Oil Paintings Market News

(Claude Monet,1840-1926) France painter of impressionism

Oil Paintings — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:30:53 +0000

Monet was the initiator, leader and advocate of impressionism painting movement.
Monet became famous after he exhibited ‘Expression: Sunrise’ in 1874, and critics started a commentary with the title ‘expressionists’ exhibition’ towards this movement. In 1888, critic Fi Fineon wrote:’ the word Impressionism was made for him, this term is the most suitable for him than any others. ‘
When Monet was 5, his family moved to St. Adres which near Le Havre. He learned drawing from a local artist when he was 15. His artistic life started after he met E Bude. He also started painting at outdoor places at that time. He first visited Pairs in 1859-1860, where Barbizon painter Daubigny and Tevaren gave him a deep impact. Around before or after 1872 he was interested in the Japanese print, and its decorativeness and flatness has a great impact on modern French painting.
1865-1870 was the early period of Monet’s creation life. Before this time he had already used special impressionism brushwork to paint, such as ‘picnic’ (1865 -1866) and ‘St, Adeless’s balcony’. Monet’s main purpose was to explore the method of perform nature, record momentary feeling, impression and the things that were full of vitality and movement. He set objects as planer color images to paint, and did not pay much attention to their weight and size. In 1868, together with Renoir and Bourges Val, they created the first group of Impressionism works, which used strong brushwork to describe outdoor light, movement and momentary feeling.
In the beginning of 1970s he went to London and also in Netherlands he painted canal, ships, windmills, and finish the painting ‘ Impression: Sunrise” in Le Havre, then he lived in Argenteuil after returning home, this period was also the peak of impressionism movement. Between 1872 and 1875, the works that created by Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Pissarro were the most attractive works of impressionism. In 1883 Monet settled in Giverny till his death. He concentrated on finishing a series of painting after 90s, such as: “Topol” (1890-1891), “cock” (1889-1893), “Rouen Cathedral, Sunset” (1894), “The Seine Morning “(18 96-1897), and etc.
In 1890 Monet changed the Giverny into the water lily garden, where he painted “water lily” series for 20 years. Later these works developed into a big round mural in 1925, and was placed in the two 80-foot oval-shaped hall in Paris Yile Rio Palace, which displayed to the public in 1971. Regardless of eye disease in his old age, he continued to explore the world until the death in 1926.
His main works include: “St. Edeless’s Balcony” (1866, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art), “the Women in Garden” (1866-1 867, the Louvre Museum), “River” (1868, Chicago Tibetan Institute of the Arts), “impression: Sunrise” (1872, Bali Ma Motan Museum), “La Paris Saint Charles train station” (1877, Harvard University Fogg Art Museum), “cock” (1891, Tibetan Art Institute of Chicago) and “water lily” even for (1906-1926, Paris tennis court).

Symbolist

Oil Paintings — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:11:55 +0000

The explore ways of art in the world have two basic forms, the image and symbol; intuitive feel and spirit expression. Since 1885, a reaction named symbolism tent to idealism developed both in the field of literature and molding art at the same time, painters and writers were no longer committed to show the outside world faithfully, but should express the visional dream through the symbolic and metaphorical and decorative images which can enlighten others.
According to an article of the critic Albert Orier in March 1891 that determine the definition of Symbolism, he thought that art works should be: (1) spiritual, for its only idea was to show the spirit; (2) Symbolist, as it is to show this spirit with shape; (3) comprehensive, for it is based on a common understanding of the ways to paint the shapes and marks; (4) subjective, as it never set object to be seen as a target, but as the spiritual signal that can be found from the subject; (5) (as result) decorative, because the pure decorative paintings that invented maybe by the Egyptians, or very likely by Greeks or the primitive were just a kind of artistic expression which was subjective, comprehensive, and the symbolist and spiritual.
The representative painters of the symbolism were Morro, Savannah and Redon. The painters of Symbolism had not created a new form of schools, what they cared about were only poetic expression and principle reveal. Symbolist paintings is a kind of explore that based on feeling and toward new content, but not to observe on the basis of rational or objective, and it was the inherent power and imagination that over outside intuition.

