On 18 Aug, 2011 With
Artist Odd Nerdrum sentenced to jail Odd Nerdrum, one of Norway’s most famous and controversial artists, was sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday after a local court in Oslo found him guilty of tax evasion. Nerdrum has earlier denied his guilt, and his defense attorney filed a quick appeal. The court’s prison sentence matched what state prosecutors had sought after mounting their case that Nerdrum had failed to declare around NOK 14 million in taxable income from the sale of paintings between 1998 and 2002. Nerdrum was also ordered to pay court costs of NOK 10,000. The 67-year-old artist, who boycotts Norwegian media and won’t allow his photograph to be taken or used, was not present when his…
Read More
On 18 Aug, 2011 With
Odd Nerdrum faces heavy fines and a prison term for alleged tax evasion. Odd Nerdrum is one of Norway’s most internationally known contemporary artists but now he faces heavy fines and a prison term for alleged tax evasion. He’s had to appear in court in Oslo this week, where prosecutors suggested his financing has been as creative as his paintings. Nerdrum himself admitted in court on Tuesday that he kept nearly USD 1 million in cash in a safe deposit box at an Austrian bank, and that he “wasn’t very good” with numbers or accounting requirements. He denies he’s guilty of tax evasion, though, calling the charges against him “nonsense.” The artist, whose works have been compared to those of…
Read More
On 18 Aug, 2011 With
Odd Nerdrum Sentenced to Two Years in Prison “I am sadened to be the bearer of such shocking news. My mentor, Odd Nerdrum has been sentenced to two years in prison. He is a man who has dedicated his life’s work to defending human dignity, a man who has given his profound knowledge freely to thousands of students over the years without charging a single penny, a man who generously opened his home and family to my wife and I when we lost our jobs in New York City in the midst of the financial crisis and were quite literally homeless… This man has been sentenced to two years in jail for tax evasion for $1.5 million USD in taxable income….
Read More
On 12 Aug, 2011 With
Artist in his Studio This is a view of Claude Monet standing in his first studio amidst his favorite canvases. The light of the afternoon is almost palpable. This room located in his main house at Giverny was turned into his sitting-room after 1890. The picture was made in springtime according to the tulips behind Monet. The photo reveals how much the painter loved flowers. There were at least six vases in his studio on this day! When Monet became successful, he built a new house in the corner of his garden, where he moved his studio. He had now a well lit large room to work in and to store his paintings. The former studio became a place where he used…
Read More
On 11 Aug, 2011 With
A French Naive or Primitive painter. Henri Rousseau was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humorous description of his occupation as a tax collector. Ridiculed during his life, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. Henri Rousseau was born in Laval, France into the family of a tinsmith. He attended Laval High School as a day student and then as a boarder. He was mediocre in some subjects at the high school but won prizes for drawing and music. He worked for a lawyer and studied law, but “attempted a small perjury and sought refuge in the army,” serving for four years, starting in 1863. With his father’s death, Rousseau moved to Paris in…
Read More
On 25 Dec, 2010 With
Kenneth Andrew Walton (born November 23, 1967) is an American software developer and author of the memoir Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay, which details his time spent selling forged art on the online auction site eBay. He currently lives with his wife in San Francisco, California. In 1999 and 2000 Walton was working as an attorney in Sacramento, California, and selling art on eBay, using more than 40 online aliases to drive up bidding on hundreds of his paintings. In May 2000 he posted an auction on eBay for an oil painting that attracted a closing bid of $135,805 and which bidders speculated might be a work by Richard Diebenkorn due to its resemblance to the artist’s work, the existence of the monogram “RD52” on the…
Read More
On 23 Oct, 2010 With
Some counterfeiters try to enter the “soul and mind of the artist.” Some delight in the chemistry of baking paint and creating wormholes. Some start with real pictures and then “restore” them until they look as if they’re by a different artist. From ancient vases to conceptual art—if someone made it, someone else has tried to bamboozle the world with a copy. by Milton Esterow In Italy,” Salvatore Casillo, who founded the University of Salerno’s Museum of Fakes, recently commented, “if you’re a good enough counterfeiter, you eventually get your own show.” Casillo was right. Several good-enough counterfeiters have recently had their own shows. Icilio Federico Joni, who was known as the prince of Sienese fakers and specialized in Renaissance…
Read More
On 4 Oct, 2010 With
Visual Arts Salaries With the world wide crisis we are all experiencing, finding a stable job is a little bit difficult. With many competitors around, you must really have the right skills and knowledge to be on the edge against others. With technology leading the way, there is a very large demand for visual artists in different sub fields and positions. Visual arts mainly focus on everything visual like drawing, painting, and photography. If you have the passion for the visual arts, then by now you should enroll yourself to an art school and get a degree in any field of visual arts which you think suits you well. There are many good schools available that specialize in arts; you just…
Read More
On 4 Oct, 2010 With
Average weekly income for a visual artist: £521 (average figure based on highest and lowest earnings. Source: ONS). Amount paid for works sold at the annual Affordable Art Fair in London: £50–£3,000 (of which a percentage may go to an artist’s gallery). How does the average artist make a living? If you’re Damien Hirst, of course, you need only flog a couple of sharks in formaldehyde; if you’re Tracey Emin, an unmade bed will do. If you’re an actor, a well-publicised turn as Hamlet and near-omnipresence in the Christmas TV schedules, a la David Tennant, would keep the accountant happy. But none of these scenarios will ring true for the average artist – who is more likely to be stacking supermarket shelves,…
Read More
On 2 Jul, 2010 With
The end stages of anyone’s life are likely to be somewhat chaotic. Ailments consume one’s thoughts, strength wanes, memory fades, and the ability to take care of ordinary activities, albeit work or just shopping for food, declines. Those with jobs are apt to retire – the business will go on – and devote the remainder of their lives to a less stressful existence. In 1996, multimedia sculptor Nam June Paik (1932-2006) suffered a stroke that largely curtailed his ability to create new installations, but his career was far from over. Exhibitions of his work were being planned, new pieces were still being fabricated and existing works continued to be put up for sale at galleries. What’s more, a series of…
Read More
