265 pages & articles in English
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Founded by Nadia Russ: April 11, 2007

NeoPopRealism Journal and Wonderpedia,

Today's Featured Article Artprice.com: London Sales of Old Master Paintings – Good Results As 7-figure bids become commonplace in the speculative and volatile contemporary segment of the art market, bidding for less publicised older works is still buoyant. The Christie’s and Sotheby’s sales of Old Master Paintings on 8 and 9 July 2008 generated new records with rare masterpieces from private collections. At Christie’s, the offer of works that were thought lost attracted ardent bidding from collectors: drawings by Francisco GOYA Y LUCIENTES that had disappeared off the map for 130 years and a major work by Jean Antoine WATTEAU that had not been seen for 160 years were the star lots of the sale! The Goya works were part of an album of 105 drawings last sold at Drouot on 2 April 1877. Not all of them sold on 8 July, but Christie’s recorded three of the four auction records for drawings by the artist. At £2m, the lively ink drawing entitled Bajan Riñendo or Vision de Bajar Riñendo set a new record for a work on paper by the Spanish master. Christie's posted a second record breaking result with La surprise, a major painting by Jean Antoine Watteau dated 1718 and out of sight since 1848. It was thought to have been destroyed or at best lost. The piece had been discovered in July 2007 at a private home in the UK when a Christie's valuer spotted the work in the corner of a room. Before its sale, the small masterpiece - hardly larger than a sheet of A4 (36.3 x 28.2 cm) - was exhibited in New York in April before returning to London at the start of July. It depicts a typically gallant scene and reflects the artist's taste for comedia dell’arte: a young man engages a somewhat astonished lady in a passionate embrace watched with an air of complicity by a musician and a curious dog, symbol of fidelity. Apart from the work's exceptional quality, its chance discovery contributed to a mood of furious bidding that pushed La Surprise to the dizzy price of £11 million, triple its estimated value. This record dwarfs the previous record set in December 2000 when Watteau's Le Conteur - depicting artists from the Commedia dell'Arte in a landscape - fetched £2.2 million at Christie’s. For Sotheby’s the Old Masters week generated £59.5m ($117.3m), an exceptional result, up 87% vs. July 2006. It was the second highest revenue figure the auction house has ever generated on the Old Master's segment. Remember that in July 2002 Sotheby’s set the all-time record in the segment when it sold the sublime Massacre des innocents (c.1608-1609) by Peter Paul RUBENS for £45 million, the highest price ever paid for an Old Master and one of the highest prices ever paid for an art work in general! At its prestigious London sale on 9 July this year, Sotheby’s generated no less than 19 new records. Among the artists active in the 16th and 17th centuries, new records were set for Jan I BRUEGHEL (1568-1625) with The Edge of a Village with Figures dancing on the Bank of a Rive, a masterpiece dated 1616 that fetched £3.1m; Aert I NEER van der with a winter landscape which sold for £2.4m; Guido RENI with a superb Martyre de Saint Appoline which fetched £1.6m; Jacopo Robusti TINTORETTO whose light / dark portrait of an elderly man fetched £1,4m, and Frans I MIERIS van whose pipe-smoking soldier sold for £1.15m. However the highest bid of the entire session was generated by Frans I HALS' half-length portrait of Samuel Ampzing painted in 1635 which went under the hammer at £4.15m, four times initial estimates and the artist's second highest ever recorded auction price. The work is a brilliant realist portrait in which the subject seems caught "in the moment" and appears to invite us to participate in his interrupted reading. Hachette Book Group: Bulfinch: Deluxe Hachette Book Group USA’s long history dates back to 1837 and it continues to evolve & grow today. Hachette Book Group USA was created when Hachette Livre, a global publishing company based in France, acquired Time Warner Book Group from Time Warner in 2006. Hachette Livre is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lagardère, a company that is active worldwide in the areas of communications and media (books, press, audiovisual and distribution/retailing of cultural products). First Bulfinch edition Alberto Vargas: Work from the Max Vargas Collection by Reid Stewart Austin (foreword by Hudh Hefner) published in September 2006, third printing - in 2008. This is the first book on the works of glamour artist Alberto Vargas in more than a decade, drawn from the collection of his nephew Max Vargas. This fascinating title includes a selection of his vivid original drawings & finest work for Playboy magazine - 100 full color illustrations. 