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Tag: Painting

  • Vincent van Gogh Painting Goes For $62 Million, But Doesn’t Break Auction Record

    Not many people would be willing to spend millions of dollars on a painting, even if it was created by Vincent van Gogh.

    But a Chinese mogul opted to spend nearly $62 million dollars in a bid to make the unique artwork his own.

    The Vincent van Gogh painting in question called “Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies”.

    The painting is very much a van Gogh, as he had a very distinctive style.

    The masterpiece was created in 1890, in the home of his physician Dr. Paul Gache.

    It also has the distinction of being created weeks before Vincent van Gogh’s untimely death. Understandably, this fact increased its value tremendously.

    The van Gogh painting was one of the key items put up for auction by Sotheby’s in New York. Prior to the event, the artwork was said to be worth between 30 to $50 million.

    Amazingly, the van Gogh painting went for almost $12 million more than it was initially valued.

    Wang Zhongjun, one of the richest men in China, won the bidding war for the prized artwork with a bid of $61.8 million.

    He is the chairman of the influential Huayi Brothers film studio.

    Wang Zhongjun’s move to buy the van Gogh for more than the valued price could be the most spent by a Chinese collector of Western work. However, his bid is NOT the most ever spent on a Vincent van Gogh painting.

    As of now, the record bid for a van Gogh painting is $82.5 million.

    Although the wealthy businessman was no doubt pleased with his purchase, he had to endure quite a bit of criticism from the public.

    Certain Chinese citizens do not approve of such lavish spending, even going so far as to call it unpatriotic.

    Wang Zhongjun was criticized as a “mad man” and some have even wondered whether or not this is a sensible use of the money invested in his company.

    Still, the reaction over the van Gogh purchase is nothing compared to the controversy generated by a wealthy art collector named Liu Yiqian.

    Liu Yiqian not only spent an estimated $36 million on a rare Ming Dynasty wine cup, he then decided to drink from of it:

    The perceived desecration of a valuable artifact earned him quite a lot of backlash in China.

  • Snowy Mountain Painting Worth Millions Thrown Away?

    To quote R&B diva Beyonce following a technical error during one of her shows, “Somebody’s getting fired!”

    That somebody is of course whoever accidentally or otherwise disposed of a multi-million dollar painting that had just been sold at auction!

    Chinese firm Poly Auction was no doubt in the process of a lot of back-patting following their successful sale of the “Snowy Mountain” painting by contemporary Chinese artist Cui Ruzhuo. It was auctioned off for 28.8 million Hong Kong dollars or about $3.7 million.

    The auction occurred at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Hong Kong on Monday and the painting turned up missing the next day.

    Apparently someone got the bright idea to put the painting on the floor, likely near other disposable items. One thing led to another and now Poly Auction suspects someone’s blunder is why a valuable piece of art is sitting in a landfill at this very moment.

    Fingers were even pointed at the hotel staff.

    Grand Hyatt has since released a statement saying that while the hotel was cooperating to the fullest with Hong Kong police, they would not be taking any sort of responsibility for the missing painting.

    The hotel told Reuters that if any cleaning staff or security guards were at fault, then it would have been whichever individuals were hired for that auction by Poly Auction. Auctioneers typically hire their own personnel for events rather than rely on hotel staff.

    Police have no leads in this bizarre case and no one is accused of having stolen the valuable painting. It’s being reported that the matter is not to be pursued by the company and that the painting will be written off as a loss.

    Some consolation that is to artist and buyer!

    It must be said that the act of putting such artwork in the trash, intentionally or not, may prove to have been the ultimate form of art criticism.

    Image via YouTube

  • Jaclyn Smith Wants Painting to Stay with O’Neal

    They played Angels together on television. And it’s apparent that Jaclyn Smith has not completely gotten over the death of her friend Farrah Fawcett, who died from cancer in 2009.

    Smith stood in front of cameras yesterday at the Los Angeles courthouse in defense of Fawcett’s longtime partner Ryan O’Neal. The issue at hand is an Andy Warhol painting of Fawcett reportedly worth millions of dollars. Does the valuable piece of art belong to O’Neal or does it belong to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Austin, where Fawcett went to school.

