How to turn $5,000 into $5.2M in 18 months

The award for the most compelling market tale undoubtedly goes to the third highest-selling painting, a rediscovered John Constable landscape, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831), that sold for $5.2 million, far exceeding its $3 million high estimate. The consignor had acquired the work at Christie's London in July 2013, and paid a mere $5,300 for it, but then set about getting the work authenticated as a Constable. (See Sotheby's Ratchets Up Price on Rediscovered Constable).

See the whole article by Eileen Kinsella here.

Do you think that the previous owner, who dished this out for $5K, is pissed off that he/she didn't do due diligence?

Visions of Home

Submission Deadline: February 20, 2015

The Art Connection in the Capital Region (ACCR) invites you to participate in Visions of Home, an exhibition and art placement project presented in conjunction with the Arts Management Program at the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University (GMU).

Visions of Home will feature original artwork that embodies the idea of "home". The artwork will be placed within nonprofit organizations that provide affordable housing to underserved communities throughout Northern Virginia. The artwork, selected by the participating nonprofits, will be considered a donation to the agencies for permanent display.

Read the prospectus

 

Wanna go to a museum talk tomorrow?

Photoworks: Presence of Place
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
January 24 through March 15, 2015Artist Gallery Talk:  January 31, 2015, 4PM

American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
Museum Hours: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Tuesday-Sunday

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Elsie Hull Sprague                 Brad Beukema                Joe Cameron
Tanguy de Carbonnieres        Eliot Cohen                      Sora DeVore
Rebecca Drobis                     Saman Michael Far           Peggy Fleming
Henry Friedman                    Sheila Galagan                 Frank (Tico) Herrera
Michael Horsley                    Karen Keating                   Michael Lang
Julie Miller                             David Myers                    Christine Pearl
Mark Power                           Molly Roberts                   Gayle Rothschild
Sarah Hood Salomon            Sonia Suter                       Grace Taylor
Tom Wolff                            Alejandra Vallejo              Fred Zafran
Judith Walser

EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
Forty years ago, in a derelict building hidden among the abandoned amusement park rides of Glen Echo Park, four young photographers founded Photoworks with little more than a shared passion for the daily work of seeing, shooting, and printing images of lasting beauty and artistic integrity.

Photoworks: Presence of Place will feature works by past and present members of the Photoworks community, faculty and students who have distinguished themselves by the quality and integrity of their work. This exhibition is in memory of Elsie Hull Sprague, an artist with a MA in Film from the School of Communication, American University.

Peck on Schwartzberg

DMV artist Judith Peck reviews Deanna Schwartzberg at the gorgeous Art Museum of the Americas:

 

It was my pleasure to attend the opening reception of “Primal Connections” a one-person show by local artist, Deanna Schwartzberg, at the Art Museum of the Americas F Street Gallery.  

 

It is a deceptively simple, long, and brightly lit grand hall.  Deanna's intensely jewel colored palette and assured brush strokes lit up the space. 

  

As curator of the exhibition, “Primal Connections”, Ana Maria Ascano tells us; “Viewing the art of Deanna Schwartzberg is like reading a favorite poem.”  This thought stayed with me as I viewed an array of paintings beautifully composed, with the artist’s unique understanding of color and light.  These works spoke to me in an indirect manner, the way poetry does, igniting the mind and senses and making the artist’s subject matter all the more intense and powerful.

 

For many years, Deanna has been working with the interconnection of humanity and the world of nature. She gave an intriguing talk about how she went from nonobjective painting to finding her voice in paintings that invite us, the viewer, to discover with her the fluid relationship between body and nature.  In her larger works a powerful figure merges with an abstracted landscape. The subject matter resonates, and her color choices are so inventive that we feel we are discovering places we have been, perhaps only in a dream.

 

Along with eight large figurative pieces, the artist has an installation of 28 small painted faces.  The poem by the artist, Primal Connections, is the source of inspiration for these works. The faces, each have a feminine name for one of the elements: earth, fire and air. Each one is different and expressive in its own way.  Neither happy, sad, scared nor surprised, they appear to be centered in their own thoughts and feelings and part of the drama and wonder of the world that surrounds them.

 

You can contact the museum or the artist directly at schwartzbergart@verizon.net to find out when tours are available. Hours are by appointment only.

 

“Primal Connections”

Paintings by Deanna Schwartzberg

Art Museum of the Americas F Street Gallery, 

1889 F St NW,

Washington, DC
Opening Reception  Jan 28    Jan28 through March 6, 2015.

Contact; Art Museum of the Americas, 202- 370- 0151, for appointments and tours.

