Yves KLEIN prefers Blue Velvet

The guy who invented the 'blues'

Yves KLEIN (b. Nice 1928-62)

Artlover808

Bobby Vinton
(Bernie Wayne/Lee Morris)

She wore blue velvet

Bluer than velvet was the night
Softer than satin was the light
From the stars

She wore blue velvet

Bluer than velvet were her eyes
Warmer than May her tender sighs
Love was ours

Ours a love I held tightly
Feeling the rapture grow
Like a flame burning brightly
But when she left, gone was the glow of

Blue velvet

But in my heart there'll always be
Precious and warm, a memory

Through the years
And I still can see blue velvet
Through my tears

Mr. HOCKNEY, I presume?

So, there You Are, Mr. HOCKNEY

Artlover123

"Drawings, Lithographs and Limited Edition Signed prints by David Hockney"
2006-09-28 until 2006-10-28
Andipa Gallery
London, , UK United Kingdom

Some 50 drawings, lithographs and limited edition signed prints by David Hockney, priced between £1,500 and £60,000, will be for sale at Andipa Gallery this autumn. The highlight of the show is a very rare preparatory drawing, believed to have been sketched at Tyler Graphics’ studios in New York. ‘Swimming Pool’, 1978, brown ink on paper, depicts a Californian swimming pool and diving board, showing the play of the shadow on the water and with an instruction to blend the colour of the unseen background into the wavy lines of the pool’s water. Andipa Gallery offers this work for sale at £60,000.

Famed for his swimming pool paintings inspired by his visits to the west coast of America in the early sixties, Hockney began experimenting with prints, having had some printing experience when at art school in England. A visit to meet Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland at Tyler Graphics’ paper pulp works in New York enthused Hockney to the point that he began his own paper pulp prints, returning to the subject of the pool and printing twenty-nine Paper Pools during a 49 day stretch, working 16 hours a day. The diving board dramatically breaks the surface of the intensely blue water, which varies from turquoise to deep royal blue, sometimes just shown as a wash. The shadow of the board is sometimes geometrically cast against the side of the pool, however in Paper Pool, 1980, it drapes like a curtain, mimicking the wavy lines breaking the surface of the water – price £6,500.

In February 1984, when travelling in Mexico, Hockney had an unexpected stay at the Hotel Romano Angeles in Acatlán, as a result of his car breaking down. Happily, the outcome was a series of bold and richly colourful works on his return to Los Angeles, when he once again worked with Kenneth Tyler resulting in the sought after prints. ‘Hotel Acatlan: First Day’, 1984-85, depicts the striking rich brown roof rafters and hot rust coloured floor, which lead your eye out through strutting uprights to the lush green vegetation and trees in the garden. Two shadowy chairs blend into the foreground where Hockney may well have sat and admired the scenery.

A printer’s proof lithograph, printed in colour on two sheets of white paper, is priced at £40,000. These are a direct contrast to Hockney’s earlier portfolio of Grimms’ Fairy Tales of monochromatic etchings and aquatint, from the late sixties. ‘Home’, 1969, (numbered 11 of 100), depicts a chair, a subject featured in several of his works, £6,500, (see ‘Van Gogh’s Chair’, 1998, edition 14 of 35, selling for £20,000).

Art As An Investment - Pt II

Art As An Investment ? Pt II

Artlover808

As a person who is looking for alternative investment to their portfolio of stocks and shares; please be careful to note that within the last 15 years; the art investment scene has not generally performed well. The only exception has been found in the market of contemporary art (see chart below as supplied by Autour de l’Art); but there you will likely encounter a lot of ‘hot-air’ advisers with the whole market skewed towards a few big art dealers galleries in New York and London.

To Be In Tibet

The Mandala in Tibet

Artlover238

According to the Mandala expert, Jane SINGER of Rossi & Rossi, London:-

“Tibetans became familiar with the mandala early in their introduction to Buddhist art and culture, a process begun with the first ruler of the historical period, Songtsen Gampo (d. 649). Mandalas existed at early Buddhist centers in central Asia, e.g. Dunhuang and Khotan, both frequented by Tibetans during the eighth and ninth centuries.

