Artmostfierce Affordable Print Pick of the Week

House on Fire

Ray of Light

Road At Night

Artmostfierce Affordable Print Pick of the Week goes to Photographer Christian Patterson for his OUT THERE Limited Edition Prints.  Please see some of the editions available plus  read Christian personal statement about developing the photography series. They are all 8 x 10 inch archival pigment print
Signed and numbered
Limited edition of 20

$200

Happy Shopping! 

On January 1958, 19-year-old Charles Starkweather and 14-year-old Caril Ann Fugate murdered ten people, including Fugate’s family, in a three-day killing spree across the state of Nebraska.

The photographs in Out There were made on several road trips following the path of Starkweather and Fugate, from Lincoln, Nebraska to Douglas, Wyoming. The images include places and things from their story, and other moments and discoveries made along the way.

Photographs are the heart of this project. They are complemented by documents and artifacts that belonged to the killers and their victims, including a poem, list of dirty jokes, confession letter and photo booth portrait.

Truman Capote famously referred to this part of America as “out there.” It is a perfect description of this landscape and this story, and how I found myself responding to them. As I drove across Nebraska, I thought about Charlie and Caril Ann, the innocent victims and their families. Why did they do this? Were they scared? Were they really in love?

What I discovered, and the photographs that I made, are beautiful and sad visual metaphors for confusion, panic and fear; the love, longing and escape; violence and, ultimately, the loss of innocence.

This is a beautiful landscape, but not an innocent one.

http://www.christianpatterson.com/out_there_print_offer.html

Project 5

Photo-Great, Great Grandfather Sloane, 2006
StuartO' Sullivan- courtesy of Daniel Cooney Fine Art Gallery
This is a great opportunity to obtain a great limited edition portfolio of works from current artists and its galleries, both very prominent in the art market right now. It is a win-win!

Check it out, only a limited  edition of 30!

Amador Gallery, ClampArt, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, Foley Gallery and Sasha Wolf Gallery are proud to announce their collaboration on a series of projects.

This unique cooperation between gallerists has grown from years of friendships and shared ambitions in the photography market. Reaching out to one another to create these new initiatives seemed like the next step for these 5 to collectively grow their shared ideals while maintaining their own distinguished programming.

The galleries, referred to here as, Project 5, will begin their collaboration with a portfolio of 5 images by 5 artists, one from each of the participating Project 5 galleries to be released on September 15.

All images will be unique to the portfolio—made specifically by the participating artists for this project. The artists included are: Olaf Otto Becker from Amador, Jill Greenberg from ClampArt, Stuart O’Sullivan from Daniel Cooney, Thomas Allen from Foley Gallery and Guido Castagnoli from Sasha Wolf Gallery.

The portfolios will be released in an edition of 30, priced with new collectors in mind at $2500. Each print will be signed and numbered by the artist and the portfolio will be enclosed in a custom made clothbound case. The portfolio offers collectors the unique opportunity of starting a relationship with five different artists and galleries at the same time.

Additionally, Project 5 is introducing a series of Portfolio Reviews for artists who feel they would benefit from the valuable input of these gallerists’ expertise. The first Portfolio review will be Sunday, September 20th. Project 5 asks that artists send ten jpgs to projectfivecontact@gmail.com for consideration. Artists can contact any of the participating galleries for more information.

Another exciting collaboration will be a monthly series of Artist’s Salons that will alternate between Project 5’s galleries. The first Salon will be held at Daniel Cooney Fine Art on Saturday, September 26th at 3:00 p.m. and will feature four emerging artists presenting their latest bodies of work for a half hour each. Participating artists are Timothy Briner, Yola Monakhov, Jessica Dimmock, and Cara Phillips.

Please contact any of the Project 5 galleries for more information.

Amador Gallery 212 759 6740 info@amadorgallery.com
ClampArt 646 230 0020 brian@clampart.com
Daniel Cooney Fine Art 212 255 8158 dan@danielcooneyfineart.com
Foley Gallery 212 244 9081 michael@foleygallery.com
Sasha Wolf Gallery 212 925 0025 info@sashawolf.com

Stay tuned!

