Alias Arts

Robert Genn’s latest Painter’s Keys newsletter is an interesting one. He replies to a letter from artist Tom Lockhart talking about how being an artist can be tough. Tom wrote the following to Robert..

“I work 50 to 65 hours per week, teach workshops and serve on the Board of a Local Arts Center. I judge art shows and travel to locations to paint. I earn $75,000.00 to $100,000.00 annually–too much to get a grant. I pay more than my share of taxes, expense out what the law allows and still find it difficult to make ends meet. I’m constantly paying entry fees, dues, advertising, framers, suppliers and travel expenses. I can’t understand why the public insists on buying cheap, crappy art from poorly educated artists who suffer for their craft. Yuk! There are constantly retired lawyers, doctors, architects, dentists and other professionals who decide to become painters. They put their work in galleries and sell to the unsophisticated, taking sales away from deserving, serious artists. And now with the economic bad times, it’s even harder to sell your art. What do you think about this?”

See Robert’s reply here. He basically says things aren’t so bad as you are an artist!

I couldn’t agree more. Being an artist is a privilege that should be appreciated. Listening to an artist complain about being an artist is like listening to someone with 5 Ferraris complain about not having 6 Ferraris. The quickest way to shut me up if I’m ever whinging about being an artist is to tell me to go get a 9 to 5 job.

I’m not saying that being an artist doesn’t have it’s ups and downs, but look at the alternatives. Take an office job or get into sales for a while if being an artist ever becomes a chore. If you really are an artist you’ll quickly come running back to the studio and the many privileges of being an artist.

I never feel sorry for struggling artists as it’s hard to have any sympathy for a person with the equivalent of 5 Ferraris in the garage. I don’t care if you can’t pay the rent or you’re tired of eating 2 minute noodles.. you’re an artist!

Want to win an original Damien Hirst painting worth £125,000? Me too, but I don’t live in the UK!

UK residents over the age of 18 can have the opportunity to win a painting by Damien Hirst or one of 20 litho prints by the artist. The Guardian’s Observer Music Monthly is teaming up with Hirst and the band The Hours to give away the painting. The painting was used to create The Hours album cover.

It’s not as easy as just signing for up the newsletter to win either as they’re making entrants work a little for the prize (it is a BIG prize.)

The first step is to register your details here before the 19th of April. Then on launch day they will “be setting a new question every day for 20 consecutive days. To be in with a chance of winning, you’ll need to follow our blog story, find the clues and then answer every single question correctly. We’ll be testing your determination and your initiative so make sure you’re paying attention. Every time you answer a daily question you’ll automatically enter another prize draw to win a further signed Damien Hirst litho print.”

There’s more information on the registration page.

Good luck! I wish I could enter it too!

I’m probably one of the last people in the world to own an Apple iPod but it’s better late than never. I bought an Ipod Classic which has 120gb of storage on it. If “gb” doesn’t mean much to you it simply means it has more storage than a lot of personal computers and can store a LOT of songs.

I bought it as I desperately miss my CD collection when I’m not at home. I’m planning an extended road trip around the South East of Australia (Canberra, Melbourne, Tasmania, etc.) and I plan to take my whole music collection with me on my iPod.

In a few days I have put on about 90 albums, 40 audio books, and have just discovered podcasts. I have subscribed to philosophy, zen, science and a couple art podcasts so far, but I would like to find a few more art podcasts so I decided to create a list and ask for recommendations.

Art Podcasts

Art Marketing Action Podcast: Is a weekly art podcast by Alyson Stanfield on being an artist. Read or listen to her at ArtBizBlog.

Tate Podcasts: Many major art museums now have podcasts with art lectures, artist interviews, discussions, and talks on exhibitions. The Tate museum has quite a range of art podcasts at Tate Podcasts.

Art History Podcast: Learn Out Loud’s art history podcast has brief look at masterpieces from the history of art at LearnOutLoud.