Sketches of mandalas are found in the eighth through tenth century Dunhuang manuscripts which are among Tibet's earliest written records.Samye , Tibet's first monastery founded ca. 779, was based on the architectural principles of a three-dimensional mandala, reportedly following the plan of Uddandapura monastery in eastern India.

Tibetan paintings on cloth (thang-ka) dating as early as the eleventh or twelfth centuries feature highly complex mandalas. Mandalas adorned the murals at early Tibetan sanctuaries, including Tabo (ta-pho, founded late tenth century; its murals dating probably to mid-eleventh century), and Alchi (al-chi, founded ca. 1200).

At Sakya monastery, extensive cycles of mandalas were painted between 1280 and 1305.Also adorned with ambitious cycles of mandalas are Shalu (zha-lu, founded ca. mid-eleventh century; mandalas dating to ca. early fourteenth century), and Gyantse . Founded ca. 1429 but destroyed, Ngor monastery was for centuries associated with magnificent painted mandalas, unsurpassed in iconographic complexity and aesthetic achievement.

Much of the mandala's iconography and its associated liturgy are contained in texts known as tantras. Etymologically, tantra signifies a process of weaving or bringing together, reference to the process by which an individual undergoes psychic transformations, eventually leading to full enlightenment. Earlier Mahayana Buddhist literature had emphasized the bodhisattva, one who strove to assist others in the attainment of enlightenment and whose religious career was often described as prajnaparamita, "the perfection of wisdom," for it involved the cultivation - over many lifetimes - of wisdom, compassion, generosity, and similar qualities. Tantric texts, in contrast, promise spiritual liberation in this very life or in a few lifetimes, through highly sophisticated yoga practices.”

But if you are like me, not too religious but artful; you could feast your eyes on these icons of Tibetan art that used to send these monks into deep trance. Hey, you’d never know; if you keep focusing your eyes for long enough; you’d reach your Nirvana too!

Et Alors!

Et Alors!

Artlover778

Selon les dernières nouvelles de "Forbes" magazine...........

$1 billion: The minimum amount now needed in the bank to qualify for Forbes magazine's exclusive list of the 400 richest Americans.

$1.25 trillion: The total worth of the top 400. The dollars have been stacking up over the last 12 months, exceeding last year's total of $1.13 trillion.

$53 billion: Microsoft founder Bill Gates' estimated fortune. Gates has occupied the top spot for the last 13 years. Businessman Warren Buffett maintains his number two slot with $46 billion.

$1 million: The amount earned per hour by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who leapt into the number three slot.

$395 million: The amount of money lost over the past year by Martha Stewart, who fell off the list completely.

90: The number of people on the rich list 400 who live in California. Another 44 live in New York City.

Is It Nice, or not?

THE ART SCENE IN NICE [Aug 06]

Artlover328

According to a recent article in Artprice in 2006; all you budding artists should know the following:-

"If you were to look for the geographical heart of French art, you would naturally turn to Paris, the country's artistic capital. But the south of France, particularly the area around Nice, has also been a fertile cradle of artistic creation. Masters such as Pablo PICASSO, Henri MATISSE, Fernand LÉGER and Joan MIRO were all seduced by the côte d'Azur and left major works in the region. Following in their footsteps came Yves KLEIN, ARMAN, Martial RAYSSE, then BEN, Bernar VENET, CÉSAR, Claude VIALLAT, Noël DOLLA and others spawning the great movements of French contemporary art : Fluxus, Supports/Surfaces, and the New Realism.