Mike + Doug Starn’s Big Bambú Open to the Public

This courtesy of FITZ & CO
Dan Tanzilli / Bethanie Brady

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mike + Doug Starn
Allowing Inside View of the Creation of
Big Bambú,
A Colossal Sculpture composed of
Bamboo Poles, Rock Climbers, Rope and Time
Visitors Can Experience Big Bambú in the studio
Three days this summer
From 11AM to 4PM on July 25, and August 8 + 22
Admission Free and Open to Public
New York, July 16, 2009 — Big Bambú is an ever growing and changing sculpture by Mike and Doug Starn constructed from thousands of fresh-cut bamboo poles lashed together by a team of rock climbers working as high as fifty feet off the ground under the artists' direction.

The Starns decided to open their studio for a few occasions this summer upon receiving numerous requests after images and videos of the sculpture were premiered at The Armory Show in March.

The sculpture is never at rest, always complete, but always unfinished. The artwork began as a few pieces of bamboo tied together, growing quickly as thousands of 30-40' long poles are added to create a huge mass, a strong and complex network that currently measures more than 120-feet long. At its pinnacle, the sculpture cantilevers out as far as the bamboo pole network allows, and then bridges back down to the floor forming an arch. Currently, the first tower is being dismantled pole by pole and carried through the structure and down and begins creating a new tower, continually "walking" down the 320-foot space, like an organism, and then back again.

Big Bambú is like a wave constantly in motion - a metaphor of our personal as well as our collective growth and change through the course of time yet remaining invariable, constant and unchanged.

Last summer, the artists set out to find a space where they could take on this experiment. In Beacon, NY, near the Dia Art Foundation, the artists discovered the old Tallix Foundry, a cavernous space the length of a football field with 50' high ceilings. The artists assembled a team of local rock climbers to work within the sculpture, directing them as they lash together essentially a massive line drawing in three dimensions in an ongoing action as they continually re-build the giant webbed network, while visitors below can watch the creation of the sculpture. The sculpture relays a sense of joy, optimism and awe. Return visitors can experience the excitement of seeing Big Bambú morph with each passing week.

Big Bambú visuals on the Starn Studio website (www.starnstudio.com) will be regularly updated, showing the continuous evolution of the artwork and its evolving incarnations. You can also become a fan of Big Bambú at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beacon-NY/Big-Bambu/69823518075?sid=afdd94cdb6

Doug and Mike Starn will open their Beacon, New York studio to visitors to experience the performative work as they experiment with and explore the opportunities and limitations of the bamboo structure. The dates and times for visiting Big Bambú are:

July 25
August 8 and 22
From 11:00AM to 4:00PM
Admission is free and open to the public of all ages.
Directions to the studio can be found on:
www.starnstudio.com
Doug and Mike Starn, American artists, born New Jersey 1961. Identical twins, they work collaboratively and their conceptual photo-based artworks has earned them a unique position in the history of contemporary art starting with the 1987 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, which brought them international prominence. They continue defying categorization, effectively combining traditionally separate disciplines such as sculpture, painting, video, and installation. Their art has been the object of numerous survey solo exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide.

Mike and Doug Starn recently completed See It Split, See It Change, a multi-part, site-specific installation that encompasses the entire interior of the new South Ferry Terminal concourse, as part of the MTA Arts for Transit Permanent Art Program.

The Starns have received critical acclaim in The New York Times Magazine, Art in America, Artforum, and, Flash Art. Major artworks are represented in public and private collections such as: La Bibliotèque Nationale, MoMA, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Jewish Museum, La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, LACMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, SFMOMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yokohama Museum of Art, amongst many others.

# # #

Press Contact
FITZ & CO
Dan Tanzilli / Bethanie Brady
212.627.1455 Ext. 226/ 212.627.1455 Ext. 232
dan@fitzandco.com / bethanie@fitzandco.com

SPREAD THE WORD: ONLY 6 MORE DAYS TO REGISTER FOR CRITICAL MASS 2009!