    Smith thinks it clearly should stay with O’Neal. The former Charlie’s Angels star said through tears, “I think the most important thing would be imaging what Farrah would want. I really feel Farrah would want that portrait with Ryan.”

    However, Fawcett left all her artwork to the school in her will. O’Neal argues that Warhol himself gave the actor the painting during a telephone conversation. The painting is currently at O’Neal’s house in California and that’s where Redmond, the son of Fawcett and O’Neal, thinks it needs to stay. “This portrait is a family heirloom. It has no money value to me. It’s sentimental. It’s to stay in the family. It’s a beautiful remembrance of my mom, and it belongs where it is.”

    Smith showed up at the courthouse to support O’Neal and Redmond. The actress says that it was the sight of Redmond that got her emotional to the point of tears. Smith described Warhol’s work as a spot on rendition of the 1970s iconic pinup model. “It’s her soul, it’s her eyes, it’s her hair, it’s everything she is.”

    Image Via Twitter

  • George W. Bush Shows off His Art to World Leaders

    Who knew? President George W. Bush is a painter and he’s proud enough of his work to share his art with some of the most powerful people in the free world.

    Some would think a 16 hour flight with a passenger list that included President Obama, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Hilary Clinton would get awkward. However, politics were put aside as the mourners all boarded Air Force One yesterday en route to South Africa for Nelson Mandela’s memorial service

    Today, everyone seems to be talking about the pictures taken by White House photographer Pete Souza. They show Bush proudly showing off his works of art via an iPad. And the crowd looks impressed.

    This selfie picture is making the rounds as well. Obama is receiving some heat for taking it at Mandela’s service.

    Bush’s new love of painting is actually not a complete surprise. He introduced his artwork to a national audience on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Bush painted a portrait of the talk show host and gave it to him as a gift. He also confessed to Diane Sawyer that painting has had a major impact on his life. “Painting has changed my life in an unbelievably positive way.”

    Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95 last Thursday. Political leaders from around the world and celebrities alike gathered in Johannesburg to pay respects to the former President and revolutionary who sacrificed his freedom in an attempt to end apartheid.

    Image via Wikipedia Commons

  • George W. Bush, Former President and Painter

    “It’s hard for some to believe, but I think eight years in the spotlight’s enough.”

    On the Jay Leno Show Tuesday evening, former President George W. Bush spoke of his family, his time after the White House, and revealed a few paintings he has completed since taking up weekly lessons.

    According to CBS News, when he hired the art instructor, he told her, “There’s a Rembrandt trapped in this body. Your job is to find it.”

    However, instead of presenting self-portraits or scenes from the Bible, Mr. Bush shared likenesses of Barney, his dog, and his adopted cat named Bob (named so that he can “remember how to spell it” when he gets older).

    Mr. Bush also showed off a smirking portrait he made of Leno, complete with American flag pin and the L.A. skyline behind him. “I can’t make fun of him anymore,” Leno said.

    The 43rd president has stayed low on the radar since leaving office in 2009, a time when the country was in two wars and struggling with the economy.

    When Leno asked him if he’s concerned about his place in U.S. history, Bush joked that historians are still focused on Washington, not Bush. “My attitude,” he said, “is if they’re still writing biographies of the first guy, the 43rd guy doesn’t need to worry about it.” Then he added, “I’m also very comfortable with the fact that it’s going to take a while for history to judge whether the decisions I made are consequential or not. And therefore I’m not too worried about it.”

    Bush’s wife, Laura, also joined her husband on the Tonight Show stage and Leno continued to ask questions about such things as Bush’s hospitalization in August due to a blocked artery. Mr. Bush, 67, said that it was all because he “didn’t behave that well” when he was younger. “I might have smoked some,” he joked.

    As far as the pet paintings go, Mr. Bush says that they have changed his life.