The Summary of Picasso

Oil Paintings — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:11:13 +0000

Picasso was born in the Spanish city of Malaga in 1881. He showed his talent early, and became a good painter at his teens. In 1904 he settled in Paris, and after that he lived in France.
He engaged in artistic activities from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1970s and became the most influential modernism painter. In his lifetime, the painting ways and styles changed again and again. His early paintings were similar to the theme of the expressionism; later he paid attention to the original art, to simplify the image. In 1915-1920, his painting style had ever transferred to the realism style. And also tent to Surrealism markedly in 1930. He created a large number of pottery and sculpture and so on in his late life, which also had outstanding achievements. His works have a great impact on modern Western art schools.
He died in France Mashing in 1973.
Different form Vincent Van Gogh who was down in all life, Picasso’s life was extremely brilliant, and he is a first painter who can see his own works were collected in the Louvre. In December 1999, a French newspaper conducted a public opinion survey; he won the greatest of the top ten painter of the 20th century with 40% highest number of votes of the election.
“The boy holding a pipe,” created in 1905, was the representative work of Picasso’s “rose period”. This painting was also considered by many people as an outstanding man color works. With a Pipe to foil a boy’s youth and sexy who ware a crown on his head. “The boy holding a pipe” was sold at the New York Sotheby auction house with the auction price 100,000,000 4,160,000 U.S. dollars, which broke the world record of painting works, and became the world’s most expensive painting.

Picasso

Oil Paintings — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:19:46 +0000

Picasso, Spanish, had remarkable artistic talent since early age. His father was an artistic teacher, and he had strict painting training in the Art Academy, so he had solid modeling capability.
His had several changes of his painting style in his life, could be divided into the following periods:
“Blue period”, “Red Rose Period”, “black period”, “Cubism period”, and had two forms of decomposition and comprehensive, “Classical period”, “surreal period” and the “abstract period”.
Picasso was an explorer of artistic ways in his life; the artistic ways of impressionism, post-impressionism, fauvism were absorbed by him and became his own style. His talent lies in that among his variant styles had maintained his own rough bold personality, and also in the use of every way, can achieve internal unity and harmony. He had a peak level, regardless of his works like ceramics, printmaking, sculpture were all as childish as game. In his lifetime, has never had a particular teacher, or specific student, but all the painters that active in the twentieth century, no one can completely follow and move the road that opened and forwarded by Picasso. He said: “When we go to work with the spirit of selfless, sometimes the work we do will tend to us automatically. Do not worry too much of all kinds of things, because it would come to your side naturally or accidentally, I think death will also be the same!”
He quietly left and finish his 93-year-old long career, He wore out his life with his wishes.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) the representative of Impressionism

Oil Paintings — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:52:57 +0000

The importance of Edgar is his abstract forms and feelings of colors, which are the reason that he exceeded other Impressionism painters.
Degas, who was born and died in Paris, was a son of a banker, and he was one big bourgeoisie when he was born. He’s keen interest in classicism and his care behavior seemed one the beat with his family background. However, his unusually strong personality and independent thinking put him into the revolution camp.
He learned painting in the class of la Mott in Angel Arts Academy, and he always showed great admiration to the Angel. No matter how change of his genius, he never abandoned the past. There is no doubt that the respect for human beings’ creations, his character-based that to do good was a clear sense, became the roots that people accused him. The change of his painting style also clear showed that Edgar took a special position towards Impressionism. His paintings indisputably faced of strict sketch, and a very classic art. This approach gradually allowed color to occupy a more and more important position. However, this color always offered services for Realism. The gifted Edgar let it expand vision and unique layout of the screen, and left the College forever. The significance of his work went far beyond the position that people gave him in Impressionism.

