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