    Barbara, Bush’s daughter, recently gave writers at Vogue a tour of her shared New York City apartment and spoke of the paintings on her mantel, one being the likeness of a feline. “About two years ago, my retired father took up painting,” she said. “And, to our surprise, he’s an excellent artist. On Valentine’s Day, a very sweet portrait of my cat, Eleanor, arrived, signed with love by my dear dad.”

    While on Leno’s couch, the former president also spoke of President Obama and the 2016 presidential race.

    image by: YouTube

  • Andy Warhol Painting Shatters Record Sale

    Andy Warhol Painting Shatters Record Sale

    Andy Warhol painting, “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” sold at Sotheby’s New York sale late Wednesday for a whopping $105.4 million, shattering the previous Warhol record set in 2007 when “Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)” sold for $71.7 million.

    Sotheby’s described the painting as, “a pivotal work from the artist’s ‘Death and Disaster’ series and the last of four works of its size and significance that was not currently in the collection of a museum.”

    A late phone bidding war jacked up the price, in what Michael Frahm, a contemporary art adviser and partner at the London-based Frahm Ltd called, “the ultimate trophy hunting.”

    “The demand for seminal works by historical important artists is truly unquestionable,” he told the Associated Press. “We will keep witnessing new records being broken.”

    “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” was not the only Warhol to sell this week. Another of Warhol’s iconic pieces, “Coca-Cola (3),” sold for $57.2 million on Tuesday at Christie’s auction house. Earlier in the day on Wednesday, his portrait of Elizabeth Taylor titled “Liz #1”, sold for $20 million.

    However, the sale on Wednesday made that day Sotheby’s most successful one ever, they said in a statement. Records were set for more than just Andy Warhol, they were also set for a number of other famous artists including Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, Mark Bradford and Martin Kippenberger.

    This astounding new Warhol record comes just one day after the most expensive work of art ever sold at an auction went for $142.4 million. That was Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud”, which sold after just six minutes of bidding at another auction house, Christie’s, beating the previous world record set last year when financier Leon Black paid nearly $120 million for Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”

    The buyer of “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” remains confidential.

    Image via wikimedia commons

  • Ugly Painting of Old Lady Bewilders British Couple

    Ugly Painting of Old Lady Bewilders British Couple

    Winchester, England couple Sue and Keith Webb recently received an unexpected package containing an oil painting of an ugly woman. The perplexed couple aren’t very fond of the piece – Keith said, “it’s a painting of such a horrid old crone, my wife won’t have it in the house.”

    The painting arrived in a package with no return address or accompanying note – just a portrait of some old, mean-looking lady in a white headscarf, who looks a bit Gollum-esque.

    The Webbs can’t figure out who might have sent the art. All of their friends denied it, and no relatives passed away recently, so it wasn’t left in a will. “Just curious, very curious to know why and who sent it and what we’ve got to do with it. What we’re supposed to do with it”, said Sue.

    The Royal Mail said had no information on the package, and courier service Parcelforce could only say that it was sent from a WHSmith post office. Keith said, “I tried very hard to find out if there was a delivery instruction, a delivery note inside. There wasn’t, there was nothing. There’s just my name on the, on the packaging…There’s no painter’s initials there at all. There’s nothing there, no title.”

    Fine art auctioneers Andrew Smith & Son appraised the painting at being worth roughly $300-$500. Fine art expert Andrew Smith couldn’t identify the artist, but thinks the painting was made in the early 19th century.

    The Webbs don’t plan to keep the painting, and still have no clue who sent it. Keith said, “I’d really rather like to find if anybody owns it and I want to get rid of it just as soon as possible.” Sue added, “Get rid of it, yes, get rid of it. That’s what I’d like to do.”

    Perhaps DNA testing can be incorporated in solving the identity of the woman in the painting, which could lead to the identity of the person who sent it. The same tactic was recently used on the Mona Lisa. Or, the Webbs could just eBay it, as the work now has a bit of obscure irony-worth.

    Image via BBC News.