Nice and its surroundings attracted an eclectic collection of artistic personalities in the twentieth century and the resulting creative diversity was recognised in 1977 with the inaugural exhibition at the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, called A propos de Nice. The heterogeneous range of artists that worked in the region were quickly lumped together as the Nice School. This term now embraces New Realists such as Yves Klein, Arman, César and Martial Raysse, along with artists belonging to the Supports/Surfaces group such as Noël Dolla and Claude Viallat, Claude GILLI, with his shellfish paintings, Jean MAS, with his "fly cages" and others. Of these, Klein is the only one to have sold for more than million at auction. His record price was for RE 1, which went for USD 6.1 million in November 2000 (EUR 7,077,766, Christie's NY). The rest of the Nice School are a lot more affordable. Most of the works of Robert MALAVAL and Ben, for instance, go for less than EUR 10,000 at auction. Malaval's recent EUR 31,000 record price, for Travelot, a 1977 painting in acrylics and sequins (at Perrin-Royère-Lajeunesse Versailles) has so far triggered no general rise in prices. Two of his paintings sold on 1 July were estimated at less than EUR 1,000 each at Wetterwald-Rannou-Cassegrain, Nice. Malaval is less well-known than Ben to the general public but is also less often seen on the auction stands and the Travelot hammer price was twice Ben's record, set in 1997 for C'est la mode, trop c'est trop, pourvu que ça dure! (GBP 11,000, EUR 16,457 at Christie's South-Kensington in London).

A good number of artists suffer from a lack of visibility at auction: some have had fewer than 10 works come up in 20 years. This is the case for Guy ROTTIER, SERGE III, Louis CHACALLIS, Max CHARVOLEN, Jean MAS and Pierre PINONCELLI. These artists remain private, and the rarity of works for sale has failed to prompt any speculative interest. Pinoncelli has the highest media profile, as a bad boy of contemporary art and the demolisher of Marcel DUCHAMP's Fontaine (in 1993, he urinated into a replica of the famous urinal before attacking it with a hammer). His quirky actions have placed Pinoncelli out on the margins of the art market. The three paintings from the sixties of his that have been sold since 2001 have averaged EUR 1,0000-1,500 a piece.

The sale of Pierre and Marianne Nahon's famous collection at Sotheby's in July 2004, was a big media event and brought a number of collectors to Vence, mainly looking for Nice School artists. Prices were boosted by the reputation of the Nahons. A Sacha SOSNO marble entitled Quelle est la question? went for EUR 10,000 - the artist's best hammer price in 8 years. At the same session, Jean-Claude FARHI and Bernard PAGES also notched up some good sales: Pagès' Chapiteau bleu went for a record EUR 16,000 and an inlaid Plexiglas table by Farhi found a buyer at EUR 21,000, ten times the prices seen at his previous outings."

Check out your favourite web-site to bring yourself up-to-date with the art scene here in the South of France!

www.autour-de-lart.com

Very well said Mr. DORRELL

Listen up all you artists out there...

here's something well said about learning the art of selling your works.......
as quoted on a recent article written by Paul DORRELL.

Artlover008

"Clients, Rich and Otherwise" by Paul Dorrell

Whether you're representing yourself, or whether a gallery represents you, you will in time be dealing with a variety of clients-assuming that you want to sell your work. As you deal with them, remember this: the wealthy collector, the moderately wealthy collector, and even the not-so-wealthy collector all have one thing in common: they want to connect with your work. The somnolently wealthy you can forget about, since they likely won't come around in this lifetime, nor possibly even the next.


But for the ones who are awake, to connect with your art makes them feel more alive, even rebellious, especially after all the years of dull, repetitious, mind-numbing work many of them have had to do in acquiring their wealth. Unfortunately that kind of money-chasing often compromises growth, and can create an imbalance that is reflected by harsh acquisitiveness, appalling selfishness, and virtually no awareness.

When you meet certain of these people, you may see how their dignity suffered as a result of that chase, how all too often their goals were misplaced, weren't sufficiently rewarding, or were assigned undue priority. This may make them depressed, half-alive, or primitive in outlook, consumed by the misery of their greed. All too often this is the case. Their fixation with money likely screwed up their marriage, their kids, their own lives, leaving them drained of humanity, outside the feast of life, with them now trying, through art, to reach for greater meaning.

Or perhaps they care nothing about a life of meaning, and are simply insatiable consumers who can never have enough stuff-paintings and sculpture included.

Or perhaps they're just sophisticated lovers of art, leading lives of consideration and generosity, reaping the rewards of their hard work, and enjoying the life of plenty that can sometimes be achieved in this curious, wonderful, overwrought land.

