White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) by Mark Rothko • 2007: The second most expensive contemporary (ie. post-war) painting ever sold at auction: White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) by Mark Rothko. Sold for $72.8 million.
Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, “in the streets” — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. Typically, the term street art or the more specificpost-graffiti is used to distinguish contemporary public-space artwork from territorial graffiti, vandalism, and corporate art. Artists have challenged art by situating it in non-art contexts. ‘Street’ artists do not aspire to change the definition of an artwork, but rather to question the existing environment with its own language. They attempt to have their work communicate with everyday people about socially relevant themes in ways that are informed by…
The highest auction price ever achieved by a sculpture 2007: The highest auction price ever achieved by a sculpture: the 5,000-year old Guennol Lioness, a 3 1/4-inch limestone lion from ancient Mesopotamia. Sold for $57 million. Source: visual-arts-cork.com
Sotheby’s World Records 2006: The second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction: Dora Maar au Chat, by Picasso. Sold for $95.2 million. Source: visual-arts-cork.com
Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. One of criticism’s goals is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation. The variety of artistic movements has resulted in a division of art criticism into different disciplines, each using vastly different criteria for their judgements. The most common division in the field of criticism is between historical criticism and evaluation, a form of art history, and contemporary criticism of work by living artists. Despite perceptions that art criticism is a much lower risk activity than making art, opinions of current art are always liable to drastic corrections with the passage of time. Critics of the…
Stuckism is an international art movement that was founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art. The first group of thirteen British artists has since expanded, as of May 2010, to 209 groups in 48 countries. The Stuckists have staged shows and gained media attention for outspoken comments and demonstrations, particularly outside Tate Britainagainst the Turner Prize, sometimes dressed in clown costumes. They have also stated their opposition to the Charles Saatchi-patronisedYoung British Artists. After exhibiting mainly in small galleries in Shoreditch, London, they were given their first show in a major public museum in 2004, the Walker Art Gallery, as part of the Liverpool Biennial. Other campaigns mounted by the group include official avenues, such as standing in the 2001 general election,…
New European Painting emerged in the 1980s and has clearly reached a critical point of major distinction and influence in the 1990s with painters like Gerhard Richter andBracha Ettinger whose paintings have established and continue to create a new dialogue between the historical archive, American Abstraction and figurality, followed by painters like Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas and others. A third wave came with artists like Neo Rauch, Michaël Borremans and Chris Ofili. Bad boy, oil on linen, 66 inches x 96 inches by Eric Fischl Neo-expressionism and other related movements in painting have emerged in the final two decades of the 20th century in Europe and in the United States, but this New Painting is not expressionist. Rather it is a renovative kind of abstraction and…
Superflat is a postmodern art movement, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which is influenced by manga and anime. It is also the name of a 2001 art exhibition, curated by Murakami, that toured West Hollywood, Minneapolis and Seattle. Description Superflat is used by Murakami to refer to various flattened forms in Japanese graphic art, animation, pop culture and fine arts, as well as the “shallow emptiness of Japanese consumer culture.” A self-proclaimed art movement, it was a successful piece of niche marketing, a branded art phenomenon designed for Western audiences. In addition to Murakami, artists whose work is considered “Superflat” include Chiho Aoshima, Mahomi Kunikata, Sayuri Michima, Yoshitomo Nara, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, and Aya Takano. In addition, some animators within anime and some mangaka are considered Superflat, especially Koji Morimoto (and much of the output of his…
Virtual art (in terms of media art) is art practice using virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality as a medium. It can be considered a post-convergent art form, containing all previous media as subsets. Notable artists producing virtual art: Maurice Benayoun Brody Condon Char Davies Michael Naimark Myron Krueger Stefan Roloff Jeffrey Shaw Peter Weibel Source: en.wikipedia.org.com
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) The French Post-Impressionism painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was the archetypal bohemian artist. He was also outstanding at drawing, illustration and printmaking. A crippled aristocrat, he lingered around the cafes and brothels of Paris producing some of the most memorable images of Montmartre nightlife. Lautrec’s paintings contain a vivid collection of prostitutes, beggars, impressarios, aristocrats and drunks, whom he portrayed without criticism or disapproval. He also produced some 30 high quality advertising posters, which contributed significantly to the Belle Epoque poster craze. His works have come to symbolize both the gaiety and seediness of fin de siecle Paris. Influenced by Manet and Degas, the great figurative painters of French Impressionism, Lautrec’s key works include Woman Doing her…