Stiff Paint

The most grisly material used in the preparation of artist's materials must surely be that of ground up human remains. Mummies were imported into Europe and ground into a pigment which gave a deep transparent brown. Commonly mixed with nut oil it was actually known to painters as 'mummy'. Most artists must have been aware of the material used, particularly those who read the "Compendium of Colours" published in 1897 which suggested that "the fleshy parts of the leg are most suitable". This grim trade did not cease until as recently as 1925 and then only because the Egyptian Government banned the export of mummified remains.
Irish Art

Sotheby Contemporary Record

Sotheby's in London achieved its highest total ever for a sale of Contemporary Art, auctioning 54 works of art for a total of 15.3 million pounds.
The top lot of the sale was Lucio Fontana's 'Concetto Spaziale of 1963'', from La Fine Di Dio series, which sold for just over 1 million pounds. Executed over an eighteen month period of enlightened, mature expression between 1963 and 1964 - when Fontana was at the peak of his creative powers - this work epitomise the dynamic complexity and spirituality of his oeuvre.
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Irish Art

Art Provenance

Before you shell out for a piece of art you should know about its provenance, or ownership history. The owner of a painting by van Dyck found this out the hard way when they consigned it to auction. The Art Loss Register - which tracks stolen work - identified the picture as one confiscated by Goering from dealer Jacques Goudstikker shortly after he fled the Netherlands in 1940. While he escaped with only his personal effects, Goudstikker did manage to hold onto his "little black book," which listed the 1400 works in his collection, including pictures by Rembrandt and Vermeer. The auction consignor eventually worked out a deal to restitute the painting.
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Irish Art

Tate Ticket Record

Art lovers flocked to the Tate Britain yesterday for the first day of one of the most eagerly awaited exhibitions of the year. More than 28,000 advance tickets were sold for Turner Whistler Monet, which examines the influence of Turner on the two younger men, who were friends and rivals.

The ticket sales total was more than double the previous Tate record - 13,500 for Edward Hopper at Tate Modern. The show's recent run in Paris attracted more than half a million visitors. Runs until 15 May.
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Irish Art

Dali's Surreal Palate

Salvador Dali - the 20th century's most famous surrealist painter - was oddly inspired by food. In nearly half of his paintings include food as symbolism; they lurk in his paintings as metaphors for everything from the Spanish Civil War to sexual impotence to cannibalism.
Next week, Philadelphia will go Dali crazy, welcoming a long-awaited three-month exhibit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Preparation hasn't been limited to the museum. Chefs across town recognize the important link between Dali's art and his love of food, and as a result, 147 restaurants will prepare Dali inspirations on their menus.
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Irish Art

Steve Martin's $1 Million Art Gift

Entertainer Steve Martin donated a million dollars to the American art collection at The Huntington Library Art Collections. The gift is seen as a boon for a department traditionally overshadowed by the museum's European collections. Additionally, a new gallery opening this spring will eventually double the exhibition space for American art. Three-fourths of the gift, which will be made over five years, will be used to put on American art exhibitions, and the remaining 250,000 dollars will likely be used for acquisitions or exhibitions.
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Irish Art

Artists Donate 400 Paintings

Hundreds of artists from around the world have united to raise tens of thousands of dollars in tsunami relief. Organised through WetCanvas - a global art community - over 400 works of art were created and donated to benefit tsunami victims.
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Irish Art

Arts Council Salaries Jump

Arts Council England salaries have increased by an average of 66% in the past six years, despite a 10 million pound reorganisation in 2001 which was designed to cut costs, new research has revealed. On top of that, Arts Council funding has been slated for a three-year funding freeze, angering arts institutions.
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Irish Art

Irish Art Exhibition for Johns

The first major exhibition in Ireland by the iconic American artist Jasper Johns opened to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art .

'Past Things and Present: Jasper Johns since 1983' comprises some 90 paintings, prints and drawings created over a period of significant development in the artist's work. During this time Johns moved away from the flags, targets and other symbols, which had brought him instant acclaim in the late 1950s, to a range of arresting new imagery, much of it intensely personal, melancholic and even surreal.
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Irish Art

Irish Art Bombing in Madrid

The ARCO Art Fair in Madrid, due to open this evening, is of particular Irish interest this year. The Irish Museum of Modern Art's Director has been invited to curate a major exhibition of work by young Irish artists there. But now comes the news that a car bomb has exploded outside ARCO. The bomb went off at 9.30 am this morning, injuring thirty-one people though no deaths were reported. A member of the Basque Separatist group ETA had telephoned a warning, just hours after ten members had been arrested across Spain.
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Irish Art