Critical Mass 2008 Book Award Winners: © Andy Freeberg, Céline Clanet, & Priya Kambli. Previous Book Award Winners include Amy Stein, Sage Sohier, Camille Seaman, Peter Van Agtmael, Hiroshi Watanabe, Donald Weber, Joni Sternbach, and Louie Palu.

Only 6 days left folks! 

I will be one of the judges looking at all the first and second round of lucky ones. 

Since 2004, Photolucida's Critical Mass program has been a tremendous resource for photographers trying to get their work out into the world as well as for gallerists, curators, publishers, and editors in their search for good talent. A totally unique celebration of photography, Critical Mass is a way for photographers to have their work seen by over 200 of the best professionals in the business and to help produce and receive monographs of the work that everyone agrees is great.

And in addition to the monographs for 2009, Photolucida is proud to announce that a Critical Mass Top 50 group exhibition is being planned for PCNW, curated by Andy Adams, editor/publisher of Flak Photo.

Critical Mass 2009 is now open for registration and will remain open through July 22nd!

Photolucida is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the culture of photography. For more information, go to www.photolucida.org check out our blog at photolucidapdx.blogspot.com

Ryan Pfluger Print Sale!!!!!

Photo-Ryan Pfluger, Rehab 2007 from the Not Without My Father series

Ok folks you got to jump on this one now!
Talented photographer Ryan Pfluger is having a quick fire sale and it is lasting only till this weekend. Anything that is on his site or on his blog, limited artists proofs are available for 65$ for 11x14's. That includes shipping and handling...Ok.

I already placed my order. If you are not familiar with Ryan Pfluger' work... AMAZING!...well get on it now!

http://ryanpfluger.blogspot.com/

http://www.ryanpfluger.com/

Also Tonight 7/15/09 SUMMERTIME @ Robin Rice Gallery

Photo- Cyg Harvey

Planning to pay a visit to Robin Rice Gallery. It has been a while and this gallery is one of the best kept secrets in Manhattan!

Check out this show , it looks like a good group show.

See you there!

One of my favorites Dash Snow Photographs

I am sorry folks but, I feel so disturbed by Dash Snow sudden death. So much talent, family money... serious pedigree, wife and a beautiful baby, great and promising art career ...What was missing? A desire to live?

Above is one of my favorites photographs of Dash work. Now I want it more but, know that will have to pay for it so dearly...Hell on Earth!

I will treasure his limited edition book that Richard from Peres Projects kindly sent me as a gift!

OMG!

Dash Snow RIP

Dash Snow -photo by Terry Richardson

I  HATE DRUGS...!

Dash Snow RIP

Dash Snow, New York Artist, Dies at 27

By ROBERTA SMITH
Dash Snow, a promising young New York artist, died Monday night at Layfayette House, a hotel in Lower Manhattan. He was 27 and lived in Manhattan. His death was confirmed by his grandmother, the art collector and philanthropist Christophe de Menil, who said that Mr. Snow had died of a drug overdose.

Mr. Snow gained prominence after being featured in an article titled “Warhol’s Children” that appeared in New York magazine in 2007. He worked in video and photography and also developed a distinctive collage style that fused and contrasted found images in fresh and suggestive ways. He exhibited in galleries and museums in New York, Los Angeles and Europe and is currently featured in “Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture” at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Ms. de Menil said that he had been in rehabilitation in March and had been off drugs until very recently.

Summer Reading of the good kind @ Jen Bekman Gallery 7/15/09

Photo- Kent Rogowsky
someday it will happen by Kent Rogowski, neon

Photo- Kotama Bouabane
I Told You So by Kotama Bouabane (also today's 20x200)

There has been some sad news lately in the art world but, not this one. Jen Bekman has put together a group summer show with some of my favorite artists among them Brian Ulrich, Kent Rogowski,Mickey Smith, Ed Ruscha and Zoe Strauss. Time to pay a visit to LES (Lower East Side ) and Jen's cozy and full of energy gallery.