The Guardian Culture Podcast: Art interviews, news and exhibition reviews from the Guardian newspaper in the UK at Guardian Podcasts.

Bad at Sports Podcast: Arts podcast out of Chicago talking about contemporary art, music and books. Interviews with artists, curators, critics, dealers and others at BadatSports.

Note: Send me your art podcast if you would like it added to this post.

2008 was a wild ride for the world art market with the financial crisis catching up with auction sales. Artprice.com called it a year that started with “speculative euphoria” and ended with a “violent contraction.”

The Art Market Insight by Artprice is an annual publication that looks back at art auction prices for the year. Listed in the report is the top 10 artists, the top 100 auction sales, and a list of the top 500 artists by turnover for the year.

Here’s a list of the top ten artists by total turnover for 2008. I expect that dead masters like Picasso and Monet would sell $100 million+ over 12 months, but what impresses me are the living artists like Hirst, Richter and Koons that are selling similar amounts.

1. PICASSO Pablo (1881-1973) $262,366,349 from 1764 lots sold at auction
2. BACON Francis (1909-1992) $256,208,073 from 100 lots sold
3. WARHOL Andy (1928-1987) $236,749,034 from 1164 lots sold
4. HIRST Damien (1965) $230,887,159 from 445 lots sold
5. MONET Claude (1840-1926) $174,695,716 from 25 lots sold
6. GIACOMETTI Alberto (1901-1966) $132,631,043 from 111 lots sold
7. RICHTER Gerhard (1932) $122,211,095 from 166 lots sold
8. DEGAS Edgar (1834-1917) $111,835,132 from 81 lots sold
9. FONTANA Lucio (1899-1968) $95,589,589 from 227 lots sold
10. KLEIN Yves (1928-1962) $91,868,098 from 59 lots sold

An introduction to the Art Market Trends report can be found here, with the full 37 page Pdf file of the report available to download here.

Brett Whiteley was the painter that pulled the curtain back for me. Before Brett Whiteley I thought painting was either boring old portraits, pretty landscapes, or weird stuff that I didn’t understand. His was the first art book that I ever bought and I still have it today, even if it is a little beat up and paint spattered.

Anyway, I went to a Brett Whiteley exhibition today called “9 Shades of Whiteley” at the Newcastle Region Art Gallery. It’s like a mini-retrospective of his career that touches on all of his big themes or periods.

It took me back about 16 years to when I was a 17 year old falling in love with his art for the first time. He got me hooked on art and I have been a hardcore user ever since.

Brett Whiteley – The 15 great dog pisses of Paris 1989
(He obviously had a sense of humor)

Brett Whiteley – Big orange (sunset) 1974
(This painting wasn’t in the Newcastle exhibition)

Brett Whiteley – Christie 1965
(This painting is from the UK serial killer John Christie series)

Brett Whiteley – Woman in bath 1963 (reworked 1964)
(This painting wasn’t in the Newcastle exhibition)

There’s an education kit here in PDF format for those that want to learn about the artist. See the official Brett Whiteley website here (his studio is worth a visit in Sydney too).

Below is a comment by gallery owner Carrie Horejs from an earlier post called Running an Art Gallery. She talks about some of the challenges that the Internet is creating for the old artist/art gallery relationship. She raises some interesting questions..

My husband and I have owned and operated Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ, and online since 2001. In fact, we opened September, 10, 2001. The next day, with the horrific events of 9/11, we thought we were goners. Of course, the economy of then was nothing compared to the difficult times of today. However, our sales are up from last year by 40 percent (2008 being our worst year yet).

My point in writing this comment is to say we have noticed a dramatic shift since opening in 2001. Back then very few collectors thought to look on the Internet for art or artists. Now, it is second nature to go to google for everything, including researching artists. A collector walks through our doors, falls in love with the artist, goes home and Googles the artist and then commissions directly from the artist. I’m not saying this happens all the time, but several months ago we, by accident, found out about a $200,000 commission that went directly to the artist after the purchaser had discovered his artwork in our gallery. Rather than become bitter, we got smarter. Why shouldn’t the internet work for both artists and galleries.