Art Appreciation

Modern art has appreciated about 67 per cent since 1999, according to Art Market Research's Modern Art 100 index of the top 25 per cent of the most expensive Modern works. But prices are volatile. The index fell 10 per cent between August, 2003, and April, 2004.
Irish Art

Gates Open in NYC

New York City's Central Park opens to a spectacular new exhibit by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the husband-and-wife team who first dazzled the art world in the '60s with massive works that span large swaths of nature. This weekend, saffron-colored drapes will drop over 7,500 gates that line Central Park's 23-mile footpath.
The artists do not earn income from the detritus left behind once a project is over. 'The Gates' will be industrially recycled, and proceeds from the sale of souvenirs will be donated to Nurture New York's Nature and the Central Park Conservancy. The project - which will cost more than $20 million to install - will be paid for by the artists.
Irish Art

Actress Keeps Her Van Gogh

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by four descendants of a German woman, who had sought to recover a valuable Vincent van Gogh painting from actress Elizabeth Taylor. The family asked for restitution - and the painting back - which has been appraised between $10 million and $15 million.
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Irish Art

Soutine Art Record Price

Christie's International sold Chaim Soutine's 1923 portrait of an emaciated baker boy to an unidentified buyer for a record 5 million pounds kicking off a week of auctions of Impressionist and Modern works and Contemporary art in London.

'Le Patissier de Cagnes,' - once owned by filmmaker Alexander Korda - was sold by a European collector who bought it in 1962 for 28,000 pounds at a Sotheby's auction in London. It was the highest price ever paid for a painting by Soutine, whose works rarely are sold at auctions. The sale took in a total of 41 million pounds.
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Irish Art

Monet Wins At Tate

The exhibition is a study in influence and dialogue - but when you put great artists side by side, the urge to compare and judge is irresistible. Who is the true master of light and atmosphere, the authentic prophet of the sun? I'd have laid money on Turner in a straight fight with any impressionist. But the fact is that Monet outstrips Turner on the Romantic genius's chosen ground - Monet is the enigmatic genius.

His light makes Turner's look cosy. Spacious, intelligent and only occasionally irritating, this is the best historical exhibition at Millbank since it became Tate Britain. What a shame it is a walkover for the Frenchman. Turner Whistler Monet - Tate Britain, London
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Irish Art

Sotheby Modern Sale Booms

Impressionist and Modern masterpieces were strongly competed for at Sotheby's in London fetching over 37.5 million pounds. Ten works sold for more than 1 million pounds and bidding was strong across the board. The top lot was a masterpiece by Fernand Leger which fetched 2.9 million pounds. A Max Beckmann sold for 2.8 million pounds and a beautiful pair of female nudes by Amedeo Modigliani attracting fierce competition, sold for 2.7 million pounds.
The sale featured several works by Edgar Degas including two works on paper of ballet dancers selling for 2.4 million pounds and a Pissarro - last seen at auction in 1962 - when it fetched 19,800 now sold for 1.7 million pounds. Another notable success in the Surrealist Art sale was Magritte's Le Monde Visible which fetched 1.28 million pounds. It last appeared at auction in 1984 when it made 190,000 dollars at Sotheby's New York.
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Irish Art

$21 Million Art Damages

An art expert was unfairly sued after he concluded that his own grandfather had created a Western-theme painting bearing the name of a better-known artist, a jury ruled. Jurors Monday awarded Steve Seltzer nearly $21.4 million in damages in the dispute over the watercolor "Lassoing a Longhorn," supposedly signed by the painter C.M. Russell in 1913. It is owned by Steve Morton, an heir to the Morton Salt fortune.
Seltzer, who had been hired as an expert to examine the painting, said the watercolor was really the work of his grandfather, O.C. Seltzer, with a forged Russell signature. As a Russell, the painting is worth $800,000; as a work by O.C. Seltzer, only about $80,000, according to court testimony.
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Irish Art

Faltering Flame In Sheffield

An exhibition that investigates the human psyche through contemporary art will be on display at the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield from 9 February - 7 May 2005. Faltering Flame will include the 2004 Turner Prize winning work, Memory Bucket by Jeremy Deller alongside contemporary works from established and emerging British artists. The exhibition will explore questions about the human identity and our scientific and psychological make-up: the fears, hopes, dreams and anxieties of the human condition.
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Irish Art

Bush Supports The Arts

With 154 federal agencies in line for budget cuts in George Bush's proposed new budget, the arts did pretty well - Bush held funding steady.
Irish Art

Money Flows To Art

According to New York University's Fine Art Index, investment art produces an average annualized compound return of 11 percent. There has been an increase in the number of high-net-worth individuals available to buy art - those with a $1 million or more in financial assets. The 'World Wealth Report' counted 2,272,000 in the United States and 7.6 million worldwide with 70,000 'ultra-high-net-worth individuals' - each with $30 million plus in financial assets.
The wealth controlled by these individuals was approximately $28.8 trillion and is projected to $40.7 trillion by 2008. The biggest portion of that wealth was in stocks and bonds - but 30 percent was in alternative investments like property and art.
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Irish Art

A World of Art Awaits. Be There.

