibrant colorful images. Kollwitz was influenced by her surroundings as well which included being in Europe during World War One and World War Two which led to her drawings being of much darker and more sad images. The two artists are very different with different styles, mediums, and subjects, and there is not very much that is similar about their artwork.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Ram's Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills, 1935

Georgia O'Keeffe, Red Canna, 1924

Georgia O'Keeffe, Red Poppy, 1927

Kathe Kollwitz, Self-Portrait, Hand at the Forehead, 1910

Kathe Kollwitz, Revolt (By the Gates of a Park), 1897

Kathe Kollwitz, The Mothers, 1922

Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin

Two artists who had an influence on each other were Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. In 1888 Van Gogh moved to Arles in Southern France, he wanted to start an artists studio where artists could work together. He called it the Studio of the South and persuaded Gauguin to join him there. Before Gauguin got there Van Gogh started painting sunflowers to decorate the house. While they were there both of them painted similar subjects such as landscapes. They also both used jute for their canvases which made them apply paint more thickly because the material for the canvas was course. Even after they both left Arles Gauguins influence showed in Van Goghs work and vice versa. 

Van Gogh was influenced by Gauguin when he started painting from memory like Gauguin. Which made his paintings look less realistic. Which is some of the style that he is known for. Like with his Starry Night painting. As well as using thicker brush strokes and more paint. Things that were also influenced by Gauguin.

Gauguin was also effected by Van Gogh. Some of his paintings began to be more religious because he was impacted by Van Goghs religious background. Like in his painting The Yellow Christ. Gauguin also started using brighter colors in his paintings especially yellow. And he started painting sunflowers in his paintings as well. Which was from seeing all of Van Goghs paintings of sunflowers.

Van Gogh, Landscape with House and Ploughman, 1889

Van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889

Van Gogh, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, 1889

Paul Gauguin, Landscape near Arles, 1888\

Paul Gauguin, The Yellow Christ 1889

Paul Gauguin, Sunflowers, 1888

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo

Leonardo da Vinci was a painter during the renaissance, he is most well known for painting the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.  He was born in Vinci, Italy, in 1452. He studied with Verrocchio, who was a painter in Florence. In 1482 he moved to Mulan where he took commissions for paintings.  His paintings show that he was able to capture light and human expression and gestures very well. He also did drawings which were much more technical, they were also sometimes drafts of his paintings. He was interested in math, science, anatomy, engineering, inventions and more, all things that were in some of his drawings. His interests were very different and spanned from art to science.

Michelangelo was a sculptor and painter, his most well known work is the stature of David and painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He was born in 1457 in Caprese, Italy. He apprenticed with Ghirlandaio when he was thirteen. He then went to study sculpture with Bertoldo di Giovanni. `He sculpted mostly people and his sculptures, drawings and paintings show he was mostly interested in drawing the human figure. 

Both Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo were from Italy, and both of them started out from humble beginnings. They both worked during the renaissance and made some of the most well known works of art of all time. Although Leonardo da Vinci painted many different subjects and Michelangelo focused mostly on the same subjects. And even though they are both known for different mediums, Leonardo da Vinci  being known for painting and Michelangelo being known for sculpting, they both worked in various mediums throughout their lives. 

 

da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1506               

da Vinci, Head of a Woman, 1508        

da Vinci, Helicopter

Michelangelo, Pieta, 1499  
  

               
Michelangelo, David, 1504  

       
Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1512

Alexandros of Antioch and Cristo and Jeanne-Claude

A sculptor from before 1600 was Alexandros of Antioch. He lived during the Hellenistic age of Ancient Greek. He is not a very well known sculptor but is famous for creating the Venus de Milo which was made sometime between 130 and 100 BC. The sculpture is made of marble and the arms have broken off. Now the sculpture is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. There is not a lot known about Alexandros of Antioch but it is believed that he created a sculpture of Alexander the Great.

Sculptors after 1600 are Cristo and Jeanne-Claude, who made sculptures with regular fabric, and put them in public places then take them down eventually. People help them set up the sculptures and take them down. And they say that they’re art is not just the end result but also the process of planning it then putting it together then removing it. One of their sculptures it The Gates which they set up in Central Park. They also cover structures with fabric like buildings and islands. 

These sculptures are very different from ones before 1600 because they are more colorful and made of fabric instead of a harder material like stone. The sculptures are also not permanent which is a very different idea from sculptures that have been preserved and put in museums since before 1600. Then those sculptures get slightly cracked or broken its considered a terrible thing, but these sculptures are meant to be taken down.

Alexandros of Antioch, Venus de Milo    

Alexandros of Antioch, Alexaner the Great

Cristo and Jeanne Claude, The Gates, 2005

Cristo and Jeanne Claude, Umbrellas, 1991

Cristo and Jeanne Claude, Running Fence, 1976