Please read more info about the show below and for any questions please contact Sara Distin -sara@jenbekmanprojects.com

Please join us for the opening reception of our fantabuloso group exhibition, Summer Reading. With books and text as its theme, the exhibition features over 60 photograph, prints, paintings, works-on-paper.

Participating artists:
Thomas Allen, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Kotama Bouabane, Lizzie Buckmaster-Dove, Christine Callahan, Jorge Colombo, William Crump, Lauren DiCioccio, Nina Katchadourian, Gregory Krum, Steve Lambert, Michael Mandiberg, Carrie Marill, Mike Monteiro, Jane Mount, Kirby Pilcher, Jason Polan, Kent Rogowski, Ed Ruscha, Kelly Shimoda, Victor Schrager, Mickey Smith, Alec Soth, Zoe Strauss, Shaun Sundholm, Brian Ulrich, and Tim Walker.

See you there!

Event: Opening Reception for Summer Reading
What: Exhibit
Host: Jen Bekman Gallery
Start Time: Tomorrow, July 15 at 6:00pm
End Time: Tomorrow, July 15 at 8:00pm
Where: Jen Bekman Gallery

ARTmostfierce Affordable Print Pick of the Week

Zoe Strauss
Detail I-95 (Basketball Hoop) 2000-2010
35mm Negative 2000
printed 2009

ARTmostfierce Affordable Print Pick of the Week goes to our very dear photographer Zoe Strauss and her limited edition prints from the I-95 series. Zoe rarely edtions her photos so, this is a great chance to get a limited edtion of 5 only!

Besides you will be contributing to fund the last installment of the 2010 I-95 exhibit project.

Please read below more info from Zoe herself.

Get ready to get some of the "Countdown Dated Edition Photos." The Countdown Dated Edition Photos" are a series of photos including a photo from each year spanning the duration of the I-95 project, 2000 to 2010. The sale of these photos will help pay for the 2010 I-95 show. And, believe me, the 2010 show will be spectacular. Rest assured that if you get one, it's money well spent.

Starting this month, I will be posting one image a month for sale and they will be available until May 2010 or until they sell out. The photos are 250 bucks a pop, and will be made in a dated edition of 5. Photos will be offered in chronological order: the July photo is 2000, August is 2001, September is 2002 and so on.

Image size for each photo is 7.5"x9.5", paper size is 8.5."x11", and the photos are archival ink-jet prints.

These are a limited edition 2009/2010 issue...they will be signed as such and come with a letter from me. This means that I am only printing 5 of these photos at 7.5" by 9.5" between right now and May 2010. Who knows what I'll print in 2010, but these are it from this year. Who knows what I'll do in 2010, period.

Please zoestrausslimitededition@gmail.com with any questions.

Happy Shopping!

Buy Fall River Boys book and a Summer Raffle chance for a Richard Renaldi Photograph

This is a great book to own and a good opportunity of to win a photograph from talented photographer, Richard Renaldi. I had seen the Book and some of the photographs from the Fall River Boys series and trust me they are worth it!

Photography Scandal!

ARTmostfierce interviewed photographer Edgar Martins about a year ago  (see and read here) and HE swore that, HE never got involved in any type of image manipulation while creating his great photographs. Well...his latest editorial work with the NY Times has come under great scrutiny after some EAGLE EYES found that Edgar Martins work was seriously photo-shoped and manipulated to death!

I am not a big fan of manipulated photographs unless, A-the artist uses it to take photography to another creativity level (Burtynsky, Gorsky, Gregory Crewdson, Jill Greenburg)  and B-they come clean about it. Sorry folks but, I can't hide my disappointment knowing about it!

I haven't been closely following this budding controversy over the photos by Edgar Martins that appeared in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, but I think that's because what coverage I have seen underplays the seriousness of the issue by referring to "digitally altered" photographs. In fact, that's how the Times itself phrased it when they took the photos down pending further review (suspicions were apparently first raised by a commenter at MetaFilter). When I hear digitally altered, I think of the usual ethical dust-ups over filters, brushing up details, or removing inconvenient obstructions in the line of sight.