19-year-old Albert Vargas, a man from Peru, fresh off the boat from 2 years of liberal arts & photography study in France, Switzerland, & Germany, wanders up Manhattan Streets in search of lodging. It was 20s... This spectacular book is a new, authorized collection of work by legendary illustrator & Playboy magazine contributor Alberto Vargas that includes a large number of previously unpublished & little-known paintings & drawings... Built in a wooden shed by 4 young men one hundred and five years ago, the 1st Harley-Davidson motorcycle spawned a culture all its own. This book is he remarkable story with over 30 fascinating images, including full-color spreads on 26 milestone bikes in Harley-Davidson history, vintage photographs from the early days of Harley, picture of the riders who have embraced the Harley-Davidson motorcycle as a symbol of freedom & individuality... Willie G. Davidson became Harley-Davidson's Vice President of Styling in 1978. Willie's grandfather, William A. Davidson, along with his 2 brothers & William S. Harley, started the company over a century ago. Since the 1960s, Willie G. has been instrumental in the design of every motorcycle the Motor Company has produced. This unique & remarkable deluxe title by Willie G. Davidson published by Bulfinch/AOL Time Warner Book Group in 2003 to celebrate 100 years of Harley-Davidson. Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is best known for her humerous self-portraits, which she made with surrealistic & symbolic elements. This fascinating book not only reproduces more than 200 of her paintings from every genre, including still life, landscape, self-portraits, but also shows how the tragedy of her life informed her art. This remarkable title presents Frida Kahlo's biography & 220 color & black-&-white illustrations - a full range of Frida Kahlo's work, photographs of Frida's life, including childhood photos... This deluxe title published by Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Company in 2001. Continue...

In The News Commission for an Art Work – Uhited States An American government organization is making a call to professional artists who live in Maine to submit proposals to design, execute and install artwork at the Bangor Courthouse. Total project budget is $90,000. The committee is seeking proposals that will fit with the atmosphere and environment of the building's function. Typology is visual and plastic arts. Black Dog Publishing: Informal Architecture Recently published book Informal Architecture: Space and Contemporary Culture by Anthony Kiendl mobilises several streams of thoughts in contemporary culture post -9/11. The artists in this unique title visualise economies of both lack and excess, proposing alternative strategies and criteria for its representation, creation and inhabitation of space. Informal Architecture indicates that modernity is still the dominant operative in Western culture, and its culture and architecture can be understood, by example, through the work of artists such as D. Graham, where "strategies of shifting works between traditional categorical boundaries are key to understanding the psycho-social effects of system and structures..." This fully illustrated with color and black-and-white artwork and photographs remarkable volume published by Black Dog Publishing in UK, in 2008. SCULPTURE BIENNALE – JAPAN In the autumn of 2009, a City in Japan will hold its 23rd Biennale Sculpture Competition. Deadline for submissions 30 of September, 2008. Twenty winning masterpieces will be selected for exhibition at a Park. Selected pieces may be placed permanently along the streets in the communities of the City. The works will weigh 10 tons or less and will be durable, resistant to the elements, and safe. Works will be large and heavy enough to discourage theft and vandalism. From the pool of models received, twenty production grants, in the amount of Yen 1,300,000 each will be awarded on October 15, 2008. This grant money is for the cost of production, transportation and installation of the sculpture. Participants outside of Japan consider production of their pieces in the vicinity of the City in Japan . Art produced locally will be transported and installed by the City. In special cases, additional funding will be requested for the artist’s accommodations and transportation in order to facilitate the completion of the art locally. By April 2009, grant recipients