Kandinsky Wassily

Oil Paintings — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:07:49 +0000

Kandinsky Wassily (1866-1944) was a Russian abstract artist. Inspired by Monet’s paintings at the age of 30, he gave up his lawyer course in university, and decided to change his road to being as an artist. His paintings inspired the wave of abstract performance art, and opened up different perspective for modern art and brought a completely new feeling. Kandinsky had a lot of complex and ever-changing painting styles in his life, from copy of realism of early time to Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, until the later geometry composition, to the final mysterious form with more abstract and lyric. All these showed that through continued experiments, he tried to find the perfect of internal logic of an artist.
Can music be shown by other ways but not the music notes? The question had always baffled the artists, and made them dreamed that there was a pure visual music would appear in front of us. For example, the early James Abbott McNeill Whistler had been moving in this direction, and he used the name of music to name his own painting “Nocturne in blue and silver: Old Battersea Bridge”. But talking the possibility in general is one thing, to draw a painting which the show music without actual objects was another matter. The first artist who real attempted to show the music on the canvas was Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) who lived in Munich at that time. Kandinsky was born in Moscow, in his early years; he studied piano and cello, so the music to him was a golden key to open the door of art. In 1886, Kandinsky studied law and economics at the Moscow State University, and he taught at Moscow State University after graduation. During this period, Kandinsky created a lot of mental works, which had successfully stimulated his passion for creation, and being as solid foundation for his engaging in painting in future.

Ghent altar painting

Oil Paintings — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:05:54 +0000

The so-called altar paintings are those painting that painted on wood and placed in front of the church’s altar, and some may be similar to the collapse of the screen painting. “Ghent altar painting” is a multi-wing “open-closed” altar group painting. On every festive event on the weekend, the two wings of the altar along with the melody of the music being slowly opened the brilliant 12 altar paintings would be shown in front of people’s eyes. It divided into upper and lower sides and the left and right wings. And the central section of the upper side was the Christ, and on both sides of it were the Virgin Mary and the baptism John. The inside of the two wings were “Chorus of Angels” and “music of the Angels”, its outside part was Adam and Eve, and the central section of the lower side were “praise the Lamb”. The left side of both wings were “Knight” and “magistrate “, while right part were ” Hermit “and” pilgrimage”. In normal times, the two wings of the altar were closed; people can only see the screen of the outside part of wings. “Ghent altar painting”, although its subject came from religion, the painter’s certain and praise attitude towards real world, and detailed and realistic portrayal of characters, constituted the keynote of the painting, which made the entire screen filled of poetry and had endless artistic charm. “Ghent altar painting” can be referred as of the world’s first true works of oil painting, which was bright, gorgeous glory, and after hundreds of years, the picture remains unabated. It can said to be the progress of painting techniques. Therefore, in the painting history the significance of “Ghent altar painting” was far more than the innovation and original of the usual ideological content and artistic form, but opened up a whole new era of European painting.

Nabis

Oil Paintings — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:02:55 +0000

Nabis originated from the reactionary of Impressionist, and it was famous for its decorative painting style, and strong emotional use of color and line and other techniques.
In Nabis, the word “Nabis” was made from Hebrew term by the poet Cazalis which meant the prophet of the new art. This School originated from the reactionary of Impressionism, in 1891 the members of the Academy Julian in Paris set up the painting association. They were influenced by Salusinye and turned to like Gauguin who good at express the use of color and form of rich in rhythm, and set it as religious-like inspiration.
Its members gathered once a week at the home of assembly members, and held dinner party every month to discuss art together. Because the general dinner were just like the sacred ceremony, it is better to say that they were groups closed to religion than group of art.
This school’s painting had a decorative particularity, and its painting style had a common interest in strong emotional use of colors and twisty lines and other techniques. They advocated the arts should express the human spirit and even philosophy in any case. As the theorist of Nabis, Morris Denis said: “In any case, the so-called art still should perform, the spiritual creation, and natural objects is just chance of art.” In other words, set the outside natural world as the theme was not only for reproducing them correctly, but convey artist’s idea through them, that was art replace the nature, and became the subjective deform of nature.
The artists of Nabis also believed that the decorative paintings were the real painting, and drawing were just generated for the need of decoration of ordinary human wall of the building through poetry, dreams and ideas. Its characters were not only in the tendency of the symbolism, at the same time many members were also interested in posters, illustrations and even stage device, and interior design, which noted that their aesthetics baisis were the lines on the screen, and the self-discipline that color constituted itself, and all the order form that various parts keep each other maintaining.
The first exhibition of Nabis was held at broker Buteweier’s gallery in 1892, at that time all members were working for the “theater works”. In 1899 after in Durant’s Gallery and some symbolic painters held a successful exhibition, these members gradually separated. The representative painters including: Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, KX. Roussel, douard Vuillard and Switzerland’s Felix Vallotton. Toulouse-Lautrec also joined the Council, and Maillol was a member before he engaged in sculpture. Musician Debussy was also belong to this organization.