But it turns out that in fact the images weren't merely altered, they were digitally composed. Elements of the images were real photos, but the photos were manipulated in such a way that the final product was not in fact a reproduction of an image that an observer would be able to see in real life. Artistically, they were compelling, as you can see here. Journalistically they were fakes. And The Times has now admitted as much in a new "Editor's Note" published today:

A picture essay in The Times Magazine on Sunday and an expanded slide show on NYTimes.com entitled "Ruins of the Second Gilded Age" showed large housing construction projects across the United States that came to a halt, often half-finished, when the housing market collapsed. The introduction said that the photographer, a freelancer based in Bedford, England, "creates his images with long exposures but without digital manipulation."
A reader, however, discovered on close examination that one of the pictures was digitally altered, apparently for aesthetic reasons. Editors later confronted the photographer and determined that most of the images did not wholly reflect the reality they purported to show. Had the editors known that the photographs had been digitally manipulated, they would not have published the picture essay, which has been removed from NY Times.com.

One picture shows an evenly-lit room in an unsold mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. The room appears near-perfect in its symmetry, down to have two identical thermostats and light switch plates facing each other on opposite walls. There are also repeating patterns in the leaves on the floor.

Another picture shows a Las Vegas development with construction fencing in the foreground. The piece of fence on the left is a perfect mirror of the one on the right.

Xto Nude Image Awards

Photo- Laura at Evelyn's by Sarah Small

I told you folks SEX SELLS!

It is in the air and all over,  we are even on Full Moon...Awuuuu!!!!

In this case this is done tastefully and without demeaning any gender or sex itself!

I am planning to attend this show. Sarah Small work is in it so, you know it is going to be good!

Congratulations Sarah Small Winner of the Fine Art Photography Category!

Farmani Gallery Presents Xto Nude Image Awards Winners Showcase Exhibition July 9-18, 2009 Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 6pm   (July 8, 2009, Brooklyn, NY) Please join us for an evening of art and awards at the first annual Xto Nude Image Awards exhibition. Grand prize and 2nd prize selections for photography and illustration  will be announced. The Farmani Gallery is located at 111 Front St., Ste. 212, Brooklyn, NY in the DUMBO neighborhood between Washington and Adams St. By subway take A or C to High St., F to York St. or 2 and 3 to Clark St. Station. Gallery hours: Wed. - Sat.: 1 - 6PM. Information: www.farmanigallery.com or info@farmanigallery.com or ph# 718-578-4478.  July 2, 2009, Brooklyn, NY) Grand Prize and 2nd Prize Selections for Photography and Illustration to be Announced at Opening Night Reception on July 9, 2009.   The Xto Nude Image Awards Winners' debut exhibition will open at The Farmani Gallery, on July 9, 2009.  The Grand and 2nd Prize winners for photography and illustration in this international online competition will receive $2000/$1000 and be announced at an opening night reception between 6-8:30 p.m.   The first and second runners up will be showcased in the gallery and run through July 18th.  Winners were chosen from among more than 1,000 pieces of work submitted from 53 countries.The winners are: PHOTOGRAPHY: Winkler+Noah-Advertisement; Michael Grecco-Body Art; Leland Bobbe-Body Art; Kevin Necessary-Book; Peter van Stralen-Book; Dominic Rouse- Digitally Enhanced; Den Cops-Digitally Enhanced; Daniel Tuckmantel-Editorial; Marc Beaussart-Editorial; Craig Morey-Erotica; Vlad Gansovsky-Erotica; Ward Roberts-Fine Art; Sarah Small-Fine Art;  Vanessa Warren-Nature; Bjørn Venø-Nature. ILLUSTRATION: Michael Putman-Advertisement; Jeff Wack-Book; Meghan Vaughan-Erotica; Sean Donahue-Erotica; Tansy Myer-Fine Art; Joanna Coke-Fine Art; Jody Hewgill-Nature; Craig Elliott-Nature.   Xto Nude Image Awards (www.x.to) offers photographers and illustrators from around the world the opportunity to submit their work and be judged by esteemed editors, publishers, curators, gallery owners, art collectors, consultants, creative directors and art directors.  Through this online competition, the organization's mission is to acknowledge and promote visual artists whose work is primarily inspired by the human form.  New submissions are now being accepted for the 2010 winners' exhibition in Los Angeles.