Now, before we represent artists in our Scottsdale gallery, we require they join Xanadu Studios where they show their work online through our site. Every studio artist shows in our bricks-and-mortar gallery on a rotating basis, but only top-selling artists show on an on-going basis and get shows devoted to them. We’re not sure it’s a perfect system yet, but we’re evolving with the times. We’re requiring more from our artists who promote themselves through personal websites and blogs (which, is like all of them).

I often wonder how other galleries are dealing with artists who have gallery representation but continue to self-promote. I have been known to secret shop gallery represented artists. I contact them through their emails on their personal websites and inquire as to whether they have any studio pieces available. Not once has an artist directed me to his or her galleries for purchases. I fear galleries will dry up if they don’t smarten up. Then where will collectors go to see art in person?

Australian artist Hazel Dooney is giving away 500 limited edition photographs from her Lake Eyre series to celebrate her 500th post at her Self Vs. Self blog.

The image size is around 2″ x 3″ on 4″ x 6″ paper. It is titled “Study for Modern Strategies Of Survival: Resized For Mass Consumption.” Each photograph will be stamped, signed, dated and numbered on verso.

See her post here to learn how to receive one for free.

Previously Hazel has given away prints that had to be downloaded and printed using your own printer, but this offer is signed and sent from her actual studio. Just the logistics of preparing 500 works to be delivered would be enough to scare me off being so generous.

Hazel has also started using Twitter. I still don’t get Twitter and I have no idea how it has become so popular. I like brevity but how much can you say in one sentence? I’m probably missing something though as a lot of people are now using Twitter. I would be interested in seeing how much traffic artists are getting from Twitter.

I found out about the “radiology art” of Satre Stuelke from a NY Times article called “The Inner Beauty of a McNugget” but I would have called it something like “Scary, Toxic Looking Chicken McNuggets.”

Stuelke has also done a few McDonalds burgers for his Radiology Art project and they look just as scarily toxic as the McNuggets. Sure, they’re beautiful to look at but they’re probably not something that should be put into your mouth.

The New York City artist’s statement for the project says it is “Dedicated to the deeper visualization of various objects that hold unique cultural importance in modern society, this project intends to plant a seed of scientific creativity in the minds of all those inclined to participate”

He has photographed/scanned toys, food and electronics. My favorites are the toys, especially the wild looking barbie doll and the toy elephant. See them on his Website here.

I never know what to expect when I browse through the keywords that people use to find Art News Blog. They range from the funny, to the disgusting, to just stupid.

• Tit hanging – To be hung by your tits? Sounds painful.
• Do art galleries make money – Probably not at the moment.
• Designer vagina – That rhymes.
• Spam Funny – It can be.
• Shit art – That’s a matter of opinion.
• Propaganda advertising – It is.
• Jussst Porn – Wrong blog.
• Bare bums – Cold bare bums in this case.
• Sexy free – Many good things are free.
• Sleep artists – Masters of sleeping?
• Penis artists – I think there’s just one of them.
• Strange artists – Aren’t we all?
• Rich artists – They’re a rare breed but they do exist.
• Art collegia delenda est – That’s your term Donald.

Here’s some earlier search terms from 2006, 2007 and some stupid Banksy searches.

Simple, everyday things amuse me. For example, a piece of paper blowing in the wind..

It was made by Sydney based artist Gary Deirmendjian.

ingredients:
1. a wondering through city fringe laneways;
2. a scrap of paper torn from a nearby skip;
3. a breeze; and
4. a pocket camera aimed with the hope of catching something interesting.

Gary says “It was all inspired and spurred on by the moment, as in there was no preconceived idea or intent to begin with – it took form as I began the filming. The breathing was added in editing.”

It made me think of the plastic bag in the wind scene from the American Beauty movie (I love that scene).
“Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.”