  • Assassin’s Creed IV Fans to Appear in French Painting

    Ubisoft today announced an unusual offer for fans of the Assassin’s Creed series. The game publisher has commissioned an oil painting from the Beaux-Arts school in Paris, France to commemorate the release of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and some fans’ faces will be put into the painting.

    137 Assassin’s Creed fans in the U.K and Europe will have their faces put into the painting as pirates in the midst of a sea battle. Fans can use an interactive online version of the painting to pick a spot in the painting, then upload images of themselves via social media. Images can then be voted on while updates on the painting’s progress are provided. Members of “The Watch” will get early access to the contest, which is not open to Assassin’s Creed fans in the U.S. “The Watch” is an online VIP program for Assassin’s Creed that Ubisoft launched back in April.

    After being completed, the 2.3 x 4.5 meter (7.5 x 14.8 feet) paintingwill be hung in France’s National Navy Museum gallery from November 4 to December 3. A video demonstrating how Ubisoft envisions fans interacting with the competition has also been released:

  • Artist Paints Angelina Jolie Nude Mastectomy Portait

    Swedish artist Johan Andersson found inspiration in Angelina Jolie’s recent admission that she’d had a preventative double mastectomy after finding out she carries a gene that makes breast cancer highly likely.

    Andersson created what is now a highly-controversial portrait of Jolie which depicts her topless after the surgery. He says that having something in common with the actress/ambassador led him to the oil painting.

    “My mother had aggressive breast cancer when I was 15, the thought of her having to have a mastectomy really scared me and she was fortunate enough to have surgery without the mastectomy. The recent news about Angelina stirred an anxiety within me leading me to paint this portrait, There is an underlying awkwardness in her demeanour in juxtaposition to the natural beauty of her face.”

    Jolie announced earlier this month that she’d secretly undergone the operation after watching her mother suffer through breast cancer, to which she ultimately succumbed.

    “My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56,” Jolie wrote in a New York Times piece.. “She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was. They have asked if the same could happen to me.”

    Andersson’s painting is expected to fetch over $20,000 at auction and proceeds will go to the Falling Whistles campaign, a charity Jolie supports for peace in the Congo.

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  • Amazing ‘Game of Thrones’ Character Art

    Amazing ‘Game of Thrones’ Character Art

    Games of Thrones is a great show, and an even better series of books. This character art for the show comes from Anja Dalisa via DeviantArt. We found it on geektyrant. Thank You, geektyrant.

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    Kit Harington as Jon Snow

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    The Others are a race of humanoids originating in the far north of the continent of Westeros, beyond even the Land of Always Winter beyond the Wall. They are considered mythical by most of the people of Westeros. The wildlings call them the “White Walkers”.

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    Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister

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    Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister

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    Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo

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    Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark

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    Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane

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    Michelle Fairley as Catelyn Tully

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    Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister

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    Ayra Stark

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    Richard Madden as Robb Stark

    Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Political and sexual intrigue is pervasive. Robert Baratheon, King of Westeros, asks his old friend Eddard, Lord Stark, to serve as Hand of the King, or highest official. Secretly warned that the previous Hand was assassinated, Eddard accepts in order to investigate further. Meanwhile the Queen’s family, the Lannisters, may be hatching a plot to take power. Across the sea, the last members of the previous and deposed ruling family, the Targaryens, are also scheming to regain the throne. The friction between the houses Stark, Lannister and Baratheon, and with the remaining great houses Greyjoy, Tully, Arryn, and Tyrell, leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest north. Amidst the war and political confusion, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night’s Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond.

    [IMDB]

  • Saucy Superhero Shots By Rob Duenas

    Saucy Superhero Shots By Rob Duenas

    Brilliant artists are great. Brilliant artists that make their own renditions of sci-fi, comic book, and video game characters deserve medals. Rob Duenas is one of these gems that makes great art based on gaming and comics. A few weeks ago he made these great drawings and he is now back for more.

    This time he has created a collection that he calls “Saucy Superheroes.” You’ll have to see the great drawings to believe them. They feature everything from Batman and Wolverine, to Samus Aran and Super Girl. Here some of my favorites of the great drawings:

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