The Lucie Foundation | 550 N. Larchmont Boulevard Suite 100 | Los Angeles, CA 90004 | 310-659-0122 www.luciefoundation.org

SEX SELLS...?

JOHN CURRIN
Works on Paper
A Fifteen Year Survey of Women
June 19 - August 21, 2009
Main Gallery

Andrea Rosen Gallery

Can somebody explain to me why today after having touring about 24 different galleries in Chelsea , why about 20 of them are showing shows right now with images that are mostly about sexual content and rather demeaning to women?

The work by the way in my opinion... is not top quality either.

Is it a new art market trend?

Or just a desperate tactic.

Or just the SEX SELLS  being demeaning women in the process?

Luck of the Draw

Come get lucky Wednesday, July 8th, for Luck Of The Draw, a raffle of small artworks with proceeds supporting future exhibitions at Rush Arts and Corridor Gallery.

For ticket information and to RSVP please contact us: 212.691.9552 or 718.230.5002

Individual tickets are $175 and guarantees a choice of artwork based on the order of the draw. Artwork will be presented anonymously; artist name will be revealed after the work is chosen.

For 13 years, Rush Arts has introduced to the art world some of the best and brightest creative talent who have gone on to make significant cultural and artistic contributions - several of which have gone on to international fortune and fame. This is a perfect opportunity to show your support and win a great piece of art at the same time.

This festive evening will include music, a live performance, refreshments and end with the raffle call. There will also be artworks for silent auction.

Individual Raffle Ticket $175 Individual Party Ticket w/o Raffle $50


To Purchase tickets for LUCK OF THE DRAW onlineclick the link

For ticket information and to RSVP please contact us: 212.691.9552 or 718.230.5002

ARTmostfierce Affordable Print Pick of the Week

Elizabeth Fleming- Wound

Elizabeth Flaming-Handprints

Elizabeth Fleming-Ship

Elizabeth Flaming- Dust_Bunny

 ARTmostfierce Affordable Print Pick of the Week this week goes to the limited edition print sale from emerging photographer, Elizabeth Fleming.

So here at ARTmostfierce where High meets low, we like to showcase affordable prices for the summer, so we can still buy ART and lemonade for the summer.

I met Elizabeth during a show at Melanie Flood Projects and one of her photos (wound) got stucked in my head. I loved how personal her work is and always admire how artists are capable of portraying their family everyday life as part of their work.

Currently Elizabeth is having a sale of a selection of some of her prints, lets call it 50 x 50 , meaning 4 of these images shown here @ a  edition of 50 for only $50.00 each.

For those who don’t know Elizabeth work by now...well start getting familiar with her. She is a Photographer/mother of two beautiful girls; juggler of many tasks, always striving for balance, endlessly observing. Most recently, one of her photographs was part of Dan Cooney’s Emerging Photography i-Gavel Auction and was acquired by a pretty well known art collector.

In addition, Elizabeth was one of the 14 photographers selected for the Boston University’s Photographic Resource Center exposure: the annual prc juried exhibition.

For more information about Elizabeth Fleming and her limited edition print sale, please check her web site and blog listed below:

For purchasing prints click here:http://www.elizabethflemin

g.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=0. 