The schools of the oil painting

Oil Paintings — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:02:54 +0000

The oil painting schools were divided into two broad categories. The first creative work was the reproduction of objectivity; the second category based on subjective performance.
In the first category, such as the Baroque, Rococo, classic, college, Romanticism, Realism, realism, photographic realism and impressionism which appeared after the Renaissance were based on natural reproduction to show artists’ different ideas and aims.
Baroque camp -was popular with people in the 17th century to the 18th century. “Baroque” there was the original intent of irregular, twisting, eerie, which highly distorted campaign, the plump body and a sense of volume. Its strong language arts, exaggeration, which are characters of the Baroque paintings, the representative artist is Rubens.
Rococo school - “Rococo” was intended to the shape of shells, its artistic style were for complex, delicate, thin, sweet, and popular in the 18th century, the representative artists were Francois, Buu, and so on.
Classical and Academy - the former based on respect for the classicism of ancient Greece, Rome, the aesthetic principles of composition, symmetry, balance and momentum on the solemn, splendid, exquisite technique, in-depth characterization. This was also long accepted by the colleges. As the founder Facheno said “beauty is the supreme goal of art, it is an objective nature of things, consist of the order, harmony and proportion, which consists of the rules.” The representative writers were Raphael, Ingres, and so on.
Romanticism - Romantic originated in France in the early 19th century, its representative is Ko’s “Raft of the Medusa” in this work, the composition, light, color, dynamic and expression have shown a wealth of imagination of the artists. It broke the classic doctrine of the composition of horizontal and vertical, but with the soft light of the uniform, which made the screen have a passion. This is also an important element of Romantic painting, which pays attention to the vent and expresses their feelings.
Realism - realistic painting refers to the mid-19th century, Miller led the artist to obey the principle of faith to the object as a measurement to show the visual image, then to reflect the essence of life. Miller has its representative of the “Gleaners”.
Realism and photographic realism - realism as its founder Courbet said in 1885: “as i see, honest to reflect customs of the times, and its ideological outlook. In a word, the creation of art is my purpose. ”
Photographic realism was a life-style in the form of photos onto a screen, such as close “John portrait.” It first take photos or make slide shows, then enlarge it with more than 10 times the ratio of the real man, later zoom into the fine cloth, more detailed, more realistic to show the details of the object, such as the face of every trace of fabric and each fine hair on the body, and so on.
Impressionism - in the 19th century Impressionist painters were out of their studio to explore the instant change of nature’s light and color, broke the traditional concept of inherent color, and such as the tree was a blue green, shadow was black, objectively described the impact of the color of the surrounding environment on the inherent color. The behalf artists were Monet, Seurat, Cezanne, Renoir, and so on.
If the above mentioned artists are faithful to the reproduction of nature, they just developed, added, and stressed the theme, following I will introduce the second-largest category, i.e. after the Impressionist, Fauvism, Cubism, futurism, Abstract, surrealism, and so on, they will no longer objectively depicting the true, but according to the artist’s subjective intent to create freely, most of them appear in the later 20th century.
Post-impressionism - post-Impressionist painter stressed the performance of self-feelings and paid attention to color matching and the inner structure of things. The reprehensive artists are Van Gogh, Gauguin, and so on. It had a profound impact on the modern western art.
Fauvism - Fauvism use exaggerated shapes, strong colors, bold lines to express inner passion, Matisse is the founder of the school.
Cubism - School Cubism, the view of the screen is no longer a position, but show thing in all angles aims to restore the object geometry. The founder is the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and France painter Blake.
Futurism - the futurism is in the form of abstract using color, line to show speed, forces, combination and separation.
Abstract - rely on abstract lines, blocks, face, color, as a non-abstract for the portfolio on behalf of the Dutch painter Mengdeeran.
Surrealism - Surrealism painting infected by Bergson’s intuition and theory and Freud’s subconscious, claim for person’s dreams and the subconscious. The behalf are Spanish painter Salvador Dali and Miro.