Whatever their individual natures, the rich do have a place in our system, and while it might not ultimately be as important as many of them think it is, it is still significant. Their businesses help create jobs, many of them passionately support the arts, and, when of the visionary sort, they do things for the underprivileged that you and I can only dream of. Regardless of who they are, and how benevolent they may or may not be, you must not judge them, you should never envy them, and you certainly should never allow yourself to be intimidated by them.

Be cool when dealing with the rich, be confident, but be humble. Like anyone, they are only looking for acceptance. Accept them if they behave themselves. If they do not, if they offer you absurdly low prices for work that you know is fairly priced, quietly decline. They'll respect that, and will probably come back later. But if they become insolent and disrespectful, show them the freaking door. On occasion it feels good to do this to those who so rarely have it done to them. It will be good for you, and possibly later even good for them.

Then there are other clients: teachers, physicians, small businessmen and women, architects, housewives, househusbands, lawyers, bankers, stock brokers, priests, rabbis, and a whole range of other people who are potentially interested in what you do.

Some of these people may know nothing about art. Good, don't play the snob game with them (not everyone needs to be versed in the arts); instead, kindly teach them. As I've already mentioned, anyone can respond to art. It is your job, and your dealer's, to help the less educated of your clients do so. The art world should not be a coded society where only those with the proper enunciation, attire, and hip phrases of the moment are allowed entry. That sort of exclusion only perpetuates the ignorance, when the point should be to eradicate it.

It may be that several of your potential collectors can barely afford art. Fine, allow them to make payments. For some of these people it might be their first acquisition, and the first in a series of steps where they open that window to the soul-the creative one I mean. Art can help them do this, whether they're acquiring or creating it. Congratulate them on having vision.

Still other clients may live lives that are already full and flowing, where their lifestyle is virtually a work of art itself. Maybe they're more alive than even you or I. Wonderful, then buying your work will only complement what is already impassioned.

Treat all of these clients well, regardless of their monetary status. They'll appreciate that, and will express the appreciation by buying more work, and by sending friends and relatives who will do the same. The best of them will share their wealth rather than horde it, and the circle of prosperity that they help perpetuate is one you may well be grateful to be a part of. Some of these people, the rich included, can be incredibly open and generous; allow them to be, allow them to help you, since you'll never achieve all of your goals on your own.

Finally, when a client buys a piece, it is cause for rejoicing- and I mean for everyone involved. A sale should never be seen as a one-sided victory for the artist or gallery, where perhaps a client was fleeced, paying excessively for a work that will never maintain its assigned value. Unfortunately, I've been in many galleries who deal in just this way. People who view each success in one-sided terms tend to lead unbalanced, one-sided lives. I advise you to avoid this, and avoid galleries that function under this narrow view. You'll only find misery with that attitude, never contentment. After all, how do you think so many of the rich wound up being so miserable?


AUTHOR BIO
Paul Dorrell is a novelist and gallery owner. He founded Leopold Gallery in
1991. As an art consultant, his clients include H&R Block, G.E., the Mayo
Clinic, and hundreds of others. His guidebook for artists, "Living the
Artist's Life," took him on a tour of 60 cities. He's been interviewed on
numerous NPR stations, in dozens of newspapers, and now teaches career
seminars for artists. He's also a writer for "The Artist's Magazine."

Vincent, you are still my star!

Vincent (Starry Starry Night) - Lyrics By Don McCLEAN

Artlover328

Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey

Look out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills, sketch the trees and the daffodils

Catch the breeze and the winter chills, in colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand what you tried to say to me

How you suffered for you sanity How you tried to set them free

They would not listen they did not know how, perhaps they'll listen now

Starry starry night, flaming flowers that brightly blaze

Swirling clouds in violet haze reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

Colors changing hue, morning fields of amber grain

Weathered faces lined in pain are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

For they could not love you, but still your love was true

And when no hope was left in sight, on that starry starry night

You took your life as lovers often do,

But I could have told you, Vincent,

This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

Starry, starry night, portraits hung in empty halls

Frameless heads on nameless walls with eyes that watch the world and can't forget.

Like the stranger that you've met, the ragged man in ragged clothes

The silver thorn of bloody rose, lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me

How you suffered for you sanity How you tried to set them free

They would not listen they're not listening still

Perhaps they never will.