 

website: http://www.elizabethfleming.com 

blog: http://elizabethflemingphotography.blogspot.com

AR

Risk-Defying Sale of Contemporary Art at Christie's

The second highest price, £1,721, 250, went to a perfectly figural picture. Richard Prince’s “Country Nurse” in inkjet print and red paint is the enlarged interpretation of the cover design of a novel by Maud McCurdy Welch.
Photo: Christie's

Well...ART news from across the pond (London) seem to indicate that there is still hungry appetite for works of art. Let's keep it going folks for art's sake!

Newcomer, Artist Jules De Balincourt is moving up to to the high big auction leagues after this auction result. 

Please read NY Times article by Souren Melikian.

Enjoy!

By SOUREN MELIKIAN
Published: July 1, 2009
LONDON — The art market jauntily jumped the last of the most dreaded hurdles laid in its path on Tuesday evening. To the considerable delight of many professionals, Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale, seen by market pundits as the most risk-fraught of all fields, brought £19.06 million, or $31.77 million.


Of the 40 paintings, color prints and three-dimensional works in sundry media and techniques, only five remained unwanted. The minimal failure rate, 12.4 percent, compares with the finest performances on record when the market was at its height. True, the money spent that evening is a fraction of what contemporary art auctions achieved in the glorious recent past when the proceeds at Christie’s and at Sotheby’s easily exceeded $300 million in New York and the equivalent of at least half that amount in London — the all-time high at Christie’s New York was $384 million in May 2007, and at Christie’s London it was £86.24 million in June 2008.

But if the Tuesday evening session came nowhere near achieving such numbers, the fault does not lie with bidders. It was the consignors who displayed timidity and balked at the thought of entrusting auction houses with any of those works that somehow drive contemporary art buyers into a frenzy of desire.

As it is, they gladly took what was on offer. Peter Doig, one of the most interesting artists on the contemporary scene, was represented by a large scene, “Night Playground,” done between 1997 and 1998 in a semi-Naif style, very different from his accomplished manner of more recent years. Yet that became his second most expensive work ever at auction as it fetched £3.01 million, the highest price paid that evening.

From the moment go, bidders were so keen that they chased artists rarely or even never seen at auction.

Jules de Balincourt is hardly a worldwide celebrity even if Christie’s experts graciously hailed him in the catalog as “one of New York’s fastest rising art stars.” “Internal Renovations,” painted in oil, acrylic and spray paint on paper in two parts looks like the picture of an architect’s presentation maquette for an urban rehabilitation campaign in some Godforsaken dump. If it is not, it is a pretty good spoof of one. Done in 2006, it went to a Berlin gallery, Arndt & Partner, where it was acquired by the consignor, whose love of the art may be rather fickle. Financially, he or she did very well. “Internal Renovation” made £67,250, exceeding the highest expectations. This was the third time that the artist’s work had appeared at Christie’s.

Joana Vasconcelos, a Lisbon artist born in 1971, was trying her luck at auction for the first time with “Golden Independent Heart.” The title refers to a big affair in translucent yellow plastic cutlery involving the use of painted iron, a motor, a metallic chain and a CD. Keen to make sure that her Independent Heart would be spinning at the right speed, to the sound of music chosen by her, the artist made the trip to assist Christie’s team as they mounted the whole thing in the viewing room. This is an old Vasconcelos. It was “executed in 2004,” the catalog notes. The consignor bought it from Ms. Vasconcelos but the entry does not say whether he tired of the spinning heart or just wanted to make a few bucks. Thus the artist got lucky. At £163,250, her musical contraption went well over the high estimate.

As ever in contemporary art sales, there was no remote suggestion of a common denominator between the works that did best.

The second highest price, £1,721, 250, went to a perfectly figural picture. Richard Prince’s “Country Nurse” in inkjet print and red paint is the enlarged interpretation of the cover design of a novel by Maud McCurdy Welch. The writer is unkindly characterized in Christie’s catalog as “the author of many ... steamy, dime-store love stories.” Perhaps this is why it only just matched the lower estimate, still costing its new owner a hefty price.