Art auctions: Will anyone pay these prices?

Oil Paintings — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:44:30 +0000

For the past 13 years, the resale market for Canadian fine art has been like the lyrics of that old John Lee Hooker song: Boom Boom Boom Boom. But, this week, auctioneers, consignors and art buyers are wondering if they will soon be singing another song, something along the lines of Bust Bust Bust Bust.

It’s a perilous time in the international art world, courtesy of the collapse of the U.S. housing market and the onset of what is being touted as a global recession. Since mid-October, auction sales in London, Hong Kong and New York have been weak. Paintings that only six months ago would have sold for millions of dollars have gone unsold. Auctioneers are pushing for lower estimates and reserves, tightening up credit terms, and getting finicky about guarantees.

Now, the question is: Is what has happened abroad going to stay abroad? Or is it coming to Canada too?

True, we’re a decidedly smaller market, with much fewer significant live auctions per year than the world’s major arts centres, and our wares have yet to entice Russian oligarchs and Hong Kong tycoons. Still, the Canadian market, in its fashion, has been quite bullish, especially in the past 18 months, with 16 works selling for upward of $1-million. “People are scared, I don’t deny it,” one veteran Canadian dealer and consultant, who asked not to be named, said in an interview. “There are going to be adjustments.”

How severe or minor they will be should become clearer Wednesday, when the country’s fall-art auction season begins. That is when Vancouver-headquartered Heffel Fine Art hosts not just one but two sales in a Toronto hotel ballroom, with total estimated value at the high end of $16-million. More than 320 lots are for sale, including a totem-pole oil painting by Emily Carr from the 1930s, valued at $900,000 to $1.2-million, and a 1951 Jean-Paul Riopelle abstract carrying an estimate of $1-million to $1.5-million.

“I just hope they have a lot of Aspirin,” says one veteran consultant/appraiser, who also requested anonymity. “Who knows what’s going to happen? The Heffels [brothers David and Robert] must be pretty anxious right now, being first up to bat. … It’s fine to be first if the market is really hot and you have good lots, because, hopefully, you get all the money first, and then whatever’s left goes to the other two.”

Traditionally, auctions by the country’s Big Three houses – the “other two” are Sotheby’s in association with Ritchies, and Joyner Waddington’s – have been one-off affairs (or, in the case of Joyner, an evening event followed by a morning auction). But earlier this year, Heffel – buoyed by its stature as the most successful art auctioneer in recent years (it sold $12-million worth of art at a live auction in May, including a Tom Thomson sketch that went for $1.15-million) and rising interest in Canadian art from 1945 onward – announced that it would run two themed live auctions back to back in the fall.

The first auction is devoted to 89 lots of contemporary and post-Second World War work; the second, to 233 lots of blue-chip Canuck art. They include works by the Group of Seven, Thomson, Carr, David Milne and J.W. Morrice, who have been the collective backbone of the high-end auction scene in Canada since it got going in the late 1960s.

There is no denying that Heffel is offering some superlative works, including no fewer than six Thomson sketches, three of which it has “priced” at $600,000 to $800,000 each.

The same is true of its competitors. The Sotheby’s/Ritchies sale, on Nov. 24 in Toronto, is offering 224 lots, including a 1924 oil by Group of Seven founder Lawren Harris that the auction house believes it can hammer down for as much as $1.5-million.

Joyner’s auction, running Nov. 25 and 26, has estimated a 1914 Thomson sketch of an Algonquin Park scene at $600,000 to $800,000. That’s lower than the $800,000 to $1.2-million it affixed to a similar-sized Thomson Algonquin in May this year (which sold for just over $1.2-million) but jaw-droppingly higher than the $80,000-to-$100,000 estimate it put to another Thomson just three years ago.