will provide the organizers proof of the status of their work. If for any reason, the artist fails to exhibit work, the grant will be promptly returned. Award winners will be selected from the twenty grant recipients. On October 2, 2009 the following prizes will be awarded to selected recipients for their completed sculptures: Grand Prize: Yen 5,000,000 Industries Prize: Yen 2,000,000 The Newspaper Prize: Yen 1,500,000 Museum Prize: Yen 500,000 Citizen Prizes (3) by popular vote The City has the preferential right of purchase for any of the award winning art. The purchase price will be Yen 2,000,000 for any piece the city purchases. An additional fifteen applicants will have their models selected, together with the twenty production grant recipients, for exhibition and publication in the event catalog. Public viewing of the 35 models will take place from October 17, 2008 to November 3, 2008 during which time visitors to the exhibition will have an opportunity to vote for “My Favorite Model”. The City will purchase the model of the winner of the “My Favorite Model” popular vote. The remaining 34 exhibition models will be returned to the applicants by mail paid for by the City... Inflation: 100-billion-dollar note Zimbabwe has introduced a new 100-billion-dollar bank note. The new note will go into circulation on July 21/08. In January, a 10-million-dollar note was issued, then a 50-million-dollar note in April. In May, notes for 100 million and 250 million dollars were issued, swiftly followed by those for five billion, 25 billion and 50 billion. The southern African nation has been ravaged by hyperinflation which shot up from 165,000 percent in February to 2.2 million in June. Independent economists believe the official inflation figure is grossly understated, estimating it could be running between 10 million and 15 million %. Zimbabwe's chronic economic crisis has left at least 80% of the population living below the poverty threshold and mass shortages of basic goods in shops. PHH: I'd Never Willingly Do You Harm Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of I'd Never Willingly Do You Harm, an exhibition of 23 photographs by 18 international artists. The show will open on Thursday, 17 July & close on Friday, 22 August. A reception for the artists will be held on Thursday, 17 July from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Art exhibition I'd Never Willingly Do You Harm features new photographs by young & emerging artists from Italy, Sweden, Switzerland & the U.S.: Kristian Bengtsson, Linus Bill, Andrea Castro, Frode och Marcus, Ye Rin Mok, Michelle Cortez, Roberto De Luna, Thobias Fäldt, Nicholas Haggard, Todd Jordan, Jenny Källman, Carlotta Manaigo, Skye Parrott, Daniel Karlsson, Ola Rindal, Fredrik Skogkvist, Mathias Sterner, Peter Sutherland. Each of the photographs is a unique piece, none of the works are being issued in editions. The exhibition is curated by Tony Cederteg. He is the publisher & owner of Cederteg Publishing, founded 2006, which focuses on visual art, photography & fashion. Cederteg is also an independent curator, based in Stockholm, Sweden. His recent curatorial work includes shows in Reggio Emilia, Milan, & Stockholm, & this exhibition in PHH Gallery in New York City. Tony is the host of the nationally-televised Swedish fashion show Streetsmart & the distribution manager for Livraison Magazine. He has been called a "Swedish entrepreneur, curator, model, actor, & one-man-band." Cederteg said that: "Basically I just wanted to show some great artists that I've worked with through my publishing house and within my curating for shows and shit. As simple as that. These peeps makes me very happy. They're all very productive and easy to worship. I care for them greatly and I truly hope the very best for them." Tony Cederteg sees this exhibition as a "declaration of love. I wanted pure emotions. I asked each of the artists to photograph something or someone that's very dear to them, something that they don't want to hurt or harm, and that brings out the best in them." The photographs range from landscapes to to portraits. Some of the photographs were made expressly for this exhibition. The exhibition is accompanied by a limited edition catalogue. The 500 copies are available through the gallery, for sale at American Apparel, & are also being distributed worldwide. Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art is located at 511 West 25th Street, Suite 306, New York, NY. Summer gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 6 PM. For more information, or to schedule a viewing please contact the gallery at phh@phhfineart.com. Continue...