Contrast that with the third highest price in the sale, £1.39 million, paid for a 1974 picture by Gerhard Richter, “1025 Farben” (1025 Colors). Here the painter, who would later display a stunning mastery in the brushwork of some of the most beautiful abstract compositions of the 20th century, was content with painting tiny color rectangles. The picture deceptively resembles some color chart with endlessly repeated variants, destined for a supplier of deluxe house paint. It did not match the lower end of the estimate, but as color charts go, it was not cheap.

Jeff Koons came fourth in line after Mr. Doig, Mr. Prince and Mr. Richter in the race to high scores. Market commentators will have difficulty in building up a rationale to explain how he managed to join the club of the First Five runners with “Moustache,” which sold for £1.1 million. The painted aluminum and wrought iron apparition hanging from an orange steel chain irresistibly calls to mind some outsize prop for a Walt Disney movie or animation.

The last of the Big Five in declining order was Frank Auerbach’s “Tree in Mornington Crescent.” Done in 1991-1992, it betrays the legacy of German Expressionism in the uncontrolled fury of the brushwork. Figuration only faintly survives in a work that points to the influence of Expressionist Abstractionism. Enthusiasm greeted this picture, which went above its high estimate at £886,000. By contrast, Francis Bacon’s very fine “Study for Portrait” dating from 1986-1988 barely made it, selling for £870,050, below the lower end of the estimate.

The sale followed no discernible aesthetic direction, perhaps because aesthetics had no place in such an event. Ironically, this is a sign of financial health if nothing else. It has always been so in past sales of contemporary art. And in the current recessionary climate, no news is splendid news.

Happy July 4th!

American flag graffiti art on a fence / gate down on Ludlow Street, Lower East Side of New York City. A fitting image for the 4th of July / Independence Day holiday in the United States this week. This piece as been here for years. It's on the block between Hester and Canal streets,


American Flag By Jack Pierson

And one of my favorite American Flags by Mitch Epstein
Flag 2000

Have a great  July the 4th  Holiday !
Best Wishes from ARTmostfierce.

I am really digging this lamp!

I am really digging this lamp!

Why have an ordinary lamp when a limited edition from internationally reknowned video artist Tony Oursler is ready to light up your space?

I had not seeing it in person but, I intent to see it soon.

If you go by Artware Editions  in the West Village, say hello to my friend Jon Tomlison

TONY OURSLER for More Art
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Lamp, designed 2009
stainless steel, laser prints on Plexiglas, laser-printed acetate, electrical components
9 x 7 x 7 inches
edition of 50 (individually signed and numbered

$975
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Tony Oursler's Lamp focuses on the ideal fantasy world of teenagers today by examining the effects of overloading young people with visual stimuli. Lamp is based on the Chinese lantern concept and consists of an inner acetate cylinder that is printed with images from found footage of online gaming sites and Youtube. As the cylinder is propelled by the heat of the lamp, it rotates and casts these images over the faces of singing New York teenagers printed on the lamps four outer Plexiglas panels. The constant movement of the lamp coupled with the powerful content is a visual manifestation of how a teenager's search for creative stimuli generates an almost constant appetite for more. 

Lamp is produced in collaboration with More Art and manufactured by Mark Figueredo Custom Lighting. Light bulb included.
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More Art is a non-profit organization devoted to creating a link between established contemporary artists and the local community. All More Art proceeds from the purchase of this edition will be used to develop and bring innovative projects to neighborhoods in order to provide unique opportunities for everyone to enjoy art. To learn more about More Art and their programs, please visit their website: www.moreart.org

Contemporary design by artists.

For sales questions or press inquiries: info@artwareeditions.com

Artware Editions
327 West 11th Street
(between Greenwich Street and Washington Street)
New York, New York 10014
t: 212 463 7490
f: 212 463 7491

www.artwareeditions.com 

Limited Edition Print Sale

Photographs by Sarah Ball #21 & #41

Photographer Sarah Ball is having a limited edition print sale. For those who love Landscape Photography,  check out the sale of prints here:

http://sarahballphotography.com/printsale/

And to more of Sarah Ball work look here:

http://www.sarahballphotography.com/

Happy Shopping!