Artexpo New York, the world's largest premier fine and popular art fair, will hold its 27th annual exposition, March 3-6, 2005 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This year's theme, "A World of Art Awaits. Be There." says it all. It showcases work for all tastes and styles priced from $500 to $50,000. Also featured is the popular SOLO - a pavilion of emerging, independent artists representing their own work, looking to be the next great one.
Over its 27-year history, Artexpo New York has helped propel the careers of some of the finest American artists of the 20th century, including Andy Warhol, Peter Max, Robert Indiana, Leroy Neiman, Robert Rauschenberg, and others who went on to fame and fortune in the art world.
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Irish Art

Tsunami Art Auction

The National Art Gallery Kuala Lumpur was the scene of the first-ever Malaysian art auction as 28 works went under the hammer to raise funds for the Malaysian Red Crescent Society's tsunami relief efforts. The auction was the highlight of Art for Aid - a 1 day sale of over 200 art works donated by 132 artists from over 20 galleries.
Two paintings shared the highest bids - Anak Asia by artist-women's rights activist Nirmala Dutt Shanmugalingam and Three Cranes by Malaysian Institute of Arts founder Chung Chen Sun.
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Irish Art

Indian Art Heatwave

Prices for modern Indian art have been rocketing. One big buyer is Japanese tinned-fish mogul Masanori Fukuoka, who has more than 5,000 paintings. Other international buyers are Hollywood director Roland Emmerich, and Christie's former chief executive Christopher Davidge.

But driving the market are the newly wealthy Indians - the 40 richest Indians have an average net worth of 1.5 billion dollars - and they have turned to art as an alternative investment and a status symbol. Sotheby's sees the potential and is planning to restart modern Indian art sales in London in July.
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Irish Art

Art Raffle Party

On a cold morning lin Alexandria, Virginia hundreds of people form a long line in the brutal cold outside the Torpedo Factory Art Centre for one of the great art deals of the year - the Annual Patrons' Show. About 600 pieces hang - then raffle tickets go up for sale - each ticket equals a guaranteed work of art.
Ticket holders bring chairs, tables, food and loads of booze as the tickets are drawn at random. Then ticket-holders select art from the work on display. The first ticket called gets the first choice and so on. If you don't pick quickly, the crowds begin to shout and whistle and demand a choice be made.
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Irish Art

Montmarte of Toulouse-Lautrec

Of the top dozen shows on view in Washington this winter and spring, about half are at the National Gallery. Their most highly touted show this spring is "Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre" - a sure-fire sell to the public. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec seems to get more regular outings than his modest achievements as an artist might warrant. And Toulouse-Lautrec shows often invoke the worst, most tired cliches about the splendors of belle epoque Paris and Montmartre, complete with talk of sparkling gaslight, reeling absinthe addicts and high-kicking cancan girls. Here's hoping the National Gallery can make its Toulouse-Lautrec show say something new and worthwhile, and live up to the high intellectual standards the gallery sets.
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Irish Art

Free Art Scramble

Every four years, the London-based Contemporary Art Society (CAS) shows off its latest round of purchases. Galleries large and small, courtesy of their annual subscription fee, can pick out their favourites from this up-to-the-minute treasure trove of must-haves.
Although a scrupulous system of paperwork ensures a fair chance for everyone, it's easy to imagine the scene somewhat differently. Like January sales for the art world, curators and gallery directors elbow their way to the biggest bargains, Prada handbags swinging and man-icured nails sharpened in readiness for hand-to-hand combat.
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Irish Art

Shop Window Art

It measures 11ft x 7ft and to view its treasures visitors stand outside and peer in. Art students have rented a former greengrocer's store in Horbury, near Wakefield, and transformed it into the Untitled Gallery.
Because viewing space is at a premium, visitors are encouraged to stand outside on the street and look at exhibitions through the window of what they believe could be the smallest private art gallery in the country.
Comments are invited via text message, rather than by signing a visitors book. Untitled is the brainchild of nine undergraduates from across Yorkshire who are studying at Batley School of Art and Design.
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Irish Art