Observes Anthony Westbridge, the Vancouver-based founder of the Canadian Art Sales Index: “If everything was as it had been, this would equal or better our best season. The auctioneers have done their job by getting a fabulous selection together. Estimates, for the most part, as far as I can tell, have been kept conservative. … But the million-dollar question is: Is the market there to buy?”

By and large, these works were consigned before September, when “financial meltdown” was a term restricted to a handful of Cassandra-like economists, and the auction houses were still riding high from the millions they had earned in the spring. Westbridge, who has statistically tracked the Canadian art world since the late 1970s, says the art market generally “is usually quite slow to react to financial markets, and usually survives for six months or so and then starts to go down. … But we haven’t seen anything in our lifetime like this downturn.”

Certainly, would-be buyers in the U.S. and British art markets have responded quickly to the economic distress: Last week, a 1963 painting by pop-art master Roy Lichtenstein was expected to sell for at least $15-million (U.S.) at Sotheby’s New York. In the end, it attracted not a single bidder. At Christie’s New York, a 1960 Mark Rothko estimated at $20-million to $30-million (U.S.) went unsold after bidding stalled at $10-million.

And it’s not just the big-name works that merit watching. When a Paul Kane canvas sells for $5-million, or a Thomson painting not much bigger than a piece of office stationery goes for upward of $1-million, the sale attracts headlines and lures similar works into the field. But, in terms of lots sold, it is paintings estimated below the $20,000 threshold – Montreal street scenes by John Little, say, or Frank S. Panabaker views of Georgian Bay – that have always done the grunt work, and that may not keep doing so. Says the consultant/appraiser: “Rejection of the lower-end lots by the type of client who until now has been able to impulsively charge $10,000 or $15,000 on their credit card without bothering to call home first may be the better indicator of our market going soft.

“I would be glad to see the concerns over the money markets and the housing market affect the art market in terms of areas of over-inflation,” the consultant adds. “Specifically, paying too much for a late A.Y. Jackson painting of a cemetery: It makes all of us crazy to see people who are otherwise very intelligent act so foolishly when it comes to auctions, and overspend based on seeing someone else buy a Jackson, and not realizing there are Jacksons and there are Jacksons.”

The last downturn in the Canadian resale market occurred in the early 1990s, and lasted about six years. One of its biggest casualties was abstract art. Even such stars as Riopelle, Paul-Émile Borduas and Jack Bush suffered; and it has been only in the past three or four years that there has been a significant recovery.

Could abstractionists suffer this time around? “History has told me,” Westbridge notes, “…[that] when abstract stuff starts to really go [up in value],” as it has in recent years, “and we’re not necessarily talking about Borduas or Riopelle – when it’s the second- and third-tier people – that’s always been a fairly good market indicator that we’re getting close to a correction or a slump.”

If the good times are to continue – and auctioneers in recent months have been talking up art as a capital-gain instrument and investment haven safely “decoupled” from the financial markets – it’s going to depend not only on how many buyers there are, but also on who they are. “If the buyers are out there – it’s a collectors’ market now – then it could be a big season,” Westbridge says.

“My guess is that if the people who have been helping to keep the market buoyant in the last few years are young stockbrokers and realtors and people like that, they’ll back off, just because their industries are in trouble. But if it’s been well-heeled old money, well-established older clientele, the effects of the crisis might not affect [the market] too dramatically.”

A Toronto dealer-consultant said he’s not concerned that “the auctions are going to collapse and all that kind of stuff. I think that there’s going to be quite a high ‘buy-in’ rate [lots declared unsold by the auctioneer] this fall; I think even the auctioneers are prepared for that, despite their bluster. But what happens – and this was certainly true in the early 1990s – when the public market seizes up is that people stop consigning” and collectors, in turn, stop bidding. While private dealers might pick up some of that slack, he suggested, they’re also quite beholden to auctions since auction results are a crucial factor in what dealers think they can charge for a painting, sculpture or drawing.