Why Self-Censorship of Controversial Artwork is Wrong

Following the shocking events of the massacres and sieges in Paris, a debate has raged over whether or not to publish images of the prophet Muhammad for fear of reprisals, apparently from whichever shadowy fundamentalists might be out there.

So, the latest news, that London's Victoria & Albert Museum quietly pulled from its website a reproduction of a 1990 Iranian poster depicting Muhammad, held in the V&A's collection, is dispiriting. Citing the level of “security alert" the V&A has to operate under, a spokeswoman defended that the work, “as with most of our reserve collections, would be made available to scholars and researchers by appointment."

Read the whole piece by JJ Charlesworth in artnetnews here.

Broken Wing

That's my right shoulder, which has been out of commission since December 23rd.

It all started in the mid seventies (as I recall), when I was in the US Navy and suffered a shoulder injury which dislocated my right shoulder.

It was "popped" back in, but after that, over the years, it would almost pop out at will, and I even learned how to pop it back into the shoulder socket on my own.

It was immensely painful to do this process, but it was a brilliant flash of pain, followed by muscular pain for a few days afterwards.

Eventually I got so sick and tired of this (it once popped out when I was swimming and I nearly drowned), that I went back to sick bay and began weight training treatment, which essentially involved building up the shoulder muscles and thus keep the darn shoulder bone tight inside the socket.

On December 23rd it decided to make an exit, aided by a fall caused by a small rug slipping on hardwood floors.

And now, after a horrendous MRI, I am told that the injury to the shoulder, close to 40 years ago, has been causing issues with that shoulder, the bones, and eroded a lot of cartilage, and thus needs to go under the surgeon's knife.

4-6 weeks of immobile right shoulder follows, plus 6-9 months of intensive therapy.

It could have been worse... I could have landed on my head or busted my neck... but Feh!

I'm right-handed by the way.... double Feh!

When in Scotland - Part II

As I noted earlier, I was fortunate to have lived in gorgeous Scotland, perhaps the most beautiful country on planet Earth, from 1989-1992 (although I had been visiting it regularly several times a year starting in 1987).

This spectacular nation is an artist's dream come true, especially if you are a landscape artist (which I wasn't), but the sheer beauty of the Scottish landscape turned me into one... and over the years I produced hundreds of Scottish watercolors, pastels and drawings (and some etchings) which celebrated not only the Scottish landscape, but also all the "stuff" around me (I lived in a farmhouse built in 1532), such as sheep, horses, cows, Highland games, fish, and the brilliant Scottish people.

See some of my Scottish sheep pieces here, and enjoy the below art homages to Scotland.

North Sea, near Stonehaven, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1989.
In a private collection in Aberdeen, Scotland

Loch Ness, Scotland
11x14 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991.
In a private collection in Montrose, Scotland

Two Deer, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Brechin Road, Angus, Scotland
28x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991.
In a private collection in Brechin, Scotland

Snowfall, near Braemar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
16x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1989.
In a private collection in Braemar, Scotland

Back Road, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Norfolk, Virginia

Seagulls Following the Plow, near Edzell, Angus, Scotland
40x32 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Boise, Idaho

Road to Cairn O'Mount Pass, near Fettercairn, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in Banchory, Scotland

Seagulls following the plow, near Stonehaven, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1989.
In a private collection in Aberdeen, Scotland

Back Road, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in San Diego, California

Back road, near Battledykes, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991.
In a private collection in Aberdeen, Scotland

Northern Lights, Back Road, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Seattle, Washington

Just Before Trinity Fields, Enroute Brechin, Angus, Scotland
6x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Dundee, Scotland

Back Road near Smiddie Wood, near Stracathro and Careston Estates, Angus, Scotland
12x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Brechin, Scotland

River South Esk, near Brechin, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991.
In the Collection of the Earl of Southesk

View of the Highlands, near Edzell, Angus, Scotland
10x14 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Fresno, California

Back Road, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Trinity, Angus, Scotland
18x36 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in San Francisco, California

North Sea, near Stonehaven, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1989.
In a private collection in St. Cyrus, Scotland

Road near Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland, where my daughters would take horse riding lessons
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In the Collection of the Earl of Southesk

Back road near Laurencekirk, Angus, Scotland
7x10 inches. Ink wash on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in Brechin, Scotland

Taking the walk behind the Blue Door, The Burns, near Edzell, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991
In a private collection in the United States

View from Little Keithock Farmhouse, near Fettercairn, Angus, Scotland
28x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Glasgow, Scotland

View of the Highlands, near Maryculter, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in Montrose, Scotland